Introduction

This chapter charts the radical reorientation of housing policy in the UK that was set in motion by the coalition government elected in 2010 and accelerated by the majority Conservative government elected in 2015.

Before 2010, two very broad phases in housing policy can be identified. In the period from 1945 up to 1980, successive governments used social rented housing to improve general housing conditions, meet housing shortages and to house a wide cross section of the population. Simultaneously, home ownership was encouraged through favourable tax treatment, while the private rented sector was allowed to decline to residual status under the pressure of regulation and lack of subsidy.

From 1980 to 2010, home ownership was broadened through the Right to Buy and mortgage market deregulation. The social rented sector was allowed to decline, and now provided a safety net for a large number of households on low incomes, including statutorily homeless people. Subsidies were shifted emphatically from the supply side towards the demand side Housing Benefit, which became the largest financial subsidy to housing, especially after the phasing out of mortgage interest relief for home owners. The private rented sector was revived through deregulation, new mortgage products and indirect subsidy from Housing Benefit. By the end of this period, home ownership was in decline, and private renting is about to overtake social renting.

This chapter details the emergence of a third phase of housing policy since 2010 in which the safety net function of social rented housing and the wider housing system is being undermined, as security of tenure is weakened in the social sector, homelessness legislation weakened by allowing local authorities to meet their duties by allocating private in place of social tenancies, and Housing Benefit cuts. Home ownership is receiving increasing state support through state guarantees, state equity stakes, and now through the Starter Homes scheme and the extension of the Right to Buy scheme to housing association tenants.

However, the ‘British’ housing system is beginning to fragment, as different parts of the UK pursue their own priorities. This is seen most clearly in Scotland.

Context for policy change

The Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition government of 2010-15 was formed in the aftermath of the global financial crisis.