Uncertain refuge: experiences of tenure security in a precarious housing system

This article reports on the lives of the remaining rent-controlled (regulated) tenants in England’s private rental sector. Although small in number, this group is central to discussions on housing precarity, as they benefit from secure tenancies and limits on the rent they pay. The article considers what it means to have security in a private rental sector that is more broadly characterised by pervasive insecurity, high costs and poor conditions. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 31 regulated tenants, and their life stories were discussed in order to build effective understanding of psycho-social and ontological security. The article presents the concept of ‘uncertain refuge’ to capture the way that even protected tenants appear, in the accounts of participants, to be beset by subtle forms of anxiety, displacement pressures and the difficulty of making lifelong homes. Thus, regulated tenancies only offer partial forms of ontological security. This concept helps us to think through the difficulties of achieving deeper forms of housing security in a sector that, arguably, is ultimately not capable of offering a sense of futurity for its residents. These conclusions have wider international relevance given global concerns around insecurities in the private rental sector, and the effectiveness of regulatory controls.