Labour urged to regulate private rents

I am still looking for a job with one of these think tanks – I would happily be paid for sitting around all day making up such ‘insights’ .

If I could work from home I would be happy to invent stories for minimum wage. Looking forward to receiving any offers.

Reply to the comment left by Paul Essex at 04/08/2026 – 09:35
Portugal just moved to liberalise its housing market and speed evictions:

https://www.globalbankingandfinance.com/portugal-launches-reform-liberalise-rental-market-speed/

Whenever any government anywhere brings in rent controls and interferes with the market it makes the situation worse.

The article says ““…landlords are earning supernormal returns, far beyond what investing their capital productively would earn, incentivising extraction through property over real economic growth.”

This is simply not true….it’s a lie.

Reply to the comment left by Beaver at 04/08/2026 – 10:10
S24 has skewed the picture – for most mortgaged landlords, “profits” will look inflated because they include their biggest expense – finnace costs.

Maybe this is where the impression of “Supernormal returns” comes from.

You would expect a think tank that so readily publishes their wisdom on the PRS to have consulted at least one real landlord.

Reply to the comment left by Markella Mikkelsen at 04/08/2026 – 10:41
This is absolutely right: The reason why some landlords still interested in property are turning to commercial property is that typically commercial property will give you a higher return than residential; the return on capital employed for investment in residential property is POOR. The reason that people have done it historically is because it has been viewed as a safe haven for money, and the advantage of this is that this kind of investment in addition to being a safe haven for money is that it has also put a SAFE ROOF over somebody’s head.

However, when labour consulted on its Labour Renters Rights Bill it did consult agents, but didn’t consult a lot of individual landlords. Non-incorporated landlords cannot offset their finance costs against rents so for a non-incorporated, small portfolio landlord (the majority) with leveraging the AFTER TAX return on the LANDLORD’S EQUITY is very poor and the landlord might even get a better return from premium bonds without having all the work involved of being a landlord. Many small portfolio landlords are having to increase rents to in effect to recover tax at 40% from tenants in order to avoid a cash loss on their investment.

That comment “….landlords are earning supernormal returns..” is just a lie: It’s the kind of lie that we’ve now come to expect from the Green Party, a party that is no longer green. When parties like the Green Party or ‘Think Tanks’ like this propagate these kinds of lies they aren’t doing anybody any favours and they are certainly not helping tenants.

I would hardly describe a 2.5% gross return before expenses, combined with static or falling sale prices, as “supernormal returns”.

If I could sell at a sensible price, I would. I would then put the proceeds into tracker funds: no hassle, less risk and more sensible tax rates.

For a 40% taxpayer with a mortgaged property, the effective tax rate is:

60% if interest is equal to 50% of rental profits;

86.7% if interest is equal to 70% of rental profits; and

not worth thinking about if interest is equal to 100% or more of rental profits.

And do not forget:

– If you have a student loan, the rental profit before interest—not after interest—is treated as income when calculating student loan repayments.

– The rental profit before interest—not after interest—is added to your other income. If this takes your income above £100,000, you begin to lose your personal allowance. You may also lose eligibility for 30 hours of free childcare.

The only parties making “supernormal returns” are the government, through the excessive taxes landlords pay, and local authorities, through excessive licensing charges and fines imposed on landlords.

Indeed – what a ludicrous lie and absolutely ridiculous nonsense to claim landlords ‘are not disciplined by the market’. If I ask for an excessively high rent I won’t get any tenants! It’s the DEMAND that sets the prices. Why has the new rental regulation decreed rent increases must be a ‘fair market rent’ if they are then going to try to claim landlords are not ‘disciplined by the market’?
Meanwhile the costs landlords incur keep on rising ever higher – as do the risks.
It’s is already inexplicable and unfair that mortgage costs cant be claimed by landlords – they are a business expense. In addition we cant charge VAT but we have to pay VAT on all goods and services. So that’s yet another unfairness. Equally, I can’t ‘charge’ for my time or work if I do maintenance and cleaning or managing tenancies myself. Yet an agent can charge for all of this.
Is the government going to put controls on how much I can be charged by a plumber or electrician? On how much it will cost to have a floor sanded and sealed because a tenant’s pet has ruined it? Or on I how much insurance companies can charge for landlord’s insurance? Or on any of the other goods and services landlords pay for?
Stop the sale of council houses. Enable the building of more houses. Stop foreign investors parking money in uk property. Stop the abuse of social housing (subletting and people who earn big incomes but still get subsidised rents). There are SO many actions the government should be taking to address the housing shortage but instead they just want to punish and attack landlords.
Why? Because it’s easier to hit out at decent people and scapegoat us rather than to face up to the reality.
We do not live in a socialist Fabian paradise – we live in a capitalist market economy. And in this reality the state does not provide a free house for everyone.
Like so many others here – I am selling as soon as my current tenants leave. The returns are far too poor to be worth continuing.
When will they wake up and realise they are making the situation worse?

Reply to the comment left by Pippa Brill at 12:39
Neil Kinnock is trying to pressurise the labour government to equalise capital gains tax with income tax:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/tax/news/lord-kinnock-tells-protege-burnham-to-raise-capital-gains-t/?msockid=0b8a4155c7db6ba1058955b1c6196a07
So watch out for capital gains tax and increases in capital gains tax.
On another thread somebody commented that if you are resident overseas for more than 5 years then capital gains tax does not apply: I checked and this is not correct. Even if you are overseas for more than five years capital gains tax is still payable on UK land and property although not necessarily on UK shares.
The other thing to watch out for is that from spring next year Rachel Reeves will have included pensions in the Inheritance Tax net. Inheritance tax is not payable in all EU countries (in some IHT for family members is 0, no tax for your family to pay when you die) but land and property held in the UK is still liable for inheritance tax even if you are overseas.

Labour are already attacking UK-based assets held by middle-income families.

“This is why landlords are earning supernormal returns…”. I wish I was seeing this. All other things being equal, if my tenants leave I’ll sell and move to more productive less risky avenues. The high capital gains and reasonable return in an ultra low base rate environment is over. Now we have capital stagnation at best and returns on par with government gilts.

Reply to the comment left by Jack Jennings at 16:52
I know. You would have thought that the Fabian Society or the editor of the journal where the lie was published would have checked their facts. Even if you just put the question into AI, AI can tell you in a matter or seconds:
Based on the latest HMRC property rental income statistics, the average UK residential landlord’s after‑tax net income is about 3.9% of the capital they have invested in their property content.briefyourmarket.com+1. This is a broad average; actual yields for individual landlords can be higher or lower depending on their specific property and financing.
The AI bot that I used referenced this website:
https://content.briefyourmarket.com/Newsletters/July-2026-Property-Articles/The-19-400-Reality-Check-Average-Rental-Income-Revealed.aspx

This is about the same as investing in premium bonds but premium bonds do not put a roof over anybodys head. Of course, many small portfolio landlords earn nothing like this because they are unable to offset their finance costs against rents, as any small business can.
And so the REAL question is, why are the Fabian Society telling lies like this when in 2026 you can find information out in seconds? That is probably why prime ministers do not survive very long anymore….in 2026 we can find out very quickly when they are lying and this is very different from 1976.

We all know that the bit about supernormal returns is a pure lie. What I worry about is that the fact it is a lie doesn’t matter. TPTB are pushing on with their wealth confiscation agenda regardless.
I have a tenant who pays £1000 a month in a £300k property (4% gross!). Recently she started finding issues with the property that were costing me a lot of money to put right. eg a small damp patch £1000, a bowing bedroom ceiling £1500 etc. A few other smaller things, all this year.
When one quote for the ceiling was £3500, I told her that it was starting to upset me as money was a little tight at my end. She couldn’t believe that. “Landlords make loads” she informed me. “You wouldn’t do it if you didn’t”. I very carefully explained some numbers to her and the fact that she was only still there because I liked her family and didn’t want to make them homeless. If she gave notice I would sell. I would make more money in a basic savings account and it wouldn’t keep ringing me up with issues.
Incidentally, the latest issue was a tripping consumer unit. Emergency electricians charge around £150per hour plus a call out. Seems they make the months rent on that house in a 6 hour job, but we are the ones making the “supernormal return”.