Housing charity Shelter warns Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s rent plan will increase homelessness
Housing charity Shelter has warned that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s plans for rent controls could lead to increased homelessness in the UK.
The charity has argued that hefty rent controls, a policy set out by Corbyn in his speech to Labour conference, would push landlords to sell their properties.
This would help middle-income families looking to buy a home, but could push low-income renters onto the streets, said Steve Akehurst, Shelter’s head of public affairs.
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Polly Neate, Shelter CEO, said: “Shelter supports controls that lengthen tenancies and protect families from unfair rent rises but not old fashioned rent-setting which we think could end up harming the very people on low incomes they’re meant to help, if and when landlords sell their properties.”
Ben Southwood, head of research at the Adam Smith Institute, said Corbyn’s policy would lead to “smaller properties, shoddier upkeep, and long waiting lists to get a flat”.