Economic Flexibility and the Private Rented Sector

The private rented sector is only one way of providing the housing conditions necessary for economic flexibility. This paper examines the attributes of the private rented sector, in terms of what households require and landlords can provide, to assess both what should be available to help economic flexibility and what is actually provided by the private rented sector in the United Kingdom. It then reviews the evidence on the revival in the sector and suggests that the increased supply has gone more to nonparticipants in the labor force than to assist flexibility in the labor market.