Money Box Live: Rent Controls

Available for over a year

Rent controls are common across Europe - but do they work? And could they work in the UK? It's a popular idea with voters but detractors say it could destroy the private rental sector. Nearly a third of private tenants had problems paying their rent, according to a recent report published by the Department for Communities and Local Government. Amid rising concerns about the cost of renting, there are renewed calls for some sort of price cap to limit cost increases - a policy already in progress in Scotland. For this edition of Money Box Live Adam Shaw examines how bad it's got for tenants and whether rent cap schemes in Germany and Sweden have helped or hindered the market for both landlord and tenant. CONTRIBUTORS Seb Klier, Generation Rent Anna Clarke, Cambridge Centre for Housing and Planning Research, University of Cambridge David Smith, Residential Landlords Association Reiner Wild, Berliner Mieterverein (tenants association) Billy McCormac, Fastighetsägarna Stockholm (landlords association).