One of the country’s major regional newspapers has launched a campaign for the urgent introduction of rent controls.

The Bristol Evening Post, and its website Bristol Live, says: “All over Bristol people are coming to Bristol Live to report cases of rogue landlords, mouldy flats and extortionate rent. 

“This week a consultation was held about a possible rent cap and what it could like if it were to be implemented in Bristol.

“It would be the first rent control in the UK since 1988 if it were brought in. However, it is long overdue with people increasingly paying more than £1,000 a month for unsuitable homes.”

Much of the launch article is given to the personal experiences of two young journalists at the paper – one who rents in Bristol and one trying to move to Bristol.

The consultation mentioned by the newspaper has been triggered by the Labour mayor of Bristol, Marvin Rees, who says: “The national housing crisis poses big challenges for our city and tackling it remains one of the council’s top priorities.

“As well as accelerating the building of affordable housing across Bristol, we are currently strengthening our powers to tackle rogue landlords, and we have invested £42m in improving the energy efficiency of our council homes.

“I made a manifesto commitment to campaign for the power to introduce rent controls to make Bristol an affordable living city, and we are calling on government to give us the power to regulate rents.

“Piloting rent control in Bristol will allow us to take a step towards tackling our local renting crisis and will help us develop learnings and that can inform wider positive change for the rest of the city.”

The council claims that there are over 134,000 people currently renting privately in Bristol, representing almost one-third of the population. 

It says over the last decade, private rents in Bristol have increased by 52 per cent, while wages have only risen by 24 per cent, and on average Bristol residents now need to spend almost nine times their annual salary to buy a house.

You can read the entire Bristol Live article here.