The Senate automatically passed a bill to introduce rent control yesterday, but Opposition and Independent Senators warned it would do nothing to solve the housing crisis.

Opposition Senate leader Maxwell Burgess said bringing more homes under rent control would result in seniors selling their houses because they could not get a decent return renting them out.

The bill was passed as a matter of course after the Senate rejected it a year ago.

All homes with an annual rental value (ARV) of $16,200 will be subject to rent control. Before, only homes built before 1983 and with an ARV of less than $9,900 were subject to the controls.

Sen. Burgess accused the Progressive Labour Party of "playing politics'' with people's dreams of getting an affordable home.

And he claimed it will deter developers from building new homes for rent to help ease the chronic lack of affordable rental units.

He said: "Rent control will not provide a single additional house to the housing stock.

"Rent control will not encourage a single developer to go out and invest in real estate to provide rental units.'' He said the former United Bermuda Party Government backed away from rent control after introducing it in 1983 because it didn't work.

"You are misleading the people of Bermuda who are out there looking for a solution. You are offering hope when we both know it does not exist,'' he said.

"It will not stop the rapacious people, it doesn't produce another house and it doesn't stop gougers.'' He said seniors who were relying on around $13,000 per year would be hammered by the controls and would consider selling the homes they worked all their lives to buy.

"This poor person who has worked all their lives to provide a house will have to live off either the rent or sell their homes. That can't be right and it can't be fair, but that's the consequence of it.

"You are applying politics with the emotions of people who cannot understand that this will not solve their problems.'' Government Senator David Burch acknowledged that rent control would not provide more housing and said it was a temporary measure.

He said: "All the arguments from the Opposition leader about making people homeless ring hollow to me because of what has already happened.

"In the last year we've seen three things in the full knowledge that Government would be bringing this past where landlords have taken action to precipitate this.

"We've seen price rises, profiteering and illegal evictions. People have got under the wire.'' Sen. Burch said newly built units would not be subject to rent control.

He added: "It is not the best mechanism and we are going to come up with another solution later to do this to stem the tide.'' He accused the former Government of selling off public housing rather than keeping it for low income families to create the impression the housing crisis was over.

Independent Sen. Jeanette Cannonier said: "This bill will give precious little relief for people looking for housing today.'' She said Government should offer relief on duties for people building houses, similar to the tax breaks given to major hotel developers.

Senate President Alf Oughton reiterated his opposition to the rent control because it would not lead to any more houses being built.

He said: "Sen. Burch says its a temporary measure. It will be interesting to see how temporary it is.'' The Senate also passed a bill to take into account changes in ARV when residents are carrying out improvements to private roads.

They also passed an order to require self-employed people aged 23-65 with a pensionable income of more than $20,000 to take out a pension and register it with the Pension Commission. Those in existing pension schemes are excluded.

Pension schemes will also have to describe the different investments by category.