‘Generation rent’ and the ability to ‘settle down’: economic and geographical variation in young people’s housing transitions

ABSTRACT

The term ‘Generation Rent’ denotes young people who are increasingly living in the private rented sector for longer periods of their lives because they are unable to access homeownership or social housing. Drawing on qualitative data from two studies with young people and key-actors, this paper considers the phenomenon of ‘Generation Rent’ from the perspective of youth transitions and the concept of ‘home’. These frameworks posit that young people leaving the parental home traverse housing and labour markets until they reach a point of ‘settling down’. However, our data indicate that many young people face difficulties in this ‘settling’ process as they have to contend with insecure housing, unstable employment and welfare cuts which often force them to be flexible and mobile. This leaves many feeling frustrated as they struggle to remain fixed in place in order to ‘settle down’ and benefit from the positive qualities of home. Taking a Scottish focus, this paper further highlights the geographical dimension to these challenges and argues that those living in expensive and/or rural areas may find it particularly difficult to settle down.

KEYWORDS:

• Youth
• housing
• home
• private rent
• transition

Acknowledgements

Thanks go to Tom Moore and Pauline McLoughlin for collecting data for the Leverhulme project while working as researchers at the University of St Andrews.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. It is important to note that for some people, ‘home’ has negative connotations as it may be symbolic of violence or feeling trapped (Gurney 1997).

2. Short-assured tenancies were introduced in Scotland by the Housing (Scotland) Act 1988. Prior to this, tenants had greater security of tenure and rents were more regulated. This act was therefore a key ‘turning point’ (Kemp 2015, 605) in the introduction of a more market-orientated framework within housing policy. This change was felt not only in the PRS, but also in other housing tenures. The new Private Housing (Tenancies) (Scotland) Bill 2015 however seeks to radically transform the nature of PRS tenancies: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/Bills/92310.aspx

3. Mid-market rent is a relatively new ‘intermediate’ housing tenure in which the rent level is more expensive than social housing but cheaper than average PRS rents. Typically managed by Housing Associations, the properties are rented on a short-assured tenancy basis. Therefore, it is akin to a PRS tenancy.

4. In the first half of 2015, 60.5% of homeless application made to Scottish local authorities were from people aged 16–24 (Scottish Government 2015b).

5. A ‘revenge eviction’ refers to landlords ending a tenancy because the tenant has asked the landlord to improve their living conditions (through doing repairs for example). Rather than meeting their responsibilities, the landlord perceives the tenant to be a nuisance and consequently forces him/her to leave.

6. See http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/Bills/92310.aspx

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland Small Grant [31920] and the Leverhulme Trust under Grant [RP20 II-IJ-024].