Introduction: the repositioning of social housing and welfare provision

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Kelly Bogue
Keyword(s):  
Social Housing ◽  
Tax Policy ◽  
Housing Affordability ◽  
Final Part ◽  
Welfare Provision ◽  
The Social ◽  
Housing Benefit ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Post Industrial ◽  
Rented Sector

This chapter sets out the background and context to the UK’s implementation of austerity measures following the financial crash of 2007/08. It examines the principles underlying the enactment of the Bedroom Tax policy before outlining the new regulations on room restrictions that have been imposed on those claiming housing benefit in the social rented sector. It discusses the controversy surrounding its implementation as well as the ways in which it has impacted different regions of the UK. This chapter also reflects on changes to housing benefit more widely and suggests that we are seeing the return of the ‘housing question’ in post-industrial Britain as austerity policies undermine housing affordability. The final part of this chapter outlines the structure of the book.

scholarly journals Long-term ill health and the social embeddedness of work: a study in a post-industrial, multi-ethnic locality in the UK

2014 ◽  
Vol 36 (7) ◽  
pp. 955-969 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaveri Qureshi ◽  
Sarah Salway ◽  
Punita Chowbey ◽  
Lucinda Platt
Keyword(s):  
Social Embeddedness ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Post Industrial

Residential Mobility and Residualisation in Social Housing in England

1999 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
ROGER BURROWS
Keyword(s):  
Social Exclusion ◽  
Residential Mobility ◽  
Social Housing ◽  
Primary Mechanism ◽  
Number Of Factors ◽  
The Social ◽  
Residential Movement ◽  
Right To Buy ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Rented Sector

This article uses data from the Survey of English Housing (SEH) 1993/4 in order to investigate patterns of residential mobility in relation to social housing in England. Such an analysis provides an insight into the contemporary dynamics of residualisation. Hitherto, much of the analysis of residualisation has, quite properly, concentrated on the operation of the Right to Buy legislation in the process of social exclusion. However, this article argues that the process of residualisation has not been due just to changes in the tenure of dwellings, it has also been due to the intensification of processes of residential movement by people which can be traced back to at least the mid-1970s. As the number of dwellings sold through the RTB declines, the movement of people is again becoming the primary mechanism through which residualisation operates. The article also examines patterns of movement within the social rented sector. It concludes that as the sector has become smaller, the rate of mobility within it has increased. This increased rate of mobility is due to a number of factors, but is primarily a function of the demographic profile of tenants in the social rented sector. The factors which predispose certain types of household to be mobile within the sector are examined.

Neoliberalism, austerity and social work with children and families: challenges and critical/radical possibilities

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve Rogowski
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Welfare System ◽  
Service Users ◽  
Children And Families ◽  
Welfare Provision ◽  
Poverty And Inequality ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Uk

In the UK, neoliberalism and associated austerity have dominated social work and welfare provision over the last decade. Consequences include severe financial cuts to social work with children and families, as well as public services generally, and large increases in poverty and inequality. Despite increasing numbers of people in difficulty, the social work and welfare system has become more punitive and presents ongoing threats to social work’s commitment to human rights and social justice. This article examines such developments and includes the views of practitioners. Despite the strength and depth of challenges, it argues that critical/radical possibilities remain for practitioners to work both individually with service users and collectively. Such opportunities need to be taken with a view to working towards a more just and equal society, this being a much-needed antidote to the unequal neoliberal world we currently inhabit.

scholarly journals Neoliberal Nomads: Housing Insecurity and the Revival of Private Renting in the UK

2014 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Bone
Keyword(s):  
Social Housing ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Housing Tenure ◽  
Social Effects ◽  
Major Contributor ◽  
Housing Crisis ◽  
Private Renting ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Rented Sector

This paper offers a critical analysis, including insights from the fledgling sub-discipline of neurosociology, with the aim of challenging some of the key assumptions informing the state supported revival of the UK private rented sector (PRS) as a mainstream form of housing tenure. As is widely recognised, the PRS's expansion has occurred in tandem with the long running decline of social housing and the more recent reversal in the longstanding trend towards increasing owner occupation. This paper asserts that the policies supporting this overall trend are misconceived on a number of fronts, as the loosely regulated UK private rented sector is not only a major contributor to the country's ongoing housing crisis but carries with it a range of unacknowledged economic and social problems including profound effects on personal well-being, some fairly evident and others less so. With respect to the latter, it is argued that coming to an understanding of the negative implications of private renting in the UK under current arrangements, in addition to the more evident issues associated with poor condition and high cost accommodation, also requires an appreciation of the deeper psycho-social effects of involuntary mobility, insecurity and socio-spatial dislocation.

scholarly journals Managing the equilibrium state of housing affordability

2020 ◽  
Vol 164 ◽  
pp. 10047
Author(s):  
Ariadna Kirillova
Keyword(s):  
Equilibrium State ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Social Housing ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Housing Affordability ◽  
Coordination Model ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Accessibility ◽  
Housing Materials ◽  
The Subject

The subject of the study is the organizational and economic aspects of managing the equilibrium state of housing affordability for the population during construction. The analysis shows that despite the successful development of the housing sector and the functioning of the housing market, housing affordability is differentiated, which is manifested in unsatisfactory housing conditions of a significant part of low-income and other established categories of citizens. The aim of the study is to improve the processes of ensuring targeted consistent housing policies already at the construction stage to increase not only market, but also social affordability of housing. Materials and methods include a methodological approach, which involves the construction of a model of interaction between the investor and local authorities during the construction process in order to accelerate the solution of the problem of increasing housing affordability for the low-income citizens on the basis of ensuring the required volumes of housing construction in accordance with the main legislative formats. The optimization of the coordination model of the interests of investors and the municipality during the construction in this social housing cluster is ensured through the implementation of mechanisms to reduce the expenses of investors to obtain a land plot, as well as the proposed measures that increase the social accessibility of housing. The task is to ensure the balance and comprehensiveness of the market and social affordability of housing for various categories of citizens by expanding the list of powers of municipalities and financing their implementation for the construction of social housing facilities.

scholarly journals On white-collar boxing and social class

2019 ◽  
Vol 67 (6) ◽  
pp. 1400-1416 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward J. Wright
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
Social Class ◽  
White Collar ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Uk ◽  
A Site ◽  
Post Industrial ◽  
Late Modern

This article is based on the first sociological research of white-collar boxing in the UK. Grounded in an ethnography of a boxing gym in the Midlands, the article argues that the term ‘white-collar boxing’ in this context is immediately misleading, and entails the term being used in a way with which sociologists are unaccustomed. Whereas white-collar boxing originated in the context of post-industrial New York City as a pastime only for the extremely wealthy, the situation in the UK is different. Participants actively reject this understanding of white-collar boxing. The term white-collar boxing does not signify the social class of participants, but refers to their novice status. Given that boxing is an example through which Bourdieu’s theory of distinction is discussed, and that white-collar boxing is a distinctly late-modern version of the sport containing an erroneous class signifier, this version of the sport is a site through which such discussions of consumption can be furthered. Whilst consumed by actors in various class positions, a logic of distinction is present in white-collar boxing, which becomes recognisable through analysis of the ‘plurality of consumption experiences’. This is proffered as a concept which can aid in the analysis of consumption beyond white-collar boxing.

Redesigning Housing Policy

2019 ◽  
Vol 250 ◽  
pp. R69-R74
Author(s):  
Kate Barker
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Social Housing ◽  
Home Ownership ◽  
Supply And Demand ◽  
Regional Distribution ◽  
Housing Supply ◽  
Housing Crisis ◽  
Executive Summary ◽  
Housing Benefit ◽  
Rented Sector

Executive SummaryDiscussion of the UK's housing crisis is of long date, and tends to focus on a simple story about a mismatch in housing supply and demand and the consequent need to build more homes. Yet the reality is more complex with multiple sub-plots including social housing, stress in the private rented sector, benefits, subsidies and ultimately taxation of home ownership.At the bottom of the market, the crisis is real and acute, as manifested in a sharp increase in homelessness and rough sleeping. The inescapable answer is to increase the depleted stock of social housing and widen eligibility criteria. An increase of 100,000 social units a year in England would help address this problem, as well as alleviate the financial squeeze on tenants of the private rented sector, whose number has grown sharply in the past 15 years in tandem with a steep rise in the housing benefit bill. Recent efforts to curb housing benefit have further increased distress, so it will be necessary to consider increasing benefits again alongside regulatory interventions with private landlords.In the home ownership market, recent government intervention has taken the form of the much-criticised Help-to-Buy Equity Loan scheme. This market policy to support new-build homes should be wound down and replaced by a scheme to endow all young people with a capital sum that they could use for second-hand homes as well. More generally, a more sophisticated approach to planning home-building is needed, both for assessing overall numbers and their regional distribution and in financing the supporting infrastructure.But none of these measures is a panacea for a housing crisis that is in large part a symptom of problems in the wider economy, such as low relative wages for young people, a lack of clarity about environmental issues, and failing places. A successful policy package to address the distorted structure of the housing market must also grasp the most difficult nettle of all – namely the way the tax benefits of owner-occupation incentivise overconsumption of housing and a widening wealth gap between renters and home owners, and between owners in different parts of the country. If we spend more to help those who struggle to afford decent housing, then it is only just to raise more taxation from those who benefit from restrictions on housing supply – whether through reform to council tax, a wider wealth tax or a limited form of Capital Gains Tax on principal residences.

Housing precarity and advanced marginality in the UK

2019 ◽  
pp. 145-162
Author(s):  
Kelly Bogue
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Local Level ◽  
The State ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Dissatisfaction ◽  
Private Housing ◽  
Housing Benefit ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Urban Marginality ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter presents concluding remarks about the impacts of the Bedroom Tax. It reflects on the processes through which housing insecurity is generated and how this is playing a central role in increasing urban marginality. It does so by drawing on studies about rising housing precarity and homelessness to consider how both the social and private housing sectors have been responding to reductions in housing benefit. This chapter argues that we need to re-consider how and in what ways the struggles over housing are being played out at the local level and how this can generate divisions in and between different groups. Particularly when people are re-negotiating a welfare state that is undergoing deep systematic reorganisation. It considers the relationship between austerity policies and their role in creating political dissatisfaction with the state of UK politics. Especially in areas where the full impact of austerity measures have been felt.

The social and solidarity economy in Argentina and the UK: convergence from opposite directions

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Molly Scott Cato ◽  
Paola Raffaelli
Keyword(s):  
Reciprocal Relationship ◽  
Political Support ◽  
Solidarity Economy ◽  
Welfare Provision ◽  
Big Society ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Global North ◽  
Rapid Transition ◽  
The Uk

This chapter explores the commonalities and differences in the history of the development of the social and solidarity economy in the UK and Argentina. It examines how the need for social security and welfare, unmet by political agency, was resolved through mutual organisation in both societies. It contrasts the absorption of welfare provision into the state in the UK with experiences in Argentina where it became part of an independent social and solidarity economy (SSE) with significant legislative underpinning and political support, particularly from the Peronist Party. In the final stage of comparison, the unpicking of the welfare state in the UK has led to an increased need for voluntary welfare provision, now branded as the Big Society. Moreover, in Argentina also an attempt to encourage co-operative entrepreneurism took place. As well as providing an account of the social function of the SSE, the chapter explores how the need to make a rapid transition to sustainability works alongside the need for social justice to suggest a reciprocal relationship between the development of the SSE in these two societies in the global North and South.

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