The Residential Landlords’ Association (RLA) has rejected the claims shadow chancellor John McDonnell has made about the size of rents in the private sector and buy-to-let tax breaks.
In a statement on Monday, the RLA said that in his speech at the Labour Party conference has referred to cutting “billion pound tax breaks given to buy to let landlords” and called for action to “control exorbitant rents.” However, he failed to remind delegates that, in the words of Paul Johnson, Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, “rental property is taxed more heavily than owner occupied property.”
“He failed also to tell the conference that Labour’s own ministers in the Welsh government have argued against rent controls as they reduce the quality of housing and stifle the supply of much needed new housing,” the RLA statement reads.
Lesley Griffiths, the minister for communities and tackling poverty, spoke against the viability of rent controls in the Welsh Assembly in February 2015.
Griffiths told the Assembly, “…I think previous experience shows that rent controls reduce the incentive for landlords to invest and can then lead to a reduction in quality housing. Those properties that are still subject to rent control under the Rent Act 1977 are often of the poorest quality, so I think such a proposal would require very careful consideration.”
The RLA is the representative of around 40,000 private sector residential landlords in England and Wales.
