David Simmonds, shadow levelling up, housing and communities minister, said: “We warned Labour about the unintended consequences of their botched Renters’ Rights Act. Now, the rental market is in turmoil, and their half-baked reforms risk piling further pressure on our already backlogged courts.”
Labour’s Renters’ Rights Act 2025, spearheaded by Angela Rayner, the Housing Secretary, was implemented in May.
The reforms ban no-fault evictions. It also means landlords can increase rent only once a year, and tenants can challenge a proposed increase at an independent tribunal rather than through the traditional court process.
During the tribunal process, the proposed rent increase is frozen, and tenants continue to pay their existing rent while the case is processed.
In a guide to resisting rent rises, a network of tenants’ unions said tenants could apply to a rent tribunal up to one day before the new rent takes effect.
“This will delay the rent rise until the tribunal makes a decision,” the guide explained. Rent tribunals take five to six months to decide, according to the Oxford Renters Union.
