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Recent months have seen increasing public concern with the state of the housing stock in Britain. Symptoms of the malaise include physical decay, empty property, homelessness, geographical immobility of households, overcrowding, and large numbers of people in bed and breakfast accommodation. In the search for causes and cures, attention has been directed at the structure of tenures in the UK and in particular at the inefficient operation of the rented sector of the housing market. The UK is characterised by a relatively large municipally‐controlled rented sector, and a relatively small sector of private lettings, compared with many other advanced countries. Neither the public nor the private sector of the rented housing market seems at present capable of meeting the demand placed upon it. In particular, public policy over 70 years has systematically undermined the privately rented sector. From housing around 90 per cent of households in 1915, the sector has declined to a mere ten per cent in 1985. Two forces explain this extra‐ordinary collapse of private renting. Firstly, as more and more people have become taxpayers during the course of the 20th century, the advantages of receiving lightly taxed income ‘in kind’ by investing in owner‐occupied housing have become increasingly pronounced. Landlords pay tax on the income (including capital gains) derived from housing, owner‐occupiers do not. Secondly, some form of rent control or regulation has been in force for most privately‐rented property continuously since the early years of the First World War. The restriction of prices below market clearing levels in the private rented sector has inevitably discouraged supply, reduced repair and maintenance expenditures, hastened sales of hitherto rented property to owner‐occupiers, gravely impeded geographical mobility of households, distorted the allocation of available housing space, and exacerbated housing shortages (homelessness). As a long term component of social policy, rent control has almost nothing to commend it. Its predicted consequences can all be derived from the simplest application of microeconomic analysis, and many elementary textbooks use rent control as an outstanding example of the effects on markets of intervention in the process of price formation. However, in spite of the widely perceived disadvantages of rent control, it is a policy which it is very difficult to reverse. The purpose of this paper is to discuss briefly the main features of a scheme which was recently advocated by the present writer in a paper published by the Centre for Policy Studies.

Discusses the Business Expansion Scheme (BES) which was extended in 1988 to companies letting residential property on assured tenancies. This was intended to provide a stimulus to privately‐rented housing in the UK and to foster the development of more company landlords. Presents the results of research into the success and impact of the BES in the privately‐rented sector. In its nearly six years of existence the scheme attracted $3.4 billion of investment from private individuals, over 900 companies were formed and 81,000 dwellings were brought into the private‐rented sector at a cost of £1.7 billion in tax relief. While many of the new companies were not the new model landlords which the Government is trying to encourage (the scheme being adapted by universities, housing associations and mortgage lenders for their own purposes), the supply side impact has been considerable, accounting for up to one‐sixth of new privately‐rented properties and a more than doubling of the number of “commercial” company landlords. Although many non‐entrepreneurial company dwellings are likely to leave the sector in the near future, recent taxation changes may allow many commercial BES companies to continue letting.

Uses an explicit risk model to examine investment performance in the private rented housing sector. Suggests that by using such rational analysis it is possible to identify target returns for these investments. Examines the reasons for disinvestment and the factors which need to be addressed in order to sustain a viable sector in the future. Concludes that for small investors already investing in a specific sub‐market of the sector reasonable returns are available without them having to improve the structure or the image of their holdings.

Compiled by K.G.B. Bakewell covering the following journals published by MCB University Press: Facilities Volumes 8‐18; Journal of Property Investment & Finance Volumes 8‐18; Property Management Volumes 8‐18; Structural Survey Volumes 8‐18.

Index by subjects, compiled by K.G.B. Bakewell covering the following journals: Facilities Volumes 8‐18; Journal of Property Investment & Finance Volumes 8‐18; Property Management Volumes 8‐18; Structural Survey Volumes 8‐18.

Compiled by K.G.B. Bakewell covering the following journals published by MCB University Press: Facilities Volumes 8‐18; Journal of Property Investment & Finance Volumes 8‐18; Property Management Volumes 8‐18; Structural Survey Volumes 8‐18.

Compiled by K.G.B. Bakewell covering the following journals published by MCB University Press: Facilities Volumes 8‐18; Journal of Property Investment & Finance Volumes 8‐18; Property Management Volumes 8‐18; Structural Survey Volumes 8‐18.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the emic theme of “unqualified social work” as part of the process of property management in a self-described “letting agency with a difference” in Edinburgh, set in the context of the rapid expansion of the private rented sector.

The paper is based upon ethnographic data from participant observation in a letting agency and unstructured interviews with their employees.

The paper suggests that the shift in Scotland in terms of the provision of housing and housing-related services from the public sector to the private rented sector in recent decades has engendered new social and economic relations in which property managers become “unqualified social workers”.

The paper aims to exemplify how anthropology and ethnographic research may contribute to the understanding of the private rented sector and of property management.

The paper aims to contribute to the wider literature on the private rented sector by foregrounding the role of the property manager. The paper also brings an analysis derived from the anthropology of ethics to an ethnographic understanding of property management and the private rented sector.

Index by subjects, compiled by K.G.B. Bakewell covering the following journals: Facilities Volumes 8‐17; Journal of Property Investment & Finance Volumes 8‐17; Property Management Volumes 8‐17; Structural Survey Volumes 8‐17.

Compiled by K.G.B. Bakewell covering the following journals published by MCB University Press: Facilities Volumes 8‐17; Journal of Property Investment & Finance Volumes 8‐17; Property Management Volumes 8‐17; Structural Survey Volumes 8‐17.