Labour’s persistent failure to address its electorate’s salient concerns is behind the protest vote, asserts DIANE ABBOTT
THE cost of renting in Wales has only gone one way — and that’s up. Soaring rents, widespread housing precarity, and an imbalance of power between tenants and landlords have pushed many to the edge. Yet, despite the urgent need for change, the Welsh government’s action on housing has failed to seriously consider one of the most obvious solutions: rent controls.
Instead of acknowledging rent controls as a viable way of easing the burden on renters, the Welsh government’s white paper “on securing a path towards Adequate Housing, including Fair Rents and Affordability,” launched in October 2024, dismisses them based on a lack of evidence.
But here’s the truth: renters are struggling and the private rental sector is broken. We don’t need more data to know that private rents have skyrocketed and that people are being priced out of their own communities. The Welsh government’s refusal to act is a glaring failure to address the core issue.
Our housing crisis isn’t an accident – it’s class war, trapping millions in poverty while landlords and billionaires profit. To solve it, we need comprehensive transformation, not mere tokenistic reform, writes BECK ROBERTSON



