Debate contribution: New Deal for Private Renters in Northern Ireland

Debate contribution by Mr Gerry Carroll on 24 February 2025.

MLA

Mr Gerry Carroll

Party at the time

People Before Profit Alliance

Date

24 February 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

New Deal for Private Renters in Northern Ireland

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4814018

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Thank you, Deputy Speaker. Quite a few comments need to be challenged and rebutted. I do not know whether I have time to do justice to all of that, but I will do my best. In the general thrust of the debate, Members who caution against third-generation rent controls, as they are called, show us where their true priorities lie. Clearly, they believe that a landlord's right to extract profit from the tenant at all costs is more important than a tenant's right to a secure and affordable home. Members warn against landlords fleeing the sector or the risk of rent control destabilising supply in the private sector, but similar arguments were used against the introduction of the minimum wage. Critics said that introducing those basic protections for workers would cause mass unemployment, but, 25 years later, rates of unemployment have fallen. The minimum wage increased living standards and boosted the economy, so I suggest that there is a bit of scaremongering going on. I repeat the point: rent controls exist in Europe, and the sky has not caved in. Housing markets have not collapsed, and, in fact, the private rented sector in those countries is growing. The fact that one in five MLAs is a landlord also tells us all that we need to know. I suggest that there is a lot of looking after their own interests and those of their wealthy and powerful property-owning friends. The Member for North Antrim talked about immigration. I say to the Member, through you, Mr Deputy Speaker, that it is landlordism causing the crisis, not immigration. Asylum seekers and migrants contribute so much to our society, but they often live in the worst housing possible with damp and mould riddled throughout their homes.

Thank you. I concur with the Member. She will probably agree that quite a lot of those asylum seekers want to work in our health service but, due to a racist immigration and asylum policy, are prevented from working. They have skills but have been prevented from contributing to the health and education sectors. Often used in the debate and referred to by one or two Members today was the Chartered Institute of Housing report from, I think, 2002. A few quotes were read out from that report, but this one was missing:

"There was, however, a consensus that a rent decrease would positively impact tenants’ financial situation, particularly in the current economic context."

It would be good for renters, but that has been missing from the debate. The CIH report stated that between 41% and 60% of landlords would leave the market if rent controls were introduced; the Member for North Belfast referred to that. I maintain that that is scaremongering. There is no evidence whatever to support that claim. If you look at Housing Executive data, you see that the majority of landlords do not — I repeat: do not — have mortgages to cover. The data shows that just over 33%, just over a third, rely on rent to cover mortgage payments. What does that mean? It means that about two thirds of landlords are directly, massively profiteering from the huge rents that they charge. The Minister and other Members should remember that when they talk about the issue. Even if some landlords leave the market, the house still exists. It does not disappear. It may be bought by another landlord, a first-time buyer who is leaving the private rented sector or the state, if the will were there to step in to buy homes that landlords sell and convert them into social housing. The report recommended strengthening the social security system and significantly increasing the supply of social housing. Almost three years on, the Executive have absolutely failed to act on either recommendation. The housing crisis has got worse since the report was written. I urge Ministers to listen to tenants, who tell us clearly and repeatedly that they want rent control, rather than to landlords who make unfounded threats to leave the sector. Politicians cannot pick and choose from that report. I will move on to the SDLP amendment. Grants to help tenants make up the shortfall between LHA and the market rent might be welcome in the short term, but it is a sticking plaster. Tenants would not see any of that money, which would go straight into the pockets of landlords. To subsidise increased rents is to throw away good public money. The UK Government already spend over £30 billion per year on subsidising private landlords via housing benefit and the housing element of universal credit. In the North, we top that up. Executive parties take every opportunity to talk about efficiency, use of resources and managing constrained budgets: I suggest that funnelling large sums of public money to landlords who charge huge rents is not good value for money. The Member who proposed the amendment cheekily asked about landlords in my party. I remind him that, for years, his party had as a member on Belfast City Council one of the worst landlords in the Holylands and, seemingly, had no problem with it. It is remarkable that the party —.

Thank you, Deputy Speaker.

It is remarkable that, as a member of a party that traces its legacy from the civil rights movement, the Member seems to be against rent reductions and controls. I remind the Member that people did not march to end sectarianism in housing to be ripped off in the private rented sector. I commend my amendment to Members and ask them to support it.

928 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not qualifying

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:01 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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