On Monday 8 September, co-founder of new socialist ‘Your Party‘ and Coventry South MP Zarah Sultana tabled an early day motion (EDM). This calls on the government to prohibit Members of Parliament from owning and letting out residential properties during their time in office.

Zarah Sultana’s EDM to prohibit landlord MPs

Zarah Sultana tabled the motion in conjunction with community and tenants union, ACORN, which has been at the forefront of the fight for renters’ rights for the last decade. The union was prolific in campaigning for the Renters’ Rights Bill that will now enter its last stage in parliament this week, before becoming law.

The EDM reads:

That this House notes with concern the ongoing housing crisis and the shortage of affordable homes; believes that Members of Parliament should be wholly focused on serving their constituents without the influence of financial interests in the rental housing market; and therefore calls on the Government to bring forward legislation to prohibit Members of Parliament from owning and letting out residential properties for private profit during their time in office.

Zarah Sultana’s motion comes hot on the heels of the Labour Party government scandal over landlord and (now former) homelessness minister Rushanara Ali. In August, the iPaper exposed how Ali was evicting tenants from her inner-city townhouse property in East London to hike rent.

Of course, Ali is hardly the only case of Labour government landlord hypocrisy. Ilford South MP Jas Athwal rents out flats that tenants have described in slum conditions, with mould and ant infestations.

Out of the 650 MPs, 85 (13%) of the current crop are landlords. 44 of these are Labour MPs, according to a previous Financial Times analysis.

PoliticsJOE has also recently highlighted how 76 MPs currently in parliament have declared in the parliamentary register of interests that they receive more than £10,000 annual income on rental properties.

‘Parliament can’t fix the housing crisis when it’s packed with people who profit from it’

ACORN national chair Chelsea Phillips said:

MPs should be focused on serving their constituents, without the influence of financial interests in the rental housing market. We cannot rely on MPs to make impartial decisions for renters when they themselves are making money from the housing crisis. This is clearer than ever following the resignation of Homelessness Minister Rushanara Ali after her actions as a landlord acted against the spirit of the government’s own Renters’ Rights Bill. With the Labour Party having more landlords than any other party, this EDM couldn’t be more vital.

ACORN head organiser Nick Ballard added:

Parliament can’t fix the housing crisis when it’s packed with people who profit from it. It’s a clear conflict of interest and as long as landlord MPs are writing the rules, renters will keep losing out. Ending landlord influence on our laws is the bare minimum if we want to see housing policy that’s fair to renters.

Zarah Sultana said:

At a time of an ongoing housing crisis, when the Renters’ Rights Bill seeks to hold landlords to account, it is more urgent than ever to ensure that Members of Parliament do not profit as landlords from the rental housing market but focus on serving their constituents in securing affordable homes for all.

Featured image via the Canary