Housing Secretary Angela Rayner has given her strongest signal yet that the Government will not introduce rent controls in London or elsewhere in the country, flatly rejecting the measure just days after new Prime Minister Andy Burnham suggested it was being considered.
Rayner dismisses rent controls
Ms Rayner told BBC Breakfast: “We won't be looking at rent controls. That is not something that we're looking to do because we've seen what's happened in areas like Scotland. It hasn't necessarily brought rents down.”
She suggested that rent controls had ended up being a “floor” for home letting charges rather than a “ceiling”.
She added: “I think the work we've done to make sure that landlords are giving people fair rents, people can challenge rent hikes, making sure that people are not being in bidding wars...is actually having an impact on the market, which is more favorable to renters. That's a better way of stabilising the rental market.”
Burnham’s stance contrasts
Just days ago, Mr Burnham said the Government was looking at rent freezes. The new Prime Minister said the controversial measure, which would aim to keep down rents, was part of a series of possible interventions being considered to address the cost of living.
As Mayor of Greater Manchester, Mr Burnham championed improving conditions for renters in Manchester, signing an open letter a few years ago to the Government calling for a freeze on private sector rents.
No 10 North launch
The new PM declared on Friday that Whitehall resistance to devolution is “over for good” as he prepared to spend his first day at the Prime Minister’s new “No10 North”. Mr Burnham is expected to work from the site in Manchester once each week during his premiership.
He will chair a meeting of the National Economic Council, a Cabinet committee first launched in 2008 to respond to economic challenges. The panel’s attendees will vary according to No 10 North meeting agendas and could include business leaders and trade unions, the Government said.
No10 North is housed at Heron House, near Manchester’s Albert Square, a building which is also home to GCHQ’s Manchester and North West hub.
“For 40 years, power and resources have been sucked into the centre, and too many communities have felt forgotten, without the attention and investment they deserve,” Mr Burnham said. “No 10 North will change that by putting more power into every postcode across the entire country. It will be the situation room for making Britain better – the place we use to get power out of Westminster, into the hands of people at a local level, so that they can turn things around. The days of Whitehall resisting devolution are over, for good.”
Mr Burnham is expected to speak to leaders from business representative organisations ahead of his first No 10 North meeting, including from the Federation of Small Business and Confederation of British Industry.
Writing in the Guardian newspaper, the Prime Minister said that “what we did in Greater Manchester, we can do across our nation”. He wrote: “We have seen gimmicks, such as levelling up. We have seen the shifting of bits of the British state around the map to no great effect. Why has none of it worked? It is partly because, even though Whitehall departments have set up outposts, decision-making power has remained in London. It is also because, in the very centre of government itself, Nos 10 and 11 have not been sufficiently aligned – particularly on growth.”
He added: “This is what No10 North is seeking to correct and, if we succeed, it could bring the much-needed sea change in the way Britain is run.”
The Prime Minister has faced questions about whether his focus on the North would draw attention away from other regions, such as the East of England. Speaking in Harlow, Essex, on Thursday, he said: “The whole purpose of No 10 North is to put more power into every postcode in the land, including the postcodes of Harlow. How do we get power out of Whitehall and Westminster, into the hands of people at a local level, so that they can make a difference and turn things around?”
