Rent controls are back on the political agenda. Their reintroduction is now official Labour Party policy, and the Conservatives will … Continue reading “Shooting the messenger: Rent controls have always and everywhere ended in failure”

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) has recently published the paper ‘How to repair the housing market quickly – A crisis … Continue reading “We are the 6.6%! Why everybody is wrong on rent controls”

Rent controls are a bit like communism, in the sense that they can never ‘fail’, in the eyes of their … Continue reading “#QTWTAIN: “But haven’t rent controls worked in Germany?””

Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party has a new economic committee, made up of high-profile names such as Danny Blanchflower, Simon Wren-Lewis, … Continue reading “If this is the new ‘mainstream economics’, God help us”

Perhaps there is one thing worse than somebody who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing – … Continue reading “It’s politicians, not prices, that need to be controlled”

Over the past week, the Labour Party has announced new policies on housing. Billed as attempts to help alleviate the … Continue reading “Why Labour’s rent and ‘ghost home’ proposals won’t make renting more affordable”

To deal with the problem of escalating rents, Ed Miliband plans to introduce what amounts to a variation of ‘second … Continue reading “Why Miliband’s rent control plan isn’t just some harmless gimmick”

The last blog piece on so-called ‘second generation rent controls’ (SGRCs) argued that while these controls would not necessarily cause … Continue reading “Why ‘second generation rent controls’ are not a solution to the affordability crisis (Part 2): beware false comparisons”

Ah, rent controls. It is one of those ideas, like the Living Wage and higher taxes for the rich, that … Continue reading “Why ‘second generation rent controls’ are not a solution to the affordability crisis (Part 1)”