We have long said that licensing schemes drive up rents and councillors and council staff have always refused to accept it. The challenge has been to prove a direct correlation between licensing schemes and rent levels given there are so many variables, and also, the effect of a change is not always immediate, so causality is always an issue.
Finally, we have a specific change which can be shown to have had a direct impact on rents – licensing in Portsmouth has increased rents 3x faster than elsewhere, and we can prove it! What is worse, it directly and negatively affects those most in need.
