Key takeaways
Could rent reviews be more flexible soon?
A proposed bill may end upwards-only rent clauses.
Tenants may gain right to trigger rent changes
New rules could allow tenants to initiate rent reviews.
Legal teams should prepare for lease changes
Advisers must monitor developments and guide clients early.
The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, which was introduced to Parliament on 10 July 2025 for its first reading, contains a surprise bombshell for business tenancies.
The Bill contains provisions (to be inserted into the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954) banning upwards only rent reviews in new commercial leases. This will apply regardless of whether the rent review is based on open market rent, index-linked or turnover.
Similar provisions will apply to setting the initial rent for a lease granted pursuant to a put option under which a tenant can be required to take a new lease (but not, apparently, where the tenant has an option to renew).
The Bill also gives tenants the power to trigger a rent review (and take other action to make the rent review happen) where the lease does not allow the tenant to do so.
Those of us of a certain vintage will recall previous attempts to ban upwards-only rent reviews, so it is by no means certain that this will happen, but it is certainly something to keep an eye on.
The Bill can be found here.
