Brighton Green candidate Sian Berry slams 'rigged' rental market

Analysis has found that rents in Brighton and Hove have jumped by 47 per cent since 2011 while wages have risen by only 35 per cent, leaving a huge gap.

Sian Berry, the Green Party candidate for Brighton Pavilion at the next election, calculated that renters in the city had paid out £530 million over the odds over the last 12 years.

The difference between wages and rent costs jumped by more than £56 million in the last year alone, she said.

READ MORE: Sussex renters see prices soar as charity calls for action to end housing emergency

Ms Berry, who rents a home in Brighton, said: “The renting market is a rigged game. As a private renter for more than 25 years, I have felt the squeeze of expensive, insecure, substandard housing when your wages can’t keep up. I won’t let any government off the hook for abandoning renters.

“Even in the last year an extra £56 million was added to the unfair, overcharged rent bill for renters in Brighton and Hove.

“These unfair living costs have been racking up in the city ever since the coalition and Conservative governments came to power.

“Renters face a threefold problem - they can’t challenge rent rises, they have no real power to challenge bad landlords and they can’t force landlords to improve dangerous, leaky or expensive-to-run homes.”

Sian Berry, Green Party candidate for Brighton Pavilion at the next election (Image: The Argus/Andrew Gardner)

Ms Berry said that controls on rent increases, strengthening renters’ rights and improving damp and mouldy homes are essential in tackling the issues in the private rental sector.

She said: “Ministers are even now still delaying the Renters Reform Bill, which would finally ban unfair no-fault and revenge evictions.

“As a Green and a candidate for MP, I know where my priorities are. I won’t let this government or the next government off the hook if they abandon renters when there is so much more than can be done.”