At the height of the pandemic, I received a letter from the letting agent that managed the flat I was renting. I opened it, thinking it would be about the broken heating system I’d been complaining about since winter. Instead, the letter stated that my rent would be going up by £50, with no mention of the repairs. I could have just about covered the rent increase, but after the agent continued to ignore my requests for repairs, I decided to cut my losses and find somewhere else to live. I was fed up with having to shower at friends’ houses and couldn’t face another winter living in a flat so cold that frost formed on the inside of the windows. Eventually, I found a “studio” to move into. It was the former kitchen of a house converted into a box room with space for a bed and not much else. It cost almost £1,000 a month and I started to encounter problems as soon as I moved in. When I told the letting agent that the shower leaked every time I used it, they said, “Try having shorter showers.” Other requests for repairs were ignored. Then, in June this year, just as the cost of living crisis was starting to bite, the agent told me the rent would be going up by at least £200 a month. My heart sank – there was no way I could pay 20% more. Before I was even given a formal section 21 eviction notice, a legal requirement in England and Wales, I spotted my home advertised online at a higher rent. After I said I couldn’t afford a big increase, I was told I would have to leave in two weeks, on the day my contract was due to end, even though I had paid until August. When I contacted my union, the London Renters Union (LRU), for support, they explained that the agent was acting illegally by trying to evict me without serving the proper paperwork and giving me two months’ notice. They helped me write a letter spelling out that I knew my rights and I wouldn’t leave until they legally acquired a possession order. The agent replied with an aggressive, personal reply calling me “rude”. The support from other renters gave me the confidence I needed to stand my ground and remain in my home for the period I had paid rent for and long enough to find somewhere else to stay, but ultimately there was no law to protect me from the rent hike and I was forced to leave. It’s the job of local councils in England to enforce upholding tenants rights, but mine told me that even though the eviction was illegal they didn’t have the resources to intervene. What use are tenants’ rights if a landlord can’t be held to account?I have now lost my home twice in two years because of unfair rent increases and I’m not alone. Rents in London have gone up 16% on average in the past year. Through my union, I’ve learned about renters facing rises of 30%, 40% and even 50%. Agents have put up signs in their windows and sent out emails encouraging landlords to put up rents. Landlords and estate agents are using the inflation crisis to squeeze renters and boost profits. Housing costs are most people’s biggest outgoing, and renters in the UK already spend about four or five times as much as homeowners on housing each month. When average monthly rent in London is £1,450, a 20% increase, like I was given, is essentially the same as an eviction notice. Rent rises force impossible choices on people, such as having to skip meals or leave the heating off. This is the human cost of bumper profits for energy companies, landlords and estate agents. In the short term, the solution is clear – and it’s already happening in Scotland. At the beginning of September, the Scottish government announced a freeze on private rents to help renters cope with the cost of living crisis. It’s a huge victory for Living Rent, Scotland’s tenants union. Until at least March 2023, landlords in Scotland will not be allowed to increase rents. All of us deserve a decent home where we can have some security. We want to live close to our families, feel connected to our communities and, after the rent is paid, have enough money to live a dignified life. But for renters, this often isn’t possible. Rent controls in England and Wales were scrapped in 1988 and the balance of power has been further tipped in favour of landlords by successive governments ever since. The Conservatives haven’t even implemented the ban in England on “no fault” evictions that they promised in 2019. If a rent freeze like the one in Scotland had been in place in England and Wales a few months ago, I would have been able to stay in my home. The London mayor Sadiq Khan has recognised that this policy is urgently needed in the capital to avoid an eviction crisis, but so far neither the government nor the Labour party has backed any protections for renters from rent hikes. By implementing a rent freeze throughout Britain, the government could relieve the pressure on millions of people struggling to pay their bills and put food on the table this winter. It would also start to repair some of the damage done by decades of government decisions that have prioritised profits for landlords and investors above the safety and security of tenants. This is why I’ll be fighting for a rent freeze this winter alongside renters across England and Wales. Jazmyn Sadri is a charity sector worker and a member of the London Renters Union