Rent caps are ‘common sense’ claims tenant pressure group
Generation Rent says rent controls in England are essential to protect tenants – and rogue landlords should face penalties or banning orders.
Tenant campaign group Generation Rent claims it makes “common sense” to introduce rent controls.
In a move that would copy Scotland, the group wants to see rent caps in England to prevent landlords from raising rent levels unchecked.
In a new ‘mission statement’, Generation Rent also calls for extra measures to prevent tenants being evicted.
Not far enough
The group says that’s the Renters’ Rights Bill that is progressing through Parliament does not go far enough.
“Limiting rent rises is therefore common sense and already happens in Scotland and many similar countries abroad.
“It is therefore ‘disappointing’ that the Government didn’t bring forward the amendment to introduce rent caps within tenancies to limit how much landlords can hike up tenants’ rents,” Generation Rent says.
The short-term rent cap in Scotland that was put in place to help tenants cope with the cost-of-living crisis will come to an end on 31 March.
But the Scottish Government is now consulting on a new cap in some areas, which will form part of the upcoming Housing (Scotland) Bill and will come into effect in 2027.
Impact of evictions
On evictions, Generation Rent says: “Any long-term strategy should focus on the impact of evictions, lawful and illegal, and put measures in place to prevent evictions from forcing anyone into debt, poverty or homelessness.
“If we cannot end evictions altogether, it is high time tenants were compensated for moves outside our control,” it says.
Any landlord failing to comply with standards should have to refund rent … and face serious penalties or banning orders.”
“Minimum standards for private rented homes vary across the UK, and councils up and down the country lack the resources to stop landlords from renting out homes that are unsafe to live in.”
And the group calls for “any landlord failing to comply with standards should have to refund rent to their tenant and face serious penalties or banning orders”.
More on Generation Rent here.
Generation Rent also clearly doesn’t study history, even very recent events like the steep drop in the number of Scottish rental properties, precisely because of rent controls and the catastrophic recent rise in interest rates. How are landlords meant to survive, when base interest rates increase more than 10-fold?
I am old enough, just, to remember when the whole UK was subject to rent controls in the 1970s and most of the 1980s. The supply and quality of properties was terrible, because small landlords had fled the market and/or ceased investing in their properties because of sheer unviability. Most renters had to make do with ad hoc lodging arrangements, squats, or the “company let” via letting agents, which was the nearest to what we would understand as an open market rent. Rent controls would take us back to that world and see a rapid collapse amongst small landlords in particular. Why would any sane average citizen, risking their own money, consider operating in such a rigged market?
Once more the mindless pressure groups are confusing Private rentals with Social rentals. We are a business and we price our products to what the consumers are prepared to pay. If we couldn’t get customers we would either lower our prices or give up. We don’t dictate the rents, the market does. Obviously Generation Rent failed the same GCSE Economics exam that Rachel Reeves did!