Hello everyone,
I’m curious to hear from anyone who has moved from council housing to private renting. What was your experience like and what motivated your decision to make the move?
I’m a PhD researcher and have a few questions. Would be extremely grateful!
More likely to find people going the other way with things as they are at the moment.
Certainly think so, many more will be applying to be on the social housing waiting list. However, there have also been tens of thousands leaving for the private rental sector each year which seems a little bewildering.
don’t think you’ll find them here though. I can’t recall any tenants. If I may, this seems like a very lapse way to conduct PhD research from my experience… but maybe things have changed!
On a forum for renters?
Yup. For example, I could have responded to your request, made up lots of stuff about how I was a council tenant but am now in the PRS and you wouldn’t have a clue if anything I said was bona fide. And a sample of one isn’t representative of anything. Just doesn’t sound rigorous enough for even undergrad let alone PhD research. But, as I say, things may have changed since my days in heady academia!
Two things off about what you’ve said. First, this isn’t about taking one person’s word at face value - it’s a participant outreach campaign to assess eligibility of potential participants. So I’m not sure where the “sample of one” idea came from.
Second, what you’ve described is just a basic validity issue - the so-called “screw-you effect” is well-established in social research and always accounted for in write-ups. This isn’t some cutting-edge PhD-only concern; it’s the kind of thing covered in GCSE statistics. Academia has definitely moved on since your time in it!
Terrific. Well, good luck with it.
Hi, I actually was a council tenant for 5 years, moved to private renting in 2020 until 2024. Now a home owner.
Hello Emily,
Thank you for reaching out! Sounds brilliant – I’ll send you message to your inbox. 
In fact, have just realised that there’s no private message function! Grateful if you could drop me an email: neftalem[DOT]emanuel[AT]nuffield[DOT]ox[DOT]ac[DOT]uk 
(Please replace the DOT with . and AT with @, this is to avoid spam bots).
Hi, i’m also happy to answer any questions you have about moving from council to private ! I’ll drop you an email
You only get private messaging when you contribute to the forum for a while.
Hi Chloe,
Brilliant – happy to have a chat! Grateful if you could drop me an email: neftalem[DOT]emanuel[AT]nuffield[DOT]ox[DOT]ac[DOT]uk