Subject: NOTICE OF MOTION: Rent Controls

Date of meeting: 16 March 2022

Proposer: Councillor Osborne

Seconder: Councillor Gibson

Ward(s) affected: All

This council notes:

That there is growing support for rent controls and that both the recent cooperation agreement in Scotland, between SNP and the Scottish Greens, and in Wales, between Labour and Plaid Cymru, had rent controls at the centre of the joint policy platform. Furthermore, there was a central pledge from Sadiq Khan in his 2021 mayoral election campaign to explore rent controls in London. A YouGov poll conducted at the height of the pandemic revealed that 74% of the public support putting caps on landlords can charge, with only 8% against.

This Council resolves:

· Write to the Secretary of State to ask that powers to implement rents controls are given to the city of Brighton and Hove, or to allow us to pilot the idea and test its impact

· Support campaigns that are asking for rent controls nationally

· Support organisations that are willing to bring in voluntary rent controls and work on this further as part of an ethical lettings charter and good landlords codes in the city

· To engage in dialogue with groups and renters in the city and work with them on a wider campaign to promote the need for rent controls and ‘living rents’ in the city and calculate a ‘living rent’ for Brighton and Hove, based on 30% of median income, and publish this figure on the council website

· To include updates on the progress of the above back to future housing committees

Supporting Information:

The Private Rented Sector (PRS) is a large proportionate of the housing stock in Brighton and Hove, with latest estimates from ONS from 2019 stating that there are nearly 40,000 PRS properties in the city, which equates to over 1/3 of properties in the city.

Brighton has been ranked as one of the most unaffordable cities to rent in the UK, being especially difficult for single renters, and rents are now rising at a 5 year high, according to latest research from ONS