Evening Standard Comment: Politicians of all stripes must tackle London’s rent crisis

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Before Covid-19 forced many of us to stay at home, the cost of rent regularly topped the list of concerns for Londoners. According to a new survey, London rents jumped 10.9 per cent last year to £2,142, above pre-pandemic levels.

It adds yet another layer to the growing cost of living crisis, with residents already facing soaring energy bills and higher taxes. The cause is familiar, with estate agents citing growing demand as the economy reopened alongside the shortage of new properties.

Rent represents the greatest single cost many Londoners face and forecasts are for continued rises. Until the imbalance between tenant demand for housing and supply, the cost of living in the capital will continue to rise, people will be forced into substandard accommodation, and priced out of building up the savings required for a deposit to buy a property.

Rising costs place more pressure on Sadiq Khan to meet his affordable housing targets, but it should worry the Conservatives as well. The drift from Labour to Conservative as people age is not genetic, rather it is related to the accumulation of capital. If skyrocketing rents prevent Londoners from getting a foot on the housing ladder, a Tory revival in the capital remains unlikely.

We must never forget

“By hating you don’t achieve anything,” — these are the words of Londoner Harry Spiro. The 92-year-old talks from experience, as a Holocaust survivor who endured the horrors of the Buchenwald concentration camp.

Mr Spiro was the only survivor in his family. His mother and sister were taken to Treblinka and murdered. After the war, he came to Britain as one of the “Windermere Children” and went on to establish tailoring shops in the capital. To this day he works with the Holocaust Educational Trust to share his testimony with young people.

Anti-Semitism, the hatred of Jews, is rising in London. Just last night, two elderly Jewish bakers suffered a violent attack in Stamford Hill. It is therefore more important than ever that Mr Spiro’s story, and that of every remaining Holocaust survivor, be heard and marked in our collective consciousness.

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