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Monstrous Hybrids?

Monstrous Hybrids?. Housing Systems in the UK and Sweden. Outline. Context Welfare Regimes Changes in Swedish housing policy UK Some reflections. Context. Comparative analysis of supported housing Older people, young homeless and people with health problems UK and Sweden

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Monstrous Hybrids?

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  1. Monstrous Hybrids? Housing Systems in the UK and Sweden

  2. Outline • Context • Welfare Regimes • Changes in Swedish housing policy • UK • Some reflections

  3. Context • Comparative analysis of supported housing • Older people, young homeless and people with health problems • UK and Sweden • Overall comparison • Challenged my historical preconceptions • Set off some general thoughts about the nature of housing systems and the neo-liberal assault

  4. Welfare Regimes • Esping-Anderson • Divergence rather than convergence • Importance of political choice • Sweden - social democratic • UK - liberal

  5. Social Democratic Sweden (pre 1990) • Tenure neutral and generous supply side subsidy system • Strong public rental through Municipal Housing Companies with collective management • Unitary rental system (led by public sector eg rent levels and allocations) • Corporatist (rent setting) • Co-operative sector in apartments with collective management and no profits

  6. Changes since 1990s • Marketisation of co-operative sector • Occupiers get benefit of increase in prices • Growth of owner-occupation • Scrapping of subsidies (except for MITR) • Cutting of housing allowances – rising rents • So no longer tenure neutral • Marketisation of MHCs (EU regs: normal rate of return) • Privatisation of social housing • Need allocations of tenancies changed to waiting time

  7. Monstrous Hybrid? • Rent setting (still union bargaining) • De facto rent control • Allocations (municipal exchanges) • Homelessness (staircase model with no legal structure)

  8. Impact • Affordability issues in owner-occupation (and in renting for vulnerable people) • Shortage of rental housing with little new supply • Problem of access to rented housing for immigrants and new households • Segregation • Homelessness (temporary housing) • Solution - Deregulate private renting?

  9. UK a Monstrous Hybrid? • More market based system • Institutionally ill adapted PRS • Subsidized social renting • Planning system for supply

  10. Impact • Affordability issues • Lack of overall supply • Little new investment in PRS • Difficulties of access for new households • Solution – deregulate planning system

  11. Similar? • Strong Swedish municipalities • Public expenditure as % of GDP • Sweden 28.2 / UK 23.9 • Social expenditure per head • Sweden $11,134 / UK $8,365 • Gini • Sweden 0.341 (10) / UK 0.269 (28 out of 34)

  12. Some Reflections • How on earth did we get here? • Importance of Path dependence • Power of neo-liberal discourse (always policy focus on what is left of state involvement) • Will this deliver? • Need to re-invent state involvement (Judt) rather relying on what is left • Why and how intervene?

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