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

Green Party of England and Wales leader Zack Polanski will use his keynote address at the party's autumn conference to demand a three-year freeze-style limit on how much private landlords can raise rents, framing the cost of housing as the defining test of fairness between generations.

In a speech scheduled for Friday afternoon in Brighton, Polanski is expected to urge the government to cap annual private rent increases at whichever is lowest among three measures: the consumer price index inflation figure, average wage growth, or a hard ceiling of 2%. The restriction would remain in force for three years under what the party is describing as an "emergency brake" on the rental market.

The proposal represents one of the most interventionist housing policies put forward by a Westminster party in recent years, and it signals that the Greens intend to make affordability for renters a central battleground ahead of the next general election. Polanski is expected to argue that the measure would provide breathing space for tenants while ministers design a longer-term "Fair Rents Guarantee" intended to keep rents within reach permanently.

According to the party, Polanski will tell activists that several generations are now trapped in unstable housing arrangements because of runaway rents. He is expected to describe 19-year-olds commuting long distances to university, 25-year-olds unable to take up jobs in expensive cities, and 35-year-olds moving back in with their parents alongside their partners.

The Green leader will contend that landlords have for years been able to push rents far beyond the pace of wage growth, leaving tenants with little choice but to absorb the cost in order to keep a roof over their heads. In his expected remarks, he will say renters have been forced to cut back "and back and back" on other essentials to meet monthly payments.

The conference, which the party is billing as its largest ever, comes at a moment of unusual momentum for the Greens. The party has said its membership has tripled since Polanski was elected leader just over a year ago, and it points to gains of hundreds of council seats in England's local elections earlier this year as evidence of its growing base.

The party also secured a fifth MP, Hannah Spencer, in the Gorton and Denton by-election, a result that party officials have cited as proof it can convert activist energy into parliamentary representation. The Brighton gathering is therefore intended to showcase a party positioning itself as a credible challenger rather than a protest vote.

Polanski is expected to claim that electoral pressure from the Greens has already pushed the Labour government into shifting its political direction on several fronts. He has pointed to Labour's movement toward electoral reform, a longstanding Green demand, and to the opening of the door to a much closer future relationship with the European Union.

He has also cited Labour's decision to impose sanctions on Israeli West Bank settlements deemed illegal under international law, and the reopening of a scheme to resettle refugees, as examples of policies the Greens believe resulted from the competitive pressure they have applied. The party's co-deputy leader, Rachel Millward, said in a pre-conference interview that Labour was now "rhetorically, on a much more similar ground" to the Greens.

Housing policy is likely to be the most closely scrutinised element of the speech, given that the government has already legislated in this area. Earlier this year, ministers brought in the Renters' Rights Act, which limits landlords to a single rent increase per year, tied to the property's open market rate. The law also converted tenancies to rolling rather than fixed-term arrangements and made it harder for landlords to evict tenants.

Average UK private rents rose by 3.5% in the 12 months to January 2026, reaching £1,377 per month, according to the Office for National Statistics. Polanski is expected to argue that the existing legislation does not go far enough to remove the fear and uncertainty that millions of private renters experience, particularly when they face unexpected increases.

The Greens have long campaigned for rent controls, but the policy remains contested by economists. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has previously warned that controls of this kind can produce unintended consequences, including demand outstripping supply in the rental market as landlords withdraw properties or reduce investment in new housing.

Millward rejected that concern, telling BBC Breakfast that most landlords were "super-earners" who were making more money than those in other sectors and "would be able to absorb a slight reduction in rent." Her comments suggest the party will frame the policy as a redistribution of housing costs rather than an attack on small-scale landlords.

The timing of the conference presents a logistical challenge for Polanski, who is simultaneously contesting next week's Holborn and St Pancras by-election. The central London seat became vacant after Sir Keir Starmer's decision to leave Parliament. Polanski said last week that he intended to return "straight back" to the constituency after delivering his leader's speech, and he has urged activists to leave the conference over the weekend to help his campaign.

A victory in Holborn and St Pancras would give the Greens their first parliamentary seat in the capital, but it would require overturning a substantial Labour majority from the 2024 general election. The party's recent polling rise appears to have stalled in recent months, and it faces difficult questions about how to respond to Labour's change of leadership under Andy Burnham, who has moved his party onto terrain the Greens have long occupied.

For delegates in Brighton, the conference thus serves a dual purpose: launching a bold rent policy designed to sharpen the party's identity on the cost of living, while managing expectations around a by-election that will test whether Green momentum can translate into a breakthrough in London.