Framing a social policy crisis: Evidence use in private rented sector policymaking during the pandemic

Crises, particularly in their initial phases, can cause substantial epistemic disruption. Crises can instantaneously render existing data obsolete and can outpace established processes of administrative data collection, analysis and reporting. Consequently, policymakers can lack any meaningful evidence base to inform policy, but may nonetheless feel compelled to act. This opens a space for organisations to acquire significant influence if they can provide data offering a credible representation of what is going on. Drawing on diverse literatures, this paper focuses on the influence of survey data gathered on behalf of non-governmental organisations within the English private rented sector policy community during the 2020 phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on key informant interviews and discourse analysis, it explores how actors involved in the policymaking process used these data to frame tenants’ and landlords’ circumstances and behaviour and desirable policy responses in ways that aligned with their own organisational objectives. In doing so, we aim to shed light on the role such interventions can play in shaping housing policy.