Private rents should be controlled, Labour document says

The cost of private rented accommodation should be controlled by bringing rents into line with the cost of living, the Labour Party has said.

In an internal policy document on the housing market endorsed by all its TDs and senators, Labour says “robust rent controls” based on “reasonableness” are needed to protect tenants.

It follows on from calls earlier this year from Minster of State for Housing Jan O'Sullivan for a regulated housing market similar to those in operation in France and Germany.

An internal committee of TDs and senators, chaired by Dublin North deputy Brendan Ryan, was set up by Labour to examine the "crisis in housing" and its report has been presented to the parliamentary Labour Party.

A working group of the party's ministers, such as Minister for Public Expenditure Brendan Howlin, Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton and Ms O'Sullivan, will now be established to follow through on the report.

This does not mean any of the Labour recommendations will immediately become Government policy but the ministerial group is to report back to TDs and senators by June 30th.

The report’s recommendations call for “robust rent control measures based on reasonableness (Consumer Price Index, market rents) in order to protect tenants”.

“Rent caps must also be broadened and regularly reviewed in crisis areas as an urgent priority, with a view to keeping people in their homes in the first instances,” it adds.

It says councils and central government must “act in concert to identify a block of units for immediate allocation” for housing, and calls on councils to compile an inventories of land available for housing.

Similarly, any housing “unit that has been left idle for over eight weeks should be a list for discussion at each municipal area meeting on on the local authority,”. Vacant buildings, such as hotels, must also be used to tackle homelessness.

Apartments and homes owned by Nama but which are being rented by private tenants should be directed into a national leasing scheme by the Government, and “urgent legislation must be introduced to outlaw discrimination against people in receipt of rent supplement”.