England's rent tribunal clears hikes up to 88% despite Labour's reforms

Labour promised its Renters' Reform Act would stop landlords using steep rent hikes to shove tenants out the door. The early numbers say that isn't happening. Analysis of tribunal cases from May to October by the London Renters Union found that 80% of tenants who challenged an increase still ended up paying more, shelling out an average of £1,200 extra a year.

The outliers are stark. One tribunal waved through an 88% increase on a property in Dagenham, pushing a tenant who pays via housing benefit to £2,250 a month, up from £1,200, even after he argued it would cause undue hardship. In another case, a renter who fought a £17 monthly rise walked away with a £200 decrease after the tribunal decided the rent was already too high.

Across the board, 36% of cases saw the landlord's proposed increase approved in full, 42% got a reduction, 16% were cancelled outright and 6% ended with rent coming down. Tenant unions say they're alarmed that hikes of 30% or more are being approved on a regular basis.

Jae Vail of the London Renters Union said the system simply isn't doing what Labour pledged in its manifesto, asking what counts as unreasonable if 40% or 80% increases don't. He added that renters are facing long waits for hearings, with tenants in London being told to travel to the Midlands because of backlogs.

Landlords aren't cheering either. Chris Norris, chief policy officer at the National Residential Landlords Association, said the system wasn't working for anyone, pointing to an overstretched workforce and only just over 30 full-time judges covering the country. He said some decisions rest largely on a trawl of Rightmove listings and accused tenant unions of encouraging members to fight every increase, calling that an abuse of the system. Oxford Renters Union has asked members to pledge to reject increases and take them to tribunal, aiming to freeze rents across the city.

Unions reject the idea they're flooding the system. Nye Jones of Generation Rent said the tribunal has worked well since May but that more change is needed, since many renters already pay far more than they can afford. Renter groups now want nationwide controls on rent increases while housing supply slowly grows. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said the Renters' Rights Act empowers tenants to challenge above-market rises, and pointed to cases where tribunals cut rents by hundreds of pounds a month or blocked increases entirely.