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Existing research indicates an association between the introduction of Universal Credit in the UK and increased financial hardship among claimants. This policy change embodies key changes in welfare policy and ideology taking place across Europe and worldwide. This study investigates the association between housing insecurity and claiming Universal Credit in comparison to Housing Benefit and Jobseeker's Allowance. To examine changes in housing insecurity trajectories before and after the introduction of Universal Credit, we apply a difference-in-differences fixed effects logistic regression research design to Understanding Society data (2009–2020) on benefit claimants in England. We compare how Universal Credit claimants' likelihood of housing insecurity changes over time compared to other benefit claimants. We find that claiming Universal Credit does indeed have a significant effect on increasing housing insecurity in comparison to claiming Housing Benefit or Jobseeker's Allowance. This effect varied across different scenarios, including a larger effect for people with disabilities and claimants moving from Housing Benefit to Universal Credit. These findings demonstrate that the Universal Credit system negatively impacts particular population groups more than others, placing these claimants at disproportionate risk of experiencing housing insecurity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought under the spotlight home's severe inadequacies, which take a particular intensity in the various unregulated, insecure rental housing markets across the globe. It is now timely to deliberate what it takes for a rented property to be made home, and in that debate tenants' voices should be heard. Taking the UK as a case-study and drawing on data collected through an online qualitative questionnaire, the paper focuses on a group of tenants theorised as 'everyday activists' to address the empirical question of what they demand from the government for the sector to improve. Considering participants' legitimising narratives and assertions for self-representation in policy construction, the paper then proposes a reading of the demands made through the 'Right to Home', a concept carefully grounded in Henri Lefebvre's Right to the City. The Right to Home calls for home-ing and democratising current de-radicalised understandings of the right to housing in order to craft more transformative futures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantitative exploration of sub-groups of people experiencing homelessness facing similar challenges, or multiple exclusion homelessness (MEH), is limited in Great Britain—as is discussion of what these groupings mean for policy and practice. Through secondary analysis of survey data from a study of single people experiencing homelessness in England, Scotland, and Wales, this paper aims to advance understanding of MEH. Using Latent Class Analysis, we explore several possible typologies of MEH before outlining a preferred typology composed of four groups: those facing high exclusion; those faced with low levels of exclusion; and two intermediate groups, one marked by trauma and mental ill-health, the other by offending and substance dependencies. When compared to international studies on MEH, findings point toward possible common combinations of exclusion amongst people experiencing homelessness drawn from different populations. The emergent policy and practice implications of this analysis demonstrate the value of scrutinising homelessness policy and practice internationally through a lens of MEH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Veterans in the UK seek help from numerous, diverse organisations to navigate the housing system, in contrast to countries such as the US and Australia, which operate dedicated Veterans Administrations. Collaboration between organisations to support veterans is non-mandatory, yet influential on housing outcomes. This study utilised network governance theory to examine how local partnerships affect veterans' housing pathways. The research approach involved five in-depth, area-based case studies across different housing contexts. The research contributes new findings on the positive impact of local partnerships and develops a conceptual model of veterans' housing pathways, focused on collaboration. The study revealed a step change in partnership-working since the introduction of the UK Armed Forces Covenant in 2011, with the absence of mandatory collaboration requirements having nurtured trust-based network governance. The findings suggest this has been effective for veterans in housing need, but there are potential risks in terms of sustainability of voluntary partnerships and the temptation for central government of more hierarchical approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online platforms have become central to the operation of the housing market in the UK and elsewhere. This paper extends recent scholarship on the impacts of 'the digital' on housing outcomes by assessing the 'performative' ability of property platforms to maintain and construct market practices. Using actor-network theory, a distinction is made between platforms as intermediaries that advertise properties and link different parties to a transaction and as mediators, capable of changing how the world is interpreted. Recognising platforms as intermediaries enables a classification of matchmaking types. Recognising platforms as mediators enables an assessment of the extent of their impact on tenure preferences and mobility and raises questions about the applicability of sharing economy concepts to housing. Actor-network theory allows a qualified and differentiated assessment of the varied impact of platforms, enabling a consideration of the factors that lead to continuity as well as those that promote change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the Global Financial Crash, there have been significant changes to the private rented sectors across the UK. The PRS has become increasingly important to providing housing to millions of homes and has gained increasing political and regulatory focus. At the same time, there has been a substantial increase in the number of short-term holiday lets enabled by online platforms such as Airbnb. There are concerns that this housing stock is being lost from residential housing and exacerbates issues of housing equality. This paper undertakes a case study of Airbnb growth in London to examine changes in listings and provides insight into Airbnb hosts. The extant literature and analysis in this paper support the argument of the loss of privately rented properties, with housing stock being reallocated as tourist accommodation, potentially displacing local communities. Finally, the paper analyses the struggles this poses for policymakers, communities and housing providers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of reference dependence in housing markets is of practical importance due to the unusual characteristics of property transactions, such as high information asymmetry caused by many individuals' lack of experience in housing markets. The overall low transaction frequency and general illiquidity of housing markets can exacerbate and reinforce behavioural anomalies such as reference dependence. The knowledge gained through an empirical investigation in the UK housing market can assist in the understanding of these behavioural biases. By conducting an online experiment at a UK online panel data platform, we identify the presence of reference dependence in the UK housing market, and the extent to which they are caused by both historical and recent prices. The influence of expectations and social norms is also investigated in this novel context. The findings of this study pave the way for reliable economic modelling of such anomalies and a better understanding of behaviours in the housing market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process of the 'residualisation' of social housing, in terms of residents' income, employment status and class relative to the rest of the population, is one of the best known trends of the housing system in the UK and in many other nations over the past half century. The idea of residualisation and the presumption of its inevitability have become widely accepted, and formed a negative frame for social housing policy. However Pearce and Vine (2014) have shown that in terms of income, the residualisation of social housing in England stopped in 1991. This paper confirms and extends that work using multiple published data sources. These show consistent evidence of convergence over the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s between social tenants and the English national averages in terms of not only income but also employment status and class. Potential explanations, including the restructuring of housing markets, demographic change, and changing labour markets, are briefly explored. Most recently, there some signs that deresidualisation itself may have stopped. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the case for the significance of two neglected domains of sociological enquiry: housing tenure and subjective wellbeing. Our empirical focus is on the relationship between housing tenure and subjective wellbeing in two case-study countries, Austria and the UK, using multivariate modelling of European SILC data to investigate potential associations between tenure and individual wellbeing survey items. Our case-studies are chosen for their distinctive welfare regime characteristics and contrasting housing tenure structures. This framework allows normative as well as empirical analysis. Our results show statistically significant relations between housing tenure and overall satisfaction with life (evaluative wellbeing) but are less significant for our hedonic wellbeing items. Compared to private renters, we find higher levels of life satisfaction amongst owner-occupiers in both Austria and the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is situated within wider debates about the changing shape of policy and practice within the field of homelessness. It reports on a small scale case study of an intensive key worker support service operating in England designed to move multiply disadvantaged rough sleepers off the streets. The discussion of the empirical data draws attention to different modes of control inherent within the project's working practices that are designed to incite rough sleepers to make positive changes. The article suggests that the project is a useful example of a 'nascent trend' within homeless support services of tolerant and less conditional approaches for those who are the most disadvantaged. The article suggests that this move towards tolerance offers positive benefits for rough sleepers with complex needs that mark a shift away from more punitive and coercive practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the social construction of house size expectations in two national panel datasets: German Socio Economic Panel Study (GSOEP) and the British Household Panel Study (BHPS). More specifically, it tests the aspiration spiral theory and positional good theory using data on housing/life satisfaction and house size judgements. In both countries, it finds substantial evidence that the current space expectations of individuals who have 'upsized' depends on the level of living space they experienced in the past year. For downsizers, however, the evidence in support of the aspiration spiral theory is weaker. In terms of the positional good theory, this paper finds no consistent evidence that an individual's space expectations are influenced by those around them. In both countries, the paper tests for two reference groups – the average level of living space in the region, and the mean size of the largest decile of houses in the region – and neither are found to be significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governments' attempts to link the provision of welfare services to (more) responsible self-conduct of citizens (i.e. responsibilization) is seen as a distinctive feature of the post-welfare state. Responsibilization often requires welfare receivers to comply with specific duties or behavioural patterns (i.e. conditionality). Except for UK-based studies, little is known about responsibilization strategies of social housing tenants based on specific allocation policies or management approaches. To fill this gap, this paper examines recent cases of tenants' responsibilization through conditionality, i.e. allocation of housing on the condition that receivers regularly engage in supportive activities, in Utrecht (The Netherlands) and Milan (Italy). Through a qualitative methodology, this paper unpacks the use of conditionality as a means to increase tenants' responsibilization. The paper contributes by showing both innovative aspects, such as eligibility criteria, obligations, accountability measures, and potential pitfalls connected to diverging expectations between tenants and professionals, and to specific context-related factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK's ageing population has generated contradictory policy responses. On the one hand, facing the lack of specialist housing for the elderly, older people are incentivised to 'age in place'; on the other, to move to smaller homes to free-up family housing, reducing pressure on housing supply. This 'downsizing' discourse is presented as a 'win-win' situation which benefits older people and the rest of society. However, a survey and interviews conducted with over 55 s in England reveals more nuanced patterns of residential moves, behaviours and aspirations than suggested by 'downsizing'. Only a minority of older households choose to downsize. This paper looks into this mismatch between observed housing choices and the construction of downsizing as a policy goal. It suggests that theoretically speaking, the very notion of downsizing is problematic and difficult to define and is an over-simplistic concept which in reality applies to a heterogeneous group of people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many countries use demand-side housing subsidies to support low-income households. Unlike public or social housing programs, demand-side subsidies require recipients to enter the private market to use their benefits. The focus of this study is the experiences of assisted households in the private housing market and the outcomes they achieve. Given the link between policy design and program outcomes and because all housing subsidy programs are not created equal, one might expect the experiences and outcomes of recipients to also vary. To examine this relationship, using data from national housing surveys, this study analyzes cross-national variation in housing support programs and compares the housing and neighbourhood outcomes of subsidized households in the US, the UK, and the Netherlands. The findings of this study highlight that market context and policy design are associated with housing outcomes. In particular, the strong tenant supports and favourable design of housing assistance in the Netherlands is associated with favourable outcomes for subsidized households. In the US and the UK, subsidized households, in general, underperform their unsubsidized peers. This article underscores the importance of institutional context and program design when public assistance programs require recipients to enter the private market to use a benefit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the growth of the private rental sector over recent years through a comparative analysis of three classic homeowner societies: Ireland, the UK and Spain. The article argues that theories of financialization provide a useful framework for understanding 'generation rent'. In particular, the cyclical nature of credit markets tends to undermine homeownership over the medium term. This contributes to and intensifies the wider set of policy changes associated with neoliberalism. The article also accounts for the divergent experiences of our three case study countries within their common trajectory. It does so through an analytical focus on the interaction between global aspects of financialization and more nationally based ones, such as mortgage markets, as well as on how both are mediated by national policy regimes. The article thus aims to contribute to the emerging literature seeking to explain 'generation rent' and explore its significance, and more broadly to political economy approaches to housing system change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multigenerational households (MGHs) are the UK's fastest growing household type. This paper critically explores the relative influence of 'Generation X' in shaping social capital accumulation and distribution strategies within English MGHs. We contend that this cohort, described here as 'amalgamation generation', (older 'boomerangers') recognize how the quintessential inter/intra generational forms of social capital present in MGHs may be consolidated to boost resilience at a time of economic uncertainty and social instability. We challenge therefore the largely negative discourse surrounding boomerangers which exist in existing scholarship. Our analysis highlights the dialectical relationship between the concepts of resilience and social capital when applied to multigenerational living. In doing so, we highlight the relevance of network centrality, shared family values, an awareness of the natural life cycle and the importance of family 'social capital bank' in promoting the overall cohesion of the MGH. The extent to which English MGHs may be construed as a liquid, temporal and fluid asset over space, place and time is explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although previous research shows that family dynamics and parental socioeconomic status influence the timing of young adults' first entry into homeownership, much less is known about how the role of family factors may vary across countries with different housing systems. In this article, we use panel survey data from Britain and Germany to compare how family life course careers and parental socioeconomic background influence young adults' initial entry into homeownership in these two divergent national contexts. The results show that in Britain, first-time homeownership transitions are tightly synchronized with partnership formation. By contrast, in Germany first moves into homeownership typically occur later around or after the arrival of children. Parental owner-occupation accelerates entry into homeownership in both contexts, while the effects of other parental characteristics are relatively muted. Furthermore, the results highlight how individual socioeconomic factors are critical determinants of entering owner-occupation. This is particularly true in Britain where there is a strong socioeconomic gradient in first-time homeownership transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the dynamic interrelationship between demographic change and housing systems and the implications for assessing future housing need, including a review of the literature on demography and housing and a case study of Northern Ireland. The main research method is historical analysis of census and other data relating to changing population structures and the housing system in Northern Ireland between 1981 and 2011. These changes are compared to developments in Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland over the same period. The paper identifies a long period of broadly consistent relations between demographic and housing system trends between 1981 and 2001, followed by significant changes in demographic trends and a turbulent housing system undergoing rapid change between 2001 and 2011. Our conclusions include consideration of the implications of this study for future analyses of the relationships between demographic change and housing systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The finding that homeowners own more non-housing wealth than tenants is well known. We examine whether the higher financial wealth of owners can be partly explained with increases in saving when becoming a homeowner in two distinct institutional contexts. Using longitudinal data for the UK (British Household Panel Survey) and Germany (Socio-Economic Panel Study), we find that homeowners save more and are financially wealthier than tenants. However, when controlling for time-constant selection into homeownership, upon entering homeownership households reduce their probability to save in Germany and reduce their average saving rate in Germany and the UK. For Germany, there is some evidence that processes of homemaking (family formation and home improvement) lead to less saving. For the UK, we find no evidence that increasing home equity over time discourages saving. Finally, tenants do not compensate for their lack of housing wealth by accumulating more non-housing wealth over time. This disadvantage for tenants seems more pronounced in the UK compared to Germany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on and developing Kingdon's multiple streams analysis, this article examines the development of one aspect of the UK's low cost home ownership programme: shared ownership. We demonstrate how key human and non-human policy entrepreneurs were able to set the agenda from 1973-1983 in favour of shared ownership; they neutralized the alternatives, while retaining some of their instruments; and solved a number of early problems by bringing key players into the programme. Our data-sets include a range of archival material and elite interviews. The policy entrepreneurs included John Stanley (who was the housing minister in the First Thatcher government), the National Federation of Housing Associations, and the Building Societies Association. Our development of the multiple streams analysis is to argue that documents, including the lease, act as policy entrepreneurs in their own right. The lease was central to the development of shared ownership and its transformation into a model lease enrolled other organizations, most critically the building societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The family home is often the single most valuable asset, when it is passed down generations. In recent years, this pathway towards homeownership has become more complex. Young people are increasingly depending on their parents, both financially (deposit) and in-kind (guarantor, living rent-free at parental home), to acquire their first home. This paper contributes to this debate by investigating the influence of bequests and in-kind generational transfers on housing wealth pathways. Based on the British Household Panel Study, this paper shows that receiving an inheritance seems less relevant than other socio-demographic control variables. Still life-time renters are significantly missing out on inheritances. However, young people who are living with their parents are benefiting from this in-kind support in the long term and are able to purchase their first home earlier than independent mortgagers who are saving up for a deposit while renting. These results are discussed in the wider context of housing policy, welfare and generational support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financial support from parents has become critical to the capacity of many single young adults to attain and sustain independent housing in the United Kingdom. Utilising data from a qualitative study of early housing pathways, this paper applies Lüscher’s theory of ambivalence in a context previously unexplored via this framework, analysing how participants talked about competing claims between siblings for finite parental resources in support of independent living. Most expressed faith in the assumed fairness of parental behaviours in providing support whilst often constructing themselves as ‘more responsible’ or ‘more deserving’ than their siblings. Whilst parental support was routinely made available regardless of recipients’ current housing tenure, there was nonetheless a sense that support for owner occupation fell into a distinct category of assistance, reinforcing notions of tenure prejudice. Given ongoing dependency on family support, participants were largely resigned to these disparities, regarding them as integral to the ambivalent nature of inter- and intragenerational family relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is the common pressure group and media refrain that ‘we are all two pay cheques away from homelessness’ justified by the evidence? Drawing on multivariate analysis of two cross-sectional datasets (the ‘Scottish Household Survey’ and the UK-wide ‘Poverty and Social Exclusion’) Survey and one longitudinal data-set (the ‘British Cohort Study 1970’), this paper provides a systematic account of the social distribution of homelessness in the UK. Informed by a critical realist explanatory framework, our analysis underlines the centrality of poverty, especially childhood poverty, to the generation of homelessness, while also demonstrating the impact of broader labour and housing market contexts, and certain demographic, personal and social support characteristics. These findings reinforce the moral imperative for policy action on homelessness, while at the same time signalling opportunities to target preventative interventions on high risk groups. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In recent years, a number of welfare reforms have been introduced in the UK by Conservative-led governments. The most high profile of these is Universal Credit (UC), which is currently being rolled out across the country. A key feature of UC is a change in the way the income-related housing allowance for social housing tenants (Housing Benefit) is administered, as under UC, it is paid directly to tenants (direct payment), who are responsible for paying their rent. This represents a step change for them as for more than 30 years landlord payment has been the norm in the UK. There has been little research into direct payment. This paper seeks to address this gap in knowledge by presenting the key findings of an initiative designed to trial direct payment. It finds that many tenants experienced difficulties on direct payment. Reflecting this, landlords' arrears rose markedly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross-sectional research suggests that the British housing system weakens the link between income poverty and housing outcomes, but this reveals little about the long-term relationships. We examine the relationship between income poverty and housing pathways over an 18-year period to 2008, and develop consensual approaches to poverty estimation, housing deprivation, and the prevalence of under and over-consumption. We find that chronic poverty is most strongly associated with housing pathways founded in social renting, whereas housing pathways founded in owner-occupation are more strongly associated with temporary poverty. Whilst housing deprivation is disproportionately prevalent among those who experienced chronic poverty, the overwhelming majority of people who experienced chronic poverty avoided housing deprivation. This evidence supports of the notion that the housing system, during this period, weakened the link between poverty and housing deprivation. Therefore it can be characterised as representing a 'sector regime' with different distributional tendencies from the wider welfare regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Housing subsidies are used by developed welfare states to ensure their citizens can access decent and affordable housing. This paper assesses the relative importance of individual and area level factors on the degree to which private sector landlords were affected by changes to Local Housing Allowance (LHA) in the UK. The changes were part of the government's package of measures to reform LHA and reduce the welfare benefit bill. Multi-level modelling techniques have been applied to a longitudinal survey of 788 private sector landlords who had LHA tenants in 19 Local Authorities across GB. The analysis shows that whilst landlords were affected by reforms, area effects were not as pronounced as anticipated. In general, landlords were equally affected regardless of where they operate. The findings suggest tenants in the most affected areas have absorbed increases in their rent shortfall signifying income was not the overriding determinant of demand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ongoing neoliberal policies have realigned the links between housing and welfare, positioning residential property investment – commonly through homeownership and exceptionally also through landlordism – at the core of households’ asset-building strategies. Nonetheless, the private rented sector (PRS) has been commonly portrayed as a tenure option for tenants rather than a welfare strategy for landlords. Drawing on qualitative interviews with landlords across Great Britain, we explore landlords’ different motivations in engaging in landlordism; and the ways in which their property-based welfare strategies are shaped by the particular intersection of individual socioeconomic and life-course circumstances, and the broader socioeconomic and financial environment. By employing a constructionist grounded approach to research, our study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the different ways that asset-based welfare strategies operate within the PRS. We draw attention to an understudied nexus between homeownership and landlordism which we argue represents a promising route for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most accounts of migration stress the economic necessity, but generally blur the role of migrants themselves in the process. It is also rare to consider male and female migrants together, or to explore the relational aspects of masculinity and femininity in migration histories. This paper explores the relational aspects of Irish (‘Irish’ is used throughout this article to refer to our participants who self-identified as ‘Irish’. It is further noted that all of the participants were from the Republic of Ireland and hence does not include Northern Irish migrants. Where ‘Ireland’ is used it refers to the Republic of Ireland) migrants’ residential and work histories using narrative enquiry. First, we explore the complex relationship between housing and employment in Irish women and men’s stories focusing particularly on the early phase of migration. Second, we argue that these narratives, especially the ‘intertwining personal, sub-cultural and cultural stories’ are essential in understanding Irish migrants’ experiences. Third, we posit that gender emerges as a significant factor with qualitative differences in Irish women’s and men’s trajectories. Our analysis focuses on the self-in-relation, housing pathways and gendered housing and employment strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyses of the impacts of the use of private finance by housing associations (HAs) across Europe regularly align with the hybridity in the social housing sector, linking private finance to a range of negative consequences related to the loss of social purposes by HAs. This article examines some of the implications of institutional investment for HAs in Britain to meet their economic and social goals. Using a combination of interviews with HAs and institutional investors and a round table discussion, the study shows how such investment has facilitated HAs as hybrid organisations which adopt a pragmatically ‘fit-for-purpose’ approach that combines social benefit with profitability. For institutional investors, investing in social housing is a profit-oriented business as well as a corporate social activity that creates public relations benefits. Importantly, the study shows how government regulations can affect the form of institutional investment (bond finance rather than equity investment) in social housing and help HAs balance the opportunities and risks in combining business and social orientations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The relationship between professionalism, education and housing practice has become increasingly strained following the introduction of austerity measures and welfare reforms across a range of countries. Focusing on the development of UK housing practice, this article considers how notions of professionalism are being reshaped within the context of welfare retrenchment and how emerging tensions have both affected the identity of housing professionals and impacted on the delivery of training and education programmes. The article analyses the changing knowledge and skills valued in contemporary housing practice and considers how the sector has responded to the challenges of austerity. The central argument is that a dominant logic of competition has culminated in a crisis of identity for the sector. Although the focus of the article is on UK housing practice, the processes identified have a wider relevance for the analysis of housing and welfare delivery in developed economies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The key argument set out in this article is that historical and comparative forms of investigation are necessary if we are to better understand the ambitions and scope of contemporary housing interventions. To demonstrate the veracity of our claim, we have set out an analysis of the UK housing polices enacted in the mid-1970s as a basis for comparison with those pursued 40 years later. The article begins with a critical summary of some of the methodological approaches adopted by researchers used to interpret housing policy. In the main section, we present our critical analysis of housing policy reforms (implemented by the Labour government between 1974 and 1979) noting both their achievements and limitations. In the concluding section, we use our interpretation of this period as a basis to judge contemporary housing policy and reflect on the methodological issues that arise from our analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK has been engaged in an ongoing process of constitutional reform since the late 1990s, when devolved administrations were established in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. As devolution has evolved there has been a greater trend towards divergence in housing policy, which calls into question any notion of a ‘UK experience’. Whilst the 2014 Scottish independence referendum again returned constitutional reform high onto the political agenda, there still remain tensions between devolved governments and the UK Government in Westminster, with England increasingly becoming the outlier in policy terms. Informed by ideas of social constructionism, which emphasises the politics of housing, this paper draws on an analysis of policy narratives to highlight the need for greater geographical sensitivity. This requires not only more spatial nuance, but also a recognition that these differences are underpinned by divergent political narratives in different parts of the UK. This emphasis on the politics underpinning policy has relevance internationally in other geographical contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using detailed micro-level survey data for three advanced European welfare-state economies (Germany, Netherlands and UK), our analyses suggest a fairly common hierarchy to homeownership, according to partnership status, exists. In all three countries, a variety of interrelated factors appear to encourage greater propensities for homeownership amongst co-residential households (married/cohabiting), as compared to single-person households. However, important macro-contextual differences do appear to play a significant role in mediating the magnitude of difference within this hierarchy. For instance, in Germany the importance of marriage as a predictor of homeownership is found to be particularly strong, with married couples having far higher propensities for homeownership, even when compared to non-married cohabiters. In the Netherlands and UK, where an emphasis on traditional family and marriage is less pronounced, and where homeownership is generally more popular and accessible, the differentiation between married/unmarried partners is greatly reduced. Furthermore, we find no evidence to suggest that living-apart-together partners are more/less likely to own their home than singles. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper contributes insights into the role of tenure in modifying the relationship between housing affordability and health, using a cross-national comparison of similar post-industrial nations—Australia and the United Kingdom—with different tenure structures. The paper utilises longitudinal data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey and British Household Panel Survey to examine change in the mental health of individuals associated with housing becoming unaffordable and considers modification by tenure. We present evidence that the role of tenure in the relationship between housing and health is context dependent and should not be unthinkingly generalised across nations. These findings suggest that the UK housing context offers a greater level of protection to tenants living in unaffordable housing when compared with Australia, and this finds expression in the mental health of the two populations. We conclude that Australian governments could improve the mental health of their economically vulnerable populations through more supportive housing policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to the journal is presented which discusses various papers published within the issue, including one on a historical reinterpretation of housing policy in Great Britain, one on the influence of lobbyists in Australian housing policy processes, and another on the surge in international speculative housing investment in Australia.

In England, almost half of all housing association households have a disabled member who may need home adaptations to improve their health and well-being. Resources for funding adaptation work are, however, inadequate; responsibility is contested and government has repeatedly refused to give clear guidance. The problems have been exacerbated by the increasingly hybrid nature of a ‘sector’ too diverse for any single solution. The research on which this paper is based found that the topic was never on the agenda of the Housing Corporation at board level and that academics carrying out major reviews also failed to consider it. Using theories of agenda setting and models of power and discourse, the authors consider the findings as a case study. It illustrates how the unseen exercise of power in housing policy and housing research, through agendas that prioritise economic and political factors, excludes all other considerations, especially the needs of existing tenants. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper discusses changes in housing finance, tenure and policy in the UK in the context of Kemeny's important and influential discussion of political tenure strategies. The evolution of housing tenure in that country since the 1970s has not conformed to the thesis of a simple presumption in favour of home ownership and the paper argues that the framework for housing analysis must look beyond tenure categories, recognise the complex variations within tenures and consider the overriding importance of wider structural pressures related to class, income and wealth and the role of local actors and local variation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper aims to show how Van Wel's theory of problem figuration, Carlen's concept of imaginary systems and Zizek's notion of cynical ideology may advance our theoretical and empirical understanding of the contemporary construction of housing policy narratives and embedded localised housing practise. Applying this theoretical framework to a case study of responses to homelessness in Scotland and further illustrative examples from the UK and the USA, the paper examines how housing practise is constituted through different imaginaries of housing systems. These are based on fictional as well as rational elements, located within a form of cynical ideology whereby actors act ‘as if’ the realities of the present housing crisis are distanced from the imagined intended functioning of housing systems. This masks alternative social realities and denies an explicitly articulated politics of housing which would reveal new processes of capitalism, generational and class realignments and a reframing of the role of government itself. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper provides a commentary on the contemporary housing crisis in England and links it to broader questions of role of housing in capitalist economies and societies. It starts with the assumptions that housing and community development issues are linked to the wider housing market and that the housing crisis is not new but has long-run antecedents. The paper begins by reviewing the contemporary terrain of housing markets and policies in the UK. It then discusses several aspects of ‘crisis’: market volatility, rates of new supply, affordability, state welfare subsidies and socio-spatial inequalities. Policy responses to these are examined through a discussion of efforts to expand the role of the private rented sector, sell-off ‘expensive’ public housing and curtail market renewal investments. The paper concludes that current conceptualisations of the value of housing are often partial and insufficiently integrative and that policies must explicitly recognise housing as a social and economic asset. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The advantages of ownership—both financial and personal—were a prominent theme in UK government policies promoting owner-occupation in the latter half of the twentieth century. More recently, the liberal discourses of the ‘ownership society’ have been conflated with the neo-liberalisation of welfare to restructure the socio-political ideology of ownership around accumulation and decumulation of housing wealth. This paper analyses findings from a new qualitative study to explore the tensions that this shift has created for owner-identities. Equity release transactions provide a prime context to explore the role of homeownership ideologies on participation in asset-based welfare: these are conceived as products that enable older owners to de-cumulate housing equity while continuing to occupy their homes and retaining the ‘badge’ of ownership. This paper focuses on the impact of housing wealth decumulation through equity release on the meanings of the owned home and to reflect on the role of feelings about ownership on participation in asset-based welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]