Recent study of the government 's English Housing survey  shows that the private rented sector's rents have fallen in relation to the economic climate and inflation. This surely demonstrates that all the calls for rent control caps are entirely unfounded and unnecessary.

The study shows that between 2008/9 and 2012/13 that on average rents rose by 6.5% from £153 - £163 per week. However during the same period, weekly rents in the Social Housing sector rose by  a massive 25.4% from £71 - £89.

In the same period inflation was 16.2 %  (RPI) and CPI was 16.7%

Surprisingly, between 2011/12 and 2012/13, and this is something that has not been reported in the media, the average weekly rents in the PRS fell by 0.6%, from £164 to £163, whereas social housing weekly rents rose by 7.2%, from £83 per week to £89.

Perhaps all parties should go back in time because in February 2010, the party in power, Labour drew up a consultation paper on Investment in Private Rented Housing.

 

A section from this document  damned the strategy of rent controls and said: “A key factor behind the decline in the PRS was the introduction of rent controls during the First World War, and these became more extensive over time. Artificially low rents reduced investment in the sector, contributing to…lower maintenance standards in the stock that remained.”