Rent rises are becoming Britain’s new no-fault eviction

While the UK has moved to remove no-fault evictions, landlords have found the next best thing: pricing tenants out. A new report from the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee warns retaliatory rent hikes now function as “economic eviction” in the UK, and the tribunal meant to stop them isn’t up to the job.

The cross-party group of MPs warns that with many renters already stretched to the limit of what they can pay, retaliatory rent increases risk operating as a form of economic eviction.

Rent controls, it concludes, would not be a proportionate response at this stage. Instead, it points the government at the machinery that already exists: the First-tier Tribunal, where tenants can challenge above-market rent increases. That system, the MPs argue, must be shown to function effectively before anything more radical is contemplated.

The burden is still on tenants

Too much of the burden, the committee found, still falls on individual tenants. This includes pursuing landlords through the courts, chasing their local authority, or petitioning the ombudsman.

The MPs are now calling for a full, published assessment of whether councils actually have the resources and powers to police the sector, warning that even the government’s new minimum energy efficiency standard could be undermined if the bodies meant to enforce it cannot afford to.

The committee also wants more ambition for the forthcoming Private Rented Sector Database, arguing it should give tenants comprehensive information on landlord fitness and property quality, and a route to report concerns.

The vulnerable pay first

The report’s biggest concern is for renters at the bottom of the market, who are least able to absorb rent rises and most exposed to the reforms’ unintended consequences.

One suggestion put forward is to unfreeze the Local Housing Allowance and restore it to at least the 30th percentile of market rents, reducing the risk that low-income households are displaced into worse housing or homelessness.

The MPs are also calling for faster turnaround times. The Decent Homes Standard, extended to the private sector for the first time under the Renters’ Rights Act, carries a 2035 compliance deadline the committee considers too leisurely, recommending incentives for landlords and stronger deterrents against breaches to accelerate it.

Awaab’s Law, already in force in social housing, should be rolled out to private tenancies this year, with legal repair timescales fully operational across the sector by the end of 2028/29.

Committee chair Florence Eshalomi welcomed the government’s reforms but said more is needed to ensure the new rights are enforceable and that landlords play by the rules.

“The government’s reforms to renters’ rights are welcome and can make an important contribution to improving housing conditions for tenants, helping people to live in safe and secure homes where they are treated fairly by their landlords,” she said.

“However, more needs to be done to ensure that the new tenants’ rights are enforceable and that landlords play by the rules. Stronger and more proactive regulation and enforcement of standards by local authorities is needed to improve conditions for tenants.

“The government needs to play its part by ensuring councils have the resources to do this job effectively and that the upcoming Private Rented Sector Database gives tenants the tools they need to check that their home is suitable and safe.”

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