Over 8.5 million people live in private rented accommodation - in England alone. In fact, there are now more people in the UK renting from private landlords than there are people living in council or housing association homes. The private rental market is worth over £40,000,000,000 a year.

So why is there no system of private rent control in the UK?

We are dealing with a housing crisis – and it's leaving millions of tenants at risk of exploitation, poverty, and homelessness. Private landlords in the UK are unregulated and are free to charge as much as they see fit, no matter the condition of their property. New rental accommodation isn't evaluated by any third party, and new landlords don't require assessment or training.

Furthermore, private landlords can get away with skipping “red tape” (tenancy agreements, deposit schemes, notice periods, doing inventory) without much risk. Tenants are burdened with the responsibility of ensuring a lawful tenancy, despite the fact that landlords are the ones running a business. This results in an increase of substandard living situations, but a steady increase in prices for tenants. 

So please sign today - housing is a basic human right, not an investment.

We need the UK government to implement rent controls, which will ensure safety standards, monitor compliance with the law, cap the cost of rent, and protect tenants from exploitation and eviction.
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Here’s why tenants in the UK are vulnerable:

- Only 2.3% of rental properties are affordable for a single person on minimum wage.
- 1/3 of homes in the private rented sector do not meet basic standards of health, safety and habitability; they are substandard to the point that is unsafe or unhealthy.
- 200,000 “revenge evictions”, where tenants lose their homes when they complain about standards, happen every year.
- Rents are increasing faster than wages. 25% of areas experience rent increases of more than £300 a year. 10% of areas experience increases of more than £600 a year.
- 61% of UK tenants have suffered from either damp, mould, leaking roofs or windows, “electrical hazards, animal infestations and gas leaks” in the past year. That’s more than 3.4 million people.

And who is benefiting from all this expensive, substandard housing?

Private landlords.

While there are landlords who take their responsibilities very seriously, the lack of regulation and enforcement surrounding the private rental market allows many people to generate a secondary income from letting, without much forethought or research. 

New landlords aren't required to register themselves on any database. They aren't assessed, evaluated, or systematically monitored. They aren't given training or advised on their responsibilities. And this leaves a large number of people at risk of exploitation - because some landlords aren't aware of their responsibilities, and others know they can shirk those responsibilities without any real consequences. 

Put simply, prospective landlords know that housing will always be in demand – and so they can make low-risk investments for huge returns.

But housing is a basic human right - not an investment.

The right to adequate housing and shelter is recognised in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

So why are there so many private landlords?

Well, the 1988 Housing Act (introduced by Margaret Thatcher) got rid of rent controls, making it much easier and attractive for people to invest in property. In 1996, the Association of Residential Letting Agents (Arla) helped banks launch a new types of mortgages, called “buy-to-let” mortgages, which were aimed at people buying property as investment. This was a wildly popular way to make easy money. In fact, the number of buy-to-let mortgages has grown by 2,500% since the start of 1999.

But people who purchase buy-to-let mortgages don’t need to pass a vetting process to establish their suitability as landlords. More than one in four landlords have no previous experience of letting out a property, and almost half (43%) don’t think of renting as a business.. Only 20% of landlords belong to an accreditation scheme.

While landlords can easily rake in the cash – covering their mortgage payments, and then some – renters have no choice. They either rent a flat near their work and pay through the nose for “convenient location”, or they rent in another area for cheaper, risking substandard living conditions and paying hundreds of extra pounds on travel. 

So while David Cameron has spoken about building affordable homes, there are no controls in place that will prevent the majority of these homes to be turned into "investments" - rental income properties managed without restriction by private landlords.

Buy-to-let programs could seize all new homes from first-time buyers – and new landlords will be able to artificially inflate housing prices to suit their own investment goals. In fact, private landlords are predicted to buy the equivalent of all the new build flats and homes in London, and a further 100,000 currently mortgaged or owned homes, and some 10,000 currently social rented properties, by 2019. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation suggests that by 2040 private rents will rise by more than twice as much as incomes.

We need to build new homes, it’s true. But with increasing and uncontrolled rents, saving for a deposit is impossible for a large portion of today’s tenants. The unbridled activities of private landlords don't contribute to the economy.So build homes – but combine this with a new, national system of rent controls, which will allow us all to have a roof over our heads.

Please sign this petition if you would like the UK government to create a system whereby 

- All new rental accommodations are evaluated to ensure they meet basic safety standards.
- All new and existing private landlords are required to be documented on a national register of landlords, are required to sign up to a deposit scheme, and are required to notify the state when they sign new tenancy agreements.
- Landlords are given training on their legal business requirements, as well as their rights and responsibilities toward their tenants.
- Rent costs are capped - based on a maximum profit margin allowable per unit  - preventing landlords from making unethical profits from artificially inflated prices.
- Rents cannot rise faster than inflation, guaranteeing fairness and predictability.
- Tenants are afforded more protection, through stricter laws pertaining to deposit schemes, tenancy agreements, and reasons for evictions.
- Laws are put in place to to protect those complaining about the state of their homes from “revenge evictions”.

This is an issue that affects millions of people, from all walks of life. And if rent controls are not established in the UK, the problem will only get worse.

So please, sign today and raise your voice - and ensure that everyone has a chance for their basic human rights to be met.