A local authority has hired a housing consultant to look at ways of capping private sector rents - thought to be the first council in the country to consider this.
Camden Council has hired Christine Whitehead, professor of housing economics at the London School of Economics, to examine how this could be done. One method under consideration is offering financial incentives to private landlords who agree to cap rent increases in line with inflation.
Councillor Julian Fulbrook, cabinet member for housing, is quoted in a north London newspaper as describing rents in the borough as unbelievable with tenants having lurid tales about how landlords are putting up rents.
Fulbrook - who has in the past worked with Whitehead at the LSE - says the measures under investigation include loans for capital repairs to private landlords in exchange for them signing up to a so-called rent stabilisation scheme'.
The Labour-controlled authority may also introduce a kitemark scheme for landlords who register with the council, and is looking at how to extend the duration of tenancies in the private sector.
Camden's policies follow those of Labour leader Ed Miliband who wants three-year tenancy agreements beginning with a six-month probationary period, a ban on what Miliband calls "excessive rental increases", and the outlawing of letting agents charging tenants fees for low level services, such as signing a tenancy agreement.
%20(002).png)
Comments
Gradually our individual freedoms are being taken away.
Time we woke up!
I thought it was a free market
Please do cap rent but also please cap how much rightmove and the banks charge us in fees on and whilst on it fuel as that's costing more to get about there properties on and wages as well, oh and don't forget mortgages, oh nearly forgot cap how much a landlord has to spend on repairs as if caps come in then big repairs wont be done as no pennies in the pot
after all rising rents cover the cost of our rising costs as agents
Wow, some of you commentators must be very young. Much of this sort of thing was done back in the 1960's. It flattened the rental market to almost nothing for thirty years. It was only when section 21 was introduced and rent caps done away with that the letting market became what it is today and what it was once before.
The logic being used this time is much the same as before, utter nonsense masquerading as common sense and fairness. The factor that was never allowed for was that human beings are greedy, devious so and sos. This applied for both tenants and landlords and once one side was given absolute power the other side caved in and sold up - fast. The same thing will happen again. I think the current status of checks and balances is near enough fair to both sides and should be left well alone. The DHS and the banks can pick up the few failures as needed without trashing the whole industry.
Gradually, little by little, if ideas like this come to fruition this country becomes more communistic. More control of our everyday life. It is happening now people - fight it!
This is not a very sensible idea. You head down a rocky road when you start introducing rent caps and the like. Labour would be well-advised to err on the side of caution here. I predict uproar otherwise.
Oh - guess what - it's a Labour controlled authority - what a shock ! Keep your nose OUT of the PRS Labour - we all know you are vote-collecting.
Would the council like to look into capping any mortgage interest rate increases as well
Rent caps. The first sign of a communist dictatorship where there must be no free market! Only control by the government!
I dare say that influencing a free market is a bad idea.