Southwark Council in south London is calling for an immediate end to “bidding wars” for rental properties, urging estate agents to stop encouraging tenants to outbid each other for homes.  

The council has announced plans to contact letting agents in the borough that have not agreed to end what it describes as the “exploitative” practice of encouraging prospective tenants to offer more than the advertised rental price to secure a property.  

A motion calling for a ban, introduced by Labour councillor Sam Foster, gained cross-party support from the Labour-run council and the Liberal Democrat opposition during a recent meeting. 

Foster criticised “bidding wars” as worsening the housing crisis and welcomed the council’s efforts to defend renters. “The broken housing market has been stacked against renters for a long time, and I’m proud that Southwark is standing up for private renters,” he said.  

The motion has been supported by ACORN Southwark, a community union campaigning for renters’ rights. The group stated the move would help protect local renters until the government’s Renters’ Rights Bill – set to outlaw bidding wars – becomes law.  

A spokesperson for ACORN emphasised the urgency of addressing affordability issues in Southwark, warning that without immediate changes, “predatory letting agents will continue to increase rents as much as possible, pricing more people out of their homes”.