Subsidizing the Supply of Rental Housing

2020 ◽  
pp. 175-194
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Meen ◽  
Christine Whitehead
Keyword(s):  
Affordable Housing ◽  
Housing Stock ◽  
Traditional Approach ◽  
Rental Housing ◽  
Planning System ◽  
Housing Associations ◽  
Vulnerable Households ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Right To Buy

Chapter 11 discusses subsidies to the supply of rental housing. The traditional approach has been to subsidise first local authorities and then housing associations to produce additional social housing. Later the emphasis shifted to introducing private finance and recycling past subsidy to provide a range of affordable housing products. Additionally, the planning system was modified to make it possible to require the provision of affordable housing on residential development sites. Allocation principles have also changed, moving away from accommodating lower-income working households to emphasising provision for vulnerable households of all types. Here we examine the impact of changing financing mechanisms on the capacity to add to the housing stock; the types of provision; and the rents that are charged across the country. We also consider the impact of Right to Buy and other approaches to transferring accommodation between tenures. Finally, we look to comparable international experience.

scholarly journals Social Housing and Planning Gain: Is This an Appropriate Way of Providing Affordable Housing?

2002 ◽  
Vol 34 (7) ◽  
pp. 1259-1279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony (Tony) D H Crook ◽  
Christine M E Whitehead
Keyword(s):  
Affordable Housing ◽  
Social Housing ◽  
Planning System ◽  
Housing Provision ◽  
Planning Policy ◽  
Guidance Note ◽  
Planning Gain ◽  
Policy Guidance ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Current Mechanism

The current mechanism for providing affordable housing through the planning system in England is based on negotiation within the framework of Planning Policy Guidance Note 3 and Circular 6/98. In this paper the authors examine three groups of questions. First, on the development of the policy, they look at how the need for affordable housing is assessed, how the policy evolved, and how it is currently operated. Second, on the principles and potential outputs of the policy they look at how the approach fits into the principles of betterment taxation, what the results are likely to be ‘on the ground’ in terms of price and output of housing, and whether these are consistent with taxation principles. Third, they examine what the evidence is so far on the impact of planning obligations on affordable housing provision. Finally, the authors develop a typology of likely outcomes, particularly regarding who pays for affordable housing.

scholarly journals Charlottesville Urban Design and Affordable Housing

1995 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth Schwartz ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Affordable Housing ◽  
Housing Stock ◽  
Small Towns ◽  
Economic Decline ◽  
World War ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Suburban Sprawl ◽  
Home Mortgage ◽  
The Impact ◽  
American Cities

One of the most pressing problems confronting architects and planners involves the erosion of urban fabric in American cities and small towns. Many factors have contributed to the physical and economic decline of previously healthy cities since the end of World War 11. Federal tax policies involving home mortgage deduction, FHA loan programs, and highway policy and subsidies have all conspired to promote suburban sprawl and a concurrent abandonment of city centers by the middle class. Nowhere has the impact of this problem been felt more seriously than in the area of housing. The legacy of the late 1950's and 1960's "urban renewal" has decimated vast tracts of land. In many areas of many cities, lower and middle income housing stock has been eliminated, often leaving a wasteland of parking in its place.

The housing shortage

2020 ◽  
pp. 13-26
Author(s):  
Bob Colenutt
Keyword(s):  
Affordable Housing ◽  
Social Housing ◽  
Housing Stock ◽  
Housing Crisis ◽  
Housing Shortage ◽  
The Social ◽  
Private Housing ◽  
House Building ◽  
Right To Buy ◽  
The Way

This chapter explains how the housing shortage has become a numbers game played by Government. Rather than focusing on the fundamental housing crisis issues of affordability, quality and good planning, it has made the supply of private housing numbers the key objective, even though in this objective it has failed. Supported by data on declining affordability, and spiraling rents and prices, the chapter argues that the diversity and affordability of supply is nowhere near matching the diversity of need. The social housing stock has fallen sharply because of Right to Buy and Buy to Let and lack of new social house building. The concept of affordable housing has become meaningless because of the way Government has defined it.

From Renters to Owners

2021 ◽  
pp. 58-94
Author(s):  
Benjamin Holtzman
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Real Estate ◽  
Affordable Housing ◽  
Housing Stock ◽  
Rental Housing ◽  
Housing Crisis ◽  
Failed State ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Market Rate ◽  
Apartment Ownership

After numerous failed state-led initiatives to stem the exodus of middle-income residents in postwar New York, in the late 1960s landlords and major real estate associations proposed their own solution to increase homeownership and retain the middle class: converting rental housing into cooperatives. The middle-income tenants of this housing, however, initially widely rejected apartment ownership, preferring the security of rent-regulated housing. This set off a decade-long battle over the control and nature of moderate- and middle-income housing. This chapter traces how over the 1970s middle-income tenants came to embrace apartment ownership, a shift that pushed the housing stock toward market-rate condominiums and cooperatives and exacerbated the city’s mounting affordable housing crisis.

scholarly journals Housing Statements – Perspectives on the Housing Crisis in the UK

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rice Colin ◽  
Errington Siân ◽  
Fallon Marianne ◽  
Robb Campbell ◽  
Wojtulewicz Rico ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Affordable Housing ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Housing Stock ◽  
Housing Association ◽  
Chief Executive ◽  
Housing Crisis ◽  
Housing Provision ◽  
Housing Associations ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
The Uk

To coincide with the launch of its conference series as part of the “Housing – Critical Futures” programme, in April 2015, Architecture_MPS invited leading organisations, activists, architects and charities to author opinion pieces on the housing crisis in the UK. Their statements collected together in this special edition. Speakers at the conference included Stephen Hodder, President, RIBA and David Waterhouse, Head of Strategic Planning, CABE. The authors collected together in this issue include: Ken Loach, Film Director; Stewart Baseley, Executive Chairman. The Home Builders Federation; Siân Errington from Unite the Union; Rico Wojtulewicz. Policy Advisor, The House Builders Association; Brian Schubert and Rachel Hartley, The Association of Residential Letting Agents; Colin Rice, Cullinan Studio; Dr Glyn Robbins, Defend Council Housing; Suzanne Muna, Paul Kershaw, Arti Dillon, Housing Workers; Elaine Bailey, Chief Executive, The Hyde Group Housing Association; Eileen Short, Coorganiser The March for Homes; Dr. Rob MacDonald, Academic, Author, Editor, DIY City. These authors represent a diverse range of views on the issue of affordable housing provision in the UK and their essays are each a reflection of a very distinct analysis. From the arguments of those representing volume house builders and those of Housing Associations to the views of architects at leading UK practices known for their work in the field. Also represented are the voices of charities such as Shelter and academics who have spent their careers promoting resident participation in housing. To these voices we add those of trade unions and pressure groups arguing for a continuation of state involvement in the construction and management of the country’s housing stock. This diversity is of course deliberate. It is a reflection of the complexity of the issue faced and the diversity of opinions it raises. These essays range from short statements of opinion to manifestos; from calls to action to more extensive pieces of analysis. Coming from people at the heart of the debate in the UK they are a snapshot of the current situation.

scholarly journals Progress and Stagnation of Renovation, Energy Efficiency, and Gentrification of Pre-War Walk-Up Apartment Buildings in Amsterdam Since 1995

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 2590
Author(s):  
Leo Oorschot ◽  
Wessel De Jonge
Keyword(s):  
Energy Efficiency ◽  
Affordable Housing ◽  
Housing Stock ◽  
Residential Buildings ◽  
Energy Transition ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
Housing Associations ◽  
Ring Road ◽  
Slowing Down ◽  
Apartment Buildings

Increasing the energy efficiency of the housing stock has been one of the largest challenges of the built environment in the Netherlands in recent decades. Parallel with the energy transition there is an ongoing revaluation of the architectural quality of pre-war residential buildings. In the past, urban renewal was traditionally based on demolition and replacement with new buildings. This has changed to the improvement of old buildings through renovation. Housing corporations developed an approach for the deep renovation of their housing stock in the period 1995–2015. The motivation to renovate buildings varied, but the joint pattern that emerged was quality improvement of housing in cities, focusing particularly on energy efficiency, according to project data files from the NRP institute (Platform voor Transformatie en Renovatie). However, since 2015 the data from the federation of Amsterdam-based housing associations AFWC (Amsterdamse Federatie Woningcorporaties) has shown the transformation of pre-war walk-up apartment buildings has stagnated. The sales of units are slowing down, except in pre-war neighbourhoods. Housing associations have sold their affordable housing stock of pre-war property in Amsterdam inside the city’s ring road. The sales revenue was used to build new affordable housing far beyond the ring road. This study highlights the profound influence of increasing requirements established by the European Energy Performance of Building Directive (EPBD) and the revised Housing Act of 1 July 2015, for the renovation of the pre-war housing stock. The transformation process to climate-neutral neighbourhoods inside the ring road is slowing down because of new property owners, making a collective heat network difficult to realize; furthermore, segregation of residents is appearing in Amsterdam.

Commentary

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter A. Kemp
Keyword(s):  
Housing Policy ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Home Ownership ◽  
Rental Housing ◽  
Policy Innovation ◽  
Housing Associations ◽  
Large Discount ◽  
The Right ◽  
Right To Buy ◽  
Council Housing

This commentary argues that there were two main waves of housing policy innovation under Mrs Thatcher. The first focused on extending home ownership, particularly via the new right to buy that enabled council tenants to buy their home at a large discount from its market value. For Thatcherism, home ownership was self-evidently an unalloyed good and an almost virtuous state; and, as such, was in sharp contrast to the perceived serfdom of council tenancies. But if some tenants could not afford, or did not want, to buy their home, other buyers would have to be found. Accordingly, the second wave of policy innovation centred on the demunicipalization of rental housing. This mainly took place via large-scale stock transfers of council housing to new housing associations. The transfer of large swathes of council housing to new landlords ranks alongside the right to buy as Thatcherism’s most lasting achievements in housing policy.

scholarly journals An Evaluation of Interventions for Improving Pro-Environmental Waste Behaviour in Social Housing

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 7272
Author(s):  
Ryan Woodard ◽  
Anthea Rossouw
Keyword(s):  
Circular Economy ◽  
Social Housing ◽  
Service Provision ◽  
Housing Stock ◽  
Housing Association ◽  
Waste Reduction ◽  
Housing Associations ◽  
Research Outcomes ◽  
Behaviour Changes ◽  
The Impact

Recycling levels have been stagnating for a decade in England. Over the last 2 years, 39% of local authorities have seen a reduction in their recycling rates. Social housing has historically been neglected in waste service provision and literature. Housing associations own 2.5 million dwellings, representing 10% of all housing stock in England. Improvements to waste services and increased resident engagement in social housing could address stalling recycling levels and contribute to the aim of the national waste strategy of moving towards a circular economy. This paper presents the results of engagement with housing association residents across 24 sites in England. Following community engagement workshops, a range of resident-led interventions were implemented, including improvements to recycling services and installation of onsite food waste composters. An inclusive resident engagement programme bespoke to each site was pioneered, including regular feedback on waste reduction and recycling performance. The impact of the project was evaluated using mixed methods, including monitoring of recycling levels and resident and stakeholder surveys. The interventions stimulated behaviour changes, leading to increased recycling rates (+10.4% per site compared to baseline), waste reduction (0.4 kg per flat per week compared to baseline), increased recycling quality, and social cohesion. The research outcomes provide a model for improving waste management in social housing globally.

scholarly journals Introducing the YIMBYs: Renters, housing, and supply-side politics in Los Angeles

2021 ◽  
pp. 239965442110445
Author(s):  
Renee Tapp
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Affordable Housing ◽  
Urban Politics ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Rental Housing ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Housing Crisis ◽  
The Impact

This paper advances debates around the financialization of housing with a case study of Los Angeles’s yes-in-my-back-yard (YIMBY) groups. In response to the post-2008 affordable housing crisis, YIMBYs have emerged in support of orthodox economic policies that deregulate land use, expedite construction, and intensify financial accumulation in rental housing. Using detailed empirical analysis collected from YIMBY housing activists, this paper examines how the market-based logics they advance take root in local land use issues. It focuses specifically on the impact of YIMBYs on existing divisions within urban politics, including the scale at which housing is contested. By conceptualizing the YIMBY position as one that facilitates financialization, this paper reveals the ways financialization is more than a mode of accumulation: it is a political process embedded in the state from the bottom up and inside out.

Children of the Celtic Tiger during the Economic Crisis: Ireland

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bertrand Maître
Keyword(s):  
Affordable Housing ◽  
Public Expenditure ◽  
Celtic Tiger ◽  
Fiscal Adjustment ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Transfers ◽  
Tax And Transfer System ◽  
Household Incomes ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Scarring Effects

Ireland’s exceptionally deep economic and fiscal crisis had an immediate and profound impact on employment and household incomes. The percentage of children below a 2008 relative income threshold increased in line with prices, rose from 18 per cent to 28 per cent, and by 2012 32 per cent of children were in households reporting severe material deprivation. The impact of the recession was significantly buffered by the social security system providing an income floor for those who lost their jobs, despite cuts in some social transfers, and the redistributive impact of the tax and transfer system increased markedly. Overall the Irish welfare state proved reasonably robust in responding to the crisis, bringing about rapid fiscal adjustment, although public expenditure cuts on key services, high levels of debt, failure to generate adequate affordable housing, and the scarring effects of unemployment mean it will have a lasting impact on families.

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