A rent authority with the power to cut rents and set them at genuinely affordable levels must be established, says People Before Profit TD
People Before Profit TD and housing spokesperson, Richard Boyd Barrett, has said that a report by Daft.ie, stating that rents were nationally 6.8% higher compared to the same period last year, is “yet another sobering reminder that the current government and successive governments, comprised of Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, do not and have not had the political will to deal with the rental crisis”.
The TD said that government plans to limit further rent increases to 2% against a background of rents that were already “staggeringly unaffordable for those on low, average and even good incomes was worse than useless.”
The TD said also that proposals by some opposition parties for rent refunds, keeping rents at existing levels or relying on cost rental were also inadequate.
Deputy Boyd Barrett reiterated the only robust rent controls regime, which set rents at genuinely affordable levels – a proposal that People Before Profit have been campaigning on for years – could begin to address the current rental crisis.
He said that the government needed to establish as a matter of urgency a rent authority, that was empowered to reduce rents, set initial rents and impose maximum rents, where the rents set were linked to an affordable proportion of average incomes.
He said: “The Daft rent report shows us, yet again, that this government have neither the ability nor the political will to tackle the rental crisis. This crisis has been going on for well over a decade where working people are at the pin of their collars to make the rent each month and where many simply could not afford the rents being charged resulting in homelessness or dire family overcrowding. People who are looking to get on the property ladder cannot even consider it because of the amount of money they have to shell out on rent.
“The governments proposed solution of caping rent increases to 2% in RPZs is worse than useless as rents are already unaffordable. Furthermore, we also reject suggestions from opposition parties that refunds of one month’s rent or measures of that sort will address the crisis.
“This report, along with the countless others, shows us that what is needed is a left government that will take the radical actions needed to tackle this crisis. We have been saying for years that we need to establish a rents authority, with the power to cut and set rents to bring them back to affordable levels. Rents need to be reset at levels linked to an affordable proportion of average incomes. This rent setting body could be a local authority, the PRTB or a new rent board but it has to have the power to set rents, including the power to reduce rents or cap them at levels that are actually affordable.”