Poverty and the re-growth of private renting in the UK, 1994-2018.

Nick Bailey

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0228273

Abstract

Over the last two decades, private renting has undergone a major revival in the UK, more than doubling its share within the housing system. Young adults increasingly remain in the sector into their 30s, giving rise to the term ‘Generation Rent’. Using data from the UK’s Family Resources Survey, this article shows how reliance on the sector varies by poverty status, particularly for young adults and children. In 2017/18, 42 per cent of adults under 40 in low-income poverty lived in private renting, compared with just 26 per cent of non-poor. This is almost double the proportion of 20 years earlier. Private renting is now home to more poor adults under 40 than owner occupation and social renting combined. In addition, one in three children in poverty (36 per cent) now lives in private renting, three times the level of 20 years ago. For both adults and children, rates are even higher in London and the South. Although rates of increase have slowed in recent years, this dramatic shift in the housing circumstances of those in poverty has a number of implications for housing and social policy which have not yet been sufficiently recognised.

Highlights

The re-growth of the private rented sector (PRS) over the last two decades marks a fundamental change in the UK’s housing system. It is a trend which is apparent in a number of advanced industrialised countries, especially as access to homeownership has become more difficult [1] [2] [3], but it is pronounced here, with the sector rising from 9 per cent of dwellings in 1991 to 19 per cent in 2017
Given the importance of insecurity of tenure in discussions about private renting, the paper examines relative levels of instability in the PRS, and how these vary by poverty status
There are as many children in private rented households as in social rented ones which represents a fundamental shift in the UK housing system

Summary

Introduction

The re-growth of the private rented sector (PRS) over the last two decades marks a fundamental change in the UK’s housing system It is a trend which is apparent in a number of advanced industrialised countries, especially as access to homeownership has become more difficult [1] [2] [3], but it is pronounced here, with the sector rising from 9 per cent of dwellings in 1991 to 19 per cent in 2017 (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/livetables-on-dwelling-stock-including-vacants). This re-growth has been at the expense of both owner occupation and social renting, and it has been very heavily focussed on younger adults. Kemp [7] shows that, even

Objectives

Results

Discussion

Conclusion