Labour has been urged to take immediate action to tackle rising rents as ministers are warned that new housing laws won’t go far enough to combat affordability. Runaway rents are a “national phenomenon”, a new report from the New Economics Foundation (NEF) has found, rising between 6 and 9 per cent every year in every region across England. These regular above-inflation increases have left the lowest-income renters spending just under half their income (48.5 per cent) on rent, researchers add. Labour’s Renters’ Rights Act, which came into force this month , made sweeping changes to the rental system including the abolition of Section 21 eviction notices, an end to fixed-term contracts, and a limit on rent in advance requests. These are welcome security-boosting measures, the NEF said, but argues that the government must go further in also improving affordability for renters. Its report urges Labour to implement an “emergency brake” on rent rises, capping them to the lowest of inflation or two per cent.…