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Putting the Squeeze on ‘Generation Rent’: Housing Benefit Claimants in the Private Rented Sector - Transitions, Marginality and Stigmatisation

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  • Ian Cole
  • Ryan Powell
  • Elizabeth Sanderson

Abstract

The term ‘Generation Rent’ has gained currency in recent years to reflect the fact that more 25 to 34 year olds in Britain now live in rented accommodation rather than owner-occupation. The term also conveys the extent to which age-related divisions in the housing market are becoming as significant as longer standing tenure divisions. However, this portmanteau term covers a wide array of different housing circumstances - from students, young professionals and transient households to the working and non-working poor. This paper focuses on the position of a specific category of this age cohort - those 25 to 34 year olds living in self-contained accommodation in the private rented sector who are in receipt of Housing Benefit. On the basis of survey evidence and qualitative interviews with landlords and housing advisers, the paper considers how the marginal economic and housing market position of this age group is being reinforced by the stigmatising attitudes of landlords which formerly applied to tenants in their late teens and early 20s and are now being extended further along the age band. The paper suggests that the use of a ‘housing pathways’ approach to signify the housing transitions of young adults needs to be revisited, to give greater weight to collective and creative responses to constraints in the housing market and to recognise the key role played by gatekeepers such as landlords in stigmatising groups according to assumed age-related attributes.

Suggested Citation

  • Ian Cole & Ryan Powell & Elizabeth Sanderson, 2016. "Putting the Squeeze on ‘Generation Rent’: Housing Benefit Claimants in the Private Rented Sector - Transitions, Marginality and Stigmatisation," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 21(2), pages 23-36, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:socres:v:21:y:2016:i:2:p:23-36
    DOI: 10.5153/sro.3909
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Chris Hamnett, 2010. "Moving the Poor Out of Central London? The Implications of the Coalition Government 2010 Cuts to Housing Benefits," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 42(12), pages 2809-2819, December.
    2. Juliet Stone & Ann Berrington & Jane Falkingham, 2014. "Gender, Turning Points, and Boomerangs: Returning Home in Young Adulthood in Great Britain," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 51(1), pages 257-276, February.
    3. Steven Roberts, 2013. "Youth Studies, Housing Transitions and the ‘Missing Middle’: Time for a Rethink?," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 18(3), pages 118-129, August.
    4. Kim McKee, 2012. "Young People, Homeownership and Future Welfare," Housing Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(6), pages 853-862.
    5. John Bone, 2014. "Neoliberal Nomads: Housing Insecurity and the Revival of Private Renting in the UK," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 19(4), pages 1-14, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Nick Bailey, 2020. "Poverty and the re-growth of private renting in the UK, 1994-2018," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(2), pages 1-20, February.
    2. Adrienne Csizmady & Lea Kőszeghy, 2022. "‘Generation Rent’ in a Super Homeownership Environment: The Case of Budapest, Hungary," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-18, July.
    3. Agustín Cócola Gant, 2016. "Holiday Rentals: The New Gentrification Battlefront," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 21(3), pages 112-120, August.
    4. Caroline Barratt & Gill Green, 2017. "Making a House in Multiple Occupation a Home: Using Visual Ethnography to Explore Issues of Identity and Well-Being in the Experience of Creating a Home Amongst HMO Tenants," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 22(1), pages 95-112, February.
    5. Valentina Tocchioni & Ann Berrington & Daniele Vignoli & Agnese Vitali, 2019. "Housing uncertainty and the transition to parenthood among Britain’s "Generation Rent"," Econometrics Working Papers Archive 2019_07, Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Statistica, Informatica, Applicazioni "G. Parenti".

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