• LANDLORDS will predictably claim the rent cap this newspaper and others have proposed would discourage them from letting.

Of course, this did happen, to a certain extent, in the 1970s when rent control was last introduced, but landlords were able to sell their less profitable properties to first-time buyers.

Research carried out for the Council of Mortgage Lenders in 2016 has also shown that a considerable number of landlords do not have any borrowing on the properties they own.

Rent caps date from the First World War when to profit from the influx to munitions factory towns, landlords evicted existing tenants and hiked up the rents.

Fearing social unrest and a collapse of morale among the men fighting in the trenches the government introduced rent control in 1915.

The threat of another war revived fears of the excessive rent increases that led to the initial introduction of control in 1915, and the Rent and Mortgage Interest Restrictions Act was introduced in 1939.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s there were many newspaper reports of landlords victimising their controlled tenants to force them out of their homes.

This led to a new term “Rachmanism” (after Peter Rachman, a notorious landlord in Notting Hill who was responsible for many of these cruel activities) being introduced into the language.

The Labour government acted in 1977 with universal rent control and security of tenure and the Thatcher government introduced more frequent rises.

Landlords still challenged levels set by rent officers – often gaining increases of 30 per cent every two years. Landlords also hounded out tenants by not carrying out any repairs.

Tony Blair’s government mitigated the effect on older tenancies via a new cap on controlled rents – which largely stopped appeals by landlords. But an inflation plus 5 per cent “fair rent” formula can effectively double rents every 10 years.

Pensions increase by a fraction of that, so many older tenants who are surviving on a mixture of modest occupational pensions and ever-diminishing savings, again, risk losing their homes.

This would be a real loss for both London and Camden because homeowners, social housing and private rent control tenants have traditionally been the stable groups of residents.

The recently-convened Camden Commission has clearly recognised this and stated “The biggest challenge we face is housing, and we will need to ask tough questions and leave no stone unturned.”

Also older tenants often contribute their time and local knowledge to community issues, and they are a very visible presence at many events and meetings across the borough.

Tenants now only have assured shorthold tenancies which are signed typically for six to 12 months and subject to never-ending rent increases or eviction at the whim of their landlord or letting agent.

Rip-off rents and agents’ fees rob this and future generations of the chance to save, even as the opportunity to buy a home sails off over the horizon.

We can’t go on like this. The solution to the crisis in renting is either a universal rent cap or to build so many new homes that rents either stabilise or fall.

Given there is little sign of the latter happening any time soon, maybe it’s time to see a rent cap, not as the landlords may claim, the end of the rental market – but the future for it.

To find out more go to: www.cfpt.org.uk

ROBERT TAYLOR
Camden Federation of Private Tenants