At today’s (Friday) Greater London Authority final Budget meeting the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, refused to take action to drive up standards and tackle rogue landlords in the private rented sector. The Mayor was presented with a costed plan to deliver more homes and take action to help private rented tenants – but he refused to adopt the plans and all nine Conservative members of the London Assembly used their blocking minority vote to stop the proposals. 

Labour London wide Assembly Member, Murad Qureshi AM, who supported the plan said:

“Londoners are facing a housing crisis and Boris is doing virtually nothing to help people who are struggling. We are seeing soaring house prices, soaring rents and not enough truly affordable housing being built. We need Boris to directly intervene in the broken housing market and directly built houses. He has the land and the powers to deliver significant levels of housing, it’s time he took the housing crisis seriously and got building. But he also needs to take action to drive up standards in the private rented sector, his voluntary approach simply isn’t working. 

“Today the Mayor was challenged on just how bad conditions are for some people in the private rented sector.  I have spoken to constituents, who despite working in semi-professional or professional jobs are extremely worried about the spiralling costs of housing in London. I have also been told about the prevalence of Landlords failing to return deposits to tenants.  Rising rents and rogue landlord practices have resulted in private sector tenants feeling much less secure about their housing situation. This is the face of London’s housing crisis and it is time the Mayor dropped his softly-softly voluntary approach and took action to drive up standards and tackle rogue landlords. Many boroughs in London are doing what they can, but the Mayor must use his considerable powers and funding to help them.”