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The private rental sector (PRS) in England has undergone profound change since the turn of the century. Its market share has doubled from one in ten households to one in five, a level last seen in the early 1970s. This regrowth of the sector began around the turn of the century and accelerated after the global financial crisis (GFC). It has been at the expense of owneroccupation and social rented housing. As a result, the roles that the sector plays in the housing market have also changed in significant ways. The share of private tenants that are families has increased and that of single-person households has decreased. There are now relatively more middle-aged and fewer young adult private renters than there were before the turn of the century. Meanwhile, both the average length of occupancy in the current home and of residence in the PRS have increased. Despite this, the great majority of private tenants continue to have short-term leases and private renting in England remains characterised by insecurity of tenure.
The lack of significant change in the terms on which private tenants occupy their accommodation reflects both landlord resistance to longer tenancies and, until recently, the absence of political will to significantly update the laws governing residential leases. The result is that the sector is arguably still in a state of transition from its late 20th-century role as a largely transitional tenure for households who are en route to owner-occupation or social rented housing (Kemp, 2015). Nevertheless, the growth of private renting has given the sector a new political salience and the government has faced growing calls to improve security of tenure. Changes in residential tenancy legislation have been promised several times by Conservative governments since 2018 and seem likely to be introduced.
The nature of private landlordism has also evolved since the turn of the century, with continued decline in property companies and increasing market share by small-scale private individual owners (Crook and Kemp, 2014). In addition, the last decade has witnessed the emergence of a ‘build-to-rent’ (BTR) subsector, largely owned by large corporate landlords, which could in time partially reshape the profile of private landlordism in England.
COVID-19 is a new SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) coronavirus disease. It spread rapidly from its origins in Wuhan, China; and despite many countries having tackled previous pandemics, many were wholly unprepared. Globalisation and technical convergence have resulted in new forms of non-calculable uncertainty where cities were the worst hit by COVID-19 because their densities and interactions facilitated the transmission of the virus and within cities the most deprived neighbourhoods were the worst hit of all (Bryson et al, 2021). To cope with the threat, economies were shut down with major supply shocks followed by major demand shocks worldwide, wiping off huge proportions of global gross domestic product (GDP) in a matter of months and destabilising money markets. Fiscal and monetary policy came together as economies and money markets were put on life support by governments, sustaining businesses, jobs and incomes, and by central banks supporting liquidity through massive purchases of, mainly government, bonds (Tooze, 2021).
Housing was both part of the way the virus was transmitted and one of the consequences of the shutdowns and market adjustments that resulted from attempts to contain the spread of the virus. This chapter explores the short-run impact of COVID-19 on the private rented sector (PRS) of the housing market in the countries discussed in earlier chapters of this volume. It considers the evidence in three contexts: first, to assess if the nature of these countries varieties of capitalism and welfare regimes are related to governments’ COVID-19 interventions in the PRS; second, to examine subnational as well as national responses; and third to assess if policy interventions can be framed by ideas about path dependency and historical institutionalism.
First, this chapter examines each country’s responses to COVID-19 in the light of an earlier comparison of the PRS in developed countries (Crook and Kemp, 2014). That showed how policies on regulation of rents and security of tenure and the extent of investment by corporate and institutional landlords were related to their types of economy and welfare regimes, using typologies developed by Hall and Soskice (2001) on varieties of capitalism and by Esping-Andersen (1990) on types of welfare regime.
Edited by
David Crook, Former Assistant Keeper of Public Records, The National Archives (retired). Honorary Research Fellow in History at the University of Nottingham,Louise J. Wilkinson, Professor in Medieval History, Canterbury Christ Church University
Edited by
David Crook, Former Assistant Keeper of Public Records, The National Archives (retired). Honorary Research Fellow in History at the University of Nottingham,Louise J. Wilkinson, Professor in Medieval History, Canterbury Christ Church University
Edited by
David Crook, Former Assistant Keeper of Public Records, The National Archives (retired). Honorary Research Fellow in History at the University of Nottingham,Louise J. Wilkinson, Professor in Medieval History, Canterbury Christ Church University
Edited by
David Crook, Former Assistant Keeper of Public Records, The National Archives (retired). Honorary Research Fellow in History at the University of Nottingham,Louise J. Wilkinson, Professor in Medieval History, Canterbury Christ Church University
Edited by
David Crook, Former Assistant Keeper of Public Records, The National Archives (retired). Honorary Research Fellow in History at the University of Nottingham,Louise J. Wilkinson, Professor in Medieval History, Canterbury Christ Church University
Edited by
David Crook, Former Assistant Keeper of Public Records, The National Archives (retired). Honorary Research Fellow in History at the University of Nottingham,Louise J. Wilkinson, Professor in Medieval History, Canterbury Christ Church University
Edited by
David Crook, Former Assistant Keeper of Public Records, The National Archives (retired). Honorary Research Fellow in History at the University of Nottingham,Louise J. Wilkinson, Professor in Medieval History, Canterbury Christ Church University
Edited by
David Crook, Former Assistant Keeper of Public Records, The National Archives (retired). Honorary Research Fellow in History at the University of Nottingham,Louise J. Wilkinson, Professor in Medieval History, Canterbury Christ Church University
The thirteenth century saw major developments in England's administration, as the procedures and processes of government expanded rapidly, the principles enshrined in Magna Carta became embedded, knights and burgesses were summoned to Parliament for the first time, and nothing short of a political revolution took place. The essays here draw on material available for the first time via the completion of the project to calendar all the Fine Rolls of Henry III; these rolls comprise the last series of records of the English Chancery from that period to become readily available in a convenient form, thereby transforming access to several important fields of research, including financial, legal, political and social issues. The volume covers topics including the evidential value of the fine rolls themselves and their wider significance for the English polity, developments in legal and financial administration, the roles of women and the church, and the fascinating details of the development of the office of escheator. Related or parallel developments in Scotland, Wales and Ireland are also dealt with, giving a broader British dimension.
Louise J. Wilkinson is Professor of Medieval History, Canterbury Christ Church University; David Crook is Honorary Research Fellow at the National Archives and the University of Notthingham.
Contributors: Nick Barratt, Paul Brand, David Carpenter, David Crook, Paul Dryburgh, Beth Hartland, Philippa Hoskin, Charles Insley, Adrian Jobson, Tony Moore, Alice Taylor, Nicholas Vincent, Scott Waugh, Louise Wilkinson
Edited by
David Crook, Former Assistant Keeper of Public Records, The National Archives (retired). Honorary Research Fellow in History at the University of Nottingham,Louise J. Wilkinson, Professor in Medieval History, Canterbury Christ Church University