Housing policy and home ownership in mining towns: Québec, Canada

Housing policy was a key part of the Thatcherite project of privatization and rolling back the state. Alongside important continuities in housing policy distinctive actions were taken to dismantle council housing, deregulate and demutualize housing finance and deregulate the private rented sector. These actions changed housing rights, ownership and control of housing, the nature of housing transactions and tenures and patterns of financing and debt. While home ownership and private wealth, the enduring legacy has been greater dependency on the state through housing benefit, a decline in local and mutual agencies, greater housing insecurity and inequality and volatility in housing investment. Housing associations’ response enabled their significant growth and made their regulation increasingly important. In the longer term investment in private renting, continuing housing shortage, rising housing costs and problems in housing finance have affected access to housing and national as well as household budgets.

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Housing policy in the austerity age and beyond

Social Policy Review 28 ◽

10.1332/policypress/9781447331797.003.0004 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Mark Stephens ◽

Adam Stephenson

Keyword(s):

Housing Policy ◽

Low Income ◽

Home Ownership ◽

Financial Measures ◽

Legal Reforms ◽

Conservative Government ◽

Income Groups ◽

Low Incomes ◽

Low Income Groups ◽

The Uk

This chapter charts the radical reorientation of housing policy in the UK that was set in motion by the coalition government elected in 2010 and accelerated by the majority Conservative government elected in 2015. There is a strong tendency to favour home-ownership and worsening financial and regulative conditions for those who are not (yet) capable of buying a home. A variety of financial measures has increased the costs of housing for low incomes, whereas safety measures to protect these groups gradually have been abolished. Moreover, legal reforms with regard to tenure security for new tenants have even further worsened the position of low-income newcomers on the housing market. To conclude: the British housing policy redistributes rights away from low-income groups in favour of other groups.

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Australian local governments and affordable housing: Challenges and possibilities

The Economic and Labour Relations Review ◽

10.1177/1035304619880135 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 31 (1) ◽

pp. 14-33

Author(s):

Alan Morris ◽

Andrew Beer ◽

John Martin ◽

Sandy Horne ◽

Catherine Davis ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Local Government ◽

Housing Policy ◽

Affordable Housing ◽

Local Governments ◽

Home Ownership ◽

Housing Affordability ◽

Local Government Area ◽

Housing Crisis ◽

Nation Wide Survey ◽

Almost All

For an increasing proportion of Australian households, the Australian dream of home ownership is no longer an option. Neoliberal housing policy and the financialisation of housing has resulted in a housing affordability crisis. Historically, Australian housing policy has afforded only a limited role to local government. This article analyses the results of a nation-wide survey of Australian local governments’ perceptions of housing affordability in their local government area, the possibilities for their meaningful intervention, the challenges they face, the role of councillors and councils’ perceptions of what levels of government should take responsibility for housing. Almost all of the respondents from Sydney and Melbourne councils were clear that there is a housing affordability crisis in their local government area. We apply a framework analysing housing policy in the context of neoliberalism and the related financialisation of housing in order to analyse the housing affordability crisis in Sydney and Melbourne. We conclude that in order to begin resolving the housing crisis in Australia’s two largest cities there has to be an increasing role for local government, a substantial increase in the building of social and affordable housing and a rollback of policies that encourage residential property speculation. JEL Codes: R31, R21

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