The enduring allure of neoliberalism: individualising responsibility for housing costs in the English private rental sector

This article explores how the affordability of rents is addressed in the long-anticipated reform of the English private rental sector (PRS) by the Renters’ Rights Act 2025. The focus on this aspect of the Act is justified by the fact that the sector has doubled in size since 2010 and its tenants spend the highest proportion of income on housing costs. It acts as a social housing substitute for some households and unaffordable rents act as a driver of poverty. To provide the context and explanatory framework for analysis of the Act, the paper identifies key themes from housing studies literature on neoliberalism and uses them to track the shift of liability for housing costs to tenants, along with the concomitant creation of the opportunity for other individuals to invest in private landlordism to fund their future welfare. Examination of the Conservatives’ Renters (Reform) Bill alongside the Labour government’s Renters’ Rights Act reveals that, despite cross-party recognition of affordability as a fundamental problem, there is political unanimity around preserving market rents. Even more illuminating is the political consensus to maintain the current minimal protection against above-market rent increases. This mechanism requires individual tenants to take sole responsibility for guarding against economic eviction by initiating adjudicative action. Overall, there is remarkable continuity with the preceding four decades that have been dominated by neoliberal-inspired policies. The identified failure to depart from the market-dominated consumerist trajectory threatens the improved security of tenure that the Act promises.