Labours rent controls pointless and costly

I don't see Labour's proposed rent controls as such a bad thing. In fact for me and the probably the majority of landlords they will have no impact whatsoever, other than maybe lock in tenants to 3 year tenancies that maybe they will live to regret ( a lot can change in three years ).

If there is a problem, it will be the cost and bureaucracy involved to implement something that will actually have very little impact on those in the private sector.

Most landlords outside of London and the South East are not ruthlessly raising rents, in fact quite the opposite, many rent index's have seen flat or in line with inflation increases for years.

To take further bluster away from Ed Milliband's proposal, the latest rental survey from LSL Property Services predict if anything, rent increases will be  slow even further. 

In the LSL survey, landlords anticipate that they will increase rent by just 1.7 per cent over the course of the next year. The current annual rise in this particular index is at 3.7 per cent (  hardly out of control).

What the media and left wing politicians try to ignore, is that most landlords just want to keep their tenants. It takes a long time for any rent increase to off-set the cost of reletting if it loses an existing tenant  ( rental voids, advertising costs, letting fees, time, hassle, re-decoration, council tax and utility costs ).

The LSL survey reflects this, with  proportion of landlords not expecting to raise rents in the next year increasing from 56 per cent in September to 60 per cent.

Once again, a London centric issue, ( rent rises reflecting astronomical price gains ) will be made a national issue.... oh, yes, and it polls well.

But saying that, the Independent puts forward why Ed Miliband's rent controls are a good idea.

It's your choice to decided what you think come Thursday 7th.

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