Hammersmith Tories

But if all of this feels a bit too academic, or counterintuitive, think of rent controls this way: If you were sick and went to a doctor who promised you a medicine he didn't have that would make you worse if you took it, would you trust that doctor? Of course you wouldn't.

To be clear, we need to act on rents. Until we build the supply, we should get tough with crap landlords. At a minimum we need a London-wide registry of landlords, so we can spot bad actors.

But a scrap over rent controls would be Khan's most cynical ploy yet. Not only does he want a barney, he wants one in order to have the powers that would actually make Londoners worse off. The only solution to ⬆️ rents & house prices is to get a grip & build more homes. End of

The only reason Khan is promising this policy is so he can blame central government – again – for not letting him have his way. His hands are somehow always tied. "Vote for me, I can't do anything" is now the official Khan line.

Khan can’t even deliver this policy. He admitted that in 2016: "I have no plans to introduce rent controls, nor the powers to do so." Make no mistake: RC’s are false hope peddled by politicians who don't want do the hard work of building the homes we desperately need.

No matter how hard he works the stats, Khan can’t hide that he’s failed to build the homes we need. Completions are down 20% in London, but up elsewhere. That’s why Khan polled rent controls in Dec and announced them in Jan. They’re popular. Which brings us to his cynicism.

If rent controls don't work, why is a smart man like Sadiq Khan choosing to front them? The three answers are: failure, popularity, and cynicism.

Over time RC’s push landlords out of the market - reducing supply – and generate less investment in properties, lowering the quality on offer. Does London really want to be a place like New York where people scour the obituaries hoping to score a ‘rent-controlled’ flat?

Rent controls don’t work. Economist and housing expert Assar Lindbeck called them"the most effective technique presently known to destroy a city - except for bombing". Inequality expert Angus Deaton also thinks they're bad news.

The buzz around City Hall is that Sadiq Khan is getting ready to announce his disastrous rent control policy next week. Let’s be clear: Rent controls are a TERRIBLE idea that would take a bad London housing and rental market situation and make it worse. Here’s why: