Generation Rent says it wants rent rises across the UK limited to the lowest of two official government statistics.

In a statement released after the government inflation figure actually showed a rise this week, Generation Rent chief executive Ben Twomey said: “While most of the country breathes a sigh of relief over falling inflation [sic] soaring rents mean the single biggest cost for tenants continues to go up much faster than our incomes. 

“Landlords can raise the rent as high as they can get away with while using the threat of a no-fault eviction to bully their tenants to into accepting it. These figures show that it works for them, with renters being forced into poverty and homelessness as a result.

“We won’t fix the cost of renting crisis unless the government uses its upcoming Renters’ Rights Bill to slam the brakes on the runaway cost of rent. We need more homes to be built in the places people want to live, but to protect us in our homes, we also need to be shielded from unaffordable rent rises. That means stopping landlords raising rent above either wage growth or inflation, whichever is lower.”

This week government data revealed that rents rose 8.4% in the year to July, compared with wage growth of 4.5%, and what Generation Rent calls “the current Consumer Price Index rate of 2%” [it is actually 2.2% after this week’s increase].

The rent rise in the year to July was in fact unchanged from the month earlier and was well below the record-high annual rise of 9.2% recorded by the government earlier this year. 

The average house price for England was £305,000 in June 2024, up 2.4% (£7,000) from a year earlier. This annual rise was lower than in the 12 months to May 2024 (2.5%).