Reddit was praying that the government would make landlord life miserable so they would start selling the properties. And the government has listened! Brits got what they have asked for, enjoy!
It’s game theory.
When a player is in a game where they’re losing/lost and screwed no matter what decision they make, they’re likely to take the decision that can attempt to screw over those who are winning, particularly players that are far out in front of all the other players, even if it’s to their own detriment.
That may be unintuitive to a player who is in a winning or good position, looking at a player that is losing, thinking “why are you doing this? you’re only making your bad situation worse!” But the loser may see this as the only form of satisfaction left available in the game.
It’s actually incredible smart for the players doing well in a game to make sure that players in losing/lost positions don’t feel too disgruntled or hopeless.
They don’t face any consequences, so why would they stop increasing it? They don’t care about people, they just care aboout themselves and their money. So as long as nothing happens, they’ll keep going.
The only consequence that you can deliver as a tenant is not renewing at the end of the contract and that most likely means having to find a new landlord to garnish your wages and paying all the costs of moving your belongings.
The balance of power has been way to far in favour of landlords for far too long.