tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/right-to-buy-16100/articles
Right to buy – The Conversation
2022-06-10T15:59:16Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/184873
2022-06-10T15:59:16Z
2022-06-10T15:59:16Z
New right-to-buy scheme could trap people in poverty – here’s what could really make houses affordable
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468257/original/file-20220610-35185-ztvk33.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=59%2C83%2C3926%2C2904&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/aerial-houses-residential-british-england-drone-1091736980">Shutterstock/Sam foster</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The UK government has announced <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/jun/09/gove-confirms-plans-to-let-people-use-housing-benefit-to-buy-homes">plans</a> to make mortgages available to people on benefits, allowing more of them to buy their own homes. Housing association tenants will also be offered the chance to buy their properties at a discount. Immediately compared to a similar policy championed by Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s, this is <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61739816">being sold</a> as a way of helping “millions realise the dream of home ownership”. </p>
<p>In principle, a right-to-buy scheme could indeed be a useful tool to help people, provided all of the sold properties are replaced. But the real solution to affordable housing for everyone is far simpler – and comes down to building more houses. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, a quick glance at the wider economic picture shows that this policy idea is far from well timed. Inflation is high and likely to <a href="https://theconversation.com/rising-inflation-unless-we-act-now-it-will-not-be-temporary-168106">remain much higher</a> than the levels we have become used to, and people relying on housing benefits will probably struggle the most to <a href="https://ifs.org.uk/publications/16065#:%7E:text=Assuming%20an%20average%20rate%20of,8%25%20for%20the%20richest%20households">make ends meet</a>. </p>
<p>To combat inflation, interest rates are increasing, which is not good news for anyone paying off a mortgage. And for those receiving benefits, these payments would probably account for many times the mortgage holder’s annual income. A recession, even if mild, would typically hit those on lower incomes disproportionately. </p>
<p>All of this means great uncertainty for anyone on eroding incomes with increasingly uncertain employment prospects. If buying a house with benefits is going to help people rather than trap them in poverty in a deteriorating economic environment, it will need to guarantee ultra low interest rates for mortgages for a long time to come. </p>
<p>And for those whose incomes fall significantly behind inflation rates, or even lose their jobs, any right-to-buy scheme should come with a more generous benefits package. </p>
<p>Looking at the history of right-to-buy policies, another obvious issue is that many people will seek to <a href="https://inews.co.uk/news/right-to-buy-flipped-houses-six-billion-2000-269222">make a profit</a> by buying the property at a substantial discount and then selling it as soon as they can. About 40% of properties sold through right-to-buy in the past have ended up in the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jun/09/right-to-buy-homes-landlords-rentals-housing">hands of private landlords</a> who tend to charge much more than housing association rents. </p>
<p>In such a scenario, the UK government would have spent as much as £3 billion of public money creating a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/jun/09/how-right-to-buy-work-why-boris-johnson-planning-extend-it">windfall for the few</a> who were able to make a profit from buying and selling.</p>
<p>To be successful then, the policy should include strict checks as to the usage and sale of these properties. Receiving a great benefit from public funds should come with obligations – and repercussions for dishonesty. </p>
<h2>Grand designs</h2>
<p>Another critical issue is mortgage availability. For those who receive housing benefits, even a 95% mortgage could prove daunting. This could lead to potential homeowners resorting to high interest personal loans or even loan-sharks to secure a 5% deposit. </p>
<p>Finally, the idea depends on the willingness of housing associations to sell their properties to tenants. Housing associations are not part of the government and in the past they have successfully <a href="https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/comment/is-right-to-buy-for-housing-association-residents-the-answer-to-affordable-homeownership-75958">resisted similar efforts</a> towards right-to-buy schemes. </p>
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<img alt="Silhouette of miniature house model with key." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468260/original/file-20220610-20-q6edex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468260/original/file-20220610-20-q6edex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468260/original/file-20220610-20-q6edex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468260/original/file-20220610-20-q6edex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468260/original/file-20220610-20-q6edex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468260/original/file-20220610-20-q6edex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468260/original/file-20220610-20-q6edex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Housing stock is the key.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/house-model-key-home-insurance-broker-1197053920">Shutterstock/sommart sombutwanitkul</a></span>
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<p>They were right to do so. For it is important to remember that the government needs to help not just this generation of people in need, but also the generations that will follow. </p>
<p>Unless the properties sold are somehow replaced one-for-one, and crucially, like-for-like, the total stock of affordable housing will dwindle further. Their number has already been reduced by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/jun/09/how-right-to-buy-work-why-boris-johnson-planning-extend-it">about 1.3 million homes</a>. </p>
<p>A right-to-buy scheme is not necessarily a bad idea, nor is it destined to fail. It’s a scheme that could indeed make people on low incomes happier and wealthier in the long term. </p>
<p>But the fundamental housing issue in the UK is a chronic undersupply of properties for the country’s expanding population. The lack of new properties into the market, combined with record low interest rates and also government policies which seek to <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-britain-really-cope-with-a-fall-in-housing-prices-84353">prop up house values</a> have led to house prices <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2022/jun/08/uk-annual-house-price-growth-halifax-index-oil-economy-inflation-business-live?ref=biztoc.com&curator=biztoc.com">rising 74%</a> in only ten years. </p>
<p>If the country built more, property prices would slowly return to more affordable levels. A generous proportion of these new builds (or conversions) should of course be affordable, and that’s where the real solution lies. </p>
<p>Quality family apartments like the <a href="https://internationalsocialhousing.org/2017/07/17/5-awesome-examples-of-affordable-housing-architecture-in-europe-and-the-usa/">ones seen in parts of Europe</a>, conversions of unused high-street buildings and brownfield developments should be the direction of travel. Why not set up a national company to survey land, assess population needs, and do a lot of the design and even building themselves? </p>
<p>This kind of investment would pay off in terms of a happier population, with less mortgage debt. Otherwise, we run the risk of a populist knee-jerk reaction to a deteriorating housing availability, creating problems that could <a href="https://policyexchange.org.uk/high-rise-living-means-crime-stress-delinquency-and-social-breakdown-instead-we-must-create-streets/#:%7E:text=One%20showed%20that%20crimes%20were,socio%2Deconomic%20conditions%20are%20identical">plague generations to come</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184873/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexander Tziamalis does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
It would be better to focus on building.
Alexander Tziamalis, Senior Lecturer in Economics, Sheffield Hallam University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/127576
2019-11-26T12:42:12Z
2019-11-26T12:42:12Z
Finally, most parties take the UK’s housing crisis seriously
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303498/original/file-20191125-74599-12a9jzj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Goldsmith Street, a social housing development which won the 2019 RIBA Stirling prize for architecture.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Tim Crocker</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For more than 20 years we have been researching and writing about the downgrading of public housing in the UK. Thankfully, the tide finally appears to be turning. </p>
<p>Government failure can be seen most clearly in the form of <a href="https://theconversation.com/i-have-a-job-but-im-homeless-the-working-poor-who-cant-afford-to-rent-126445">homelessness</a>, but the problems are bigger – high prices, high rents, housing insecurity and its high toll on mental health, overcrowding, beds in sheds and so on. For decades, financial support for public housing <a href="https://www.housing.org.uk/how-public-money-is-spent-on-housing/">has been cut</a>. Politicians have referred to estates of public housing as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/housing-network/2016/may/11/sink-estates-starved-funding-poverty-housing">“sink” areas</a>, marring the reputations of places and people.</p>
<p>While homelessness and rising prices and rents fill conversations about the housing problems of today, government action has focused on helping existing and new home owners. In the meantime, private landlords reap profits from an insecure, frequently poor quality and high cost sector. </p>
<p>But finally, several British political parties – Labour, the Green Party and Liberal Democrats – are offering evidence-based and convincing analyses of the problem and pledging to improve non-market housing provision. </p>
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<p>It is perhaps not surprising that recent decades have generated this new position on how to fix the broken housing system, where the state – local and central – takes a more active role. It is increasingly clear that the market, often lauded as the most efficient way of providing and allocating housing, is actually a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/24/the-guardian-view-on-slumland-britain-a-housing-market-failure">key driver</a> of the failure to provide decent homes for many hundreds of thousands of households.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/thatcher-helped-people-to-buy-their-own-homes-but-the-poorest-paid-the-price-50133">Thatcher helped people to buy their own homes – but the poorest paid the price</a>
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<h2>New homes</h2>
<p>So what are the parties offering at this stage? <a href="https://assets-global.website-files.com/5da42e2cae7ebd3f8bde353c/5dda924905da587992a064ba_Conservative%202019%20Manifesto.pdf">The Conservatives</a> focus on overseeing the construction of a million homes in the next five years. Social housing, it seems, will continue to be neglected under a Tory government.</p>
<p>Labour, meanwhile, have pledged to build <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/nov/20/labour-to-unveil-75bn-social-housing-plan-to-build-for-the-many">100,000 council homes</a> a year by 2024 for those most in need. It also wants to fund a further 50,000 homes a year to be built by Housing Associations who also target those needing a home and will put a stop to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/jan/19/ministers-urged-halt-right-buy-council-homes-rented">Right to Buy</a>: a scheme which has led to over 40% of former council homes now being rented out by private landlords.</p>
<p>The Liberal Democrats propose <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2019-50459123">300,000</a> homes a year by 2024, to include 100,000 for social rent (by housing associations). <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2019-50464641">The Greens</a> match the Lib Dems while stressing the need for zero-carbon homes.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">This social housing project won the Stirling Prize 2019.</span></figcaption>
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<p>The Conservatives stand out here, with their continued focus on offering public money to help aspirational owners rather than providing housing for those most in need. Their costly Help to Buy scheme, which they plan to extend, has <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/859ec6a0-dbc1-11e9-8f9b-77216ebe1f17">been widely criticised</a> for inflating prices, bolstering developer profits and doing nothing to help those in most need. The party’s election manifesto does not provide any details as to how it will increase the supply of social other than to state that “it will bring forward a social housing white paper”.</p>
<p>Talk of austerity, poverty and inequality may be tiring for some to keep hearing, but it is critical that we understand how bad things are for many people. Many older homeowners find it hard to understand the pressures of simply finding a place to live, let alone the ongoing challenge of funding that space, heating it or accessing it if disabled. Paying rent to help secure someone else’s retirement is particularly galling for many.</p>
<h2>A social system</h2>
<p>A system is needed that is designed for the needs of all people. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/jan/08/england-needs-3m-new-social-homes-by-2040-says-cross-party-report">Research</a> shows that yes, of course a regulated market in owned housing is needed (controls are needed to ensure it is high quality and built in the right places). But this needs to exist alongside a high quality, professionally managed public housing sector capable of helping people to find decent homes. Increasingly, the shortfall in supply has enabled private landlords to offer low income households <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jul/17/housing-britain-landlord-tenants">sub-standard properties</a>.</p>
<p>The argument that public housing does not work is locked in a vision of large-scale estates that became increasingly unpopular as funding has been drained from them. Most analysts today envision a for-life option (the ability of tenants to stay for as long as they like so that they can feel secure) at a cost that allows other areas of life to be better enjoyed (health, education, access to work). Only home ownership and public rented housing can provide these kinds of outcomes.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303467/original/file-20191125-74593-1qi61hy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303467/original/file-20191125-74593-1qi61hy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303467/original/file-20191125-74593-1qi61hy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303467/original/file-20191125-74593-1qi61hy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303467/original/file-20191125-74593-1qi61hy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303467/original/file-20191125-74593-1qi61hy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303467/original/file-20191125-74593-1qi61hy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Trellick Tower, a social housing masterpiece of brutalist architecture.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-uk-september-28-2015-trellick-471796673?src=e49eb698-f682-4629-b728-9b4d591ab6cf-1-0">Claudio Divizia/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
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<p>Whatever our personal politics, it is vital that we understand that powerful interests circulate to promote housing as a market commodity, rather than a critical social good to be enjoyed by all. The pathway to this vision is littered with the profits to private landlords and the shattered dreams of the homeless and ill-housed. </p>
<p>It is precisely not in the interests of market providers to resolve the housing crisis. This may sound like heresy, but it is the evidence of many years of <a href="https://housingevidence.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/190228-How-does-the-land-supply-system-affect-the-business-of-UK-speculative-housebuilding.pdf">analysis</a>.</p>
<h2>Hope for the future</h2>
<p>Looking to a future in which social housing forms a basis for social and economic investment offers genuinely thrilling prospects. There is no reason that a new council building programme cannot be enjoyed in partnership with private builders, and indeed using smaller companies, many of whom have been threatened or busted by the current crisis.</p>
<p>On the <a href="https://theconversation.com/labours-low-carbon-warm-homes-for-all-could-revolutionise-social-housing-experts-126329">environmental front</a>, social homes can be built or retrofitted to enhanced standards that are warm, safe, flood resistant and carbon neutral. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/labours-low-carbon-warm-homes-for-all-could-revolutionise-social-housing-experts-126329">Labour's low-carbon 'warm homes for all' could revolutionise social housing – experts</a>
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<p>To say this will cost a lot of money is stating the obvious. But housing is a major component in the reproduction of wealth inequalities, private profiteering and carbon emissions (energy use in homes accounts <a href="https://www.theccc.org.uk/2019/02/21/uk-homes-unfit-for-the-challenges-of-climate-change-ccc-says/">for 14%</a> of the UK’s total). The fact that political attention is being focused more clearly on challenging these problems and getting traction on a home-building programme for citizens should be welcomed by all.</p>
<p>The housing crisis of today is an enduring problem, one that goes back more than a hundred years, when walking through the slums of the growing industrial metropolises, Friedrich Engels asked why more housing wasn’t provided when so many people were in need. The question today is, why are we still asking the same old question?</p>
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<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/the-daily-newsletter-2?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKGE2019&utm_content=GEBannerB">Click here to subscribe to our newsletter if you believe this election should be all about the facts.</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/127576/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
For decades, social housing has been defunded and ignored. The system is now broken, and it needs to be fixed.
Rowland Atkinson, Chair in Inclusive Societies, University of Sheffield
Keith Jacobs, Professor of Sociology and Director of the Housing and Community Research Unit, University of Tasmania
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/110334
2019-01-28T12:29:00Z
2019-01-28T12:29:00Z
How renting could affect your health
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/255363/original/file-20190124-135151-1u819lm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/house-key-on-yellow-background-minimal-1014728863?src=10WOo7YZCl4xbwljjLEKgg-1-2">Nednapa/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Our homes play a number of vital roles in our lives. They are where we rest, spend time with friends and family, and can be most ourselves. Given this central role it is not surprising that researchers have found a number of important relationships between the homes we live in and our health. </p>
<p>A lot of this evidence uses subjective measures, where people are asked in surveys to rate their health, usually on a scale from poor to excellent. Our <a href="https://jech.bmj.com/content/early/2019/01/05/jech-2018-211431">recent paper</a> added to this evidence by exploring the association between housing and health using an objective <a href="https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/documentation/health-assessment">indicator</a>: C-reactive protein (CRP) level. CRP is a marker found in the blood that is associated with infection and stress, and at high levels with increased risk of cardiovascular disease. </p>
<p>We found that private renters have higher levels of CRP, indicating worse health, than owner occupiers. People who lived in detached houses had lower CRP compared to people living in other types of housing, such as flats or semi-detached homes. Surprisingly, we found that people paying high proportions of their income on housing costs had lower CRP levels, although only if they were renting. These findings have important implications for current housing debates, particularly in England.</p>
<h2>Home quality</h2>
<p>The poorer health of private renters in our study may reflect the average <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/705821/2016-17_EHS_Headline_Report.pdf">lower</a> quality of homes in the sector. Private rented homes, for example, are more likely to have damp than social rented or owner occupied homes, and less likely to have central heating. </p>
<p>Efforts to improve home quality in UK rented sectors have tended to <a href="https://fullfact.org/economy/did-mps-vote-against-homes-having-be-made-fit-live-in/">struggle</a> in parliament, raising questions about conflict of interest for MPs who are <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/tories-vote-down-law-requiring-landlords-make-their-homes-fit-for-human-habitation-a6809691.html">also landlords</a>. Despite this, from March this year UK landlords <a href="https://services.parliament.uk/bills/2017-19/homesfitnessforhumanhabitation.html">will be required</a> to maintain the condition of their properties throughout the tenancy to a habitable standard, with new routes of <a href="https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/bill-giving-tenants-power-to-take-action-against-landlords-becomes-law-59593">redress</a> for tenants where these standards are not met. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/255366/original/file-20190124-135154-11wc6a8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/255366/original/file-20190124-135154-11wc6a8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255366/original/file-20190124-135154-11wc6a8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255366/original/file-20190124-135154-11wc6a8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255366/original/file-20190124-135154-11wc6a8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255366/original/file-20190124-135154-11wc6a8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255366/original/file-20190124-135154-11wc6a8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Privately rented homes are more likely to be damp than owned or social housing homes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/mold-corner-window-516787591?src=T7x60f76Ww-LFYMM9AJ_rA-1-19">Burdun Iliya/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>That our analysis did not find a similarly negative health association for tenants in social housing, where a statutory minimum standard for housing (the <a href="https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/repairs/what_counts_as_a_decent_home">Decent Homes Standard</a>) is already in place, suggests that these new protections may improve the health of private tenants.</p>
<h2>Affordability</h2>
<p>We also found that paying high proportions of income on housing costs was positively associated with renters’ health. This was a surprising finding given the substantial evidence linking more <a href="https://academic.oup.com/aje/article/184/6/421/2576058">affordable</a> <a href="https://academic.oup.com/eurpub/article/26/5/788/2197597">housing</a> with better <a href="https://academic.oup.com/aje/article/174/7/753/115870">health</a>, but likely further emphasises a link with housing quality. </p>
<p>Renters seem to have to place themselves under financial strain to access decent quality housing and avoid the negative health impacts of poor housing. This finding supports efforts to improve housing affordability, challenging the move from social to more <a href="https://www.z2k.org/about-us/latest/an-end-to-affordable-rents/">expensive</a> “<a href="https://blog.shelter.org.uk/2015/08/what-is-affordable-housing/">affordable</a> <a href="http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-7747/CBP-7747.pdf">rent</a>” <a href="https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/comment/comment/lets-stop-converting-social-rented-homes-to-affordable-rent-54922">homes</a>, and <a href="https://academic.oup.com/aje/article/184/6/421/2576058">reductions</a> to <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jpubhealth/article/38/2/197/1752995">housing benefit</a>.</p>
<h2>Social housing</h2>
<p>In support of this, the charity <a href="https://england.shelter.org.uk/support_us/campaigns/a_vision_for_social_housing">Shelter</a> recently argued for significantly more social housing to be built. Although expensive, at £10.7 billion per year, the savings from reduced housing benefit expenditure (currently costing the UK government around £21 billion per year) and increased productivity mean the building of 3.1m homes is estimated to pay for itself within 40 years. </p>
<p>Our results suggest further potential savings due to improved health. Additionally, increased building could tackle the significant lack of housing suitable for <a href="https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/sites/default/files/housing-and-disabled-people-britains-hidden-crisis-main-report_0.pdf">disabled people</a>, with implications for health, well-being and employment. </p>
<p>Of course, as the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/grenfell-tower-39675">Grenfell fire</a> starkly demonstrated, social housing is not without its flaws, but the regulation and enforcement suggested in the report, alongside improvements due to the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act, should make significant improvements.</p>
<h2>Right to buy</h2>
<p>Meanwhile, a <a href="https://tomcopley.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Tom-Copley-AM-Right-to-Buy-Wrong-for-London-report-January-2019.pdf">recent report</a> found that over 40% of homes in London sold through the <a href="https://righttobuy.gov.uk/">Right to Buy</a> scheme are now in the private rented sector. This level is similar to <a href="https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201516/cmselect/cmcomloc/370/370.pdf">previous findings</a>. </p>
<p>As well as the important implications for social housing stock and government spending, our results indicate that this shift may well be having a significant impact on health, and provides additional support for <a href="https://labour.org.uk/press/communities-losing-conservatives-right-buy-john-healey/">calls</a> to <a href="http://www.cih.org/resources/PDF/Policy%20free%20download%20pdfs/Final%20Rethinking%20social%20housing%20report.pdf">suspend</a> or <a href="https://theconversation.com/renting-rights-what-england-can-learn-from-fairer-systems-around-the-world-103779">end</a> Right to Buy in England, rather than <a href="http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-7224/CBP-7224.pdf">extend</a> it, as the government currently plans (Right to Buy has already been suspended in Scotland and Wales).</p>
<h2>Security</h2>
<p>Housing quality is not the only way in which which housing affects health. The poorer health associated with private renting and better health associated with detached homes points to previous evidence linking housing security, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14036090120617">autonomy</a>, and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02673037.2011.559724">control</a> with health. </p>
<p>Tenants in the private rented sector are typically living in homes with tenancies of only six to 12 months, and can be evicted without having done anything wrong (“Section 21” evictions), undermining their sense of security and control. Section 21 evictions are sometimes used for “<a href="https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/about-us/how-citizens-advice-works/media/press-releases/complain-and-youre-out-research-confirms-link-between-tenant-complaints-and-revenge-eviction/">revenge evictions</a>”, leading to tenants living in substandard homes <a href="https://theconversation.com/private-tenants-are-putting-up-with-dangerously-cold-homes-scared-of-eviction-if-they-complain-72438">scared</a> to ask for improvements. Given these conditions, it is unsurprising that private renters are less likely to feel that where they live is their <a href="https://england.shelter.org.uk/support_us/campaigns/a_vision_for_social_housing">home</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/255367/original/file-20190124-135163-h3g2u2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/255367/original/file-20190124-135163-h3g2u2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255367/original/file-20190124-135163-h3g2u2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255367/original/file-20190124-135163-h3g2u2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255367/original/file-20190124-135163-h3g2u2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255367/original/file-20190124-135163-h3g2u2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255367/original/file-20190124-135163-h3g2u2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Surprise!</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/old-vacant-house-eviction-notice-on-387715486?src=54WLtEWO_Pu1J5Smt45Ltw-1-3">Zimmytws/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Section 21 evictions are now the <a href="https://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Homelessness.pdf">most common</a> reason cited by households seeking homelessness assistance in England. Private renters can end up moving so often that some have suggested that they have been forced to become <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.5153/sro.3491">nomadic</a>. Ending Section 21 evictions would improve private renters’ sense of security and control – and potentially health. </p>
<p>Similarly, organisations such as Shelter have <a href="https://england.shelter.org.uk/support_us/campaigns/longer_tenancies">campaigned</a> for a switch to landlords providing longer tenancies as standard as one way to improve security for private renters. This idea appears to be gaining some ground: the UK government <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/overcoming-the-barriers-to-longer-tenancies-in-the-private-rented-sector">consulted</a> on introducing three-year tenancies last year. </p>
<p>Together our findings, alongside those from previous research, highlight the importance of thinking about housing policy holistically. Policy should recognise the diverse and important roles housing plays in people’s lives, and prioritise its function as home, rather than asset.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/110334/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amy Clair is supported by funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (grant number ES/L009153/1). The data used in our analysis covered Great Britain in 2010-12. Since this time, a number of changes have been made to housing policies by the devolved governments of Wales and Scotland, for instance ending Right to Buy and, in Scotland, introducing new tenancies that do not permit no fault evictions unless certain grounds are met. For this reason our discussion here is primarily focused on England.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amanda Hughes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Housing policy needs to prioritise housing’s function as a home, rather than an asset.
Amy Clair, Research Fellow in Social Policy, University of Essex
Amanda Hughes, Senior Research Associate in Epidemiology, University of Bristol
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/97218
2018-06-11T11:36:16Z
2018-06-11T11:36:16Z
Fixing the housing crisis: it’s time to challenge our thirst for more living space
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222585/original/file-20180611-191981-1ju4kk6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Home alone.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-men-relaxing-floor-his-new-79916698">Heider Almeida</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s hard to be optimistic about British homes in the future. The <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-43279177">lack of accommodation</a> and the “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/feb/07/housing-market-government-white-paper-sajid-javid">broken</a>” housing market are perpetually in the news. Millennials, even <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43075099">middle earners</a>, are unlikely to own their own home. </p>
<p>The country’s new-builds <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/property/10909403/British-homes-are-the-smallest-in-Europe-study-finds.html">are the</a> smallest in Europe, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/feb/11/welcome-rabbit-hutch-britain-land-ever-shrinking-home">with families</a> “so cramped there isn’t enough space for them to live comfortably, sit down and eat together or even store necessities such as a vacuum cleaner”. As for the ageing population, the UK is <a href="https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201213/ldselect/ldpublic/140/140.pdf">said to be</a>
“woefully underprepared” for offering them appropriate housing and care. </p>
<p>These woes are variously blamed on “<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-43279177">greedy developers</a>” or Margaret Thatcher’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/housing-network/2017/oct/11/housing-crisis-england-scrap-right-to-buy-help-to-buy">Right to Buy policy</a> for council houses. Many commentators <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-30776306">believe</a> we need to build around 240,000 homes a year to solve the problem, while praising government schemes to increase ownership, such as the <a href="https://www.helptobuy.gov.uk">Help to Buy</a> policy. </p>
<p>I want to argue for a different approach to making housing more viable. It focuses on a major cultural shift that has contributed to the housing problem, but too often gets overlooked. </p>
<p>Nearly one-third of the population <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/families/bulletins/familiesandhouseholds/2017">now live</a> on their own. <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gb/book/9780230271920">Key demographic</a> changes, such as young people deferring marriage and children until later in life and older women outliving their spouses and living on their own, has resulted in the average UK household size <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personalandhouseholdfinances/incomeandwealth/compendium/generallifestylesurvey/2013-03-07/chapter3householdsfamilesandpeoplegenerallifestylesurveyoverviewareportonthe2011generallifestylesurvey#household-size">falling from</a> almost three per household in 1970 to 2.4 for the past decade. This is part of why the number of households is rising, currently at <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/345141/uk_housing_fact_file_2013.pdf">about</a> 1% a year. </p>
<p><strong>UK household composition 1961-2011</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222554/original/file-20180611-191954-1gupafm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222554/original/file-20180611-191954-1gupafm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222554/original/file-20180611-191954-1gupafm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=347&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222554/original/file-20180611-191954-1gupafm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=347&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222554/original/file-20180611-191954-1gupafm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=347&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222554/original/file-20180611-191954-1gupafm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222554/original/file-20180611-191954-1gupafm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222554/original/file-20180611-191954-1gupafm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/bulletins/populationandhouseholdestimatesfortheunitedkingdom/2011-03-21">ONS/Census</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Accompanying these shifts have been changes in people’s expectations. Householders nowadays <a href="http://housingspacestandards.co.uk/assets/space-standards_onscreen.pdf">consider</a> a spare bedroom a necessity, while children are less likely to share a room with siblings than was once the case. Despite all the talk of “rabbit hutch homes”, domestic space per person is <a href="http://eprints.uwe.ac.uk/12281/2/Output_1_Space_per_person.pdf">actually increasing</a>. With this in mind, here are a couple of alternative responses to the housing crisis that begin to make sense: </p>
<h2>1. What we mean by family</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23848220-the-making-of-home">1850 British census</a> defined the family as “the wife, children, servants, relatives, visitors, and persons constantly or accidentally in the house”. This is an interesting reminder that past home life was much more communal than today. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222559/original/file-20180611-191951-1h4xab2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222559/original/file-20180611-191951-1h4xab2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222559/original/file-20180611-191951-1h4xab2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222559/original/file-20180611-191951-1h4xab2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222559/original/file-20180611-191951-1h4xab2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222559/original/file-20180611-191951-1h4xab2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222559/original/file-20180611-191951-1h4xab2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222559/original/file-20180611-191951-1h4xab2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Our little brood.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/vintage-photo-family-russia-end-19th-62827723?src=fdE1yHWw4c6eKVDvwMf4zw-1-3">Kompaniets Taras</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The UK government already incentivises renting to lodgers through its <a href="https://www.gov.uk/rent-room-in-your-home/the-rent-a-room-scheme">Rent a Room</a> scheme, offering homeowners up to £7,500 tax-free income per year <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/jul/13/rent-out-your-spare-room">if they let space</a>. Taking a more creative approach to our perception of family and who we are willing to live with could make a big difference to the housing crisis. It would also be good for our wallets, not to mention <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/money/2012/jan/06/homeshare-scheme-tackle-housing-crisis">wellbeing</a>, helping people with loneliness and filling empty nests. </p>
<h2>2. Honey, I shrunk the house</h2>
<p>While the <a href="https://theconversation.com/australians-love-tiny-houses-so-why-arent-more-of-us-living-in-them-44230">tiny house movement</a> is becoming known for freeing people from mortgages and giving them more time to do what they love, this does not mean everyone needs to <a href="https://theconversation.com/tiny-houses-the-big-idea-that-could-take-some-heat-out-of-the-housing-crisis-77295">move into</a> a 25 square metre home. Just downsizing from a large family house once you reach a certain age would help address our “<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-world-needs-to-build-more-than-two-billion-new-homes-over-the-next-80-years-91794">ticking household bomb</a>”. </p>
<p>The trouble is that people’s willingness to move house <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18657099">declines drastically</a> after the age of 45 as they become more attached to their homes and wider community. Older householders often only move when they <a href="https://www.stir.ac.uk/research/hub/publication/19945">are forced</a> by factors such as injury, illness or the death of their partner. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222556/original/file-20180611-191981-305cer.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222556/original/file-20180611-191981-305cer.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222556/original/file-20180611-191981-305cer.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222556/original/file-20180611-191981-305cer.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222556/original/file-20180611-191981-305cer.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222556/original/file-20180611-191981-305cer.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222556/original/file-20180611-191981-305cer.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222556/original/file-20180611-191981-305cer.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rethink required.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/0yfWDwHOB0g">Jelle Harmen van Mourik</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To combat this, organisations such as <a href="https://upsideofdownsizing.com">this one</a> in the US, where there is a similar debate taking place, are already working to put a positive spin on downsizing and to market “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/may/31/downsizer-homes-last-stab-baby-boomers-gentrification-london">downsizer homes</a>” to people of a certain age. If we want to do something about the housing crisis, putting more emphasis on the upside of downsizing cannot be understated. </p>
<h2>3. Time for substitutions</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09613218.2017.1410375">My research</a> compares experiences of living in different sizes of house and household, and what motivates them. People expect more space for different reasons. Sometimes it makes it easier to enjoy living with your family members: more bathrooms per household reduces the potential for conflicts over who’s next in the shower, for instance. Or it may be because people have become accustomed to having a bedroom or study where they can do what they want and retreat from the company of others.</p>
<p>We need to play up the counterarguments: why is bigger always better, for example, when we know it often locks us into unaffordable mortgages and more housework and gardening? </p>
<p>We also need to encourage people to accommodate these desires in different ways. Soundproofing walls can create a better sense of privacy than having more rooms. Sofa beds can create temporary guest bedrooms that need not be empty for the majority of the year. </p>
<p>The answer to the housing crisis is not to build vast numbers of new homes and help people to own more space than they need. Instead, we need to make do with less and learn to appreciate it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97218/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katherine Ellsworth-Krebs does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
More homes, more homes, more homes. What about less elbow room instead?
Katherine Ellsworth-Krebs, Lecturer in Sustainable Development, University of St Andrews
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/75880
2017-04-07T11:08:03Z
2017-04-07T11:08:03Z
Britain’s housing market is in poor health, but it’s not just a shortage – here’s why
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/164344/original/image-20170406-16682-1wdcrt2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bobthelomond/4965034971/sizes/l">bob the lomond/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The UK’s housing market is in <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fixing-our-broken-housing-market">critical condition</a>. The symptoms are stark: demand in several regions far <a href="https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/research/key-issues-parliament-2015/social-protection/housing-supply/">outstrips supply</a>, prices relative to earnings in many major cities <a href="http://www.cityam.com/259600/one-graph-explains-horrors-london-house-prices-and-why">are beyond the reach of most people</a>, home ownership is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/apr/30/uk-throes-of--housing-crisis">increasingly unobtainable</a>, the homeless population <a href="https://theconversation.com/half-a-century-of-homelessness-in-the-uk-heres-what-has-changed-70243">is growing</a> and low-income households are too often having to settle for substandard homes. </p>
<p>Yet so far, an exact diagnosis has proved elusive and, as a result, effective treatment has not been administered. The problem is that the housing sector is often described in shorthand – the housing market, “affordable” housing, the neighbourhood, or council housing, to name just four such ways of talking about housing. Each is quite different and even just looking at any one masks more than it illuminates – there is considerable variation in the quality and attractiveness of council housing, for instance. </p>
<p>Housing is a complex, interdependent system, with many components of different types and scales. Its function isn’t isolated from its environment – the operation of the housing system is closely connected to the land market and planning mechanismsas well as the construction and development industries. And housing exists across a range of jurisdictions and tenures, each accompanied by different laws, rights and obligations. </p>
<h2>Living history</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/164345/original/image-20170406-16663-3uwtm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/164345/original/image-20170406-16663-3uwtm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164345/original/image-20170406-16663-3uwtm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164345/original/image-20170406-16663-3uwtm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164345/original/image-20170406-16663-3uwtm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164345/original/image-20170406-16663-3uwtm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164345/original/image-20170406-16663-3uwtm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The mind behind Right to Buy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Hilda_Thatcher#/media/File:Margaret_Thatcher_(1983).jpg">Nationaal Archief/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The housing system has also been moulded by history. For one thing, much of the UK’s housing stock is with us as part of a long-established and enduring built environment. It has also been shaped by extensive and overlapping sets of more or less effective government interventions over time: from the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-a-garden-city-and-why-is-money-being-spent-on-building-them-44610">garden city movement</a>, to <a href="https://www.york.ac.uk/spsw/news-and-events/news/2012/breaking-up-communities/">post-war slum clearance</a>, Margaret Thatcher’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/conservative-housing-plan-is-a-blast-from-the-past-amid-a-21st-century-crisis-40178">Right to Buy</a> and many others. These policies are situated amid shifts and changes in <a href="https://theconversation.com/moving-on-from-home-ownership-for-generation-rent-71628">cultural beliefs about housing</a>, aspirations and material constraints. </p>
<p>Housing systems are affected by economic change and income growth at local and regional levels – as well as interest rates, regulation of mortgage lending, housing taxes and other policies that privilege one set of housing arrangements over another. Demography – encompassing trends in migration, household size and ageing – also contributes to the shape and size of housing demand. </p>
<p>Yet these relationships run both ways. Housing is such a critical consideration for political and economic decisions that the state of the sector directly affects the economy and demography of the UK, as well as being affected by them. In a housing bust, for instance, falling incomes can reduce demand and house prices. But if house prices continue to fall, this can also reduce consumption and spending, as people feel worse off. </p>
<h2>Unpicking the threads</h2>
<p>When you think about housing as a system, it becomes clear that the “housing crisis” is actually a collection of symptoms from several chronic, overlapping problems. The UK housing market has experienced decades of privileged taxation treatment. Consecutive governments have been obsessed with boosting rates of home ownership. Meanwhile, the development industry’s business model is based on lifting land value, with planning permission from local authorities, which results in the construction of more expensive properties. And there has been long-term under-investment in social and affordable housing, combined with an over-reliance on welfare benefits to offset rising rents. </p>
<p>We know that the housing system is dominated by the existing stock, so it stands to reason that it will take a long time to untangle and address these issues, which have built up over the decades. That is, assuming that political consensus is strong enough to allow coherent long-term policy to move forward in step. This is a fair definition of a “wicked” problem. </p>
<p>To build consensus and tackle these issues, housing policy and practice need to be based on evidence, which is grounded in this systemic point of view. The evidence will need to be nuanced, according to the great variety in the sector across the UK: after all, housing is largely devolved, and significant differences between the situations and approaches in Scotland, Northern Ireland, England and Wales are already apparent. For instance, there is no Right to Buy in Scotland – instead, a new private tenancy law will produce longer-term tenancies that may yet encourage more families into the rented sector.</p>
<p>To this end, the University of Glasgow, together with eight other UK universities and four non-academic partners, is embarking on an ambitious programme: the UK <a href="http://www.esrc.ac.uk/news-events-and-publications/news/news-items/new-research-centre-to-inform-uk-housing-policy/">Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence</a> (CaCHE). Our aim is to put evidence and analysis back at the heart of this complex social and economic problem. This research will provide the ammunition to influence and transform housing policy and practice through better problem diagnosis, policy evaluation and appraisal of new opportunities, in order to generate improved housing outcomes for all.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/75880/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kenneth Gibb receives funding from ESRC. He is chairman of Sanctuary Scotland housing association and a trustee of the Urban Studies Foundation.</span></em></p>
The symptoms are clear, but the cure will remain elusive until we recognise the many sources of the problem.
Kenneth Gibb, Professor of Housing Economics, University of Glasgow
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/54127
2016-02-23T13:42:53Z
2016-02-23T13:42:53Z
Here’s what David Cameron could learn from a history of social housing
<p>There’s a housing crisis engulfing the UK, and London is at its epicentre. In his recent <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/prime-minister-pledges-to-transform-sink-estates">vow to regenerate</a> over 100 so-called “sink estates”, David Cameron would have us understand that public housing has failed: that the result is poor people, living in poorly designed homes, that were poorly managed. But this version of history is not definitive - nor even particularly accurate. </p>
<p>So what can history tell us about what works and what doesn’t, when it comes to housing? As planners and politicians cast about for solutions to the current crisis, the answer may well be found at their feet – or rather, under them. </p>
<p>In 1892, parliament realised that the building of the <a href="http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vols43-4/pp640-645">Blackwall Tunnel</a> would require hundreds of homes to be demolished. This resulted in a new act of parliament, which stated that no work could commence on the tunnel until those evicted had been rehoused. And so, with private builders unable to supply these new homes, the first council housing in London was built.</p>
<p>But while the new estates sheltered those displaced by construction, their rent was still relatively expensive, so the nation’s poor and vulnerable remained in the private rented sector. So-called “slum landlords” routinely exploited the high demand for housing, leaving vulnerable tenants with <a href="http://www.bl.uk/victorian-britain/articles/the-built-environment">substandard and overcrowded accommodation</a>.</p>
<p>The pioneers of <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/housing-network/2013/oct/02/todays-housing-philanthropists">housing philanthropy</a> – Joseph Rowntree, George Peabody and <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/housing-network/2012/aug/13/octavia-hill-legacy-social-housing-providers">Octavia Hill</a>, to name a few – battled to tackle poor housing conditions, homelessness and poverty. But it was often <a href="http://www.socialfinance.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/philanthropy_and_affordable_housing_final.pdf">difficult to attract</a> the required support from investors for philanthropic housing projects, when the alternative profits from being a slum landlord were so high.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the government’s view was that – whatever the solution to the urban housing crisis may be – it most certainly was not state-owned housing. The parallels with 2016 <a href="http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/raids-on-landlords-in-east-london-uncover-families-in-pestridden-victorian-slums-a3118281.html">are obvious</a>. </p>
<h2>Search for solutions</h2>
<p>But all that rapidly changed in the first half of the 20th century – particularly following World War I and World War II – as successive governments took greater responsibility for the social welfare of citizens. Building programmes were supported by government grants and subsidies, which allowed rents to drop below market levels and made housing available to lower income households. </p>
<p>The vision of <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/bevan_aneurin.shtml">Anuerin Bevan</a> – a key architect of the NHS – was that council housing, owned and managed by local authorities and built to a high standard, would be home to a diverse range of social classes. Bevan’s vision was <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14380936">not achieved in its entirety</a>: some architectural design and building materials did not meet the needs of residents. Even so, by the 1960s, <a href="http://fet.uwe.ac.uk/conweb/house_ages/council_housing/print.htm">more than 500,000 flats</a> had been added to the housing stock in London alone. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112553/original/image-20160223-16455-ynn692.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112553/original/image-20160223-16455-ynn692.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=331&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112553/original/image-20160223-16455-ynn692.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=331&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112553/original/image-20160223-16455-ynn692.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=331&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112553/original/image-20160223-16455-ynn692.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112553/original/image-20160223-16455-ynn692.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112553/original/image-20160223-16455-ynn692.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Worse for wear.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/sarflondondunc/6125101642/sizes/l">sarflondondunc</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>From the late 1970s, council housing was seen as increasingly problematic. As well as an ideological shift away from state provision, the government had concerns about the cost of maintaining council-owned houses, and the higher concentration of poor and vulnerable citizens living in them. It appeared that the 20th century’s use of council housing to provide accommodation for lower income households would not be a 21st-century solution. </p>
<p>Instead, the Thatcher government’s Right to Buy policy for council tenants sought to cement the UK as a nation of home owners. As well as being sold off, council housing stock was transferred to housing associations or arms length management organisations. Together with <a href="http://www.cds.coop/about-us/mutual-home-ownership">housing cooperatives and mutuals</a>, these new arrangements became known as “social housing” and “registered social landlords”. </p>
<p>The idea was that housing associations would be able to borrow on the markets to invest in their housing stock – making them less dependent on government funding – and that tenants would have a strong influence about housing management decisions. <a href="https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/evolution-stock-transfer-housing-associations">Tenant participation was certainly strengthened</a> in all forms of social housing, particularly where associations were local and community-based. Greater private investment was also secured to enhance housing quality.</p>
<h2>Yesterday’s issues today</h2>
<p>In 2010, the coalition government began referring to “registered providers of housing”, dropping the “social” altogether. That said, it should be noted that in other countries in the UK, housing policy has moved in different directions since the issue was devolved to the governments of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. </p>
<p>Now, the Conservative government is introducing the Right to Buy for housing association tenants, as well as implementing fixed-term tenancies and the policy that tenants on higher incomes should pay more rent or leave. This all sounds like the final death knell for mixed income, long-term and secure public housing. In its place comes “affordable housing” – a term which is stretched to describe homes <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/starter-homes-for-450k-camerons-crusade-for-housing-couldnt-be-more-deluded-a6684491.html">costing up to £450,000</a>. </p>
<p>The current housing crisis is displacing lower income families from many parts of our cities. Young people have <a href="http://wealthgap.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/files/2013/02/No-06-Fallacy-of-Choice1.pdf">much worse housing prospects</a> than their parents. Recent <a href="http://www.resolutionfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Audit-2016-1.pdf">research says that</a> in less than ten years time, only the rich will own their homes. And new cases of slum landlords <a href="http://www.economist.com/node/21542164">have been reported</a> in London. It is 2016 but, when it comes to housing, in many ways it could actually be 1891. </p>
<p>The key difference now is that we can look to the past for lessons. We have learned that private developers and landlords cannot be the entire solution. We know how to deliver very large scale housing programmes in periods of debt and austerity. And we can do so again now – while avoiding the pitfalls – with a diversity of social housing models and new roles for private developers, landlords and investors.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54127/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Flint works for the University of Sheffield. He has received funding for his research from a range of funders including Government, local authorities, UK Research Councils and charities. He is a member of the Housing Studies Association. </span></em></p>
It is 2016 but, when it comes to housing, in many ways it could actually be 1891.
John Flint, Professor of Town and Regional Planning, University of Sheffield
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/50133
2015-11-27T15:17:22Z
2015-11-27T15:17:22Z
Thatcher helped people to buy their own homes – but the poorest paid the price
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103354/original/image-20151126-28306-srhiyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"></span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/nicohogg/2452736785/sizes/l">Nicobobinus/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It has been 25 years since Margaret Thatcher gave her final, tearful speech as prime minister of the UK on the steps of Downing Street. In the decades since, we’ve had time to <a href="http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/law/research/projects/crimetrajectories">get to grips</a> with the legacy left behind by one of the most polarising figures in British politics. Cutting through the visceral, ideological storm she left in her wake has been no easy task, and <a href="http://bjc.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2015/09/13/bjc.azv088.full.pdf+html">our research</a> has found that the story told by the data is more complex than we could have imagined. </p>
<p>Two things stand out from Thatcher’s early days in office: her commitment to upholding “law and order” and support for the police, and her aim to give “ordinary people” the chance to own their own homes. Ultimately, these aims would prove to be self-defeating: Thatcher’s “right-to-buy” policy actually ended up increasing inequality and worsening crime in the UK’s most deprived areas. Here’s how it happened.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103368/original/image-20151126-28284-1bj2sg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103368/original/image-20151126-28284-1bj2sg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103368/original/image-20151126-28284-1bj2sg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103368/original/image-20151126-28284-1bj2sg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103368/original/image-20151126-28284-1bj2sg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1006&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103368/original/image-20151126-28284-1bj2sg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1006&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103368/original/image-20151126-28284-1bj2sg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1006&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Margaret Thatcher.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_miners%27_strike_(1984%E2%80%9385)#/media/File:Margaret_Thatcher_(1983).jpg">Jan Arkesteijn/Wikimedia commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The right-to-buy your council home, if you were a sitting tenant, was introduced by the <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1980/51">1980 Housing Act</a>. All of a sudden, people who had never had the option before could realistically think about owning their own home. But of course, just like today, people preferred some types of housing over others. A detached house was the dream; failing that, a semi-detached house; and as a third preference, a terraced house would do. </p>
<p>Flats – especially flats in high-rise blocks – were not a popular option back then. So, over time, as people bought the homes they once rented from their local councils, the authorities were left with a depleted housing stock, and a very different portfolio of properties. “Nice” houses on “nice” estates went quickly, while less desirable accommodation hardly shifted at all. </p>
<p>This was particularly noticeable in localities where jobs were lost due to wider economic restructuring, which particularly affected communities in the former industrial heartlands of the midlands, northern England, Scotland and south Wales. </p>
<h2>A last resort</h2>
<p>Slowly, council estates started to be the preserve of society’s poorest citizens, whom councils had an obligation to house under the <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1977/48/contents/enacted">1977 Homeless Persons Act</a>. But many factors contribute to homelessness: people who are homeless are also more likely to have mental health problems, be unemployed or unable to work – often for reasons outside their control. As a result, council-owned tower block estates started to become “social containers” for many people facing such difficulties. </p>
<iframe src="https://charts.datawrapper.de/h6N5D/index.html" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" oallowfullscreen="oallowfullscreen" msallowfullscreen="msallowfullscreen" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>As jobs left an area, drug use increased – a trend exacerbated by the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/332952/horr79.pdf">heroin epidemic of the 1980s</a>. And in localities where drug use increased, so did pretty crime. Over time, the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14380936">once-respectable</a> council housing estates of the 1950s and 1960s started to be regarded as the housing of last resort. </p>
<p>Councils were prevented by government policy from using any of the money raised from the sale of their properties to either build new homes or refurbish old ones. As a result, local authorities struggled to maintain the standards of their accommodation, and more and more of their housing stock became dilapidated. </p>
<h2>Tough times</h2>
<p>Under these pressures, some families broke down. Children of divorce <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J002v33n04_05">did worse academically</a> and were more likely to get excluded from school, which led to an increased likelihood of <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Z6VZ1kW8cmMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+school+years+coleman&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwisw6628LDJAhUEKw8KHTjfBpYQ6AEIIDAA#v=onepage&q=explaining%20delinquency&f=false">juvenile delinquency</a>. Petty crime, thefts from poorly protected houses, car jacking and the rise of the drug economy meant that over the next 15 to 20 years the location of crime gradually but persistently shifted toward disadvantaged areas with more social housing. Crime was going up generally, but it appears to have gone up especially sharply for those in the socially rented sector. </p>
<p>This redistribution is evident when you look at the data collected about crime over the years. Before 1980, the <a href="https://data.gov.uk/dataset/general_household_survey">General Household Survey</a> found that those who owned their own homes were consistently less likely to be the victims of domestic thefts than those in rented council housing – but only slightly so. On average, there were 0.02 thefts from the homes of owners, and 0.03 from those of social renters. </p>
<iframe src="https://charts.datawrapper.de/6UjLx/index.html" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" oallowfullscreen="oallowfullscreen" msallowfullscreen="msallowfullscreen" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>But throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, the <a href="http://www.crimesurvey.co.uk/">British Crime Survey</a> (now called the Crime Survey for England and Wales) showed a dramatic increase in rates of property crimes for those living in the social rented sector. And while those living in their own homes did experience rises too, these were neither as dramatic, nor as pronounced. In 1982, the average number of domestic property crimes reported by owners was 0.13, while for social renters it was 0.22. This rose throughout the 1980s and 1990s so that by 1996 the figures were 0.15 for owners and 0.34 for social renters. </p>
<p>By introducing right-to-buy, while requiring councils to house those in greatest need, and preventing them from building new homes, our research suggests that Thatcher’s government fuelled the spatial redistribution of domestic property crime. While Thatcher may have won some additional votes from those who could afford to buy a decent home under the scheme, the brunt of the harmful, long-term effects were borne by society’s most disadvantaged citizens.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50133/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Farrall received funding from the UK's Economic and Social Research Council for this research (award ES/K006398/1). </span></em></p>
Thatcher’s right to buy scheme had some unexpected consequences for society’s most disadvantaged citizens.
Stephen Farrall, Professor of Criminology, University of Sheffield
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/48274
2015-09-29T05:23:55Z
2015-09-29T05:23:55Z
London housing protests echo Glasgow rent strikes of 100 years ago
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96455/original/image-20150928-423-zuh5ot.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Protesters prevent sheriff officers entering the tenements of rent refusers</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=red+skirts+on+clydeside&client=safari&hl=en-gb&tbm=isch&prmd=sivn&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAmoVChMI-NftioGXyAIVy7oaCh30DQYY">Wikimedia</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Anger over government housing policy is undoubtedly one of the running themes of the 2010s. Most recently we have seen <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/34373521/cereal-cafe-attacked-by-affordable-housing-protesters-in-east-london">anti-gentrification protests</a> in east London over people being pushed out due to huge increases in private rent costs and a lack of social housing, which made headlines for targeting the hipster Cereal Killer Cafe in Brick Lane. </p>
<p>This is an era of severe shortages in social housing, aggravated by Tory plans <a href="http://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/CBP-7224">to extend</a> the right to buy scheme to housing associations. We have seen <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2b2a01c6-3779-11e5-bdbb-35e55cbae175.html">staggering increases</a> in the costs of private renting, <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/lack-of-affordable-housing-blamed-for-50-drop-in-young-homeowners-10515982.html">dwindling owner occupation</a> and of course the <a href="http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/housing_benefit_and_local_housing_allowance/changes_to_housing_benefit/bedroom_tax">bedroom tax</a>. The London protests were a reaction to the effective social cleansing of working-class residents by Tory/Lib Dem coaliton policy. Local tenants’ organisations and protest groups have also been formed to co-ordinate discontent. Meanwhile, Corbyn’s Labour <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/sep/28/labour-biggest-public-housebuilding-drive-since-1970s">is proposing</a> the biggest social-housing programme since the 1970s. </p>
<p>This is all exactly 100 years after the Glasgow rent strikes of 1915, another period that lacked affordable and decent rental accommodation and squeezed those who could least afford it. World War I saw numerous rent strikes in different towns and cities around the UK <a href="http://freespace.virgin.net/labwise.history6/rentrick.htm">including Leeds</a>, Sheffield and <a href="http://wolvestuc.org.uk/index.php/wbdtuc/78-articles/our-history/589-wbdtuc1865-1990?showall=1&limitstart=">Wolverhampton</a> in 1913-14, but the Glasgow protests were the ones that transformed the country and ultimately brought forth state policies for working-class housing.</p>
<h2>Glasgow at war</h2>
<p>It is vital to appreciate the context of Clydeside at that time. Glasgow was an industrial powerhouse, the <a href="http://www.glasgow.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=3475">“second city of the Empire”</a>. It was an important producer of the armaments of war – and of soldiers for the front line. The city had <a href="http://www.theglasgowstory.com/story/?id=TGSD0">grown enormously</a> during its Victorian heyday, and this continued in the early 20th century as the huge needs of the war industries boosted migration to the city. </p>
<p>By the mid-1910s, the city was suffering from acute overcrowding problems. In early 1915 private landlords took advantage to announce that rents would increase by up to 25%. They had a virtual monopoly over working-class housing, which put them in a powerful position, and they would not have expected much opposition at a time when so many men were away fighting in France. </p>
<p>Yet the Glasgow Women’s Housing Association, established before 1914 to fight for better housing conditions, soon galvanised growing discontent over the increases by calling for a city-wide rent strike (and note the parallels to the current London protests, in which women <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-29322319">have been</a> heavily involved). Early support from the areas closest to the shipyards, such as Govan and Partick, where tens of thousands were crammed into poorly maintained tenements, soon spread across much of the city. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9fRF19mu2VI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>By September 1915 around 20,000 households were <a href="http://sites.scran.ac.uk/redclyde/redclyde/rceve5.htm">on rent strike</a> in Glasgow alone, and the protests were spreading to other parts of the west of Scotland and beyond. Street-level organisation by working-class women ensured that when court officials arrived to evict those refusing to pay rent, they were met by strong opposition. Sheriff officers were forcibly prevented from entering tenement closes to carry out evictions. When 18 tenants were prosecuted in November 1915 for not paying their rent, it led to <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01sgk4m">huge demonstrations</a> by the tenants’ movement. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96451/original/image-20150928-469-czjcxh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96451/original/image-20150928-469-czjcxh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96451/original/image-20150928-469-czjcxh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96451/original/image-20150928-469-czjcxh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96451/original/image-20150928-469-czjcxh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=609&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96451/original/image-20150928-469-czjcxh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=609&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96451/original/image-20150928-469-czjcxh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=609&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Window poster from the Glasgow Women’s Housing Association 1915.</span>
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</figure>
<h2>Fear of a Red Revolt</h2>
<p>Led overwhelmingly by women such as <a href="https://remembermarybarbour.wordpress.com">Mary Barbour</a> and <a href="http://sites.scran.ac.uk/redclyde/redclyde/docs/rcpeohelencrawfurd.htm">Helen Crawfurd</a>, this tenants’ movement was instrumental in the fight against the landlords. It led to growing numbers of shipyard and industrial workers agitating for better working conditions and wages, which prompted fears from the government that a Bolshevik-style revolution would break out on what was increasingly viewed as <a href="http://www.theglasgowstory.com/story/?id=TGSEC04">“Red Clydeside”</a>. Barbour and other leaders of the rent strike were active socialists in the Independent Labour Party, which was strong on Clydeside at the time.</p>
<p>Faced with the threat of a class war at a time when the country desperately needed to unite against foreign enemies, the government felt forced to intervene in late 1915 by passing a <a href="https://libcom.org/history/1915-the-glasgow-rent-strike">Rent Restrictions Act</a> that froze rents at pre-war levels. After securing this famous victory, municipal housing provision came to be seen as a right. It paved the way to further tenant demands that led to the <a href="http://fet.uwe.ac.uk/conweb/house_ages/council_housing/section3.htm">Housing and Town Planning Act of 1919</a> in which council housing was born. </p>
<p>The campaigns of 1915 also went on to inform <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/31/poll-tax-riots-25-years-ago-political-awakening-carnage-trafalgar-square">opposition to the poll tax</a> in the late 1980s and early 1990s and then more recently <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-21981163">the bedroom tax</a>. Bedroom-tax protesters have paid tribute to Barbour by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hQatP3fC8k">singing about</a> belonging to “Mary’s army”, for instance. We can also thank the Glasgow protests for the growth of tenants organisations and <a href="http://www.defendcouncilhousing.org.uk/dch/">campaigns for</a> more affordable accommodation and council housing. It is all a reminder of the power of people to bring change, just like the Jerermy Corbyn election and the Scottish Yes campaign – another protest currently celebrating its anniversary. So much changes, so much stays the same.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/48274/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gerry Mooney does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Rocketing rents? Fierce protests against housing policies against the interests of the poor? Cereal Killer attacks have many predecessors - particularly Glasgow in 1915.
Gerry Mooney, Senior Lecturer in Social Policy and Criminology, The Open University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/44471
2015-07-09T14:51:57Z
2015-07-09T14:51:57Z
Budget 2015: housing reforms do not add up to more homes
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87892/original/image-20150709-10876-jf78d7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A budget without bite for tackling a shortfall of homes.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/freddiebrown/8636473869/in/photolist-2CsJBR-eabbMT-bUJbLk-5saozc-9C8iH5-4rN583-DvShj-DvShi-4rJ1Gv-quBug2-cc6qSA-u468Hn-bBuFoX-ucMV3Q-7kcHTx-7kcHP8-DvSha-5SorfG-pYeMSr-4rN59C-4rJ1Jz-4rJ1Kn-4rJ1HP-4rJ1EX-4rNbJQ-4rN8eJ-4rN8fs-KKvHo-vVSjt">FreddieBrown</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Let’s start with a reminder: it is universally <a href="https://theconversation.com/housebuilding-promises-are-pie-in-the-sky-heres-why-40930">recognised that</a> we do not build anywhere near enough homes. Successive governments and oppositions have been completely unwilling to take on the vested interests and chronic problems that go with volatile and rising <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/439700/HPIReport20150626.pdf">real house prices</a>. There is undoubtedly insufficient social and affordable housing to meet need. </p>
<p>Paradoxically, at one and the same time, <a href="http://housingandwellbeing.org/documents">we have</a> too little investment in new housing and too much in unproductive second-hand private housing. <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/budget-july-2015">The budget</a> has done nothing to address any of these problems. But that is certainly not to say that housing has not been significantly affected by George Osborne’s latest announcement. On the contrary, the extent of the possible repercussions takes one’s breath away. </p>
<p>Tax proposals included two important changes for private housing. One, of course, was <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/how-budget-affect-me/11722864/Budget-2015-How-inheritance-tax-changes-might-affect-you.html">inheritance tax</a> and giving families up to £1m of exemption (including help for those trading down in the housing market). These reforms were expected but continue to stoke demand for what are unproductive assets and also privilege housing insiders over outsiders. </p>
<p>As part of the benefit cuts, the chancellor <a href="http://www.mortgagestrategy.co.uk/news-and-features/sectors/products/products-news/budget-support-for-mortgage-interest-to-become-a-loan/2022413.article">decided to</a> convert social-security help with paying mortgage interest into a loan – a retrograde step back to the 1990s, which like many of these reforms awaits clarification in the detail. On the other hand, there will be widespread support for the <a href="http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/buytolet/article-3153541/Profits-slashed-wealthy-buy-let-landlords-Budget-crackdown-mortgage-tax-relief.html">tax-relief cuts</a> to buy-to-let landlords – though they may be more concerned by the <a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/staggers/2015/07/budget-2015-what-welfare-changes-did-george-osborne-announce-and-what-do-they-mean">four-year freeze</a> on local housing allowances for working-age benefit recipients. Despite all this, there is nothing new on housing supply, other than promises about planning reforms to come.</p>
<h2>Welfare and social housing</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/jul/05/george-osborne-cut-benefits-cap-20000-year-outside-london">Reducing the</a> benefit cap to £20,000 per family (£23,000 in London) will of course hit larger families disproportionately hard. It is also <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/housing-network/2015/may/18/housing-benefit-cuts-disaster-young-people">proposed that</a> most 18-21 year olds will be ineligible for the housing-cost element of universal credit that will replace housing benefit. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/housing-network/2015/jul/08/osborne-high-earners-social-housing-rent-rise-budget">decision to</a> finally go for the market rent for those in work in social housing will meanwhile continue the process of breaking up previously mixed-tenure communities, already signalled by the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/apr/14/right-to-buy-housing-associations-your-questions-answered">right-to-buy proposals</a> for housing-association properties (that <a href="https://www.housing.org.uk/media/blog/right-to-buy-extension-estimated-to-cost-12-billion/">don’t add up</a>) announced earlier in the year. The devil will again be in the details of how this is all supposed to work, but it is <a href="http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/policy/pay-to-stay-measure-slammed-by-landlords/7010685.article">estimated that</a> the market-rent proposal may affect up to 300,000 tenants. Councils will have to repay the higher rents to Whitehall but associations will be allowed to recycle them for investment.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87931/original/image-20150709-10904-7mdxue.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87931/original/image-20150709-10904-7mdxue.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87931/original/image-20150709-10904-7mdxue.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87931/original/image-20150709-10904-7mdxue.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87931/original/image-20150709-10904-7mdxue.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87931/original/image-20150709-10904-7mdxue.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87931/original/image-20150709-10904-7mdxue.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87931/original/image-20150709-10904-7mdxue.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Housing association right to buy looks very wobbly.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-11110234/stock-photo-house-of-cards-on-a-wooden-table-very-shallow-depth-of-field.html?src=csl_recent_image-1">Sean Nel</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The housing rabbit in the budget hat was not the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-33437115">living wage proposal</a> but rather the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/housing-network/2015/jul/08/social-housing-rent-fall-chancellor-budget">decision to</a> impose four years of 1% cuts on social-housing rents as a way of cutting the housing-benefit bill. This is uncharted territory. I presume <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/homes-and-communities-agency">the regulator</a> has been consulted, but it raises all sorts of questions for landlords with the loan covenants, business plans and the like that one would expect of any long-term business based on security and equally long-term funding. </p>
<p>Landlords in England increased rents precisely because of the previous round of policy – the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/affordable-homes-programme-2011-to-2015-guidance-and-allocations">affordable homes programme</a>. This cut subsidies to tenants, so it is small wonder that rents were rising above inflation. We will see how the new move pans out, but it is certainly not a proposal to encourage new investment in social or affordable housing. The Office for Budget Responsibility <a href="http://budgetresponsibility.org.uk/economic-fiscal-outlook-july-2015/">reckons the</a> rent reductions will cumulatively reduce housing association output by 14,000. The National Housing Federation <a href="http://m.insidehousing.co.uk/rent-reduction-will-lead-to-14000-fewer-homes-built/7010694.article">thinks it will be</a> more like 27,000. </p>
<p>The Office of National Statistics has <a href="http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/business/finance/watchdog-warns-of-association-reclassification-threat/7010691.article">meanwhile raised</a> another issue in this regard. It wonders whether the government taking more control over housing associations through the right-to-buy policy and now control over their rental income should lead the sector to be reclassified as a public-sector activity on the national balance sheet.</p>
<p>It suits the government for associations to be treated separately to the public-sector because they hold £60bn of housing debt, which in the event of a reclassification would be added to the public national debt (ironically, the rent reduction would add to the deficit because it would be treated as a fall in publi -sector income). To be fair, this classification issue is a longstanding controversy, but the government’s latest moves may yet force the issue.</p>
<p>So the process of concentrating the poorest people in social housing continues apace. The housing policy changes are redistributional in a number of different ways but they do nothing to increase housing supply or make a major contribution to tackling unmet need. Meanwhile the policies for the buy-to-let sector and social renting will likely reduce investment in rented housing. The chancellor said in his budget statement that he is “against unfair subsidies wherever he finds them”. It is hard to see how such logic applies to housing when these reforms broadly push the sector away from either fair or arguably more rational approaches to subsidy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/44471/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kenneth Gibb currently receives research funding from ESRC, Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Commission on Local Tax Reform. He is a committee member of Sanctuary Scotland housing association.</span></em></p>
The budget contained some major housing reforms, but the chancellor had no answer to the sector’s number-one problem.
Kenneth Gibb, Professor of Housing Economics, University of Glasgow
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/40211
2015-04-15T09:45:28Z
2015-04-15T09:45:28Z
Tories offer the dream of home ownership – but do Britons want it any more?
<p>The Conservative Party has <a href="https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/manifesto2015/ConservativeManifesto2015.pdf">pledged</a> to extend the Right-to-Buy scheme to housing association tenants in England, offering discounts worth tens of thousands of pounds depending on length of tenancy and where you live.</p>
<p>Could this new announcement, which David Cameron <a href="http://news.sky.com/story/1464642/pm-promises-good-life-for-working-people">claims</a> proves that the Conservatives “are the party of working people, offering you security at every stage of your life”, be an appealing prospect for England’s most disadvantaged young people? After all, they may well be the least likely to ever get a foothold in the property market.</p>
<p>The latest <a href="http://www.natcen.ac.uk/our-research/research/the-reality-of-generation-rent/">Generation Rent</a> report found that 39% of 20-45 year-olds either don’t know or haven’t decided whether the current Help to Buy and New Buy schemes have had a positive impact on the first time buyer market.</p>
<p>Despite increased assistance for first-time buyers over the past few years, our research found that the proportion of young people who don’t want to own a home increased over the last five years. At the same time the proportion of those who are likely to become first-time buyers has fallen over the same period. </p>
<p>The proportion of young people who are saving to buy a property has fallen by six percentage points since 2011. This drop could be because young people no longer see the point in saving for a deposit; our findings show that high property prices, the size of the deposit required and low income were the three most significant barriers to buying a property for young people.</p>
<h2>Giving up on buying</h2>
<p>The combination of high property prices and years without real-terms wage growth means that young people are unable to save the amount required for a deposit or to get a big enough mortgage to buy a property. The time it takes to save for a deposit has jumped, from an average of 3.6 years in 2011 to 5.35 years in 2014. The Generation Rent report found that 65% of young people reported being put off applying for a mortgage due to fear of being turned down (an increase of 10 percentage points from 2011). Nearly 80% believed banks do not want to lend to first-time buyers, and 21% believed it is virtually impossible for first-time buyers to obtain a mortgage.</p>
<p>With this in mind, could extending the Right-to-Buy scheme to housing association tenants in England help improve the situation for aspiring young homeowners who currently find themselves in social housing?</p>
<p>Enabling people who live in council or other social housing to purchase their homes at a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/right-to-buy-buying-your-council-home/discounts">discounted rate</a> would certainly help to eliminate two of the three biggest barriers that young people face – namely high property prices and the size of the deposit required – and could help this disenfranchised group become homeowners.</p>
<h2>Forgotten renters</h2>
<p>Cameron’s announcement may help to reinvigorate enthusiasm for home-ownership among a section of young people but what about those who are not in social housing and those waiting for years to get a council house? An already depleted pool of social housing has played a part in forcing young people into the private rental sector, with 49% of those aged 16-34 in this category, overtaking the number of owner occupiers in that age group in 2011-12. </p>
<p>Between 2003-04 and 2013-14, the proportion of younger households in the private rented sector more than doubled. This new announcement will not help those who are privately renting and unable to buy a home, and may serve to alienate them and create resentment towards those in social housing.</p>
<p>The government’s existing Help-to-Buy initiative has clearly not helped change young people’s perceptions and experiences of the housing market. Despite this, the extended policy will undoubtedly be an attractive proposal to some social housing tenants, and may provoke a last minute change of heart from some traditional Labour supporters to vote Conservative. Whether this scheme will change young people’s attitudes to home-ownership remains to be seen.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40211/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nevena Ilic works for NatCen Social Research.</span></em></p>
Cameron’s pledge may help some in social housing, but it offers no hope for everyone else who’s locked out of the market.
Nevena Ilic, Researcher, National Centre for Social Research
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