Freeze Welsh rents, Plaid Cymru tells Labour ministers

Freeze Welsh rents, Plaid Cymru tells Labour ministers

Welsh Labour ministers are facing calls to freeze rents to tackle the cost of living crisis.

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Plaid Cymru said the Welsh government should be using "all the tools in its power to shield our most vulnerable over winter".

First Minister Mark Drakeford warned it would not be a "panacea".

The Welsh government fears "unintended consequences", where landlords could react by selling-up and leaving the market.

Figures from Zoopla suggest average rents rose by 12.3% to £750 in the year to last July.

The Scottish government announced it would freeze "most rents" until the end of march next year, alongside a "six month moratorium on evictions".

Adam Price, leader of Plaid Cymru which is in a co-operation agreement with Labour in the Senedd, said: "This winter could be the hardest on record, in the face of rising costs and stagnating wages. Plaid Cymru saw this coming. [The] Scottish government have already acted - incidentally, following a campaign by Labour in Scotland.

"What further evidence do [the Welsh government] need to convince them that preventing homelessness during winter is the right course of action?

"Welsh government must use all the tools in its power to shield our most vulnerable over winter - by announcing they will freeze all rents and by banning all evictions now."

In response to Mr Price in First Minister's Questions, Mr Drakeford said the Scottish legislation "doesn't cover anybody taking up a tenancy, and for existing tenancies there are a whole series of ways in which their rent will be able to go up anyway".

He said when he was in Scotland to meet Nicola Sturgeon last week he said he was told of "two great anxieties" - the "stampede to evict existing tenants" and the "risk there would be a collapse in the amount of property available in the private rented sector".

The first minister did not appear to totally rule out the idea, saying: "I will look more carefully than I have been able to so far at the Scottish proposals.

But he added: "But any idea that they are a panacea that we should just pick up and put in place here in Wales, I don't think that will stand up to examination for long."