A row has broken out at Belfast Council after Sinn Féin and the DUP blocked a proposal for the local authority to have rent controls over landlords in the city.
At a special meeting of the Belfast City Council City Growth and Regeneration Committee the two largest parties blocked a proposal by People Before Profit to ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and any future Stormont Minister to devolve powers to control rent prices to councils here. Alliance, the SDLP and the Greens supported the PBP proposal.
The motion used the example of Bristol City Council, which voted to control rents last month, and vowed that Belfast would write to that council to share findings and learn more about its Living Rent Commission.
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The motion also mentioned a “failure of the previous Minister to implement adequate rent controls to protect tenants” - a reference to the former Stormont Department for Communities Minister, Sinn Féin MLA Deidre Hargey. That motion failed to pass at Tuesday’s Standards and Business Committee, after being voted down by Sinn Féin and DUP Councillors.
During Wednesday’s City Growth and Regeneration Committee Sinn Féin Councillor Ciaran Beattie proposed an alternative motion to the People Before Profit proposal, omitting any reference to the former DfC Minister, and dropping the call for rent control powers. He described the call to devolve rent controls to council level as “hot air.”
The Sinn Féin motion states: “This council wants to see costs for renters reduced, acknowledges that legislation is required to protect renters from unfair rents, improve housing standards, end unfair letting fees, and recognises the introduction of rent controls.
It adds: “The council resolves to write to the Department for Communities permanent secretary and the head of the civil service to engage with Belfast City Council and other key stakeholders concerning rent controls in Belfast, and to support local community organisations and groups in their efforts and campaigns for the introduction of rent controls. To ensure the voice of renters and those affected by housing affordability are heard.”
A People Before Profit amendment to this, again including the call for rent control powers to be devolved to councils, fell, with only five votes in support from Alliance, the SDLP, the Greens and People Before Profit, and nine votes against from Sinn Féin and the DUP.
Councillor Beattie said: “It was a bit offensive to hear from some parties that we do not support rent controls, which is not factually correct in terms of our party policy, and not factually correct in terms of certainly my morals and the morals of our party.”
He added: “This isn’t about soap box politics, this isn’t about trying to get a bit of attention before an election, for me this is close to my heart, and we want to see a resolution for families out there who are struggling.”
People Before Profit Councillor Fiona Ferguson said: “The real issue for Sinn Féin was that they can’t have the vanity project that is their Stormont MLA team offended by having criticism of a previous minister.”
She referred to a council report following a standards watchdog probe last year into former SDLP councillor Declan Boyle, who as a landlord dozens of student lets in South Belfast's Holylands area was censured for breaching the council code of conduct, in relation to declarations of conflicts of interest.
She said in the upcoming debate on rental controls she hoped all councillors would be “incredibly serious” about making declarations of property held as a landlord. If a councillor makes a declaration of a conflict of interest they bar themselves from a debate and vote.
Councillor Beattie asked the City Solicitor Nora Largey if councillors had to make a declaration of a conflict of interest if they were renters. He said “surely this shows a pecuniary responsibility.” The officer did not have a definitive answer, and said she would return to the council with information.
Councillor Ferguson said: “Bristol City Council had the exact same issue come up. It was the Tories on that council who took a similar line asking if renters should be excluded.
“In fact the Tories pushed for renters to be excluded, and actually the legal precedent found there was that renters did not have to excuse themselves from the meeting, but landlords did. And it was Tories there that did not want powers vested from Westminster to the city council.”
Green Party Councillor Mal O’Hara said: “I think a lot of us are on the same page on this issue - we want to see rent caps, we want to see a regulated private rented sector, and we want to support some of the most vulnerable people in our society.”
He added: “But one thing does give me some concern, and all members should be mindful of this. Last night we had some declarations of interest, but just last month, when legislation the minister brought gave us new powers as a council, no declarations of interest came through. Councillors who may or may not be landlords, or have partners or people in their household who may or may not be landlords, no declarations were previously made.”
He stated: “I think there is a majority for progressive change around the private rented sector in this council. The unfortunate reality is that we don’t have powers, and I support the broad basis of what PBP brought.
“This council needs more powers. Because if we are relying on an assembly - which for almost 50 percent of the time has had no functioning Executive since 1998 - how are we meant to have progressive change?”
The Chair of the City Growth and Regeneration, Sinn Féin Councillor Ryan Murphy, said: “It is up to individual members to look after conflicts of interest, it is not for anyone else to be trying to direct people as to when they should or should not be doing it.”
The Sinn Féin motion will go to the full council meeting next week for further debate and ratification.
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