Housing and poverty: a longitudinal analysis

Abstract

Cross-sectional research suggests that the British housing system weakens the link between income poverty and housing outcomes, but this reveals little about the long-term relationships. We examine the relationship between income poverty and housing pathways over an 18-year period to 2008, and develop consensual approaches to poverty estimation, housing deprivation, and the prevalence of under and over-consumption. We find that chronic poverty is most strongly associated with housing pathways founded in social renting, whereas housing pathways founded in owner-occupation are more strongly associated with temporary poverty. Whilst housing deprivation is disproportionately prevalent among those who experienced chronic poverty, the overwhelming majority of people who experienced chronic poverty avoided housing deprivation. This evidence supports of the notion that the housing system, during this period, weakened the link between poverty and housing deprivation. Therefore it can be characterised as representing a ‘sector regime’ with different distributional tendencies from the wider welfare regime.

Keywords:

• Poverty
• housing regimes
• welfare regimes

Notes

1. These are: ‘can replace furniture’, ‘can buy new clothes’, ‘eat meat on alternate days’, ‘can feed visitors once a month’, ‘replace furniture’, ‘buy new clothes’, ‘eat meat on alternate days’ and ‘feed visitors once a month’.

2. (Income) Support for Mortgage Interest: a means-tested social security payment that helps home-owners with mortgage interest payments.

3. The ‘spare room subsidy’, popularly known as the ‘bedroom tax’ (introduced after the study period), whereby social renters’ Housing Benefit is reduced if they are judged to be underoccupying a dwelling, has demonstrated why it is necessary to establish that over-consumption is voluntary: often households do not have the option to move to smaller accommodation (see also Kutty, 2005).