Housing - Rental Market



As a tenant, you have the right to:


 * live in a property that’s safe and in a good state of repair
 * have your deposit returned when the tenancy ends - and in some circumstances have it protected
 * challenge excessively high charges
 * know who your landlord is
 * live in the property undisturbed
 * see an Energy Performance Certificate for the property
 * be protected from unfair eviction and unfair rent
 * have a written agreement if you have a fixed-term tenancy of more than 3 years

If you have a tenancy agreement, it should be fair and comply with the law

In 2016 Conservative MPs voted to reject a proposed rule that would have required private landlords to make their homes “fit for human habitation”. The vote was on proposed amendment to the Government’s Housing and Planning Bill – a raft of new laws aimed at reforming housing law. The Labour-proposed amendment was rejected by 309 votes to 219, however. Communities minister Marcus Jones said the Government believed homes should be fit for human habitation but did not want to pass the new law that would explicitly require it. The Government said the new law would result in “unnecessary regulation”.

Parliament’s register of interests show that 72 of the MPs who voted against the amendment are themselves landlords who derive an income from a property. The Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Bill would have updated a law introduced in the 19th century that requires homes under a certain rent limit to be “fit for human habitation”. That rent limit has not been updated since 1957, however, and the rule currently applies to all properties with an annual rent of below £80 in London and £52 elsewhere. The weekly average weekly rent in London is currently £362 and practically zero properties currently fall under the legislation.

Figure 9 shows the increase in rental price between 2011 and 2018 with 2011 being 100. Between February 2015 and February 2016, Between January 2011 and August 2018, private rental prices in Great Britain increased by 16.2%; this was strongly driven by growth in private rental prices within London. When London is excluded from these figures, private rental prices increased by 12.8% over the same period.

If you take an area like the West Midlands, rents from 2010 to 2018 have risen on average by £804. This is against a background of wages dropping by on average by 2.1% and for those typically in the rental market of approximately 8%.

The trend in rent price increases is nothing new. Rental prices have been increasing year on year at about the same yearly rate since the sale of council housing in the 1980 Right to Buy legislation. The government raised billions in revenue when council houses were sold, but as this was not used to build more homes and as the social homes often ended up being owned by private landlords, they spent much more in housing benefit than was ever raised.

Although as seen in Figure 10 private rental prices have seen a slight decline in London during the period 2017-18, this is against a backdrop of rapidly increasing prices for the period 2011-18. London has also seen the biggest drop in wages since 2010, meaning that rents are less affordable. London has also seen a large decline in social housing.

The government spends over £20 billion per year on housing benefit to landlords. If social housing was in place this money would go directly to councils to help them grow their housing stock and improve properties.



Part of the reason there may have been a large increase in South West and South East rents could be due to the push away of people away from the capital as properties have been bought up by foreign investors and local communities can longer afford the rents. There is a view that London is dying as a vibrant city as more communities leave the city. The destruction of social housing will continue to push people away from the centre and with commuting being expensive will mean it will drive families apart and make it more difficult to find workers for jobs outside of the overheated financial markets.

Rent regulation covered the whole of the UK private sector rental market from 1915 to 1980. However, from the Housing Act 1980, it became the Conservative's policy to deregulate and dismantle rent regulation. Regulation for all new tenancies was abolished by the Housing Act 1988, leaving the basic regulatory framework was "freedom of contract" by the landlord to set any price. Rent regulations survive among a small number of council houses, and often the rates set by local authorities mirror escalating prices in the non-regulated private market.

Regulation for all new tenancies was abolished by the Housing Act 1988, leaving the basic regulatory framework was "freedom of contract" by the landlord to set any price. Rent regulations survive among a small number of council houses, and often the rates set by local authorities mirror escalating prices in the non-regulated private market.

Rent regulation appears to work well as a stop gap to reduce rent increases over a short time span, but has been found to be ineffective in controllig rents or ensuring decent accomodation over the longer period. The most effective way to control rents is to ensure the supply of housing meets the demand.

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