Landlords' anger at no invite to London rent summit
The average advertised rent in London is £2,343 a month according to Rightmove (file photo)
At a glance
Private landlords have expressed frustration at not being invited to an emergency summit on renting in London
The event was organised by the London mayor following a poll finding 40% of Londoners were concerned they may not be able to pay rent over the next six months
The mayor, Sadiq Khan, is calling on the government to introduce a two-year rent freeze
But the National Residential Landlords Association says the focus should be on boosting the number of homes available
- Published
Private landlords have said they are "not a problem to be managed" after London's mayor did not invite them to an emergency summit over high rents.
The National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) said Sadiq Khan needed to focus on boosting available homes.
The summit was called after a YouGov poll found 40% of Londoners would struggle to pay rent within six months.
The mayor said there was not enough homes to meet the backlog let alone current demand.
Speaking to BBC Radio London, Mr Khan added it was not an attack on private landlords.
Private renters, charities, advocacy groups and politicians have been invited to the summit, where the mayor is urging the government to introduce a two-year rent freeze.
However the NRLA said it was "disappointed 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".
Its statement added: "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.
Private renters, charities, advocacy groups and politicians were invited to the summit on Monday
"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."
The NRLA said the mayor needed to focus on boosting the number of homes available as "anything else would merely be tinkering with the symptoms of the challenges in the rental market, without tackling the root cause of them".
London's private renters are facing a triple whammy with rising rents, bills, and essentials putting a major strain on their finances, Sadiq Khan says
The mayor said: "Over three decades, we’ve not built enough homes that’s why I go on about council housing and building affordable homes because we need to make sure that the supply meets the demand.
"But let’s be honest, for the foreseeable future - at least a decade - because of the backlog we’re not going to build the requisite homes to meet the backlog of demand let alone the current demand.
"So in the meantime, we’ve got to fix the private rental market."
According to Rightmove, the average advertised rent in London is £2,343 a month, £1,000 more than the average advertised rent in the South West, £1,300 more than in the East Midlands and £1,564 more than in the North East, the mayor's office said.
Alicia Kennedy, director of Generation Rent, said: "When rents are rising on new tenancies, no private renter is safe.
"It is too easy for your landlord to demand a higher rent when they know they can evict you and re-let to someone else who is willing to pay it.
"People who don't want to move are being priced out of their homes and forced to compete in this hellish market. And the cost-of-living crisis is making it even worse."
The mayor is urging the government to double the notice periods for private rental evictions to four months in order to give tenants extra financial breathing space to access support and advice, pay arrears or save for a move before their tenancies end.
"London's private renters are facing a triple whammy with rising rents, bills, and the cost of household essentials putting a major strain on their finances. Ministers must take this crisis seriously and act now," he said.
But Andrew Boff, the Conservative housing spokesperson on the London Assembly said the summit would achieve nothing unless the mayor stopped his "disastrous pursuit of rent controls and starts building more affordable homes".
"The only way to solve this crisis is to build more homes, and yet Sadiq Khan is failing to spend the billions he received from the government and has fallen far behind on his house building targets.
"What Londoners need from this mayor is not more meetings, but more action.”
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