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17/12/25 3:30 pm
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Generation Rent and the Renters’ Reform Coalition have renewed calls for rent controls, arguing that the Renters’ Rights Act does not go far enough.
The Coalition’s Paul Shanks tells The Independent that the Section 21 ban won’t address the major issue for most renters in England – the “outrageous cost of rent”.
“The government must do more to make renting genuinely affordable and put money back in tenants’ pockets,” says Shanks. “As a first step, a cap on rent increases to prevent them from outpacing inflation or wages would help to keep renters in their homes by preventing landlords from using unfair rent hikes as a backdoor eviction.”
Ben Twomey, chief executive of Generation Rent (pictured left), says the end of Section 21 can’t come soon enough. “Landlords will still be able to price us out of our homes by hiking up the rent beyond what we can afford.”
Labour have repeatedly opposed rent controls and point to the new legislation's stronger protections by ensuring tenants are able to appeal excessive above-market rents “which are purely designed to force them out”. Landlords will be able to increase rents once per year to the market rate by serving a Section 13 notice, setting out the new rent and giving at least two months’ notice.
The average rent across the country reached a record high in the third quarter of 2025, according to data from Rightmove, at £2,736 in London and £1,385 in the rest of the UK.
The Independent cites the example of a single mother who has just received her second Section 21 eviction in less than two years. Her struggle to find an affordable house left her and children homeless and staying in a Travelodge for seven months.
An MHCLG spokesperson says: “We are taking action to help tenants by capping advance payments to one month’s rent, ending unfair bidding wars, and giving tenants stronger powers to challenge excessive rent hikes.”
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