Senior UK ministers deride Rachel Reeves’s reported plan of year-long rent freeze

There have been reports that the prime minister is planning to sack the chancellor after May’s local elections. Photograph: Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP

Senior ministers have poured scorn on the idea of freezing private sector rents for a year, less than 48 hours after the Guardian revealed Rachel Reeves was considering it.

Steve Reed, the housing secretary, and Matthew Pennycook, the housing minister, became the latest government figures to criticise the idea, which has since been ruled out by No 10.