The EconomistAugust 29th 2020 Britain 37(^2) ants, many of them families, whom British
housing policy has taken little trouble to
accommodate. Labour governments have
focused on social housing, Conservative
ones on home-ownership. Renting is
treated as a waiting room in which future
homeowners spend some of their 20s be-
fore knowing the joys of being responsible
for their own boiler. Tenants’ groups com-
plain of a host of issues—repairs badly or
tardily done, the common ban on keeping
pets—that make it hard for renters to treat
their accommodation as a home. With
money cheap, the cost of a buying has fall-
en compared to renting (see chart), but ris-
ing deposit requirements put a purchase
beyond most renters’ means.
The big issue is security of tenure. The
norm in England—the issue is devolved, so
Scotland and Wales have gone their own
ways—is a 12-month lease with no obliga-
tion to renew. Most continental European
countries offer much more security. Ger-
many, for instance, gives tenants who be-
have themselves an indefinite right to re-
main in their homes.
Opponents of greater security for ten-
ants argue that it would decrease the sup-
ply of properties as landlords would worry
about not being able to get them back. Pro-
ponents argue that the opposite would
happen: longer leases would attract fam-
ilies seeking security and give institutions
the security they seek, thus encouraging
investment in the sector. There are few
such investors in Britain, which is why the
market remains dominated by Orwell’s old
ladies. Countries with the largest rental
sectors tend to be those which also offer
greater security of tenure.
England’s near-neighbours are moving
in a continental direction. Tenancies were
made more secure in Wales in 2016, Scot-
land went for German-style open-ended
tenancies in 2017 and Ireland substantially
extended eviction notice periods in 2019.
In England, the government has pledged to
remove “section 21” evictions, under which
a landlord can evict a tenant without giving
a reason, but has done nothing about it.
Even if it does, rolling year-long leases
would remain the norm.
Offering tenants more security would
put the Conservative Party at odds with its
property-owningsupporters,andalsowith
itsworldview.Asthe 2019 manifestosaid,
homeownershipis“oneofthemostfunda-
mentalConservativevalues”.The Tories’
answer is to increase the supply of
homes—or “build, build, build”, as Mr
Johnson’s new slogan puts it—to allow
morepeopletobuy.PreviousConservative
governments have tried that, and been
frustratedbytheirnimbysupporters.
TheTories’blinkeredvisionofhousing
tenure offersLabour an opportunity.In
2019 LabourembracedScottish-styleopen-
endedtenanciesbutcombinedthatwith
rent controls which, historyshows, de-
stroyrentalmarkets.Thepoliticalspacefor
a sensibleoffertotenantsinEnglandlies
open.Intheseuncertaintimes,thepro-
miseofmoresecuritytoa fifthofthecoun-
trycouldwinLabourplentyoffriends. 7
Homeeconomics
England,averageweeklyhousingcosts,£
Source:EnglishHousingSurvey YearsendingMarch
2
Housing
association
Local authority
Privaterented
Buying with
mortgage
200150100500
2009 2019*
“I
love china,” declared Boris Johnson,
then mayor of London, in 2013, exhort-
ing British children, his own included, to
study Mandarin. Seven years on, he is a lot
less keen on China, and the vogue for
studying Mandarin seems to be fading.
When Mr Johnson was declaring his Si-
nophilia, well-to-do parents saw Mandarin
as a good investment in their children’s fu-
ture. In 2015 Hatching Dragons (pictured),
Britain’s first bilingual English-Mandarin
nursery, opened its doors to 32 little lin-
guists; it has since taught over 500 chil-
dren, for around £1,881 a month per child.
But Cennydd John, the nursery’s chief exec-
utive, laments that there is “almost no op-
tion” for children to continue their bilin-
gual education once they leave at the age of
five. Fewer than 3% of primary schools in
England offer Mandarin.
Many independent schools followed
the fashion: 24% of them offer Mandarin,
compared with 4.4% in state schools. But
finding a school that offers Mandarin is no
longer the priority it was for parents three
years ago, says Ralph Lucas, editor in chief
of The Good Schools Guide. Part of the reason
is that “the perception of China as a place
where you would want your child to make a
career has taken a severe knock”. Learning
Mandarin to a useful level is difficult, and
China “doesn’t seem like the big golden op-
portunity it was before”. Recent events,
such as the crackdown on democracy in
Hong Kong, further “take the gloss off” the
idea of investing in a Chinese education.
That shift shows up in exam figures. In
2015, 3,099 students took a Chinese a-level
and 3,710 took a gcse. In 2019 those figures
had dropped to 2,272 for a-level and 3,201
for gcse, according to the Joint Council for
Qualifications, an organisation which rep-
resents the eight largest national providers
of qualifications.
Advocates of learning Mandarin say
that a more complex geopolitical situation
is exactly why children should be practis-
ing their tones. But those who have invest-
ed the hours (and the cash) don’t always
reap the rewards. “The only real advantage
of me speaking Chinese was having a much
better understanding of how difficult it
was for my Chinese colleagues to operate in
English,” says Alex Wilson, who worked in
public relations in Beijing and Shanghai.
Graduates from the School of Oriental and
African Studies can expect to be earning
£27,000 five years after graduating if they
studied Chinese, or £38,000 if they studied
economics. Yun Zhen is studying for a
Masters in Education at the University of
Reading and hopes to be a Mandarin teach-
er. But “honestly, I don’t see many opportu-
nities,” she says. Now she’s looking for
teaching experience in “any subject”.
The difficulty of learning Mandarin will
always attract academic kids and pushy
parents. Mr John of Hatching Dragons
notes that parents increasingly “see bilin-
gual immersion for its cognitive benefits.
For them, Chinese is (almost) secondary to
the linguistic input”. The idea that Manda-
rin itself is a hot ticket is fading. Better to
train the children in a computer-program-
ming language. “Compared to how much
more employable you can make yourself by
learning something like Python, which you
can learn in a few months,” according to Mr
Wilson, “Mandarin seems like an ineffi-
cient use of resources.” 7
Why the study of Mandarin seems to
be in decline
Fading Sinophilia
Flying dragon,
passing fashion
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