Introduction

This book is concerned with the private rented sector (PRS) in a new century. However, the focus of this chapter is upon ‘the oldest, most common, and perhaps because of it, the most neglected of contractual relations’ (Englander, 1983, p 4) –those between private landlord and tenant. This chapter is specifically concerned with current relationships in the PRS between the main providers of accommodation, that is, individuals operating on a small scale for whom landlordism is not their main occupation, and the main consumers of accommodation – young people under the age of 25. The discussion presented here, rather than exploring exceptional or extreme behaviour in the sector, centres upon the typicalities of day-to-day relationships between the parties and how they manage interactions and exchanges with each other.

The role that the PRS has played in accommodating British households has changed significantly during the 20th century. At the beginning, the PRS catered for generalised housing need with 90 per cent of the population renting privately (Kemp, 1992). However, the sector has declined considerably over the century. The reasons for this decline are widely documented elsewhere (see, for example, Kemp, 1997) and it is not within the scope of this chapter to detail the trend other than to highlight that in 1998/99 the sector comprised approximately 10 per cent of all households (McConaghy et al, 2000) and now performs a specialised role in providing accommodation to young and mobile households, particularly those on low incomes (Kleinman et al, 1996; Rugg, 1999).

Following successive deregulation in the 1988 and 1996 Housing Acts, the PRS has become increasingly regarded as a transitional and residual sector (Rugg, 1999) particularly in association with its role of housing single young people and vulnerable households. Although the sector is small, it nevertheless performs a crucial role in providing accommodation for young people who have become “the key demand group” (Kemp, 1993, p 72; see also Chapters One and Two in this volume). Secondary analysis of the Survey of English Housing 1996/97 showed that 60 per cent of all independent, childless young people aged 16–25 – 628,000 individuals – lived in the PRS (Rugg and Burrows, 1999), highlighting the significance of the sector for young people as alternative tenures have become less accessible or desirable (see, for example, Anderson, 1999; Ford, 1999).