Ben Twomey, Chief Executive of Generation Rent, is once again calling for rent controls — a policy that has consistently failed across the globe — this time using a left-leaning political blog to press his case.
Writing in the Red Brick Blog, Twomey criticises the government’s proposed Renters Rights Bill for not capping rental prices. He argues the legislation “still allows landlords to use sudden rent hikes as an economic eviction to price their tenant out of the home.” He supports this claim with polling from the Renters Rights Coalition — a sister organisation closely aligned with Generation Rent — suggesting over a third of renters would be forced to move if their rent increased by just £110 per month. Twomey further contends that rent tribunal decisions, on average, approve increases of more than £240 per month.
Despite Labour’s pledge to build 1.5 million homes by 2029, Twomey dismisses the effort as too slow, likening the temporary accommodation crisis to an “overflowing bath” with no plug. “With all the political will in the world, it will take years for people to see their impact,” he writes, calling instead for immediate rent controls and a thawing of Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates.
He reiterates support for policies like those championed by London Mayor Sadiq Khan and the Scottish Government — both of which have pushed for rent caps with limited success. Twomey wants to see the upcoming English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill include provisions for mayors to set rent increase limits in their regions.
However, housing experts and economists have long warned against such measures. Rent controls have a well-documented history of failure, from New York to Berlin. Wherever they’ve been implemented, they have led to distorted housing markets, reduced investment in rental stock, and ultimately higher costs for renters as supply dries up.
If anything, introducing rent caps in England could accelerate the trend of landlords exiting the market — a trend already in motion due to increased regulation and punitive tax policies. As more landlords sell up, the number of rental homes would shrink further, leaving fewer options for tenants and inevitably pushing rents higher for the remaining properties.
While Twomey’s concerns over affordability are valid, experts argue that rent controls treat the symptom rather than the cause. The real solutions lie in meaningful supply-side reforms — from planning deregulation to incentivising new construction — rather than discredited policies that risk deepening the crisis they aim to solve.
As the Renters Rights Bill progresses and the Autumn Budget looms, the government faces mounting pressure from activists. But it also carries a responsibility to act on evidence, not ideology.