The Coalition Government and the rethinking of social housing Alex Marsh

1. The Coalition Government and the rethinking of social housing Alex Marsh PAC Annual Conference 2011 Birmingham

2. Structure • Framework • Social housing models • Social housing in England • A changing role • Some established characteristics • A consequence • Late New Labour housing policy • The Coalition era: politics, problem, policies

3. Framework • Kingdon’s Multiple Streams Approach • Problem • Politics • Policy • Windows of opportunity • Reframing • Discursive institutions

4. Social housing models • Mass housing • Mainstream tenure • Residual housing

5. Social housing in England:A changing role • An overall reduction in the scale of social housing provision since 1980 • A transformation of the role of social housing • From a mainstream tenure to a residual ‘safety net’ tenure

6. Social housing in England:Some established characteristics • Secure tenancies • Access to properties based on assessed need rather than ability to pay • Emerged in the 1960s from a focus on suitability • Legal requirements to show ‘reasonable preference’ to certain categories of household • including Statutorily Homeless Households

7. Social housing in England:A consequence • The concentration of social disadvantage in social housing, which means spatial concentration of disadvantage and social segregation

8. Late New Labour housing policy • Fully embraced the ‘Choice in Public Services’ agenda • Provider diversification • Rent restructuring • More market-like pricing • Choice-based lettings • More market-like allocations • Opening up systems of registration for social housing

9. Policy agendas • National: Sustainable communities agenda • Increasing social mix through: • Tenure diversification at local level • Changing methods of allocating social housing • Local: Flexibilities in allocation • New Code of Guidance following Ahmad case • Improving lettings “quality”

10. The Coalition era • Window of opportunity • Housing market context (High private price/rent) • Fiscal consolidation • Politics • Weak opposition • Incorporation of the LibDems • Badly worked through justifications

11. Problem • Insufficient accommodation • Reframing – the constraints faced and accepted • Framed narrowly (Deficit means limited public money for new build) • Framed broadly (eg. Waiting list numbers) • Framed beyond “housing” (Fairness and the taxpayer (leading to policy on underoccupation); Interpersonal welfare comparisons)

12. Policy • Social housing as a temporary safety net • Change to fixed term tenancies • Economic circumstances • Heavily criticised • “Pay to stay” (a break from logic of marketisation?) • “Affordable” rent regime • Return to the aristocracy of the working class? • Redefine homelessness duties to allow discharge in PRS without household’s consent • Beyond John Major’s fantasies

13. Embedded in broader policy (Welfare/HB reform; Planning policy reform; Financial regulation) that will work in exactly the opposite direction

14. Established rights and roles associated with social housing are being unravelled and reconfigured. • There has been a rapid reconfiguration of the terms of housing debate. • A window of opportunity has opened up and allowed policies to progress that have the potential to transform the sector over the coming years.