Labour to consider Rent Controls and AirBnb restricti...

A proposal to introduce rent controls is likely to be discussed at Labour’s annual conference, being held early next week in Liverpool.

Exact wordings of proposals are agreed only a day our so before the conference begins but preliminary motions include one from the left-wing Momentum group - regarded as Corbyn supporters now critical of the leadership of Kier Starmer.

One of several Momentum motions concerns the cost of living crisis and would commit Labour to campaign for: immediately placing energy, water and public transport into public ownership; a minimum wage of £15 per hour; an end to zero-hour contracts; repeal of all anti-trade union legislation; investment in green energy and retrofitting homes; creating millions of well-paid, unionised green jobs within publicly-owned entities; and control of domestic rent to 30% of local income.

Another group within the party - the Labour Campaign for Council Housing - has put forward a motion saying: “The Chartered Institute of Housing 's 2022 UK Housing Review states ‘the Right to Buy has become a strategic failure in England and, unless reconsidered, the policy will continue contributing to social disadvantage and exacerbating inequalities.’ In response to Boris Johnson's proposal to extend Right to Buy they say, “We are at a point of crisis in this country, with over 1.1 million households on waiting lists for social housing. We need more, not less, affordable social homes.”

Conference agrees the housing crisis will not be resolved by failed strategies that deliver nothing for millions in unhealthy and overcrowded housing, and those at risk of homelessness. The Labour Party must challenge the government's failure, and urgently demand a long term housing strategy backed by appropriate levels of government funding which must include:

- Fully funding 150,000 social rent homes a year, including at least 100,000 council homes with secure tenancies;

- Fully funding the retrofitting of all council housing to address fuel poverty, the climate crisis and to improve the quality of existing homes;

- Invest in Direct Labour Organisations to create well paid, unionised jobs and apprenticeships to deliver this;

- Ending the disastrous right to buy policy;

- Reviewing council housing debt to address the under-funding of housing revenue accounts;

- Giving power to councils to license and tax holiday homes and AirBnBs

- Labour will demand that the government implements these policies as a matter of urgency and commits to implementing them when elected.