Social rented housing in Britain is undergoing radical reform - often inspired by European experiences. This timely report provides a comparative analysis of the social rented sector in seven European countries. Combined with analysis of labour market and social security systems, it challenges the assumptions behind the British reform agenda. Social market or safety net?: analyses the ownership, allocation, pricing and financing of the social rented sector in seven European countries; presents the first comparative data on the social composition of the main tenures; highlights the comparative poverty of tenants of social rented housing in the UK compared with their European counterparts; links housing to social security systems; provides a critique of the current reform agenda in the UK