LONDON, Wednesday — The Green Party wants rent controls slapped on every private rented home in England. The government has flatly refused. And with local elections three weeks away, the fight over who controls Britain’s rental market is getting louder.
Zack Polanski, who leads the Green Party of England and Wales, made the demand during a visit to Forest Row Community Fridge in East Sussex — linking soaring rents directly to the normalisation of food bank use across the country.
“The affordability crisis is something affecting nearly everyone,” he said. “Any change in circumstance can push people over the edge into requiring a food bank. This crisis is totally avoidable.”
His argument was backed by a stark number. If rents had been frozen in autumn 2022, households across Britain would now be saving over £3,300 a year on average. Across the country, that adds up to £18 billion sitting in renters’ pockets instead of landlords’.
The Green Plan — and Why It Is Controversial
Polanski wants rent controls introduced nationally, covering all private rented homes. He is not proposing a patchwork system where some areas are covered and others are not — he told the BBC that model would cause problems and that only a nationwide approach would genuinely protect renters.
Sixteen European countries already have some form of rent control in place, he argues, and the evidence from those that have made them work should guide how England designs its own system.
“Renters are stuck between people who own their own house and people who have a council house,” Polanski told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg. “They’re stuck in an over-inflated market where landlords can often charge what they want.”
The Greens’ Green MP Carla Denyer tried to get rent controls included in Labour’s Renters’ Rights Act as it passed through Parliament. The government rejected the amendment.
Labour, Conservatives and Reform All Say No
The government’s position is unambiguous. Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook told Parliament this week: “The government does not support the introduction of rent controls, which we believe could make life more difficult for renters.”
Pennycook cited international experience — from Sweden and Germany to San Francisco and Scotland as evidence that rent controls can damage the very renters they are meant to help by shrinking supply and pushing landlords out of the market. “I have looked at a wealth of evidence,” he said. “Both first and second-generation rent controls, as well as more subtle forms, can have detrimental impacts.”
The Conservatives and Reform UK both oppose rent controls outright. The Liberal Democrats back a softer “rent smoothing” approach that prevents sharp increases in the first three years of a tenancy but stops short of hard caps.
Crucially, Labour’s own figures are divided. London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan and Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham have both publicly backed rent controls putting them directly at odds with their own government.
The Labour Party chair Anna Turley hit back at Polanski, saying: “Respected economists have sounded the alarm over the Greens’ catastrophic plans. You can’t trust him.”
A Legal Warning the Greens Need to Hear
The policy is also facing scrutiny from legal experts. Housing specialist Maria Hallows of Menzies LLP has warned the proposal could backfire.
“If the proposal targets private sector rentals — given that housing associations are already subject to strict rent regulation the direct impact on affordable housing supply is less clear-cut,” she said. Her concern is that landlords exit the market rather than submit to caps, reducing the number of homes available to rent at exactly the moment demand is surging.
Landlord groups have made the same argument for years. Britain’s largest listed private landlord Grainger praised the government’s refusal, with director of corporate affairs Kurt Mueller describing it as “continued support for common sense.”
May Elections: The Greens Think This Is Their Moment
With local elections on 7 May, the Greens are betting that housing anger translates into votes. Some polls suggest the party could seize up to nine London councils as Labour‘s popularity falls. On average, Londoners now spend more than 40% of their income on rent and the party’s pitch to young urban renters is simple: everyone else has failed you, we will actually do something.
Polanski is clear that Green councils winning in May will not immediately deliver rent controls they would not have the power to impose them. But he says elected Greens would be “a solid voice” pushing the government to act.
In Scotland, councils will be able to apply for rent control powers from 2027. No equivalent powers exist anywhere in England.
M10News has been reporting on the wave of last-minute Section 21 evictions before the 1 May Renters’ Rights Act ban and on Ireland’s own rental reform debate as governments across Europe wrestle with the same affordability crisis.
Source: BBC South East | Editing by M10News News Desk | © 2026 M10News. All rights reserved. Unauthorised reproduction is prohibited.
