Last weekend Labour announced that if it was to win the general election it would cap rents at the rate of inflation for the UK’s 11 million private tenants.
While this announcement is big news in the run up to May 7th, some kind of policy on rent control had been trailed for some months. This prompted YouGov to ask both its MP and Opinion Formers panels for their views on the proposals. The results from these surveys indicate that there is an unambiguous divide between the parties on this issue.
Attitudes towards rent controls
We asked whether MPs and Opinion Formers support or oppose rent controls. The topline results amongst MPs, showing 32% supporting and 45% opposing the policy, obscure the extremely high level of partisan disagreement. Amongst Labour MPs, almost two in three (65%) support rent controls (there is a suggestion that this could be higher still as 31% say their support depends on the details of the policy). By comparison, no Conservative MPs support them. Just 5% of Labour MPs oppose rent controls, compared to 90% of Conservative MPs.
Which of the following most closely describes your attitude towards rent control?
Base: 101 MPs (January 2015)
A similar split was apparent when the question was asked amongst Opinion Formers – a group made up of journalists, political insiders, business leaders and NGOs heads. Over half (55%) of Labour supporting Opinion Formers are in favour of the policy, compared with just 9% of Conservative supporting Opinion Formers. Conversely, only 8% of Labour supporting Opinion Formers are against the proposal compared to almost half (49%) of Conservative supporting Opinion Formers.
The likelihood of rent controls being introduced
We also asked MPs and Opinion Formers to rate the likelihood of some form of rent control being introduced in the coming years.
Both groups are in broad agreement on this question. Half of both MPs (49%) and Opinion Formers (46%) rate the chance of rent controls being introduced as “likely”, while 46% of MPs and 42% of Opinion Formers rate it as “not at all likely”.
How would you rate the likelihood of some form of rent control being introduced to the UK property market in the coming years?
Base: 101 MPs (January 2015) and 794 Opinion Formers (January 2015)
In an indication of how divisive this policy may be, our survey found that three quarters (77%) of Labour MPs rate the introduction of rent controls as likely, while around a quarter (24%) of Conservative MPs agree. Given that not a single Conservative MP favours rent controls, it is interesting that even this number feel it is likely that they will be introduced in the coming years.
The split is less stark amongst Opinion Formers, but there are still considerable differences. Over half (56%) of Labour supporting Opinion Formers think the introduction of rent controls is likely, compared with 40% of those backing the Conservatives.
YouGov completed online interviews with a representative sample of 101 MPs in January 2015. Results are weighted by party, gender, electoral cohort and geography to give a sample which is representative of the House of Commons.
YouGov completed online interviews with 795 opinion formers from its UK Opinion Formers Panel in January 2015. Opinion Formers are leaders in their field from business, media, politics, NGOs, academia and beyond. The figures have not been weighted.
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