When Angela Rayner rules out rent controls in England, she steps back from a policy that has tempted many on the left for years. As Housing Secretary, she stated clearly on Friday that the government has no plans to introduce such measures, arguing that the Renters’ Rights Act is already delivering change in the rental market. This is one of the more grounded decisions to come from the current administration.
The Act, which received royal assent in October 2025 and saw its main reforms take effect in May this year, has abolished no-fault evictions, banned fixed-term tenancies in most cases, capped rent paid in advance at one month, ended bidding wars and allowed tenants to request pets. It touches the lives of roughly 11 million people renting from private landlords. Rents can now rise only once a year and must stay in line with open market rates. Rayner has pointed out that these changes are already having a significant impact.
She also noted something important: rent controls tried in parts of the UK have not necessarily brought rents down. According to The Sun, Rayner said she does not think rent freezes or rent controls are the way forward at the moment. In her BBC Breakfast interview she explained that the new legislation gives renters more power and control than they had three years ago during the height of the rental crisis.
A lesson from experience
This matters because the track record of rent controls is not encouraging. Where they have been introduced they tend to discourage landlords from letting properties, reduce the overall supply of homes and leave waiting lists longer. The private rental sector works because it responds to demand. Heavy price caps distort that signal. Families looking for somewhere to live end up with fewer choices, not more.
The government’s broader ambition to build 1.5 million new homes by 2029 is ambitious enough without adding layers of regulation that make investment in property less attractive. Supply is the real answer to affordability. Protecting tenants from abuse is one thing. Pretending ministers can set rents by decree without consequences is quite another.
The Renters’ Rights Act already strikes a balance that protects people without choking off the market.
Rayner’s position acknowledges this reality. It moves away from the ideological instinct to control prices and toward practical outcomes that respect how housing markets actually function. That does not mean tenants lack rights. The new rules have clearly strengthened their position. But it does mean recognising that further intervention would risk making the shortage worse.
