James* and his fiancé had lived in their flat for two years, and they were pretty pleased to have avoided a rent hike. It was a small flat on the outskirts of London, priced at the maximum they could afford. Then, days after Kwasi Kwarteng delivered that now infamous budget, the email came.
“[The landlord] said: ‘I've talked to the estate agents and they've advised me I could be making a killing right now,” said James, who asked to remain anonymous so his tenancy wouldn’t be affected. “[The landlord said]: ‘I have been undercharging for a while but due to mortgage rate increases and inflation, it's not viable as a business to not increase the rent.”
James is just one of the millions of renters paying the price for the UK’s recent economic instability. Private renting in the UK was already unaffordable, of a poor standard and insecure. But after Kwarteng’s mini-budget sent mortgage rates soaring, things have worsened as landlords pass on their own increased costs to tenants – despite sitting on a growing asset – all amid a cost of living crisis. Now, with Liz Truss having resigned after just chaotic days in power, and the Westminster bubble fizzling with parliamentary drama, it is the most vulnerable who will take on the brunt of this history-defining political insecurity.
