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Green Party demand Burnham introduce rent controls

πŸ“Ί The Canary πŸ• July 7, 2026 at 4:03 AM
Zack Polanski and Rachel Millward of the Green Party and Andy Burnham of Labour

The Green Party is taking Andy Burnham to task, and pushing him to acknowledge the issues that regular people face and demanding Burnham takes action:

Green Party: β€˜absolutely wild’

In the clip above, Greens deputy Rachel Millward says (emphasis added):

the renter’s rights act just simply doesn’t go far enough. What it misses out, very clearly, is rent controls. We talk about rents being 44% of income. I mean, that’s absolutely wild. And that impacts the whole economy so negatively.

People don’t have enough money at the end of the month to spend in the pub, in the cafe, in the music venue and that impacts our economy. Rent controls operate really effectively across 60 different European countries.

The host interviewing her noted:

There’s mixed evidence for it, isn’t it? Some studies suggest that actually it pushes up the price for the properties that aren’t subject to rent controls.

Millward hit back:

It depends how you set them up, and as these other 16 countries’ models have shown. They’ve got them in Paris working really effectively at the moment, for example, but as I say that’s 16 countries where they’re working really well, and they’re just part of normal life.

It’s really worth noting that the government has spent over 70 billion pounds – they’re given over 70 billion pounds to… private landlords over a five-year period – that’s six times as much as they’ve invested in affordable housing.

We’re just going to pause here for a second to let that sink in.

Millward continued:

So that’s what we’re looking at. We’re looking at a model that makes no sense at all. We need to be investing so much more in acquiring more properties for local authorities to manage. …

So if private landlords do exit and if they’re using them as investment vehicles, don’t forget… houses are first and foremost homes; they’re not first and foremost investment vehicles – if people decide to give that up as the way they want to make money, then the council should be stepping in and buying those properties so that we can get more council homes, having lost so many through Right to Buy.

Renters unite

Millward isn’t the only prominent Green calling for rent controls:

Given Labour’s lack of motion on this front, it’s unsurprising that the party has lost ground with renters:

We’re not so sure things will get better under Burnham. He has promised to increase the number of council houses we build, which:

could be good,Β but bear in mind we’ve barely built any in the intervening years, so he could get away with doing very little

Lest we forget, Burnham’s record in Manchester in housing has not been great, as the Green Party highlighted:

Under Labour, Manchester Housing Investment Loans Fund loaned out nearly a Β£billion of taxpayer money, 60% to one developer Renaker which has provided no affordable homes at Deansgate Sq or across Manchester, out of 6,110 homes it has built (source GMCA report).

Looking to replace Burnham as the Greater Manchester mayor, the Green Party has launched the following housing plan:

Actual change

Burnham has talked a big game, but reading between the lines, he’s not offering much which is different to his predecessors. Rent controls would be a genuine change that dramatically improves people’s lives, which is why we’re far from confident that Labour will even consider such a measure.

Featured image via the Canary

By Willem Moore

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