Rachel Reeves – who is fighting to keep her job post-May elections – is now plotting a one-year rent freeze on private sector rented homes excluding new builds. Part of a “cost of living package” which will obviously only raise rents…
Labour has constantly said it would not impose rent controls, be they stabilisation or any kind of freeze:
- May 2024: Labour spokesman says: “While we do believe action needs to be taken to protect renters and rebalance power, rent controls are not Labour party policy as we remain mindful of the risk they could pose to the availability of rental properties and the harmful impacts any reduction in supply would have on renters.”
- May 2024: Reeves says: “Where that has happened, it’s not always delivered the results that people might want. I think that should be up to local areas to decide, there may be the case for that in some local areas, but as a blanket approach, I’m not convinced by that.”
- July 2024: Labour “has reassured investors that it will not enforce any form of rent controls.”
- August 2024: Now in government, Matthew Pennycook says: “The Government does not support the introduction of rent controls. We have made clear that we intend to use the Renters’ Rights Bill to provide tenants with greater protections against unreasonable within-tenancy rent increases.”
- May 2025: Minister Baroness Taylor says in the Lords: “We have considered rent regulation within the broader context of the private rented sector, and we do not believe that limiting rents in this way leads to positive outcomes.”
- January 2026: Pennycook says in the Commons: “We have, however, made it clear that the government do not support the introduction of rent controls, including rent stabilisation measures, for the reasons that we debated at some length during the passage of the bill.” Well-evidenced reasons…
- March 2026: Pennycook says in a Parliamentary answer: “The government has been clear it does not support the introduction of rent controls, including rent stabilisation measures. We believe they could make life more difficult for private renters, both in terms of incentivising landlords to increase rents routinely up to a cap where they might otherwise not have done, and in pushing many landlords out of the market.”
- April 2026: Pennycook goes into more detail: “The Government does not support the introduction of rent controls, which we believe could make life more difficult for renters. There is sufficient international evidence from countries such as Sweden and Germany, and from individual cities such as San Francisco, as well as the recent Scottish experience, to attest to the potential detrimental impacts of rent controls on tenants.”
Reeves has U-turned as the ‘soft-left’ backbenchers demand more intervention from the government. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes…
