Councillors in Brighton have backed a petition by campaign group Living Rent to introduce rent controls during a debate yesterday at its monthly full council meeting.

The petition, signed by some 1,800 people, calls for the Labour government to give Brighton & Hove council the power to “cap and reduce rents in areas like ours where rents are too high”.

The debate included speeches from both Labour and Green councillors in support of the petition - during which they said rent controls were one of the key solutions to ensuring local can afford to rent locally - but saw one Conservative councillor point out that such measures would have ‘unforeseen consequences’ while others pointed out that the bureaucracy needed to police controls would be onerous.

Labour’s key spokesperson during the debate, Gill Williams (pictured), said that “we know that renting in Brighton is impossible because it is far too expensive.

“We welcome the recent Labour-commissioned report into the private rented sector that set out to improve conditions for private renters and recommended greater security for them.”

Urgent action

Willims went on to say that she already written to the new Labour housing minister Matthew Pennycook asking for ‘urgent action’ to protect renters from unscrupulous landlords and, although she didn’t directly call for rent controls in Brighton, thanked Living Rent for their petition.

But one speaker, Conservative councillor Anne Meadows (pictured), said that those who claimed that rent controls as implemented following the 1914-1918 world war – the most recent implementation in recent UK history - had been a success were unrealistic.

She claimed that at the time private renting was the dominant tenure, whereas today it was far more mixed picture. She also said that implementing them now would reduce the number of privately rented homes on offer.

Rent controls

Another Conservative councillor, Carol Theobold, added: “I cannot see any government agreeing to the petitioners request [for rent controls].

“It goes without saying that if a landlord has a property, they will always need to make more money than… investing elsewhere so unfortunately capping rents will result in the number of rental properties being reduced.

“Landlords are already selling up [as they begin to understand] Labour’s policy on rental accommodation that could leave them tens of thousands of pounds worse off.”