GB News star Cristo Foufas explains why Scotland gives the real answers to the housing crisis
Just like the buses Andy Burnham is so fond of talking about, you can guarantee the demonisation of landlords, and a fresh call for rent controls to come around from the uninformed political opportunists who have no idea how to solve the problem of excessively high rents.
The latest offender is Islington North MP Jeremy Corbyn. In response to Angela Rayner ruling out legislation to cap rents, the disgraced former leader of the Labour Party said: "The housing crisis has reached epidemic proportions in every city in the country. We need rent controls, now."
How does Corbyn not know by now that rent controls simply don't work? And that calling for them might be popular, but in no way practical?
On the subject of popularity over practicality, it should, of course, be no surprise that London Mayor Sadiq Khan has been lobbying governments for years for the power to bring in rent caps for tenants who live in the capital.
Zack Polanski is also a big fan. As leader of the Green Party, he’s made rent controls across the whole of England a flagship policy.
How is it we seem to have a raft of elected leaders who are either so stupid or, worse, so obsessed with popularity that they still peddle this absolute nonsense?
Because far from solving the problem of high rents, rent controls actually make the whole situation much worse.
Scotland is a prime example. During the Covid era, rent controls were temporarily brought in.
The problem is that landlords, knowing they’d be restricted with future rent rises, listed all new properties for rent at far higher prices.
This meant that throughout 2025, 67 per cent of Scottish landlords put their rents up; across the rest of the UK it was 58 per cent.
The amount of actual rent charged in Scotland rose by 8.2 per cent, too - higher than the rest of the UK.
There’s been a version of Scotland’s story across the whole of the UK when it comes to tenants, supposedly being helped by government with limited rent rises, but the opposite is happening with the introduction of the renters' rights bill.
Decent law-abiding landlords, letting agents, professional trade bodies, and anyone with the slightest knowledge of the rental market warned the government that introducing this legislation would be terrible for tenants and increase their costs.
As with so much of the ill-thought out virtue signalling from Labour, they ignored reality in favour of ideology.
For those unaware, the Renters' Rights Bill limited rent rises during tenancies, gave tenants the right to fight rent rises, allowed tenants to be in arrears by four months before eviction proceedings could begin, and stopped 'no fault' evictions.
It was hailed as the biggest and best change to the rights of tenants in decades. In reality? All the consequences warned of have happened.
Almost 100,000 landlords exited the market in the run-up to the bill becoming law. A further 65,000 are currently selling, or plan to in the near future.
And what do fewer properties mean for tenants? Higher prices for the renters still left in the market. And what do rent controls, via limited rent rises during tenancies, mean for tenants? Higher starting rents set by landlords.
And this is exactly how it's playing out, as according to the Office for National Statistics, rents in the UK, as of June 2026, are the highest they've been in history.
There has never been a worse time to rent from a financial perspective than today. Legislation meant to solve a problem has made it completely and utterly worse for everyone concerned.
But what's worse is we now have a strange, almost gaslighting of tenants by the political elite. Their narrative is that landlords are all evil, and that they're the hero leaders saving poor tenants from these horrific individuals, when the reality is their actions are making renters pay far more.
And who do the leaders in power then blame? Landlords, of course. We've ended up in a ridiculous doom loop of politicians bringing in measures which cause landlords to raise their rents, and then thinking more of the same measures will solve the problem. It's the definition of ideological insanity.
One can only dread what would happen to London if Sadiq Khan has his way with rent controls. The capital has the highest rents in the whole of the UK.
What on earth does the mayor think will happen if he gets his precious rent caps? It would be a disaster for the London rental market, already way more expensive than it needs to be as a result of the issues already outlined above.
If Sadiq Khan was genuinely worried about the costs renters are facing, perhaps he shouldn't have increased his share of council tax every single year since being elected London mayor? He's rather keen to berate landlords who raise tenants' bills, so perhaps if Sadiq cut back on the £1.7 billion he receives from Londoners, they'd have more to spend?
It is to the Housing Secretary's credit that she's ruled out rent controls, though one has to worry what kind of trouble we're in when Angela Rayner is the voice of reason in a debate.
And of course, she, Sadiq Khan, Jeremy Corbyn and even Zack Polanski all know — or at least should do — that the only real solution to the housing crisis is more homes being built, and fewer people being allowed to come to the UK.
Bearing in mind those are two problems far more difficult to solve, expect more landlord bashing and more silly ideas like rent controls to come around as often as a bus with a £2 capped fare.
