London Mayor should be able to push up living wage and introduce controls on rent, says Gareth Thomas

Gareth Thomas, Deputy Shadow London Minister, has said that the next Mayor of London should be able to introduce a higher living wage across the capital and introduce controls on rent.

In an article for the New Statesman, Thomas writes that the Mayor needs extra powers to tackle the rising inequality in the city. He documents the low pay and rising rents as the cause of this, arguing that the Mayor should be able to deal with these two issues.

He does, however, note that a “sensible future Mayor would want to consult with business about whether, and if so, when and how to use a new power to introduce a living wage” and when it comes to rents “they would want to consult on what approach would work best to help control rent levels and tackle rogue landlord behaviour without killing off investment.”

This is an interesting intervention on Thomas’s part; not only is he Deputy Shadow London Minister, it’s also rumoured that he’s considering running to be Labour’s candidate for London Mayor. So you might read the end of his article as a hint at what he’d do if he were Mayor: The powers to introduce a living wage and to intervene in London’s private rented housing market are just two; a crucial pair, of the new powers the next Mayor of London should seek