Polanski to Push for Three-Year Emergency Cap on Private Rents at Green Party Conference

Green Party leader Zack Polanski will use his keynote address at the party's annual conference to demand a three-year freeze-style limit on private rent increases, framing housing costs as the defining test of fairness between generations in Britain.

Speaking to activists in Brighton on Friday afternoon, Polanski is expected to propose that private rents be barred from rising by more than the lowest of three measures: the consumer price index inflation rate, average wage growth, or a flat 2% ceiling. The restriction would run for three years under what the party describes as an "emergency brake" designed to give tenants breathing room while a longer-term settlement is developed.

The Greens say the policy would be followed by a permanent "Fair Rents Guarantee" intended to keep rents within reach of ordinary earners over the long term. The party argues that the interim cap is necessary because the current trajectory of rental costs is outpacing pay packets and forcing working people into increasingly desperate choices.

Polanski is expected to tell the conference that people of all ages are being squeezed by the rental market, citing 19-year-olds commuting long distances to university, 25-year-olds unable to take jobs in expensive cities, and 35-year-olds moving back in with their parents alongside their partners. In his prepared remarks, he will argue that landlords have for too long been able to raise prices far beyond what wages can support, leaving tenants to cut spending on everything else in order to keep a roof over their heads.

The speech comes at a moment of significant momentum and scrutiny for the Greens. The party has billed the Brighton gathering as its largest ever, following an announcement earlier this year that membership has tripled since Polanski took the leadership just over twelve months ago. That growth has been accompanied by electoral gains, including hundreds of new councillors at England's local elections and a fifth Member of Parliament, Hannah Spencer, who won the Gorton and Denton by-election.

Yet there are also signs that the party's surge in national polling may have levelled off in recent months. Conference delegates will also have to grapple with how to position the Greens against a Labour Party that has shifted its stance under new Prime Minister Andy Burnham, adopting policies in several areas where the Greens had previously threatened to outflank it.

In an interview ahead of the conference, Green co-deputy leader Rachel Millward acknowledged that Labour was now "rhetorically, on a much more similar ground" to her party. She pointed to Burnham's movement toward electoral reform, a long-standing Green demand for overhauling the Westminster voting system, and his openness to 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 that those two policies came about as a direct result of the electoral pressure his party has applied to Labour. He is expected to argue in his speech that Green campaigning has forced Labour into a change of political direction on several fronts, a claim that will shore up his standing among activists who want the party to be seen as a driver of policy rather than a protest vote.

The timing of the conference, however, is awkward for the Green leader. Polanski is standing as the party's candidate in next week's Holborn and St Pancras by-election, a contest triggered by former Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer's decision to leave Parliament. He said last week that he intends to return "straight back" to the central London seat after delivering his leader's speech, and he has urged party activists to leave the conference over the weekend to help him campaign.

Victory would give the Greens their first seat in the capital, a symbolic breakthrough that would underline the party's growing urban appeal. But it would require overturning a substantial Labour majority from the 2024 general election, a tall order even amid the party's recent momentum. A full list of candidates for the by-election has been published.

The rental policy itself is likely to reignite a long-running economic debate. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has previously warned that rent controls, an idea the Greens have championed for years, can produce "unintended consequences," including demand for rental homes exceeding supply. Critics argue that capping rents may discourage landlords from maintaining or expanding their portfolios, ultimately shrinking the stock of available housing.

Millward pushed back on that concern during an appearance on BBC Breakfast, telling viewers that most landlords were "super-earners" who were making more money than other sectors and "would be able to absorb a slight reduction in rent." Her comments reflect the party's broader argument that the rental market is not a marginal, mom-and-pop industry but a profitable sector that can bear modest restraints in the interest of social stability.

The backdrop to the debate is a rental market that continues to strain household budgets. According to the Office for National Statistics, average UK monthly private rents rose by 3.5% to £1,377 in the twelve months to January 2026. Earlier this year, the government introduced the Renters' Rights Act, which limits landlords to one rent increase per year, tied to the property's open market rate, and shifts tenancies to rolling rather than fixed-term arrangements, making evictions harder.

Polanski is expected to argue that those reforms, while welcome, do not go far enough in ending what he describes as the "fear and uncertainty" faced by millions of private renters across the UK. By proposing a hard numerical limit on increases for three years, he will seek to draw a clear dividing line between the Greens and a Labour government that he says has moved in his party's direction but still falls short on housing affordability.

The conference will also serve as a test of how the Greens manage their own internal tensions as they grow. A recent report linked the party's deputy leader to property lets despite the party's opposition to landlords, a story that may complicate its messaging on housing. With a by-election days away and a Labour government recalibrating its offer, Polanski's speech is designed to remind voters what distinguishes the Greens: a willingness to intervene directly in the rental market when others hesitate.