In 2000 the rent restructuring regime was firstly set out in the Housing Green Paper (DETR) with the objectives of bringing greater coherence to rent structures across the whole social sector and relating rents more closely to fundamentals. As a baseline of reviewing the regime, this paper will analyse the current pattern of key variables for registered social landlord (RSL) rents at detailed geographical levels.

This paper also investigates RSL rent patterns in the context of target rents, which were introduced by the government in April 2002 as part of a rent restructuring framework. The framework required Housing Associations to adjust their existing rents to target rents based on a formula taking account of local income, property size, and property value. This suggests that the current RSL rent patterns should be reviewed by at least two measurements- by size effects and local effects, because, needless to say, property size has size effects and local income and property value are dependant on local economic fundamentals.