Abstract
The UK housing market has exhibited persistent price volatility over the past 40 years, which has deleterious social and economic consequences. This is the first of two papers to synthesise the work of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation's Housing Market Taskforce that was established to identify long-term solutions to tackle, first, the root causes of volatility and, second, to provide better protection for households from its consequences. This paper deals with the first of these issues. It argues that there is a need to improve housing supply to tackle volatility in the long run, but that that counter-cyclical policies are also required to tackle volatility in the short run.
Notes
1. The members of the Taskforce were: Kate Barker, Keith Exford, Elaine Kempson, Julia Unwin and Peter Williams. Mark Stephens was the Taskforce's academic adviser and author of its report. Kathleen Kelly was responsible for project management. Mark Stephens bears sole responsibility for the contents of this article, which should not be taken as necessarily representing the views of every member of the Taskforce.
2. The evidence reviews may be downloaded at: http://www.jrf.org.uk/housing-market-task-force