Private Renting: Can social landlords help? Anne Power, Alice Belotti, Laura Lane, Bert Provan CASEReport 113 January 2018 Contents Foreword ................................................................................................................................ 4 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................ 5 Key Headlines ............................................................................................................................. 7 1. Private Renting – Can Social Landlords Help? .................................................................... 8 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 8 History .................................................................................................................................... 8 Post-War Boom ...................................................................................................................... 9 Government Changes Tack .................................................................................................. 10 Rebirth of Private Renting.................................................................................................... 12 Demographic and tenure change ........................................................................................ 12 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 13 Timeline of Private Renting Development ........................................................................... 15 2. What are social landlords doing to help improve private rented provision in the UK? .. 17 Social Landlord Survey ......................................................................................................... 17 Policy context ....................................................................................................................... 18 Characteristics of housing associations in our sample ........................................................ 19 Why did the associations develop a private renting portfolio? .......................................... 20 Ownership or management of private rental properties on behalf of other landlords...... 22 Management arrangements ................................................................................................ 24 Branding ............................................................................................................................... 25 Marketing and letting .......................................................................................................... 25 Benefits for tenants ............................................................................................................. 26 Rents and reference checks ................................................................................................. 30 Reference checks ................................................................................................................. 30 Housing associations’ intermediate rent offer .................................................................... 31 Plans for future expansion and funding .............................................................................. 36 How do housing associations compare with other institutional landlords? ....................... 38 Overview .............................................................................................................................. 40 3. Local Authorities and the private rented sector .............................................................. 42 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 42 Local Authorities as regulators of the PRS ........................................................................... 42 Local authorities’ homelessness duties and the private rented sector ............................... 48 Local authorities as providers of private rented housing .................................................... 49 Overview .............................................................................................................................. 52 1 4. Different approaches in the devolved nations ................................................................. 54 Scotland......................................................................................................................................... 54 Wales ............................................................................................................................................. 56 Northern Ireland ........................................................................................................................... 58 5. Summary and Conclusions ............................................................................................... 62 Summary ....................................................................................................................................... 62 What Next ..................................................................................................................................... 64 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 64 Sources and references ............................................................................................................ 66 Table of Figures Figure 1: Tenure change (dwellings) 1914-1938 ..................................................................................... 9 Figure 2: Tenure change (dwellings and %) 1960-1974 ........................................................................ 10 Figure 3: Tenure change (dwellings) 1984-1989 (England) .................................................................. 11 Figure 4: Tenure change (%) 1918-1991 ............................................................................................... 13 Figure 5: Tenure change (%) 1991-2015 ............................................................................................... 14 Figure 6: Location of associations interviewed ..................................................................................... 19 Figure 7: Size of housing associations interviewed .............................................................................. 20 Figure 8: Incidence of ownership or management only ....................................................................... 22 Figure 9: Association management arrangements for their PRS stock ................................................ 25 Figure 10: Application and lettings management ................................................................................. 26 Figure 11: Table showing key characteristics of different types of private renting ............................. 37 Figure 12: Reside table showing rent levels at different tiers below market rent ............................... 51 Figure 13: Number of dwellings by tenure, Scotland (1980-2015) ....................................................... 55 Figure 14: Percentage of dwellings by tenure, Scotland (1980-2015) .................................................. 56 Figure 15: Number of dwellings by tenure, Northern Ireland (1980-2014) ......................................... 60 Figure 16: Percentage of dwellings by tenure, Northern Ireland (1980-2014) .................................... 60 Case Studies Case Study 1: Curo ................................................................................................................................ 21 Case Study 2: South Yorkshire Housing Group ..................................................................................... 23 Case Study 3: Places for People ............................................................................................................ 23 Case Study 4: Thames Valley Housing Association ............................................................................... 28 Case Study 5: Clarion Housing Group ................................................................................................... 28 Case Study 6: Southern Housing Group ................................................................................................ 30 Case Study 7: Poplar Harca ................................................................................................................... 31 Case Study 8: Network Homes .............................................................................................................. 32 Case Study 9: Glasgow Housing Association ......................................................................................... 32 Case Study 10: Genesis ......................................................................................................................... 33 Case Study 11: Home Group Flexi Rent ................................................................................................ 34 Case Study 12: Notting Hill Housing Group .......................................................................................... 35 Case Study 13: Grainger PLC ................................................................................................................. 38 2 Case Study 14: Pinnacle Places ............................................................................................................