The Labour Party has published its full manifesto for the upcoming General Election on June 8.
Titled ‘For the many not the few’, the manifesto says the population is coming under ‘increasing strain’ from falling living standards, growing job insecurity and shrinking public services.
The 128-page document dedicates just one page to the Private Rented Sector, alongside pages for home ownership and council and social tenants.
Labour has proposed introducing an inflation cap on rent rises, making three-year tenancies the norm and implementing new consumer rights for renters.
The document says that these new measures would ’empower tenants to call time on bad landlords’.
Jeremy Corbyn’s party says that tenants currently spend some £9.6 billion a year on homes that can be classed as ‘non-decent’.
It is therefore proposing to introduce new legal minimum standards to ensure properties are ‘fit for human habitation’, giving tenants the right to take action if their rental property is sub-standard.
The manifesto also confirms that were Jeremy Corbyn to prove victorious in June, Labour would legislate to ban letting agency fees charged to tenants.
Labour also pledges to reverse ‘the cruel decision’ to abolish housing benefit for 18 to 21-year-olds as it risks increasing homelessness among young people.
