100 likes | 228 Views
Housing in 2010. Malcolm Rigg Director Policy Studies Institute. Why housing?. Basic need Indicator of a well-governed society Touchstone of a fair society Tends to slip beneath the policy radar. Evaluating the report. Does it: Provide useful numbers? Identify important issues?
E N D
Housing in 2010 Malcolm Rigg Director Policy Studies Institute
Why housing? Basic need Indicator of a well-governed society Touchstone of a fair society Tends to slip beneath the policy radar
Evaluating the report • Does it: • Provide useful numbers? • Identify important issues? • Offer helpful conceptual tools? • Help in making sense of the whole?
Useful numbers on housing? • Additional 2.6m households (4.6%) • Nearer 9% actual growth (top end of scenario) • Large shift in household composition to single person households – housing units need to grow faster than population • 25% of households would require rented accommodation (much of it subsidised)
Identify important policy issues? • Mortgage tax relief • Interest rates • Local Government finance • Council house building • Council house sales • Place & space • Tenants & landlords rights • Planning regimes • Housing stock condition • Environmental • Market imperfections? • Financial regulation?
Offers useful conceptual tools? • Housing particularly sensitive to policy perspectives • Market driven policies • Interventionist policies • Environmental concerns
What’s happened to social (subsidised) housing? Heavy reliance on market based policies Waiting lists continued to grow (1.8m in 2010) Some shift from market based policies back towards intervention since failures apparent in market based policies
What’s happened to private sector housing? • Housing shortages continue • Prices fuelled by easier access to high mortgages • In 2006 average house prices six times annual salary • Private sector renting as expensive as buying
Conclusions • Evidence informed policies? • 2010 Report identified • key housing issues • key policy mechanisms • sensitivities of housing to policy perspectives • Need for deeper analysis of policy mechanisms?