**Westminster’s Crusade Against Property Owners Will Leave Tenants With Fewer Choices and Higher Costs**
*By E. Pluribus Unum*
*Foundation for Economic Education | Tuesday, November 4, 2025*
This week, the UK Parliament passed the Renters’ Rights Act — the biggest shakeup to the British rental market this century. It is being promoted as a major victory for tenants. However, this could not be further from the truth.
This legislation threatens to wreak havoc on an already fundamentally broken rental market. It effectively introduces rent controls, reduces the supply of housing, and makes life harder for everyone trying to find somewhere to live.
### What Does the Renters’ Rights Act Actually Do?
Most damagingly, the Act ends so-called “no-fault evictions,” known as Section 21. On the surface, this may sound reasonable. But evicting someone during their tenancy is already illegal. Until 2017, the term “no-fault evictions” was used to distinguish between:
– Section 8 notices: eviction due to tenant’s breach of tenancy terms, and
– Section 21 notices: eviction because the tenancy has expired.
Section 21 allowed a landlord to reclaim their property after an agreed period because it is, after all, their property. This basic principle of property rights was, until recently, uncontroversial.
What the new law does is ban landlords from reclaiming their property after a lease ends—unless they are selling it, moving in themselves, or a tribunal grants permission. In other words, if you rent out your property, you might never get it back.
### Rent Controls and Their Impact
Under these new indefinite tenancies, rent increases will be controlled by rent tribunals. Tenants can move in, agree to a rent, and then immediately challenge the rent as too high in a tribunal. All of this amounts to de facto rent control.
Rent controls have long been proven to destroy housing supply. Some likely consequences include:
– Landlords selling off their properties,
– Reduced investment in rental housing,
– Fewer homes available for rent, and
– Higher costs and fewer choices for tenants.
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The Renters’ Rights Act, despite its good intentions, risks making the housing crisis worse rather than better.
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*Read more at [fee.org](https://fee.org).*
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**Topics:** Business/Economy, Foreign Affairs
**Keywords:** Renters’ Rights Act, Property Rights, Housing Supply, Rent Controls
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