Matthew's Journal

Being cynical, when things go wrong in the private sector, everyone starts clamouring for a public solution, and when things go wrong in the public sector, everyone wants it privatised.

I'd take the view that homes are small, discrete, independent lumps of service provision that are ideally suited to the public sector: it's easy to have competition even within one street and the economies of scale aren't so great.

Is the problem not simply that UK (especially English and Welsh) law in this area needs a significant overhaul? Landlords need better protection from unscrupulous tenants and tenants need better protection from unscrupulous landlords. In Switzerland, renting is far more common and they seem to have far fewer problems: if the central heating breaks down I get the impression the state will hunt down the landlord and make them pay your hotel bill until it's fixed. Conversely, I remember this tale of what happens when you move out.

Similarly, in Sweden the process of buying a house is rather more straightforward than it is here because, by law, the vendor gives you a one-year warranty. Suddenly, there's no need to check every last fixture and fitting works before agreeing to buy.

Here, tenants fear that if something breaks they'll have a horrible time getting the landlord to fix it and landlords fear that if the tenant stops paying it'll take months and a small fortune in legal fees to evict them. This creates a kind of market for lemons in both directions.