Jeremy Corbyn speaking in a parliamentary debate

SKYROCKETING rents must be brought under control with governmental rent caps, Jeremy Corbyn said in a parliamentary debate on Tuesday.

Returning after summer recess, the Independent MP for Islington North took to the benches to call on Andy Burnham to “alleviate the stress” faced by millions of private renters across the country.

Mr Corbyn said: “The new prime minister has said some very helpful and useful thing about housing, particularly on rough sleeping.

“But can I ask him to look seriously at the issues facing renters living in the private sector, where the local housing allowance in most cases comes nowhere near the rent that’s being charged.

“It’s not fair, it’s not right.”

Mr Corbyn said that instead of raising the allowance, which would mean “chasing the market”, the obvious answer was to bring in a “ceiling” of rent controls, which could stabilise the situation.

In July, housing secretary Angela Rayner said that rent controls were not an option for Mr Burnham’s government.

Mr Burnham called for rent freezes when he was the Mayor of Manchester, which he said would help homes deal with the cost-of-living crisis.

In his response to Mr Corbyn, he said that he agreed with the fact that changes “needed to be made” to the housing market, but stopped short of saying he would consider rent caps.

He said: “Housing allowance has been repeatedly frozen in recent years, and that means the gap between benefits and rents has grown bigger and bigger. That is the biggest reason that explains why London councils have a huge temporary accommodation bill.”

He added that there needed to be a “package of measures” introduced to deal with the housing crisis.

The average rent within Islington’s private rental market is £2,854 – higher than both the London and UK averages.