Polanski Puts Rents at Centre of Green Pitch in Brighton
Zack Polanski used his leader's speech to the Green Party's Autumn conference to call for a three-year emergency brake on private rents.
The speech was delivered at 13:30 on Friday 2 October 2026 at the Brighton Centre and published in full by the party. Day two of the conference followed in Brighton on 3 Oct 2026, with the party's deputy leaders due to address members, according to the Guardian.
The core proposal would cap annual private rent rises at CPI wage growth or 2%, whichever is lower, for three years. Polanski framed it as an emergency intervention, not a permanent control. The formula links permitted increases to earnings rather than headline inflation alone.
Alongside the temporary brake, Polanski proposed a long-term national Fair Rents Guarantee intended to keep rents affordable. Details of enforcement and geographic scope were not set out in the verified conference material. The guarantee was presented as the successor regime once the three-year brake expires.
The rent focus builds on earlier positioning. On 18 March 2026, Polanski laid out plans including rent controls to end "rip-off rents" alongside water renationalisation. The October speech sharpens that pledge into a time-limited cap plus a named permanent framework.
Cost of living dominated the political context around the conference. The Guardian's 3 Oct 2026 UK politics live blog reported cost-of-living issues as top of mind as diesel surged past £2 a litre for the first time. Polanski has made that terrain central before. On 28 July 2026, he joined calls for banks making 'eye-watering' profits to help families with the cost of living. On 8 June 2026, he warned the food system is "close to collapse", with UK fruit and vegetable prices projected to rise 170% by 2050.
BBC News ran live coverage of the conference speech centred on the three-year cap on private rent rises. Ahead of the speech, Polanski was set to urge the government to prevent private rents from rising, according to BBC.
Electoral ambition formed the other half of the message. Polanski has said he wanted the Green Party to win at least 30 seats, possibly up to 50, in Britain's 650-seat parliament. He appeared at a press conference in Manchester after Hannah Spencer won a by-election in a northwest constituency in February 2026, a result cited by Reuters at the time.
Relations with Labour were confrontational but transactional. Polanski said the Greens can move Labour in the right direction. He criticised Labour for making "slogans without action" on the cost of living. On pensions, he asked why the government was going after pensioners instead of taxing the rich in response to plans to unwind the triple-lock state pension pledge. Burnham has said he is not tempted to call an early election.
On migration, Polanski said the party would "always support fair and managed migration."
The broader context here is a small party trying to convert protest energy into parliamentary leverage. A rent brake is legible, quantifiable and aimed directly at younger private renters in urban seats where Greens compete with Labour. It also sidesteps the harder fiscal questions that surround housebuilding and housing benefit. For an expert audience, the test is delivery mechanics. Caps tied to wage growth require reliable local earnings data, anti-avoidance rules for new lets and re-lets, and a tribunal or regulator able to act quickly.
Looking at what this means for Westminster, the strategy is pressure rather than power. With a stated target of 30 to 50 seats, the Greens cannot legislate alone. The proposal functions as a negotiating demand and a wedge on cost-of-living credibility. Labour can adopt, adapt or reject it, but it must answer it in constituencies where rent levels decide elections.
