"The abolition of letting agent fees will be a huge relief to renters in England and Wales including those who rent in London – myself included – who have been watching the success of this change in Scotland with envious eyes.
"Too many London renters are driven into debt when we move because of the nasty, unpredictable shock of sky-high fees being charged for seemingly trivial services like printing an inventory.
"My recent Big Renters Survey showed that only 21 per cent of renters in London would rate their last letting agent as ‘good’ and unexpected fees had affected more than a third of us. [1] Many London renters told me they avoided letting agents completely, only applying for homes where they could deal directly with the landlord.
"But I hope we will see later on today that he has listened to the evidence and taken real action on rented homes, and that this isn’t being announced alongside the Autumn Statement to cover for a lack of real action on homes average Londoners can afford to rent.
"Key public service workers are being forced to live outside London, putting the very functioning of our city at risk, [2] and the Chancellor needs to be helping councils and citizens to build rented homes within their reach.
"I recently called for the Chancellor to create an ‘Affordable Urban Density Fund’ - specifically for urban areas on unbuilt land near transport services. [3] This would boost the scarce grants the Mayor of London and councils can use to help housing associations and councils to build social rented homes, and help them build more homes at a truly affordable ‘living rent’ too.
"Councils in these areas are crying out to have borrowing restrictions relaxed so they can get on with these schemes on public land alongside the Mayor without needing to search for private developers whose demand for profits all too often demolishes the viability of plans to build truly affordable homes."
[1] Results of Big Renters Survey, October 2016: https://www.london.gov.uk/press-releases/assembly/sian-berry/what-are-londons-renters-thinking
[2] Where do our police live – report June 2016 http://www.sianberry.london/news/policing/2016-06-17-police-outside-london/
[3] My call for an affordable urban density fund for housing – September 2016: https://www.opendemocracy.net/neweconomics/an-affordable-urban-density-fund-to-build-homes/