Should renters have a triple lock to cap sky-high rents? Zack Polanski thinks so

Andy Burnham plans to pass legislation to scrap the state pension triple lock, a move he admits is ‘politically risky.’

The guarantee – which ensures that the state pension rises by the highest of 2.5%, inflation or earnings growth – is one of the most fiercely protected policies in UK politics, given that pensioners are a large voting bloc.

But as one triple-lock goes out the window, should the prime minister consider adopting a different one?

Greens leader Zack Polanski seems to think so. Before he lost out in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election, Polanski called for a three-year “emergency brake” on private rent increases.

Under the proposal, rent rises would be capped at whichever is lowest: CPI inflation, wage growth or 2%.

“For too long, landlords have been able to hike prices way beyond wages. Leaving renters forced to meet the cost to keep a roof over their heads, cutting back and back and back on everything else,” he said.

The idea of rent controls is not exclusive to the Greens. Campaigners like London Renters’ Union have called for rent caps, even Islington Council called on the government to give local authorities the power to intervene recently.

“Ordinary people cannot live in Islington unless they live in conditions that are slum-like and very, very overcrowded,” Labour councillor Michael O’Sullivan told a council meeting.

So what are rent controls – and would they work? Big Issue got into the detail.

Read more:

• Will Andy Burnham introduce rent controls as prime minister?
• The Renters’ Rights Act is finally here. Here’s what is changing for tenants and landlords
• Just two out of every 100 rental homes are affordable on housing benefit: ‘An impossible situation’

What are rent controls?

A rent control is a cap on how much landlords can charge tenants. It can be a cap on the overall rent, but more commonly controls limit how much rents can increase.

They can take several forms. Some limit rent increases during a tenancy; others also restrict how much landlords can increase rents when a new tenant moves in. Some exempt new-build or recently renovated properties.

In the UK, they are not a new idea. Rent controls used to be common in England and Wales, when the private rented sector was much smaller than it is today. Controls on new tenancies were abolished in 1988.

Advocates say now is the time to bring them back.

Private rents are at record levels. In England, private renters on a median income spend £39.30 for every £100 they earn, according to the latest data from the Office for National Statistics. The poorest 30% of private renters are paying over 60% of their income in rent.

Subsidising rising rents also the government faces paying a larger housing benefit bill.

Local housing allowance (LHA) determines how much low-income households receive in housing benefit. It is intended to cover the bottom 30% of rents but rates have been frozen since 2024 while rents have been rising.

That means if the government decided to relink LHA to local rents at the upcoming budget, it would cost the Treasury £1.7 billion in 2027-28, according to analysis from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF).

Without a rent control, the cost of relinking LHA to local rents each year would increase to £2.7 billion in 2030-31, the JRF warned.

Landlords can ‘afford rent caps’, said Clara Collingwood, director at the Renters’ Reform Coalition.

“High rents are holding us back,” she said. “Everything the government is doing to tackle the cost-of-living crisis won’t touch the sides if rents continue to rise faster than inflation and wages.”

Collingwood welcomed the Green Party’s policy.

“It’s in all parties’ interest to do so: rent caps are hugely popular, save the government money that can be spent on council house building, and they are good for growth.”

There is a lot of precedent internationally. OECD data shows that some form of rent control on initial rents or rent increases exists in 24 OECD countries, although the rules vary between countries. Scotland introduced a form of rent control last year.

However, not everyone is convinced. Timothy Douglas, head of policy and campaigns at Propertymark, said that rent controls have “unintended consequences.”

“Tenants are facing genuine affordability pressures but rent caps do not address the underlying shortage of homes or the rising costs of providing and maintaining them,” he said.

So, who is right? The answer is mixed.

In 2024, researchers reviewed a large body of empirical research on rent controls from around the world. Their conclusion was that rent controls were effective at slowing the growth of rents in properties covered by them – but that they could also produce a range of unintended consequences.

One of the biggest concerns is what happens to properties that are not covered by controls. Where landlords can raise rents freely between tenancies, some evidence suggests they may respond by charging higher rents when a property becomes vacant.

“In Scotland, our members have reported rent increases between tenancies, stalled investment and landlords leaving the market following temporary rent caps,” Douglas said.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies’ recent review of the evidence found that controls had made landlords more likely to leave the rental market by selling properties to owner-occupiers or converting them to business use.

“The controls meant landlords became more likely to exit the market by selling their property to owner-occupiers or by converting it to a business use,” the IFS found.

And landlords may look for other ways to make up the difference.

One 2018 study of rent controls in Oslo found that a significant number of rental adverts required tenants to provide landlords with extra services, such as babysitting, or to pay very large deposits – sometimes 10 or even 20 times the monthly rent.

Advocates say these adverse consequences can be mitigated by designing rent controls carefully.

New-build homes, for example, can be exempted from controls, creating an incentive to keep building. Rules can also allow landlords to raise rents above the standard cap when they carry out “substantial renovations”.

The question, then, is not simply whether to have rent controls, but what kind. There is a way to design rent controls without simply ignoring risks, according to the (JRF).

Its latest research argues that combining rent controls with changes to the way landlords are taxed could bring rents down while protecting landlords whose businesses are genuinely vulnerable to higher costs. JRF estimates that a system capping rent increases at CPI within tenancies and CPI plus 2% between tenancies could leave renters an average of almost £1,200 a year better off by 2030-31.

“The level of supernormal returns most landlords have been making offer a strong case for government action to both increase the rationality and fairness of the tax regime for rental income, and control rents,” the analysis found.

In places where it has been done, it’s been a popular policy. New York’s two-year rent freeze took effect this week, covering more than two million people living in rent-stabilised homes.

“This is the relief that working people across our city deserve,” New York mayor Zohran Mamdani said of the policy earlier this year.

Will the government consider rent controls?

Since the Renters Rights Act came into force in May, the way rent is increased has changed.

Rent rises can only be served once a year, and have to be served using a formal section 13 notice. These increases have to reflect ‘market rent’. If they don’t, they can be challenged in court.

But the government has stopped short of rent freezes. When he became prime minister, Andy Burnham didn’t rule out the policy, but housing secretary Angela Rayner later did so.

“I don’t think that rent freezes, rent controls, is a way forward at the moment,” she told the BBC in July.

That qualifying ‘at the moment’ will keep fans of the policy hopeful.

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this? Get in touch and tell us more. 

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