The Nature of Rent-Controlling Legislation in the UK

The author takes a fresh look at the introduction of rent controls and their justification. She examines the tenants' need for ‘security of tenure’ and considers some of the undesirable social consequences which stem from tenancies ‘at will’. Alternative methods of granting security of tenure are examined to assess their economic consequences, and it is shown that these do not differ very significantly from those which rent controls produce. A general question is posed on the difference between an ‘individual contract’ approach to the legal difficulties of insuring security of tenure over time, as opposed to a statutory contract which covers whole groups in the population. The author makes a plea for bringing together the best of these two legal possibilities and criticises certain aspects of present British rent control machinery.