A think tank has called for the government to stabilise rents, with annual rent increases limited by a ‘double lock’ linked to whichever is lower: inflation or wage growth.

It comes as Propertymark’s latest data for April shows that the average salary needed in the UK to secure a rental home is £43,710 – based on the average rent of £1,445. Generation Rent and the Renters' Reform Coalition are labelling today (11th May) as ‘Cost of Rent Day’ - the day at which, on average, all a renter’s income to that point in the year is sent to their landlord.

The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) suggests that, had a double lock system been in place since 2020, rents would be around 7% lower by the end of the decade – saving the average renter £850 per year in England, and more than £1,700 in London, and would reduce the number of households facing unaffordable rents by 140,000 compared with no intervention.  

It believes the cap should be accompanied by policies such as time-limited exemptions for new-build properties, to make sure more houses continue to be built and rental properties get added to the market.

Worsening

The left-leaning think-tank says 2.4 million households in the UK’s PRS now face unaffordable housing costs, with the situation worsening rapidly and set to deteriorate further.

The report finds that 45% of private renters live in unaffordable housing – an increase of more than 250,000 households since 2023/24. Without intervention, this will grow to 2.5 million by the end of the current parliament – an increase of 340,000 since 2023/24.

Steps

Dr Maya Singer Hobbs, senior research fellow at IPPR, says: “Government has taken important steps to strengthen renters’ rights, but it now needs to go further. A fair system of rent caps would rebalance the market, protect households from sharp increases, and ensure that rents grow in line with what people can actually afford.”

The tenants’ groups say according to their Cost of Rent Day calculations, this means across the whole of 2026, the average renter will send their landlord all their gross earnings from 1st January to 11th May, over four months of their pay or benefits.  

Generation Rent chief executive Ben Twomey adds: “The government must urgently give metro mayors the power to slam the brakes on soaring rents through limiting rent increases.”

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