Mayor of London calls for freeze on private rents for two years, as new analysis shows half a million Londoners potentially facing eviction

'If Berlin can freeze rents for five years, there’s no reason London shouldn’t be able to freeze rents for two years in these extraordinary times'

The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has called for a freeze on private rents in the capital for two years.

With the temporary extension to the stay on evictions due to finish on 20 September - and analysis from the Greater London Authority showing that half a million Londoners are potentially facing eviction - Mr Khan has written to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government Robert Jenrick calling on the government to give him powers to freeze private rents in London, both between and within tenancies, for two years as the economic fallout from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic continues.

NB - the Office for National Statistics has today published the Index of Private Housing Rental Prices UK: August 2020 which shows that London private rental prices rose by 1.3 per cent  in the 12 months to August 2020.

In addition, Mr Khan calls for - 

• grants to allow renters to stay in their homes and clear arrears, until the government can make changes to welfare that will support everyone to sustain their tenancies in the longer term;
• the expansion of access to welfare, including scrapping the benefit cap, uprating local housing allowance to median market rents, and making additional discretionary housing payments to cover shortfalls and extending eligibility to all renters, including those not currently entitled; and
• section 21 'no fault' evictions to be scapped as soon as possible, and access to section 8 evictions (which give landlords legal powers to evict tenants under certain circumstances) to be restricted until the wider welfare measures outlined above are brought in. 

Commenting on his letter, Mr Khan said today - 

'More than ever, COVID-19 means that many of London’s private renters are facing a really uncertain future. More likely to be in lower-paid and insecure work, the end of the furlough scheme means even more renters in the capital are now at risk of pay cuts or losing their job. Yet at every stage of this pandemic, renters have been treated as an afterthought by the Government, with protection measures only ever rushed out at the last minute.

This uncertainty is causing unnecessary anxiety and stress. I’m today calling on ministers to give me the powers to stop rents rising in the capital for as long as this virus is with us, to give London’s 2.2 million renters more financial security. If Berlin can freeze rents for five years, there’s no reason London shouldn’t be able to freeze rents for two years in these extraordinary times.

Without an operational vaccine, the economic fallout of COVID-19 will continue for months into the future. A rent freeze is only one part of a package of measures renters urgently need from Government to ensure no one is forced out onto the streets as a result of this pandemic.'

For more information, see Mayor calls for two-year rent freeze in the capital from london.gov.uk