London Mayor Sadiq Khan has once again teamed up with Generation Rent to attack the standards of private rental housing stock.

Khan calls it a “scandal” that billions of pounds including housing benefit are being paid in rent which apparently is only being pocketed by rogue landlords who are renting out cold, decrepit and dangerous homes across the country.

The latest analysis from the mayor’s office is claiming that across England, private landlords  are receiving around £9 billion a year in rent for what he claims are ‘non-decent’ PRS homes of which £1.6 billion is paid with housing benefit.

The analysis somewhat spurious figures claims that landlords in London are receiving £3.5 billion in rent with £500m from housing benefits each year from approximately 180,000 privately rented ‘non-decent’ homes.

Yorkshire and the Humber is the second worst-affected region with landlords receiving around £1 billion in rent every year of which in the region of £130 million in housing benefit, from around £160,000 privately rented homes ‘non-decent’ homes. In the South West private landlords are collecting around £870 million including £160 million (or thereabouts) of housing benefit, which apparently according to Khan are ‘non-decent’ homes.

As with a long playing record Khan is as always demanding the government to once and for all scrap Section 21 eviction powers and to set up a national rogue landlord database. He is calling to be given powers to freeze rents for just during the cost of living crisis, “to stop bad landlords profiteering from poor homes and to drive up private renting standards in the capital.”

The Mayor’s office has just issued a joint statement with Generation Rent, Khan says: “We are building a record number of new affordable homes in London, but we need to see national action to support renters. It is a scandal that some private landlords are profiting from letting sub-standard housing that is unfit for 21st century living.

“Renters would feel more secure raising complaints about the condition of their property if they didn’t face the threat of arbitrary eviction, which is why I have long called for Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions to be abolished. The government should also give me the power to drive up standards and introduce a rent freeze in London to help people during this cost of living crisis. 

“If we are to continue building a better London for everyone, we need the government to step up to empower our city’s renters. Ministers must urgently introduce the long-promised Renters Reform legislation, properly fund borough private rented sector enforcement teams, and increase the fines for landlords who break the rules.”

A spokesperson for Generation Rent, in the same statement to the press, says: “It is an outrage that not only can private landlords provide worse accommodation than social landlords, but they get paid more for it. Increasing reliance on the private sector to provide housing has resulted in a higher bill for the public purse with nothing to show for it but poorer living standards.