HOUSING POLICY AND STRATEGY

Housing Policy And Strategy



Housing Policy And Strategy

Introduction

A policy of providing affordable and/or social housing has matured in Britain since the mid-1990's as an alternative to the publicly owned council housing, the houseing policy of the pre-Thatcherite governments until the early 1980's. It is a policy which has developed on an ad hoc basis to a great extent. Its underlying objectives have not been properly thought through and successive policy instruments have often been inconsistent in their goals (Monk 2008: 35-59). Like Topsy, it has 'just grown'. The result might be compared to a rickety structure which largely fails to achieve its avowed objective, which in the case of publicly subsidised housing is the provision of housing at a low cost to the less well off (Barker 2003: 15-20)..

The aim of the presentat paper is to explore the contradictions and ill-workings of the current housing policy in Britain. It is structured into three parts. The first part discusses a brief history of the housing policy in Briatin since the interwar period and its central objectives, introducing the practice of Section 106 agreements underpinning the construction of affordable housing. The second section explores four paradoxical outcomes of a housing policy which was intended as a social policy in essence. The third section concludes the discussion and summarises conclusions

A Brief History of Social Housing

For most of the post-war period especially, 'affordable housing' in the UK was provided by local authorities in the form of what was called 'council housing'. The construction of housing by local governments began in the 1920's as a result of the implicit promise of prime-minister Lloyd George's to construct 'homes fit for heroes' in the 1919 General Election, the so-called 'khaki' election (Barker 2003: 15-20).. In the interwar period much of this housing policy resulted in the form of large housing estates, such as the London County Council's 'cottage estates' consisting mainly of semi-detached and detached houses, modelled on the ideas of the garden city movement (Monk 2008: 35-59).

After the Second World War much of the new council housing was built in inner city areas, often through the rebuilding, or 'comprehensive redevelopment', of severely bomb-damaged areas such as the East End of London and the clearance of what was regarded as slum housing in these inner city areas. Most of this development was in the form of blocks of flats, resulting in a much higher tenant density than the old cottage estates. Indeed, building high was encouraged by central government in the form of increased subsidies on the grounds that this saved land, particularly in land-poor city contexts. However, it was found that in practice these high-rise constructions did not yield significantly higher tenant density as each block of flats had substantial amenity space surrounding it. Large numbers of homes were provided in this way (Monk 2008: 35-59).

In the 1950's, the then Housing Minister promised that 400,000 homes a year would be built and this target was achieved in the late 1950's, when half of ...