Think renting is bad now? Just wait | CapX

Reem Ibrahim writes for CapX.

With the cost of renting a property steadily going up, you probably wouldn’t expect the Government to introduce legislation that makes it more difficult to rent.

But alas, the consequences of new laws are not always obvious. The Government has hailed the return of the Renters’ Rights Bill, which returned to Parliament yesterday, as the ‘biggest shakeup to the private rented sector for over 30 years’. It is, according to the Government’s website, going to ‘make sure housing is accessible and fair for millions of tenants’.

In reality, it will do the exact opposite. It will actually make the rental market significantly less ‘accessible and fair’.

The French economist Frédéric Bastiat differentiated between consequences ‘which are seen, and those which are not seen’. This Bill exemplifies this.

Read the full article in CapX here.