Private rented housing: its current role

In this article, the first of two, the recent developments and current situation in the private rented sector are examined. Four roles for the sector are identified: housing those who traditionally lived in the sector, housing the young and mobile, providing accommodation with employment and acting as a tenure of last resort for those unable to find accommodation in the majority tenures. The types of household to be found in each sub-sector are described and their reasons for being in the sector and what they obtain are analysed. Different types of landlord are identified and their reasons for letting examined. The problems encountered by tenants and landlords in each sub-sector are described, leading to the conclusion that the private rented sector urgently requires considered and effective attention from policy makers

The pricing and provision of information Some recent official reports

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LSE's contributions to the economics of social policy

Social policy as an explicit intellectual endeavour only began after the Second World War, but themes that are central to it can be found in the work of the LSE Economics Department from its beginning. Taxation and its distributional and incentive consequences is one continuous theme. The appropriate and uncertain boundary line between public and private funding and service delivery, between market competition and public monopoly, is another long-standing interest. While the Department began by generally taking a pro-free market line, the development of theories of market and information failure led to an evolving ‘economics of the welfare state’. Though never central to the Department’s work, individual members specialised in this topic and other areas of social policy, including education, housing, social security and pensions