Richard Scrase on the potential benefits of rent controls

In 2002, after a couple of years in Brussels, we returned to London. Our rent did not change but our accommodation did. We moved from a comfortable (120 sq m) two double bed-roomed apartment a few seconds from a Metro stop to a double bedroom in a small shared house a few seconds from a bus-stop.

Now we’re in Oxford, and after four years, we count ourselves fortunate to have moved into a housing association flat in Owens Way, Cowley.

It’s half the size of the private Brussels flat and the rent is approximately double, but the quality is streets ahead of many of the (frankly squalid) private places available in Oxford, and the rent is controlled — to an extent.

And it is rent control that helps to explain the massive difference in housing costs between Britain and many of our European neighbours.

Indirectly, rent controls also have helped countries such as Belgium and Germany avoid the house price inflation that forces us, here in the UK, to spend such a huge proportion of our income on housing.

By controlling rents, the income from a rented house is capped, capping the value of that house as a ‘buy-to-let’ investment. This has contributed to capping house prices generally in the countries with rent-controls, one reason perhaps why Belgium has a higher proportion of folk owning their own home (80 per cent versus 65 per cent in the UK).

Rent controls are not just about the monthly cost, they also are about security of tenure. The shortest lease in Belgium was for three years and a nine-year lease was usual: more than the amount of time to put a child through a stage in their schooling. Compare that to the typical 12-month lease in the UK.

Average UK rents for a double bedroom flat are £800 a month, but higher in Oxfordshire. Average wages in Oxfordshire are £2,000 a month before tax, so rent takes about half a wage.

In Germany, people expect to spend only a quarter of their income on accommodation — it’s not a wonder they can afford to drive Mercedes cars! Ironically, it also means that people can get by on a smaller income in Germany, and average wages are less there than in the UK, another contributor to German exports being cheaper. I have a grown son, nearly 30 years old, already older than I was when he was born. He works and rents a flat in London. Now, even if he and his partner decided to have a child, they simply could not afford to, without reducing their living standards drastically, and certainly below those I enjoyed while raising him in the 80s and 90s.

Food, transport, energy, local taxes are all comparable to a generation ago — but housing costs are not. They’ve more than doubled.

If nothing is done to curtail housing inflation the the chances of many of our children to enjoy a family life will be curtailed. The chances of my becoming a grandfather while I still have the energy to contribute to bringing up a grandchild will continue to recede.

Obviously rent controls are not the only answer to housing costs, but while new housing is being built and other policies introduced to encourage the more efficient use of the housing stock we currently have, rent controls could dampen down housing inflation and improve our standard of living.

Richard Scrase is head of online communication at Understanding Animal research and a freelance journalist.