Evaluating the Social Value of Innovative Finance: A Case Study of Community Municipal Bonds.

The proposed aim is to explore experiences of poverty and housing precarity within the UK private rented sector. The tenure houses more tenants than social housing for the first time since the 1950s. It is now home to over 5 million households of which housing benefit subsidises around 1.4 million. This growth is at the heart of the 'housing crisis'. It is seen in growing waiting lists for social housing, an oft-unattainable homeownership market, and unaffordable private rents. With continuing housing benefit reductions and wider welfare reform from the Cameron and May governments, there is a need to understand the challenges facing private sector tenants. Furthermore, there is a need to explore these experiences using an interview-based, qualitative paradigm to complement the more dominant positivist research.