A Presumption in Favour of Home Ownership? Reconsidering Housing Tenure Strategies

Abstract

This paper discusses changes in housing finance, tenure and policy in the UK in the context of Kemeny's important and influential discussion of political tenure strategies. The evolution of housing tenure in that country since the 1970s has not conformed to the thesis of a simple presumption in favour of home ownership and the paper argues that the framework for housing analysis must look beyond tenure categories, recognise the complex variations within tenures and consider the overriding importance of wider structural pressures related to class, income and wealth and the role of local actors and local variation.

Keywords::

• Housing tenure
• Home ownership
• Cost renting
• Social renting
• Private renting

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ A series of banking regulations agreed by The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) which regulates finance and banking practises on an international level. Basel I, II and III were agreed in 1998, 2004 and 2013, respectively.

² See https://www.gov.uk/government/news/help-to-buy.

³ See https://www.gov.uk/affordable-home-ownership-schemes/help-to-buy-mortgage-guarantees.

⁴ The number of loans supported by Help to Buy is a small proportion of the total market. However, it clearly is a factor in house price inflation not least via wider effects on confidence amongst lenders and borrowers. Empirical evidence remains limited, but opinion pieces are many, see, for example, http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/help-to-buy-help-to-who/ and http://b.3cdn.net/nefoundation/92444ee900e51a51ed_kem6b8a9o.pdf.

⁵ There is debate around the embedded social value of a tenancy in the UK. It has been estimated to be worth £9700 per annum; see report by Daniel Fujiwara for HACT; http://hact.org.uk/sites/default/files/uploads/Archives/2013/02/The%20Social%20Impact%20of%20Housing%20Providers%20report2013.pdf.