Zarah Sultana calls for MPs to be banned from being landlords

Former Labour MP Zara Sultana has called for MPs to be banned from being landlords in a shot at her former party.

The Coventry South MP, who is setting up the left-wing Your Party with Jeremy Corbyn, tabled an early day motion (EDM) on Monday (8 September) calling on the government to bring forward legislation to stop MPs from owning and letting out residential properties while in office.

The motion, which has been put forward in conjunction with community and tenants union ACORN, comes a month after homelessness minister Rushanara Ali was forced to quit after putting her home back on the rental market for £700 a month extra after tenants had left.

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Sultana left Labour after being stripped of the whip last year for supporting a SNP call for scrapping the two-child benefit cap before resigning her party membership in July. She has since been working with Corbyn to launch Your Party. It’s not known if that is the final name of the party but it has so far reportedly attracted up to 700,000 members.

Sultana said: “At a time of an ongoing housing crisis, when the Renters’ Rights Bill seeks to hold landlords to account, it is more urgent than ever to ensure that members of parliament do not profit as landlords from the rental housing market but focus on serving their constituents in securing affordable homes for all.”

Labour’s Renters’ Rights Bill moved into its final stages this week following a debate in the House of Commons.

The bill does not include any legislation relating to MPs being landlords.

MPs are required to declare rental income of more than £10,000 a year to parliament’s register of interests. A total of 83 MPs are currently landlords.

It is unlikely that Sultana’s motion will turn the tide – it only has two supporters so far: the Democratic Unionist Party’s Jim Shannon and Sultana herself.

The Renters’ Rights Bill – and its failed Tory precursor the Renters Reform Bill – has faced pro-landlord opposition throughout its long passage through parliament.

But Sultana’s motion shows the fallout from Ali’s resignation has continued to reverberate through Westminster.

“MPs should be focused on serving their constituents, without the influence of financial interests in the rental housing market,” said ACORN national chair Chelsea Phillips. 

“We cannot rely on MPs to make impartial decisions for renters when they themselves are making money from the housing crisis. This is clearer than ever following the resignation of homelessness minister Rushanara Ali after her actions as a landlord acted against the spirit of the government’s own Renters’ Rights Bill. With the Labour Party having more landlords than any other party, this EDM couldn’t be more vital.”  

ACORN and Zarah Sultana aren’t the only ones who have called for MPs to be blocked from being landlords.

Big Issue ambassador Kwajo Tweneboa made a similar suggestion following Ali’s exit.

Writing for Big Issue, he said: “Imagine the person tasked with ending rough sleeping and fixing the temporary accommodation crisis also personally profits from a rental market that has priced so many people out of a secure home.

“It is not just a bad look, it is a fundamental clash of interests. How can we have full faith in someone to solve homelessness when they stand to gain from the same broken system that fuels it?”

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