Generation Rent reported increased concern about rent rises in a poll discussed by LandlordZONE on 3 August 2023. The campaign group asked around one thousand supporters whether landlords had passed on higher mortgage interest costs. The account combined their answers with the organisation’s policy response.
Twelve per cent said their landlord had done so, compared with 4% in a previous November poll. The change was therefore in the share of respondents reporting that explanation. It did not show that all rents had tripled, or independently verify the borrowing costs of each landlord concerned.
The campaign also reported that around 60% had been asked to pay more rent during the preceding year. Approximately one fifth described an increase above £100 a month. The article said most accepted the requested amount, while some negotiated a smaller increase. These were reported experiences within the polled group.
Other explanations appeared in the responses. Seventeen per cent referred to rising local rents, and the account mentioned landlords citing wider living costs or a need for more income. The findings did not isolate one cause of rental growth across the entire country.
Ben Twomey, Generation Rent’s chief executive, argued that the difficulty extended beyond owners’ mortgage costs. He connected affordability with housing supply and called for stronger protections and changes to housing support. Those were the campaign’s positions in August 2023, rather than a statement of current law or a neutral finding that every requested increase was justified or unjustified.
The source also referred to legislation being debated at the time. That parliamentary context is retained only as history. It would be misleading to use the archived article to establish the procedure governing a rent proposal now.
The value of the poll is its record of what a group of tenants said they were experiencing and how a campaign interpreted those accounts. Its limits matter equally: supporters responding to a poll are not automatically representative of all renters, and a stated reason for an increase is different from an audited account of its cause.