Using the private rented sector as a form of social housing

The paper considers the role of the private rented sector in supplying housing that can be defined as social housing. It will do this by considering policy initiatives in Germany, France, the USA and England that use privately owned housing to meet social needs. The operation of these initiatives will be compared. The allocation and rent conditions attached to dwellings supplied under selected schemes will be exam-ined as will the incentives for landlords to offer housing under these conditions. The functions of the conditions and the time limits attached to them will be compared. It will be shown that such schemes raise questions about the definition and the role of the sector in varying institutional contexts. The paper draws on some of the evidence in the authors’ research report for the English Department of Communities and Local Government: Promoting Investment in Private Rented Housing Supply: International Policy Comparisons (November 2010). See: http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/housing/investprivaterentedhousingOTB Research Institute for the Built Environmen