A senior Tory calls for a two year rent freeze in the private rented sector and it must not be allowed for landlords to re-let properties at a higher rent.

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Natalie Elphicke’s article on the Conservative Home website, is seen as many as an ‘’informal CV for a job in the new government, says she backs “a newly shaped Department for Housing and Households” which would “robustly challenge the total costs of household bills.”

It is a rather lengthy article as it covers many housing cost related problems.

Elphicke’s CV is impressive which includes being a former chief executive of the Housing & Finance Institute, co-chair of a government housing review and founding chair of the New Homes Quality Board.

She demands the “freezing of all rents at their current rates for up to two years. In addition, no property could be re-let at a higher price during that period. This would ensure that the rent freeze cannot be circumvented by re-letting.”

She states a rent freeze would apparently save an average tenant around £2,000 and as much £4,000 for renters in London.

She then carries on in the same anti-landlord vein when saying: “While landlords would, no doubt, protest, this would not be so problematic for landlords as might first appear. It is not landlords who are facing paying for the extraordinary energy rises in the homes they let out, but their tenants. Buy-to-let finance costs are still low, with two-year fixed rates available at less than 2.5 per cent.

“So there is, and has been, no justification for the excessive rent hikes in recent times. Rents don’t reflect the costs of being a landlord. Rent levels are simply opportunistic and a result of lack of effective policy oversight in that market for far too many years.

“Indeed, controlling inflation will help keep interest rates lower for everyone as well as stabilise the value of housing. Extended inflationary spikes eat away at the value of all capital assets, including housing. High levels of repossessions and evictions put negative pressure on house prices. Early action to control rent rises is in the interests of landlords as well as tenants.