A Bristol Council report has urged caution when introducing rent controls for the city.
Councillors have been calling for central government to put the brakes on rent rises for months and set up the Bristol Living Rent Commission to explore the feasibility of controls.
It has come up with options including basing initial rents on the characteristics of a home, capping increases during a tenancy at a maximum yearly percentage, and linking increases between tenancies to the current market average. Another option would be to freeze rents as a ‘short-term crisis measure’.
Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees and Councillor Tom Renhard (pictured), cabinet member for housing, have sent a copy of the report to Housing Secretary Michael Gove, explaining that Bristol is now the UK’s most expensive city to rent outside London, with the average rent growing by 12.9% annually.
The commission reports that while there was “substantial public support” for rent regulation to provide a long-term framework for private renting, views differed sharply.
Most private tenants and tenant charities considered rent control to be desirable, and some argued for a rent freeze. A much lower proportion of landlords, letting agents and property professionals agreed.
Negative impacts
There were also concerns about its potential negative impacts on availability and quality of housing supply, particularly among landlords, letting agents and investors.
Even some tenants were concerned that rent control, particularly if it were badly designed or poorly implemented, could make their lives harder rather than easier.
Some suggested a national rather than local system would be preferable as there were fears about Bristol “going it alone” and operating a substantially different policy framework from other areas.
The report admitted that an effective real-world rent control policy would most likely be complex and more subtle than its suggestions, adding: “Great care is therefore needed when proceeding in the direction of rent control.”
Rent caps = LL leaving PRS = reduced supply = more competition from other tenants = higher rents.
Excellent idea, just what Generation Rent needs!
I too would like to Sainsburys, DirectLine, Costa, TfL, the local Council, my dentist (etc etc) to all not lift their prices for a few years. Sounds ridiculous so why do we think we can tell LL to do the same?
Sell up, stick the money in the bank and get 5%+ interest for no risk and no effort.
Let the Tenant Charities provide homes to rent – must be easy right??
Yes. Lets bring in price controls for everything. That would make all our lives much easier.
Go on Bristol, just do it. Sit back and watch the Bristol and the national LL exodus quadruple over night.
I am sure tenants and ‘lefties’ will just luv the consequences.
What part of being ‘fired’ does Marvin Rees not get. He and his cohorts have
given planning for 1000’s of (non council tax paying) student flats in Bristol (center) yet still vilify the PRS via nonsense reports… they are crackers. I am selling freeholds and will advise to my leaseholders (over 60 inner city flats) to SELL ASAP. Quite what ACORN or SHELTER are going to do when there is no one to blame will be very interesting. Maybe they will march and demonstrate outside of Tom, Marvin’s or Michael’s houses!!
The weird lefties always love spending other people’s money.
They call it ‘progressive!!!!!!!!!!!’
Why do they believe that LL will charge less for their service provision than it is worth!!??
Imposing such a reduction on LL will only result in one response.
LL will move out of long-term letting or sell up.
This is what has always happened in the UK.
The last time rent controls were used in the UK they were disastrous.
This was back in the 60 and 70’s.
Of course as LL got out of the game there was plentiful Council Housing.
The PRS reduced to about 7% of the housing market.
That plentiful Council housing; well it no longer exists.
So as LL give up on long-term letting where will all the homeless tenants go as they surely won’t be able to afford to buy all the former letting properties?
It is my belief that the PTB are simply sticking their fingers in their ears choosing not to listen to the siren warnings from LL.
They really do believe that LL will stay in the long-term letting market and tough it out.
They couldn’t be more wrong!!