Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds claimed “no economist supports rent controls” on Question Time last night. After Novara Media’s Ash Sarkar said the policy would help improve the lives of young people in the UK, Reynolds interrupted in an apparent bid to dismiss the idea as frivolous. But his claim is false. In a July 2026 paper for the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, economist Beth Stratford and co-author Joe Beswick argue strongly for rent controls. “The historical record across Europe shows that the most decisive improvements in housing affordability in the 20th century came from the direct regulation of rents,” they wrote. They add that to be successful, the policy must be well-designed and have “a coherent package of parallel policies”. This includes applying rent controls between tenancies, so that landlords cannot resent rents to market rates when a tenant leaves.

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