No abstract
The private rented sector of the British housing market has been in decline since the beginning of the present century; that decline has continued apace since the end of the Second World War. A proposed solution f o r the stemming o f this demise is the removal of present rent controls and the substitution of free market conditions so that rents j n d their own market levels. This, so it is argued, would enable landlords to obtain a proper return on their housing investments and ltad therefore to an increase in supplv and an ending to the present disinvestment from this housing sector.This article disputes this thesis. In the j r s t place it is argued that "market rent" is a problematic concept and raises complex issues of distributive justice and social policywhich its advocates ignore. Secondly, it is argued that a free market solution is ahistorical in that it takes no account of the past failure in Britain of privately rented housing; and similarly it ignores the complex web of historical circumstances behind its decline -attributing the decline to the single causal factor of rent control. Thirdly, if is suggested that a market solution is sociologically misconceived because it ignores the characteristics and needs of those social groups dependent upon this sector. Finally, on grounds o f practicabilit?, it is proposed that a free market in rented housing may be quite inappropriate for the rump OJ housing stock remaining in the private rented sector; and that, given the current social and economic constraints operating in the housing market as a whole, any revival of this seclor is unlikely even with enhanced rental inducements. It is thus concluded that a free market solution is misconceived and would merely serve to impose an ideological straightjacket upon the proirision of a basic human need. Conceptual Problems over the Determination of Market RentsThe concept of "market rent" and of the related notion of a "free market" in rented housing poses a number of questions.Housing is unlike most consumer goods traded in the market place. Shelter is a basic necessity for human survival -especially in the British climate -and its production can take anything from one to five or more years; '97
Since 197.9 British social policy has witnessed a marked abandonment of the po&war principles of "universalism" inspired by the Beveridge Report. A deliberately residualist approach has been adopted and narrower criteria ofselection have variously been imposed in areas of social welfare provision.This paper represents an attempt to asse.rs and evaluate lhis trend in one area o f wegare provision -the school meals service -by developing a historical analysis of an earlier period (1918-1.939) when a residual model of welfarejrmly held sway.From an examination of historical evidence relating to the inter-waryears, it is suggested that in important respects the present situation with regard to the provision of food f o r children while at school recreates many o f the circumstances which pertained during that pre-war period. Then as now selectivily, "targeting", and,fierce Treasury restrictions upon public expenditure were very much the order of the day.I n the light of the problems of administrative fragmentation, and of the failures, inconsistencies and injustices of those policies which characterized school meals provision during that earlierperiod, it is concluded that con temporary developmen ts within this service are disquieting, and a close scrutirq o j the nutritional and other consequences is essential. The historical backgroundEver since children and young people were gathcred together in one place for purposes of receiving instruction, questions concerning the ncccssary and appropriate supply of food and drink have arisen. Indeed food itself may be usrd as an inducement to attract childrrn into school in thc first place;' while to offer appetising food in school may serve to limit truancy arid aid thc cducational proccss generally.Children worldwidc now are spending longcr periods of their livcs in educational institutions, so that the food and drink consumed upon such prcmises are providing an increasingly significant part of thcir nutritional needs. Moreover childhood habits last a lifetime, and school-based learning of both a formal and an informal kind may influencc young people's eating habits Tor the rest oftheir lives. 2 2 6
No abstract
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