Record rent levels show utter failure of Rent Pressure Zones and Government Housing Policy
People Before Profit TD calls for three year emergency rent freeze and rent controls where local authorities given powers to set rents
In a statement, Richard Boyd Barrett TD said that the latest Residential Tenancies Board report showing record levels of rent increases in Dublin and across the country “reveal the total and utter failure of the governments Rent Pressure Zones and their wider housing policy.”
He called on Minister Eoghan Murphy to “acknowledge the failure of the existing policy and to implement an emergency rent freeze for three years and to introduce real rent controls where local authorities are given the power to set rents at affordable levels.”
The latest evidence from the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) shows that average rents in Dublin are up €114 from this time last year and currently stand at €1,713.
He said:
“This latest report from the RTB shows beyond doubt that, despite all of Minister Murphy’s rhetoric and spin, the rental crisis is still out of control and further more shows that government’s wider policy to deliver affordable housing and rental accommodation has utterly failed.
“I am calling on the Minister and his government to acknowledge the failure of his policies in dealing with this disastrous and growing crisis and to introduce an emergency rent freeze for at least three years. Rents are continuing to rise, especially in Dublin, where the crisis is most acute and yet the government refuses to take the effective measures to control rent as People Before Profit have been suggesting for years.
“I am also calling on the Minister to immediately give powers to local authorities to set rents.
“People Before Profit have been calling this crisis out for the best part of a decade and yet the government blatantly refuses to accept any of our proposals.
“The continuing escalation of rents further shows the total failure of the government’s over reliance on the private rental sector. The private sector is simply not capable of delivering affordable accommodation on the scale needed. Only a massive intervention by the state to dramatically increase the direct delivery of public and affordable housing can resolve this crisis.
“Even the government must now admit that their policies simply have failed. It is time for a new way.”
