Zack Polanski will use his keynote address to the Green Party conference on Friday to demand an immediate “emergency brake” on private rent increases, arguing that the government’s current reforms fail to protect millions of tenants from spiralling costs.
The proposal would cap annual rent rises at the lowest of three measures: the consumer price index, wage growth, or a hard ceiling of 2 per cent. The restriction would remain in place for three years, buying time for ministers to establish a permanent Fair Rents Guarantee. Polanski intends to frame the policy as a question of generational fairness, warning that the housing crisis is forcing adults of all ages back into childhood bedrooms.
A generation priced out
In extracts released ahead of the speech, the leader paints a stark picture of arrested independence. He will describe 19-year-olds commuting hours to university because they cannot afford campus accommodation, 25-year-olds unable to accept job offers in new cities, and 35-year-olds moving back in with parents alongside their own partners. “For too long, landlords have been able to hike prices way beyond wages, leaving renters forced to meet the cost to keep a roof over their heads, cutting back and back and back on everything else,” he is expected to say.
The intervention comes just months after the Renters’ Rights Act became law. That legislation limits landlords to a single annual increase pegged to the open market rate, abolishes fixed-term tenancies in favour of rolling contracts, and raises the bar for evictions. Yet Polanski will argue the measures do not go far enough. “It does not end the fear and uncertainty,” a party source said.
Official data underscores the pressure. The Office for National Statistics recorded average UK private rents at £1,377 a month in the year to January 2026, a rise of 3.5 per cent. In London and the South East, the figures are significantly higher.
The economic counter-argument
The Institute for Fiscal Studies has previously warned that rent controls carry “unintended consequences,” chief among them a mismatch between demand and supply that could shrink the available stock. The Greens acknowledge the risk but insist the emergency brake is a temporary stabiliser, not a permanent freeze, designed to bridge the gap until a structural solution is built.
Critics within the property sector argue that capping returns will drive landlords out of the market, exacerbating the shortage. Polanski is expected to counter that the current trajectory — where rents outstrip earnings by a widening margin — is itself a market failure that demands state intervention.
Conference momentum and electoral tests
The Brighton gathering is being billed as the largest in the party’s history. Membership has tripled since Polanski took the helm just over a year ago, a surge fuelled by local election gains that brought hundreds of new councillors and a fifth MP, Hannah Spencer, who won the Makerfield by-election.
Yet the mood is not uncomplicated. National polling suggests the Green advance may have plateaued in recent months. Complicating matters further, Labour under Prime Minister Andy Burnham has shifted ground on several fronts where the Greens once held a distinct edge: electoral reform, a closer European relationship, sanctions on Israeli West Bank settlements, and the reopening of refugee resettlement schemes.
Co-deputy leader Rachel Millward acknowledged the convergence. “Labour is now rhetorically on a much more similar ground,” she said in a pre-conference interview. Polanski goes further, claiming direct credit for forcing the prime minister’s hand on the Middle East sanctions and refugee policy.
The by-election shadow
The conference timetable carries a personal stake for the leader. Next week, Polanski contests the Holborn and St Pancras by-election triggered by Sir Keir Starmer’s departure from Parliament. Victory would deliver the Greens their first Westminster seat in the capital, though it would require overturning a substantial Labour majority from 2024.
Polanski has pledged to return to the constituency immediately after his speech and has urged activists to spend the weekend canvassing rather than attending fringe events. The result will be an early test of whether the party’s expanded membership can translate into electoral breakthroughs in urban heartlands.
Why it Matters
Housing has become the defining fault line in British politics, and Polanski’s proposal forces a debate Labour would prefer to manage on its own terms. If the emergency brake gains traction, it could shift the Overton window on rent regulation, pressuring the government to go beyond the Renters’ Rights Act. Conversely, a poor showing in Holborn and St Pancras would expose the limits of the Greens’ momentum, suggesting their surge is a protest vote rather than a governing coalition in waiting. The next seven days will reveal which narrative takes hold.
