Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has held an emergency summit on private renting at City Hall after once again calling for rent controls.
The Mayor pointed to the spiralling cost of renting in London, as typical rents in the capital reached a mouth-watering £2,343 per month between July and September.
The summit brought together private renters, charities, advocacy groups and politicians.
Ben Beadle, chief executive of the National Residential Landlords Association, said: “It is disappointing in the extreme that the Mayor of London feels he can solve the challenges faced in the capital’s rental market without any input from those who actually provide the homes.
“The stark and simple reality is that whilst the demand for private rented housing in London continues to increase, the supply of such homes is falling. This is a direct consequence of government policy aimed at shrinking the size of the sector, along with rhetoric from the Mayor that suggests private landlords are simply a problem to be managed.
“If the Mayor wants to address the cost pressures faced by households across London, he needs to focus on boosting the number of homes available. Anything else would merely be tinkering with the symptoms of the challenges in the rental market, without tackling the root cause of them.”
City Hall polling found that as many as 40% of London’s private renters will struggle to make their rent payments in the next six months.
Khan said: “There is no time to waste so we have come together today to speak with one voice. Our demands to ministers are simple: implement your long-promised renters reform legislation and take action now to make rents more affordable for Londoners, using all powers at the government’s disposal.”
