The Restructuring of Social Rented Housing in Britain: Demunicipalization and the Rise of 'Registered Social Landlords'

This article starts from the observation that social rented housing in Britain is in transition. Evidence is presented to show the emerging importance of not-for-profit registered social landlords, and the growing significance of stock transfer associations (formed from within the public sector), but the main purpose of the article is to look at explanations for the current restructuring process. The article provides a critique of established broad-brush perspectives on tenure change in capitalist societies, arguing that they provide no purchase on the contemporary transfer of large amounts of local authority stock to not-for-profit organizations. The final section looks at changes in housing in terms of the wider restructuring of the welfare state and reviews three different approaches to the explanation of the rise of registered social landlords: the promotion of competition through quasi-markets, the apparent resurgence of the voluntary sector and the transition to post-Fordism.