Reader's Letter Of The Day

From The Evening Standard (5 September, page 56):

 

It was the postwar policy package of rent controls, higher property taxes  and easily available council housing that enabled Lammy's parents to buy a house for £6,000. It was inevitable that house prices and rents would rocket after Thatcher and Blair dismantled and reversed this.

 

There's much to welcome in Lammy's housing plans. If anything he is too timid. Why not cap private sector rents at 20 per cent below current levels rather than 20 per cent higher, saving billions in Housing Benefit and easing the strain on working tenants.

 

Mark Wadsworth, Young People's Party