THE councillor in charge of housing in York says she and her authority are powerless to impose rent controls on privately-rented properties in the city.

Responding to claims that rising rents are driving people out of York, green councillor and executive member for housing Denise Craghill said: "I am very aware that the high costs of private rentals in York are very difficult for many residents – and the problem is only made more acute by the current rising cost of living.

"One of the obvious answers would be to impose rent controls to limit maximum rent levels. This is Green Party policy and I would certainly like to be able to introduce them in York, but unfortunately this is not in the control of the local council to do – it would have to come from Government legislation."

Cllr Craghill said there was 'no single solution' that would address the issue of high rents - and high house prices - in York.

But she added: "I am working to ensure the council is doing everything it can."

She said the authority itself was building 600 new homes, of which at least 40 per cent of which would be affordable. These, she said, would include 'council homes and low cost home ownership'.

The council also operated a ‘shared ownership’ programme giving 60 households access to low cost home ownership. "We are very hopeful that will be extended," she said.

A community-led development which would be starting soon at Lowfield Green would provide ‘forever affordable’ housing, she said. And the authority was working with another community initiative on cooperative self-build homes with rents set at Local Housing Allowance levels.

"We have sold council land to a local housing association to develop affordable housing and approved the sale of other land to community groups and housing associations to deliver specialist affordable housing.," she added. "We have ongoing conversations with housing associations to do more of this.

"We continue to lobby the Government to review the unfair way York’s Local Housing Allowance is calculated. Housing officers also work to maximise the number of affordable homes that are allocated on new developments through the planning system."

Cllr Craghill added that the authority's 'Private Rented Sector team' was working hard to drive up the standard of privately-rented properties - including by licensing 'homes in multiple occupation' (HMOs) with five or more occupants. Consideration was now being given to extending licensing to other HMOs in the city, she said.

Cllr Craghill added that she had commissioned a report on the impact of Air BnBs and short term lets. "Across the city these currently account for a very small proportion of properties but they are part of a growing trend and do tend to be concentrated in certain areas of the city so I have asked officers to look at all the possible mechanisms we could use to control their impact on local housing provision,” she said.