Hal Pawson

Local Authority Homelessness Prevention in England: Empowering Consumers or Denying Rights?

High profile commitments to stemming homelessness have been integral to New Labours emphasis on promoting social inclusion since 1997. During this period official policy has favoured an increasingly assertive approach in this area as exemplified by the successful post-1998 programmes to reduce street homelessness. The period since 2002 has seen a broader ministerial drive to reduce homelessness, mainly through encouraging local authorities (LAs) to adopt more pro-active, preventative approaches to the problem. Aided by substantial central funding LAs have responded by developing numerous initiatives to this end. Particularly where they involve assisting people at risk of homelessness to access private tenancies, such schemes are often justified by LAs as empowering consumers and promoting choice. With official homelessness figures in England having fallen dramatically since 2003/04, it would appear that the new ‘homelessness prevention regime’ has made a marked impact. However, what such figures do not reveal is the extent to which this results from the adoption of more restrictive interpretations of LA duties under the homelessness legislation. This could mean that the problem is being re-defined rather than resolved. Drawing on a recently completed study, this paper explores the tensions between helping resolve peoples housing problems, on the one hand, and upholding legal rights to accommodation, on the other.

Restructuring England's social housing sector since 1989: Undermining or underpinning the fundamentals of public housing?

Twenty-five years ago, social housing accounted for almost one-third of Englands entire housing stock. Since then, mainly because the sales to sitting tenants and demolitions have exceeded new construction, the sector has contracted substantially. However, at the same time, and particularly in the period since 1989, the sector has been undergoing far-reaching restructuring. This paper charts this process focusing, in particular, on developments under the Blair administrations since 1997. The paper discusses the external pressures experienced by social landlords over this period. Such pressures are differentiated between those emanating from central government policy initiatives on the one hand, and from changing housing market conditions on the other. The paper then goes on to analyse the evolving structure of the sector post-1997, the processes that have contributed to this, and the impacts that have resulted.

Welfare Safety Net or Tenure of Choice? The Dilemma Facing Social Housing Policy in England

This paper considers the future role of social rented housing in England. It is based on an analysis of policy trends over the past 30 years, and a critical examination of current policy dilemmas. The central contention is that there are fundamental tensions underlying the present governments policy objectives to maintain the ‘safety net’ role of social housing but at the same time widen access to the sector so that it becomes a more mixed ‘tenure of choice’. The paper charts the marked change of direction seen since 2000, with a switch from a highly rule-bound approach emphasising equity in housing allocations, to a more consumerist system stressing choice. Survey data and statistical returns are analysed to illustrate the changing mix of households entering social rented housing and to reveal the sectors varying role in regions characterised by contrasting housing market conditions. The paper charts the spread of the ‘choice-based lettings’ approach and discusses the possible implications of this development for the pattern of rehousing outcomes, and for the sectors broader role. It is concluded that, in higher demand regions such as London and the South, it remains very difficult to see how a social sector continuing to contract can widen its role from that of safety net for the most disadvantaged.

Low Demand for Housing: Incidence, Causes and UK National Policy Implications

Low and falling demand for housing has come to be recognised as a fairly widespread phenomenon in late 1990s Britain. Whilst research has tended to focus on the negative consequences of this for social rented housing, the weakness of the private housing market has led to increasingly grave problems in some inner cities and former coalfields, particularly in the North of England. The main purpose of the paper is to review and evaluate the actual and potential public policy responses to this complex of issues in relation to both private- and public-sector housing, in the light of new evidence on the extent, incidence and causes of low demand. Whilst central government has displayed a growing recognition of the need to develop counter-measures, particularly in England, the paper questions whether those so far proposed fully address the severity and intractability of the issue.

Part of the Problem or Part of the Solution? Social Housing Allocation Policies and Social Exclusion in Britain

This article examines claims that social housing allocations policies can, on the one hand, contribute to and on the other, counter, social exclusion. In setting the scene, the paper investigates connections between housing processes and social exclusion and describes the development of social housing allocations systems over the past few decades. Drawing on evidence from two recently completed national studies in England and Scotland it shows that allocation policies contribute to social exclusion in three main ways. First, a large proportion of social landlords restrict eligibility for social housing thereby contributing directly to exclusion. Second, mechanisms within allocation systems continue to segregate the most excluded to the worst residential areas. Third, through the 1990s allocation policies became increasingly coercive, so reducing or eliminating tenant choice over their own housing in distinct contrast to the choice that is available in the private market. The paper then reviews the dilemmas faced by policy-makers: whilst aspects of allocations contribute to social exclusion at the individual level, they may be justified by their role in promoting sustainable residential communities. Although there are hopes that the ‘choice-based’ approaches to lettings which emerged in the late 1990s can both boost community sustainability and counter the disabling impact of coercive approaches, the article suggests it is unlikely that such methods can significantly enhance social inclusion as long as social housing remains a housing sector of last resort, with in-built disadvantages.

Radically Divergent? Homelessness Policy and Practice in Post-devolution Scotland

Abstract This paper reviews the evolution of homelessness policy and practice in Scotland since the establishment of the Scottish Parliament in 1999. It uses, as its reference point, simultaneous developments in England. It critically examines the practicability of flagship Scottish government policy to widen the remit of the homelessness legislation – effectively an extension of citizenship rights. This is compared with the more ‘consumerist’ tilt of the New Labour housing policy in England. At the same time, the paper draws attention to the parallels in the recent development of homelessness policy in the two jurisdictions; in the promotion of a ‘strategic approach’ to homelessness on the part of local authorities and the associated advocacy of ‘prevention-focused practice’. Drawing on empirical research in both Scotland and England, the paper compares and contrasts approaches to homelessness prevention north and south of the border, and explores the limits of ‘devolutionary divergence’ in this policy area.

Understanding recent trends in residential mobility in council housing in England

Variations in stock turnover in social housing are important for a number of reasons. First, they influence the supply of properties available to meet housing need; secondly, they have implications for housing management costs and performance; and, thirdly, they are a barometer of neighbourhood stability and cohesion. The paper examines national, regional and local trends in council housing turnover rates over the past 20 years, focusing on changes during the first half of the 1990s. Linking data from various secondary sources together with new evidence, the paper explores the elements involved in the generation of relets and examines the characteristics and motivations of households exiting from the council sector. Finally, the article reports results of statistical modelling of relet rates at the local authority level which reveal new insights on the causal factors involved.

Worlds Apart? Lower-income Households and Private Renting in Australia and the UK

Abstract The private rental sectors (PRS) in Australia and the UK differ substantially in terms of size and composition, institutional settings, and historical role in their respective housing systems. However, governments in both countries envisage the PRS as playing an enhanced role in accommodating lower-income households, in part to offset declining opportunities to access social housing. In examining this development we ask how far contemporary housing policy objectives can be met within current institutional settings for the PRS. We examine the sectors role within the broader rental housing market and the institutional settings for the PRS in the two countries, which affect outcomes for lower-income private tenants. The paper argues that achieving policy objectives to house lower-income households in the PRS, as well as in social housing, will require attention to the institutional settings for the PRS in addition to the acknowledged need to nurture supply. We examine prospects for better coordination between housing and related public policies and regulation of the PRS, and for a move to a more integrated rental market.

Policy Transfer of Choice-based Lettings to Britain and Australia: How Extensive? How Faithful? How Appropriate?

Abstract This paper seeks to inject a new dimension into comparative housing research by exploring policy transfer in the case of choice-based lettings (CBL). Conceived in the Netherlands around 1990, CBL has attracted widespread interest in other developed countries as a ‘consumerist’ quasi-market technique replacing a traditionally bureaucratic process of regulating access to social housing. We examine the implications of importing the concept to two different social housing contexts—the UK and Australia. First, we identify the aspects of the CBL model found attractive in these jurisdictions and the extent to which it has been implemented in practice. Second, we explore how far it can be effectively operated within policy and institutional contexts substantially different from the country of origin. In ensuring compatibility with established institutional frameworks, has importation of CBL to the UK been rendered an empty gesture and to what extent have such frameworks acted as a barrier to the implementation of CBL in Australia? And, third, we consider the broader implications of the CBL case in relation to the international transfer of social policies as discussed in the literature.

New dawn or chimera? Can institutional financing transform rental housing?

Mainly stimulated by concerns over inadequate housing supply, both the UK and Australia have recently seen renewed policy-maker interest in channelling ‘institutional investment’ into rental housebuilding. This has coincided with the recognition that – as seen in both countries – ongoing changes in the demographics of expanding private rental sectors reinforce the need for new forms of provision.Drawing on recent ‘informed stakeholder’ perspectives in both countries, we build on existing accounts through our analysis of barriers to institutional financing of rental housing and our investigation of what, if any, fundamental changes in market conditions and investor sentiment have recently occurred, so that such obstacles might potentially be overcome. Further developing this story, we compare and contrast recent ‘policy reform’ recommendations proposed in both countries with the aim of stimulating institutional investment in housebuilding.Although impediments to large-scale institutional funding for rental housing remain substantial, we conclude that, should it take off, such financing could significantly affect the structure and quality of provision – especially via the involvement of not-for-profit landlords.