Government maintains opposition to rent controls despite pressure from MPs

Rent controls could have unexpected consequences. I imagine that market rent would be a factor in setting controlled rent. I am guilty of not charging market rent. I wonder how many other landlords are in the same boat? If controls come in I expect that you will actually be allowed to raise (or “hike” as journalists like to say) the rent to market levels. I guess you would be daft not to. Then if rents are only allowed to rise by RPI or CPI annually I expect that as it is “the law”, many landlords for the first time will “hike” rents on yearly basis.

“it will push landlords out of the market”..
The damage has been well & truly done already. The PRS is for the professional & resiliant L/L who can absorb legislation apart from curbing the income of his/her assets, that`s quite wrong in a capitalist system.

The RRA has effectively brought in rent controls.

When a landlord gives rent increase 3 months notice needs to be given.

The tenant can appeal the fee for this has just been dropped to £47 now this will only really encourage tenants to appeal every rent increase.

The courts or tribunal will be over loaded leading to huge back log.

The rent increase only kicks in after judgement made so not back dated . So if this takes a year there is 15 months from notice given. So no increase .

If the tribunal then decide no increase . You can not issue a new increase for another 12 months.

Honestly how the NRLA allowed this to happen without strong challenge from the landlords side

So rent up £50 a month tenant appeals costs £47 take 15 months £750 saved then the chance of another 12 months before another request for increase can be done .

Reply to the comment left by Neil Robb at 24/03/2026 – 12:43
I believe that the notice period is only (!) two months.

We already have ‘rent controls’ by the back door……its called the renters rights act 2026. The govt has played a blinding hand in the way they have done it and what amazes me is that there has been so little attention drawn to this. Sadly our industry is woefully under represented with no strong lobbying platform.

I think that the only landlords that they are worried about pushing out of the market are the banks and build to rent companies, they are trying there best to force everyone else out for years

This is all being choreographed… government wants it all ways… so first they’ll want to be seen to support landlords, so those gullible enough will still support them ‘for trying’ after direct rent controls are brought in. Indirect rent controls, through regulations and taxation, have been here for some time. With 9 million renters, it’s a no-brainer…

And no, government isn’t interested in any impact assessment… it’s all about votes… to chase votes, Labour destroyed the PRS in 1977 with rent controls, and it took until the Housing Act 1980 and another government to restore the market, and another 10 years to build back the infrastructure…

… the Rent Officer Service was never disbanded, but was used to set reference rents for housing benefit claimants… in 1977, the Rent Officer Service claimed to use market rent comparables, but since there was no free market, they were comparing ever-decreasing rents with ever-decreasing rents and chasing the market down… and inflation ate further into the inflation-adjusted values, just as it does when personal tax allowances and bands are frozen.

… capital values were decimated and then, after giving tenants and a successor security for life, government granted them the option to buy at the discounted price if ever the landlord wished to sell… the playbook is already written, and government is just waiting for the political cover to bring in ever more confiscatory measures…

The only option is withdrawal of labour by those most able, but government has largely closed that door for most with penal second-home and empty-home council taxes… a change of government that will undo what’s being done is needed, and that isn’t the Conservatives because to chase votes they started this with s24…

… the so-called professional property representatives have been taking subscriptions while acting like limp lettuces and doing a ‘Neville Chamberlain’ while successive governments have manoeuvred their chess pieces into place in plain sight… they’re now claiming to represent the industry by charging fees and subscriptions to show landlords how to deal with the new legislation… you couldn’t make it up… at the moment, Reform is the only option, with a large and small ‘r’…

The rent control and section21 removal thinking it will bring better times is back firing🔥 because that has caused the private Rental sector disappering building materials demand disappering low profits to generate future investments disappearing driving companies into liquidation creating more unemployment, making nation poorer..yet no law makers objecting is the biggest mistake ever made or realising that uk was once the richest country in the world. Talk about rent increases most good tenants never was charged excessive rent because they were less headaches to the landlord . If one cannot increase the rent how on earth a landlord will be able to cover the cost to pay for bad tenants destruction to the rented property the answer will be to close the business and make more people home less. Time will tell if countries like ie. India rise to be the next biggest economy then what happened to uk which was already there best economy years ago and now going in reverse yet no law maker or law Lords objected to scrap the changes and think about moving forward.

Joe