Ms Hale added: “The UK’s housing challenge is fundamentally one of undersupply. The focus should therefore be on the policies that unlock viability, attract investment and accelerate delivery.”
However, renters campaign group Generation Rent said it was “very disappointed” with Ms Rayner’s comments.
Holly Williamson, chief executive of Generation Rent, said: “A limit on rent increases would be a hugely impactful cost of living measure that places very little strain on Treasury budgets.
“On behalf of renters across England, I am very disappointed Angela Rayner is not considering it as part of the government’s cost of living focus, and we urge ministers to review the evidence as they develop their plans to tackle the affordability crisis.”
While Mr Burnham was mayor of Greater Manchester in 2023, he called for rent freezes to the private rental sector until the cost of living crisis was over.
Temporary rent controls were introduced in Scotland in 2022 and expired last year. Under the new Housing (Scotland) Act 2025, expected to come into effect by 2027, ministers in Holyrood will be able to designate certain places in Scotland as rent control areas. Councils will also be able to cap rent increases on some properties at a maximum of 6%.
In February, Scotland set out rent control exemptions for build-to-rent (BTR) and mid-market homes. The move was welcomed by developers, investors and housing associations.
In June, Inside Housing Living spoke to Brendan Geraghty, co-founder of the Build to Rent Alliance, who slammed “ignorant” calls for rent controls.
He said: “Rent control will send a message to the capital markets, who we need to fund our housing, that the UK got unpredictable and less attractive than it is now.
“The official line of the ARL [Association for Rental Living] – I can’t speak for anybody else in the BTR Alliance – is that the evidence and the science from independent bodies, and whoever you want to talk about, shows the damage that rent control does.”
He added: “However, housing has become a political football.
“Our society has moved to popularist rhetoric and it’s ‘easy peasy, lemon squeezy’ to say, ‘Let’s do rent control’ because it seems to provide a solution in the short term.
“But the damage it does in both the short, medium and long term is deep and sometimes not recoverable.”
