1 like 1 reason we need rent controls

high rents trap tenants in the private rented sector

high rents are a key cause of homelessness

high rents cost the public purse billions

high rents trap people dangerous domestic situations

loads of the things we should do to solve the housing crisis cost loads of money but rent controls are free

rent controls are extremely popular

landlords suck lol

high rents inflate house prices

high rents attract investors to what are fundamentally unproductive investments

rent controls are the most effective way of forcing landlords to improve the quality of rented homes

high rents drive tenants into poverty

high rents make it impossible to save for emergencies (or, uh, global pandemics)

the gender and race pay gaps mean high rents disproportionately affect women and BAME folk

poor quality housing costs the NHS billions (rent controls would improve quality)

poor quality housing has a massive negative effect on children's attainment in school

poor quality housing costs tenants millions in higher cost bills

the environmental impact of poor quality housing - in increased energy usage - is enormous

high rents distort the power balance even further in favour of slumlords

high rents displace and break up communities

high rents force people out of city centres and into suburbs - which means higher travel costs and a bigger environmental impact

high rents make people vulnerable employees - making striking or leaving bad work harder

sorry guys I took a break to make some gnocchi

rent controls are a powerful way to flatten out regional inequalities

rent controls would bring us into line with normal european social democracies

if landlords can charge whatever they want, no other protections from eviction mean anything because they can just force you out that way

similarly, if there's nothing to stop landlords hiking rents then it acts as a blocker for tenants to challenge them when they're acting illegally - people fear retaliatory increases

poor people (tenants) spend their money in the local, productive economy and rich people (landlords) don't, burrowing it away in savings

the more money we have the more tins we can afford

it's obvious, but high rents mean wages don't go as far - so exacerbate all the issues around low pay

high rents force people into living situations they don't want to be in, in particular often making it impossible to live alone

if rents weren't so high, there'd be less incentive for landlords to buy up homes to rent out - freeing up homes for renters who'd rather buy

landlords say rent controls will mean they stop doing repairs, but they're not doing any repairs as it is

there are a full hundred years of evidence and data around how to make rent controls work well, it is not some fringe policy

rent controls change the relationship between the state and housing more generally, recognising housing as a public good that requires political intervention

the less money landlords and letting agents have, the less they can spend poisoning our politics with backdoor lobbying and misinformation campaigns

rent controls further collectivise tenants' issues, creating enormous opportunities to organise, build power, and win - in a way that's much harder in the atomised model we currently have

there isn't actually much evidence that rent controls would drive that many landlords out of the sector, but if they did then it would be a good thing because the private rented sector is the worst of all tenures and we absolutely shouldn't be scared of it shrinking

high rents make landlords rich without them having to do anything - a classic case of the rich getting richer, perpetuating wealth inequality

rent controls empower tenants to demand repairs and stand up to their landlord without fear

the amount of people renting privately has massively increased since rent controls were scrapped, at the expense of better, more secure tenures

critics claim rent controls only protect sitting tenants, but that's an argument for stronger rent controls that carry over between tenancies

the ability for landlords to charge what they like is how communities are destroyed by gentrification

almost all arguments against rent controls are easily refutable, unscientific neoliberal dogma

tens of thousands of people literally freeze to death every winter in their homes because they can't afford to heat them properly, sometimes referred to as "excess winter deaths"

high housing costs are a key driver of students dropping out of university, invariably those from worse financial backgrounds, exacerbating already shocking attainment gaps

rent controls allow us to pretty much force landlords to make improvements, rather than pouring public money at "incentivising" them to do it

high rents mean people with rich parents can afford to do unpaid internships and get massive career boosts, while the rest of us have no hope of being able to

if we had rent controls i could do something other than this with my time

far too many landlords have taken the opportunity of this current crisis to show that they can't be trusted to regulate themselves in a way that doesn't cause untold human misery