Haringey Green council leader slams Burnham’s rent control letdown

Haringey Green Party Burnham

The Green Party’s victory over Labour in Haringey was one of its biggest successes in May’s local elections. And new Green council leader Mark Blake is intent on making a positive impact. But he says Andy Burnham’s national government has already disappointed by failing to devolve the power to introduce rent controls.

A big devolution fail already from the ‘devolution prime minister’

Considering Burnham’s whole shtick is devolution, it was a massive disappointment when his new housing secretary Angela Rayner confirmed that the central government would be making the call not to back rent controls. As Blake told the Canary, Rayner’s announcement:

seemed to me to be going against what was being said that ‘Andy Burnham is going to devolve a lot of power to mayors to make those decisions at a city level, at a regional level’. That’s what should happen, and [the announcement] seemed to be totally contrary to that.

He explained:

That would have helped us in terms of controlling temporary accommodation costs with private landlords… So I hope they’ll reconsider that.

And he added that:

London as a major city is a bit of an outlier, because most major cities across the world have rent controls. New York has rent controls. Madrid, Amsterdam, Paris – they all have some form of rent control. So for me, it’s not whether [we should say] ‘yes or no’ to rent controls – it’s really what system you’re going to bring in that’s going to suit your circumstances. And they should have been devolving that power down to make that happen.

Referring again to Rayner’s comments, Blake insisted:

It goes against the grain of everything Burnham said. He said: ‘I’m gonna be the devolution prime minister, guys. I’m the guy who’s gonna devolve power to these mayors, they’re gonna make the decisions locally.’ And it goes totally in the face of that… He’s made the analysis in terms of the problem, or a big aspect of the problem, in terms of centralised power. But one of the first announcements of his new secretary of state is basically just to reinforce the status quo.

Inheriting a council in dire straits in Haringey

Greens in Haringey overturned 55 years of Labour rule back in May, almost coming through to get an overall majority (there are currently 28 Green councillors, 21 from Labour, and 8 Liberal Democrats). Voters clearly showed their anger at Labour’s complacency, poor communication, and local MP David Lammy’s absence.

Speaking to the Canary before the election, Blake highlighted Haringey’s dire financial situation and desperate need for much more council housing. He also pointed out the clear connection between the council’s overspending and its outsourcing of services to private companies.

Now, as council leader, Blake told us about the importance of “breaking the stranglehold” that some of the private suppliers have on council services. He argued:

We can’t just be reliant on the private sector. Because if you do that, it becomes a rigged market and they will just hike the prices up. So we need to get more in-house services, more options, whether they’re run by the voluntary sector, whether they’re run within the council.

He also stressed that Haringey’s current housebuilding programme is:

one of the biggest in London and in the country.

But he added:

The problem is it’s not enough, because we’ve built so little over the previous decades

To boost housebuilding, though, he said:

We need more injection of resources to enable us to do that

Haringey is one of dozens of local authorities with big deficits that are borrowing additional funds from the government (via Exceptional Financial Support, or EFS). The council will need to pay interest on this borrowing, and as Blake asserted:

What’s very apparent to us is that this process is quite punitive. It doesn’t really give a way out for the council, any sort of debt recovery process.

The council’s statutory duties, however, are:

serious responsibilities, life-affirming, life-saving responsibilities

So with this in mind, Blake stressed that:

The delivery of those services is mainly being done by private actors, private agencies, landlords – and they’re making a lot of money. So our political call is that we need to regulate those markets effectively, which hasn’t been happening.

A plan to do things differently

The council website has noted that this is:

one of the most challenging financial periods in the borough’s history

If the council doesn’t get this situation under control, Blake lamented:

One of the classic situations… with authorities that have gone into commissioners running the council is around asset sales, so you will definitely get a fire sale of key council assets.

That’s partly why the council has already passed a “three-year Financial Resilience Plan” to reduce reliance on extra borrowing and ensure commissioners don’t take control.

Blake said the Greens are aiming to be a lot more transparent than previous Labour councils. Particularly in terms of the dire financial situation, Blake stressed:

We’ve got to engage with the community, get people to understand the problem, get them to write to their MPs, and crucially, I think get the Labour Party to realise that bankrupting local authorities isn’t gonna be a vote winner… I think it’ll be for their own benefit if they come to the right conclusions.

He said:

We’re very keen to get out in the community and talk to people, and talk to people in a more structured way… So I’m looking to try and elevate our game, particularly working with local communities, but also service user groups… We’re very keen to be far more transparent in terms of how we’re taking decisions.

One recent example of a greater collaborative process with local communities was the announcement of a consultation on renters’ rights. As local Green cabinet member for housing Tammy Hymas explained, the launch of the Private Renters’ Forum:

will help us to identify the challenges facing renters and take action on landlords who are making significant profits but failing their tenants.

The council website asserted that a key aim is for people to:

share advice and support on how to protect each other from bad landlords

It added that:

The forum will be run as a collaborative initiative, with residents invited to participate in the planning and leadership of meetings.

Other priorities Blake mentioned were ensuring prompt “repairs for our tenants” and seriously improving:

our turnaround times for our empty council properties

Also, with the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium sitting in one of the poorest wards in London, Blake is working on:

getting more engagement with Tottenham in terms of social value commitments.

He believes Tottenham could absolutely be giving more back to people in the area, and is seeking a contribution from the club to a new endowment fund. Especially considering the previous council gave the stadium permission to put on a massive 30 non-football events a year, he says it’s fair to ask for something back.

A promise to fight for frontline services and jobs in Haringey

Blake was very open about the very tough situation the decades-long Labour regime in Haringey has left behind. He absolutely hopes more government funding will come so there can be mass council-house building, and he hopes the government will properly regulate markets. But he’s clear that:

A lot of these things that we’re working around are systemic, and we do need government intervention… That’s out of our power.

Even locally, the budget will require support from at least one other party because the Greens don’t have overall control of the council. However, concerning the aspects that are in his power, Blake stressed: