“THE wealth of societies in which the capitalist mode of production prevails appears as an ‘immense collection of commodities’; the individual commodity appears as its elementary form.’

These are the words with which Karl Marx began his study of the capitalist mode of production, Capital, published over 150 years ago. He goes on to describe how a commodity, which “appears at first sight and extremely obvious, trivial thing” is in fact “a very strange thing abounding in metaphysical subtleties and theological niceties.”

Crucially, he argues, every commodity both has a use value (it satisfies a human need of whatever kind) and is a bearer of exchange value (it can be exchanged for other commodities, based on its worth or value).

Fundamentally, Marx argues, there is a contradiction between the use value of any commodity (which can be realised only through its consumption), and its exchange value (realisable only through parting with the object in exchange for some other commodity).

Nowhere is this more clearly seen in Britain today than in the case of housing.

According to Shelter, in 2024, over 159,000 children did not have a home. Over 350,000 people in total experienced homelessness. On any one night, around 4,000 people sleep rough in England. Meanwhile, average rents in England rose by 9.3 per cent, driving the average monthly rent over £1,362, and two million people in England and Wales were contacted by bailiffs.

This is a full-blown housing crisis and, as with any crisis, has led to some truly monstrous behaviour.

You only have to follow Acorn tenants’ union on social media — and you should — to see daily examples of bullying, intimidation and people who believe they should live a life of luxury of the back of the rents paid by others.

Take, for example, the recent headline in the i paper: “I’m a landlord. The soaring UK rents mean I can live my dream life in Lisbon.” Or tenants served Section 21 eviction notices because they complained about repairs. Or the Welsh village of Aberllefenni bought up by property developers run by a millionaire couple and turned into a ghost town.

Much of this will be addressed by the Renters Rights Bill making its way through Parliament today. But not the root cause of the problem — the fact that housing is a commodity, and one which is traded in a market where profit means everything.

The reality is that for housing as a commodity, the contradiction between its use value — housing as a home — and its exchange value — housing as an investment and a source of unearned income — is very real.

Housing as a home, housing the hundreds of thousands of homeless people in our country, providing security to the hundreds of thousands in insecure housing, will never be a priority when the commodity nature of housing dominates, and a very few can get very rich on the misery of the many.

However, one simple move could change this calculation.

Rent caps, while they would not resolve the contradiction between use value and exchange value, between a home and a source of unearned income, would certainly shift the balance. Capping rents by the lowest of CPI or average wage growth would ensure that those currently renting are not priced out of their homes in the short term by greedy landlords. It would also do something towards challenging the excessive profits in property speculation. It would also provide a model for other sectors, from energy to food, where price caps would be in the interests of the vast majority.

Ultimately, though, we need to raise our sights and begin the struggle for a society where the contradiction between use value and exchange value — between valuing people and valuing profit — is resolved for once and for all.