Masterly Inactivity: The politics of private renting under New Labour

Ben Pattison, School of Social PolicyHousing Studies Association, April 2014

The rebirth of private rentingNumber of households in the private rented sector, England

Decline of private renting

Political drivers were part of a complex set of factors which led to the decline of private renting up to 1979 (Kemp, 2004)

Other drivers include:– Rent control– Changing attitudes to tenure and landlords– Demographic change– Mortgage market

What was the role of political drivers in the subsequent growth of private renting in England?

Political Discourse Analysis Politics is ‘most fundamentally about making choices

about how to act’ (Fairclough and Fairclough, 2012, p. 11)

‘political discourse is inherently deliberative’ (ibid, p. 26)

Analysis of Hansard and wider political deliberation (biographies, policy, manifestos, diaries)

Parliamentary debates are ‘a multi-agent context where a political decision has to be arrived at’ (ibid, p. 200)

Thatcher and Major governments

Actively promoted limited growth of the private rented sector to complement the development of the property-owning democracy

Housing Act 1980: Assured tenancies Housing Act 1988: Assured shorthold tenancies Supported by Housing Benefit to ‘take the strain’

for low income households

New Labour consensus

Third way consensus which reconciled competing positions

‘Agnostic about tenure’ (Hilary Armstrong quoted in Cowan, 1999, p. 7)

Continued previous approach but with greater emphasis on support for vulnerable tenants

‘Masterly inactivity’ (Nick Raynsford quoted in Kemp, 2004, p. 65)

‘nothing to say’ and ‘nothing new to announce’ (Mullin, 2009, p. 45 & 132).

Competing Discourses Limit regulation: Conservatives praised ‘the maturity with

which the Labour party now approaches the issue of the private rented sector’ (John Butterfill MP, 27 March 2001)

Protect vulnerable tenants: ‘It is an unhappy fact that in Sunderland we have rather a lot of bad landlords’ (Chris Mullin MP,12 December 2001)

Promote investment in PRS: ‘an expansion in private renting could ease two major problems: first, the problem of severe shortages of accommodation, and secondly, the need for regeneration’ (Lord Best, 27th February 2002)

Social and economic drivers This political approach of ‘masterly inactivity’ retained a

policy and regulatory environment which enabled the growth of private renting to occur

After 2001, a range of other social and economic drivers supported this rapid growth including:– Buy to Let mortgages– Demographic changes (e.g. students, migration, single

person households)– House price increases mediated by the mortgage market– Labour market

The end of the consensus Growing concern from MPs and Peers from 2006 onwards:

– ‘perhaps the time has now come for some regulation for this sector’ (Lord Best, 2nd April 2008)

– Buy to Let described as a ‘pernicious new phenomenon’ (Mullin, 2010, p. 152)

Rugg Review of Private Rented Sector published in 2008 Slow and limited response from Labour government ‘The attempt to create a big tent which would appeal to voters and

interests with opposed aspirations and conflicting priorities was almost certain one day to end in disillusion and defeat’ (Rawnsley, 2010, p. 741).

Conclusions The private rented sector was a marginal concern

for politicians for most of the New Labour period New Labour created a Third Way consensus

which sought to reconcile competing discourses on the role of the private renting

This approach of ‘masterly inactivity’ retained a policy and regulatory environment which enabled the growth of private renting to occur

References

Cowan, D. (1999) Housing Law and Policy. Basingstoke, Macmillan Press. Department for Communities and Local Government (2013) English Housing

Survey 2011/2012: Headline Report. London, Department for Communities and Local Government.

Fairclough, I. & Fairclough, N. (2012) Political Discourse Analysis: A method for advanced studies. Abingdon, Routledge.

Kemp, P. (2004) Private Renting in Transition. Coventry, Chartered Institute of Housing.

Mullin, C. (2009) A View from the Foothills: The diary of Chris Mullin. London, Profile Books.

Mullin, C. (2010) Decline and Fall: Diaries 2005 to 2010. London, Profile Books. Rawnsley, A. (2010) End of the Party: The rise and fall of New Labour. London,

Penguin.

Thank you

Email: BMP248@bham.ac.uk

Twitter: @bmpattison