The Renters’ Rights Bill (the “Bill”), published by the government on 11 September 2024, aims to herald in legislation that will reshape the private rented sector (“PRS”) by introducing new protections for tenants.

While some of these reforms are laudable, the Bill nevertheless raises valid concerns for landlords.

On reviewing the Bill as a landlord and former solicitor, what seems apparent is an imbalance between tenant rights and landlord protections. An example is with rents, the sole subject of this article.

Indirect Rent Controls?
If the Bill becomes law as it currently reads, the certainty of rental income will disappear for every landlord that that resulting law will apply to, because the Bill proposes that tenants be able to challenge, by way of an application to the First-tier Tribunal (“FTT”):
1. their rents on all new tenancies within the first 6 months of the tenancy, and also
2. all rent increments, whether below or above average rents in the locality.

This would take the power to conclusively set the rents from landlords, and hand it to the FTT - part of the Judiciary, an arm of the government.

The Oxford Dictionary describes “control” as:
“The action or fact of holding in check or restraining; restraint.”…
“A measure adopted, esp. by a government, for the regulation of prices, the consumption of goods, etc.; a restriction.”

Evidence from other countries (and the UK itself before the previous Rent Acts were abolished) show that rent controls shrink and reduce the quality of a housing market where they apply. In my opinion, it is not the label of ‘rent controls’ or rent capping that is damaging, but the effect of laws that remove a landlord’s ability to operate in a free-market way.