Rachel Reeves considering freeze of private rent?

Sorry, yes I did mean it included all rents, so social and private. But then I also meant that if I started claiming benefits, they would help cover my private rent.

I apologise as I really didnt explain myself very well, I was angry typing 🤣

if I were a landlord I’d be raising rents now, just at the sniff of such a policy. This government really is quite stupid.

Studies in rent control may show that but rent control isn’t common (for reasons you highlight) and RR potential plan isn’t rent control. It is freezing existing rents for 1 year.

I think pushing unprofessional underfunded landlords out of the sector is no bad thing. Their property can let by professional landlords or sold to an owner occupier.

This doesn't mean that it will automatically be overall better for renters if supply continues to decrease and rents continue to increase as a result of this. Ultimately people want a nice, affordable home to rent. If landlords end up quitting the sector or raising rents to cover additional costs associated with the bill then it could have a catastrophic impact on the sector.

It's the same with rent freezes. On paper, excellent for the tenant who obviously won't need to worry about rent increases. In reality, studies have consistently shown they adversely impact the sector and leave many renters worse off

The rent control experiment in Scotland which is now finished led to a decrease in properties available. Approximately 44% of landlords reduced spending on improvements and maintenance. Rent control also made it more difficult for new renters to find a property because landlords sold up. Some landlords switched to short term holiday lets … especially in certain tourist areas. The reduction in rental properties could lead to higher rents.

From the renters rights act? I know tenants will be better off because it ends no fault evictions, fixed term tenancies, limits the frequency of rent increases, bans bidding, ends rent in advance demands and protects against discrimination, amongst other advantages (having a pet!)

How do you know renters will be better off long term! If the supply of private rentals continues to contract? We have lost 25% of supply since 2020. These kinds of reforms aren't going to help that issue and neither will freezing rents.

Obviously there is a ceiling to this behaviour. And I would suggest that 80% increase in one go is well above ceiling in any area.

with reform comes disruption; and some groups of people may suffer short term for long term gain. We’ve already seen this in the number of people evicted prior to 1st May- renters will be better off long term despite the disruption of the implementation.

Given it’s only for a year, I don’t think it’s a big deal. I haven’t rented for many years but I don’t recall the LL ever increasing rent anyway so I can’t see this affecting much.

@Itsmetheflamingo current tenants won't accept an 80% increase in their rent, so what the LL will do is what my parents' LL has done - give 2 months notice now to boot them out, and later re-rent at a much higher rate. If lots of other LLs are selling up, supply will fall, demand for what's left will rise, and there's a real chance someone will have no choice but to pay 80% more than my parents were paying and that will be "market rate" for their area if the same thing is happening across the board.

The average length of an AST is 12 months so most Landlords can potentially raise rents once a year even if the tenant has an AST. If you have a longer term contract then this is different but they're rare and being phased out anyway so everyone will be on rolling tenancies where Landlords can increase the rents once a year. There are rules that the increase must reflect market rates but as all Landlords are subject to higher interest rates it's likely that rents have generally increased a lot anyway.

Also rents wouldn't necessarily rise by 80% but rents on average have risen by 30% in the past five years. it's totally possible that a Landlord that hasn't kept apace with this and suddenly sees their own costs increase can increase the rent a lot and still be in line with market values.

MN hate private LL’s, they forget that their pensions are invested in huge companies that deal in letting residential properties.
The hypocrisy is real.

At least some of the increased costs which LLs are always whinging about - insurance, agents fees, maintenance and services - ate tax deductable business expenses so why are these passed on to tenants in the form of rent increases. I suspect that many dishonest LLs are double dipping by passing on the increases ro their tenants and also to the tax man.

Under the new legislation it costs a tenant only £47 to go to the first tier tribunal to appeal a rent increase which is above market value. This does not mean local market value per se. It means market value for the property. So a property which had not been maintained by the LL is not going to achieve current market value for the area without money being spent on it. This is the case for many long stay tenants when the LL suddenly tried to whack the rent up. Having a long stay careful tenant had saved them a shed load of money in maintenance etc. They forget about that and what it would have cost to have several families move in and out during the same period. They would have had to refurbish between each rental period.

Increasing supply is the only way to sustainably reduce house costs. But that requires the government to actually do something so instead they will do economically illiterate policies.

My daughter is a renter and moves around a lot for work, it's almost impossible now to find her a place as so many landlords are selling up.

I hope you are right. My point about civil unrest relates to income tax thresholds in general, rather than specific to rental income. If RR increased BR income tax to 25% there would be uproar, but the boiling frog affect of freezing thresholds is poorly understood by the general population.

Landlords can’t just charge whatever they want, no. Few people would pay 80% more rent it just because their landlord asked

tenancies are contracts and the rent increase would generally be specified in the contract, unless you have an unprofessional cowboy landlord of course

It would be wrong and unfair towards landlords and other people who are not renting.
There was an article on BBC today about extra profit BP made. That where I would look at.

Rent control on its own is not going to work. Many other things need to be implemented to address the housing crisis along side.

One thing they need to do is raise the tax free threshold under rent a room. Currently it's capped at £625 a month including bills. It's barely worth the inconvenience of a lodger for that especially in expensive cities.

If a landlord has seen their own costs potentially double as that's what some mortgage increases equate to, then why on earth would they raise the rent by some random general lower inflationary level. Do you see petrol stations doing that now that there is a fuel crisis and the costs of supplying petrol has shot up? Do you see any other business operating in that way when the cost of supplying the specific commodity they deal with as doubled?

Renters will be subject to interest increases in the same way as home owners will be. The cost of capital and therefore any money borrowed has increased massively. If you're living in a house with a lot of money owed against it then costs will increase whether it's owner occupied or rented. The only people artificially insulated from this will be social housing tenants but even the government is paying a lot more money on the debt accrued partially through building and subsidising social housing.

If there's no profit, I'll sell my flat. It's a lot of work and I'm not going to bother letting it out if it costs me rather than benefits me. It's a cheapish flat, exactly what is needed right now. Reasonable rent.

This situation is bonkers. We're going to have whole families homeless if things go on the way they are.

Doesn’t matter if landlords jack rent up immediately. The government will use frozen rents as a reason not to increase housing benefit.

Probably because she doesn’t want to increase housing benefit. She doesn’t seem concerned about mortgage holders.

It’s worth pointing out that this wouldn’t apply in Scotland, Wales and NI.

I agree with the majority. It could end up damaging tenants if landlords just shrug their shoulders and sell up.

There are better ways to improve standards of living. As a pp said, review income tax thresholds. Another mentioned public transport.