Labour conference reveals PRS priorities

The Renters’ Rights Bill hasn’t been passed yet, but MPs and activists are already planning their next steps.

Some of our team attended the 2025 Labour party conference in Liverpool to find out more about the future of housing policy, attending fringe discussions hosted by the Labour Housing Group, Renters Reform Coalition and Labour YIMBY, among others. What do the politicians plan to do next, and what will activists push for once the bill passes?

Implementation issues

MPs and activists agreed that awareness of the bill is currently quite low. This could limit its impact: many of its provisions, such as the rights to challenge rent increases and request permission to keep pets, rely on tenants taking action.

Panellists also questioned underresourced councils’ ability to enforce the new rules. Councils are struggling to enforce existing legislation. While the Renters’ Rights Bill lets local authorities impose bigger fines on rogue landlords, it’s the likelihood of being caught that deters bad behaviour. According to research by Reapit earlier this year, many of the country’s biggest councils have never fined a landlord for failing to meet minimum EPC standards, and many aren’t aware of how many local properties are exempt from the minimum EPC.

Challenging rent increases through the tribunal system could also leave tenants paying higher rents if it isn’t implemented well. Tribunals determine market rents based on advertised asking rents, not the rents landlords are achieving. As Reapit’s Commercial Director Neil Cobbold pointed out to a Labour Housing Group panel, landlords will also be incentivised to set advertised rents higher because of the bill’s ban on bidding wars.

MPs agreed that the tribunal system needs attention. According to Naushabah Khan MP, including achieved rents on the incoming national landlord register would help tribunals determine market rents more accurately. However, Ben Twomey, Chief Executive of Generation Rent, said that the government should limit rent increases instead.

What can be done to improve affordability?

Rental affordability was a major topic, with the Renters’ Reform Coalition dedicating a whole discussion to it. However, MPs and activists disagreed on the best solutions.

Labour MPs stuck to a clear party line: no rent controls. Instead, they hope that housebuilding and tribunal challenges to rent increases will help to rein in rental growth.

But activists from Generation Rent, Shelter and the London Renters Union were all in favour of rent controls, suggesting that the government will remain under pressure to limit rent increases. According to Dan Wilson Craw of Generation Rent, research carried out for his organisation found that rents will rise 17% by the end of the government’s term even if they manage to build 1.5 million homes, compared to 19% otherwise. He suggested capping rent increases at the lower of CPI inflation and wage growth – and warned that without a cap in place, bumper rent increases could be used to evict tenants.

PRS not the focus

Despite these discussions, the private rented sector got comparatively little attention from politicians at the Labour conference. A Q&A session with housing minister Matthew Pennycook mostly focused on housebuilding, planning and leasehold reform. Most of the housing sector events also focused on these issues.

With the Renters’ Rights Bill almost ready for royal assent, the government may be planning to wait and see what happens before putting forward more PRS reforms.