PRIVATE rents should be frozen immediately until controls are put in place by the government, Your Party leader Jeremy Corbyn MP said today.

He said that “it is a national travesty” that the average worker is left with next to nothing each month after paying nearly half their gross salary on rent.

Housing Secretary Angela Rayner ruled out rent controls in July despite PM Andy Burnham supporting a rent freeze as Greater Manchester mayor in 2023.

Mr Corbyn said: “For millions of renters, payday has become the day they feel their landlord’s bank balance heave. 

“The average rent is now equivalent to almost half the average worker’s gross pay. Once tax, bills and other essentials are taken into account, people are left with next to nothing. It is a national travesty.”

The average private rent has reached £1,393 a month across Britain — 46 per cent of the average £3,046 monthly pay before tax — according to the Office for National Statistics.

“This is not simply the unavoidable consequence of a housing shortage,” added Mr Corbyn.

“It is the result of political choices that have allowed landlords and property developers to rake in profits while working people are priced out of a secure roof over their heads.”

Your Party is launching an online snakes and ladders-style “Landlords and Tenants” game alongside the campaign.

It says that rents have gone up 32 per cent since 2021, with landlords raking in more than £80 billion from renters each year, up 27 per cent since 2021.

“The British housing market is a rigged game of snakes and ladders. Private renters have no security,” said Mr Corbyn.

“Their hard-earned wages pay off their landlords’ mortgages and build their wealth, while tenants shoulder every rent rise and market shock.

“Many are forced to pay rent from Universal Credit because Local Housing Allowance is no match for skyrocketing rents.

“Your Party is demanding rent controls to bring down rents, with an immediate rent freeze to protect tenants until the policy is implemented. Housing should be a right. 

“A home should be somewhere to live, a sanctuary, not an asset from which somebody else extracts profit.”