“Renters’ Rights Act” – how to wreck a market Labour’s “Renters’ Rights Act” isn’t some harmless tidying‑up exercise, it’s a calculated kick in the teeth to small and mid‑sized landlords that will blow back on tenants as well. By loading on new costs, extra risk and more one‑sided regulation, they’ve made it crystal clear: if you’re not a big corporate with lawyers on retainer, you’re the punchbag. A lot of the so‑called protections simply translate into longer void periods, higher compliance costs and greater legal uncertainty – which means fewer people willing to rent out property at all, and those who stay will price in every bit of that extra risk. The result isn’t a fairer rental market, it’s a smaller one: fewer homes to let, more corporate ownership, higher rents, less flexibility and a mass exodus of exactly the kind of decent, small‑scale landlords tenants actually want. Labour will blame “greedy landlords”, but it’s their own heavy‑handed law that is destabilising supply and turning an already broken rental sector into an outright hostile environment.