‘Labour’s blind spot on rents is becoming a political liability’

When Olivia, a surveyor, first moved into her flat in Manchester in 2020, her rent was £750 a month. The home was “very basic”, but she was happy to have her own place. But in just five years her landlord has raised her rent to £1100, an almost 50% increase, despite not improving the home.

Incensed at her latest rent rise, Olivia did some digging into the man who owns her home and found out he doesn’t have a mortgage to pay off. “It’s profiteering, pure and simple” she says. Having to spend more and more of her income on rent has left her hopeless: “Despite having a good job, my rent means I simply can’t save for my own home. It’s a deterrent to work hard because what’s the point?” 

Unfortunately, Olivia’s story is all too common for private renters across the country. A July 2025 report from the property website Rightmove found the average monthly rent a new tenant faces paying is £417 more than in 2020. This is around £1,200 a year more than average wages have increased in the same time period. It’s therefore no surprise that, on average, we renters spend over 36% of our income on rent. This figure jumps to well over 40% in places like London and Bristol.

READ MORE: One in five Labour members see Greens as biggest electoral threat

The government’s Renters’ Rights Act, which comes into force in May 2026, will be a vital first step in addressing the power imbalance between renters and landlords. But, the glaring hole in the law is that it does not tackle the soaring cost of renting. 

Ministers have repeatedly cited the government’s ambitious housebuilding programme as the best way to bring rents down. However, Generation Rent’s modelling found that, even if the Government meets its target of building 1.5 million new homes, this will reduce rent inflation in England by just 1.8 percentage points. This analysis is based on a large share of these homes being for social rent, which has already come under threat as affordable housing targets for developments in London have since been significantly watered down. 

At Generation Rent, we believe a common sense solution to this problem is a cap on how much landlords can raise the rent, linked to the lower of inflation or wage growth. This would protect renters from sudden, unaffordable rent hikes, while still giving landlords room to raise the rent modestly in line with inflation. 

We recently urged parliament to seize the opportunity of the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill to allow Mayors of combined authorities to introduce limits on rent increases in their areas. Sadiq Khan has said this power is “top of his list” of what he wants from the government, while Andy Burnham has also called for them in the past. However, we were told that introducing rent caps were out of scope of the bill. 

But kicking the can down the road on this issue could lead to a real headache for the government as the next election looms. Private renters were the most likely tenure type to vote for Labour in 2024. Meanwhile, recent YouGov polling found Labour is losing twice as much support to parties on the left than on the right, with research from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation finding economic insecurity is the key factor in people switching away from Labour. With Green Leader Zack Polanski enthusiastically supporting rent controls, polling shows the Greens have already taken one sixth of Labour’s support from the last election and are likely to win many traditionally Labour seats in urban areas.

Subscribe here to our daily newsletter roundup of Labour news, analysis and comment– and follow us on Bluesky, WhatsApp, X and Facebook.

Keir Starmer has been clear that this is a government for working people. But its opposition to put a common sense limit on rent increases is tying his own hands.

Starmer categorically said that people who receive additional income from assets such as property wouldn’t come within his definition of working people. Half of private renters have no savings whatsoever, while the vast majority are working. Meanwhile, just 42% of landlords declare mortgage interest payments on their tax returns, meaning close to three in five, like Olivia’s landlord, don’t have a mortgage. Furthermore, according to the latest Private Landlord Survey, two thirds are retired and only three in 10 are in full-time employment.

Unchecked rents are leading to a huge transfer of wealth from traditionally Labour voting younger, working people to more conservative leaning asset rich people. A household paying the average rent in London will send over £100,000 to their landlord in just four years. In the main, this is money that is sucked out of the economy, with 56% of landlords saying they use their income to invest in their own pension.

Labour entered government on a landslide in 2024. But  each month, renters up and down the country continue to send a huge chunk of their income to a landlord who they may have never met. For renters like Olivia, alongside millions of others across the country, it creates a sense of hopelessness, of an economic system that is rigged against us.

Share your thoughts. Contribute on this story or tell your own by writing to our Editor. The best letters every week will be published on the site. Find out how to get your letter published.

If this really is a government for working people, Labour must prove it by stopping runaway rent hikes from crushing the very voters who put the government in power.

• • SHARE: If you have anything to share that we should be looking into or publishing about this story – or any other topic involving Labour– contact us (strictly anonymously if you wish) at [email protected].
  • SUBSCRIBE: Sign up to LabourList’s morning email here for the best briefing on everything Labour, every weekday morning.
  • DONATE: If you value our work, please chip in a few pounds a week and become one of our supporters, helping sustain and expand our coverage.
  • PARTNER: If you or your organisation might be interested in partnering with us on sponsored events or projects, email [email protected].
  • ADVERTISE: If your organisation would like to advertise or run sponsored pieces on LabourList‘s daily newsletter or website, contact our exclusive ad partners Total Politics at [email protected].