Last month, the great and the good of the housing world assembled in Manchester for the annual conference of the Chartered Institute of Housing. One issue that would not have been on the agenda is how a 'market rent' is determined and whose market we are talking about. In the old days, when local councils were the dominant providers of rented housing, rents were set with a regard to ability to pay and a regard to historic costs of the property, rather than current market values Now, in London especially, they seem to be determined by the willingness of four professional workers to share a two-bedroom flat.
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