Green Leader Zack Polanski to Push for Three-Year Freeze on Private Rent Hikes at Party Conference

Green Party of England and Wales leader Zack Polanski is preparing to unveil a bold housing intervention on Friday, using his keynote address at the party's Brighton conference to demand a three-year emergency limit on how much private landlords can raise rents.

Under the proposal, rent increases in the private sector would be capped at whichever is lowest among three benchmarks: the consumer price index measure of inflation, average wage growth, or a flat 2%. The restriction would remain in force for three years, giving tenants what Polanski describes as essential breathing room while ministers work on a longer-term solution.

The Greens frame the policy as part of a broader argument about generational fairness, positioning housing costs as a defining fault line between younger and older Britons. Polanski is expected to highlight how people at very different stages of life are being forced into the same difficult position: teenagers commuting long distances to university, twenty-somethings unable to take jobs because rents are unaffordable, and even thirty-five-year-olds moving back in with their parents alongside their partners.

In his remarks, the Green leader will argue that landlords have for years been free to push rents far beyond what wages can support. The result, he is expected to say, is that tenants are forced to find the money simply to keep a roof over their heads, cutting back on virtually everything else in their lives. A slowdown in increases, he will contend, would give renters time to recover while the government designs a national Fair Rents Guarantee intended to keep rents affordable into the future.

The conference in Brighton is being presented by the party as its largest ever gathering. Earlier this year the Greens announced that membership had tripled since Polanski took the helm just over twelve months ago, a surge that has emboldened a party long accustomed to operating on the margins of Westminster politics.

The timing of the speech, however, is far from straightforward. Polanski is simultaneously fighting a by-election in Holborn and St Pancras, a central London seat triggered by Sir Keir Starmer's decision to leave Parliament. He has said he intends to return to the campaign trail immediately after delivering his leader's address, and has even encouraged activists to leave the conference over the weekend to help him canvass.

Victory there would hand the Greens their first parliamentary seat in the capital, though the party would need to overturn an enormous Labour majority from the 2024 general election. A full list of candidates has been published for the contest, which takes place next week.

On the policy front, the Greens have long advocated rent controls, but the idea has drawn scrutiny from economists. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has previously cautioned that such measures can produce unintended consequences, including demand for rental housing outstripping supply as landlords withdraw from the market or convert properties to other uses.

The government has already taken steps in this area. Earlier this year it introduced the Renters' Rights Act, which limits landlords to a single rent increase per year and requires that any rise reflect the property's open market rate. The legislation also shifted tenancies to a rolling rather than fixed-term basis and made it harder for landlords to evict tenants without good reason.

Polanski is expected to argue that these reforms, while welcome, do not go far enough to remove the fear and uncertainty that millions of private renters continue to experience. According to the Office for National Statistics, average UK monthly private rents climbed by 3.5% in the twelve months to January 2026, reaching £1,377. That figure underscores how quickly housing costs continue to outpace many household budgets.

Beyond housing, the Green conference comes at a moment of shifting political terrain. The party made significant gains in England's local elections earlier this year, picking up hundreds of council seats, and secured a fifth MP, Hannah Spencer, in the Makerfield by-election. Yet national polling suggests the party's upward trajectory may have plateaued in recent months.

A further complication is Labour's change of leadership under Andy Burnham. Since Burnham became prime minister, Labour has adjusted its position on several issues where the Greens had been gaining political ground. The party's co-deputy leader, Rachel Millward, acknowledged in a pre-conference interview that Labour is now "rhetorically, on a much more similar ground" to the Greens.

Those areas of convergence include Burnham's move toward electoral reform, a longstanding Green demand, and a willingness to explore a much closer future relationship with the European Union. Labour has also announced sanctions on Israeli West Bank settlements deemed illegal under international law and reopened a scheme to resettle refugees. Polanski has claimed both policies came about because of the electoral pressure his party has applied.

For the Greens, the challenge in Brighton will be to sustain momentum while navigating a Labour government that is increasingly occupying similar territory. Polanski's rent cap plan offers a clear point of differentiation, but it also invites the familiar economic criticism that rent controls can distort markets. How the party balances ambition with credibility may define its next phase.