In an early General Election skirmish, London Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan has been accused of failing to enact key private rental sector reforms.

A Green Party member of the London Assembly, Zoë Garbett, has now demanded that Khan introduce rent controls – even though he has no power to do so – and set up a so-called London Private Rent Commission. 

Garbett claims that despite promising to create a rent commission in his 2019 private renters’ blueprint,Khan has “continued to drag his heels”, attempting to shift blame onto the national government for a stalled pledge within his control. 

She says: “The Mayor says he understands how desperately Londoners need cheaper rents, but his blueprint for solving the crisis is now five years old and not even remotely close to success.

“Where is his universal register of landlords? Where is the London private rents commission? Where is the reduction in rents the Mayor himself called for?

“There are three million people living in rented accommodation in London. Not one of them should wait a day longer for their Mayor to bring down the sky-rocketing rents. Setting up a rent commission to review the state of renting and propose a model of rent control is something the Mayor could do now. “