Janet Ford

Conceptualising the Contemporary Role of Housing in the Transition to Adult Life in England

This paper uses both survey and qualitative panel data collected from five different case-study areas in England in order to offer a conceptualisation of the contemporary role that housing is playing in the transition to adult life. The data suggest that the types of housing pathway that young people follow are a function of differences in the combination and intensity of three main factors: the ability of young people to plan for and control their entry to independent living; the extent and form of constraints that characterise their access to housing; and the degree of family support available to them. Based around these three dimensions (each of which is a continuum), the following ideal typical pathways can be identified: a chaotic pathway, an unplanned pathway, a constrained pathway, a planned (non-student) pathway and a student pathway.

A Union of Home Owners

In 1945 home ownership was a minority tenure in each of what are now the 25 countries of the European Union. By 2003, home ownership was the majority tenure in every country except Germany. However, the exact enumeration of home owners in each country, and hence comparison between countries is sometimes difficult largely due to the absence of any systematically collected and fully harmonized set of data across the countries. For one thing, surveys of the housing stock by tenure have not been carried out at regular periods in each country. In addition, definitions of what constitutes home ownership differ from country to country. For example, Stephens argues that, because it is a tradable asset, Swedish co-operative housing could be thought of as a form of home ownership, a definition that would raise the overall home ownership level in that country to around 60 per cent (Stephens, 2003). Yet, even without that, the home ownership rate across the 15 pre-2004 member states had by 2003 reached 63.5 per cent, and in the ten, newer member states 66.7 per cent, as shown in Table 1a and 1b. In total, there are in the order of 136 million European home owning households in the EU25. Moreover, if Germany which has almost a fifth of the entire EU housing stock and the proportionately smallest home ownership sector, is excluded from the calculations the overall EU proportion in home ownership increases from 63.9 per cent to 68.4 per cent. In the light of this evidence it may be appropriate to refer to a Union of Home owners. This Union of Home owners is the key starting point for the collection of articles published in this themed edition of the European Journal of Housing Policy. Interest in the growth of home ownership across first the 15 individual EU countries and now the further ten accession countries is increasingly well developed but the emphasis has typically focused either on understanding the formulation and implementation of housing policy or the structure and operation of the housing and mortgage markets. This themed edition has a different and distinctive focus in that its concern is largely with some key implications of the growth of home ownership, predominately as

The Costs of Unsustainable Home Ownership in Britain

A B S T R AC T This paper examines the costs of unsustainable home ownership in Britain as manifested through mortgage arrears and possessions. It suggests that there are a widely drawn set of costs that have an impact on a range of different actors and institutions, and offers a simple conceptual framework for developing an analysis of such costs. Further, the paper suggests that an examination of these costs has the potential to contribute to some key debates within social policy, not least to a series of issues about the development and maintenance of social and economic inequality. This claim is illustrated via an analysis of the financial costs of arrears and possession. The paper concludes that the financial losses incurred cannot be regarded as marginal either in terms of the number of people affected, the sums of money involved or the continuing social disadvantages that follow possession. The article concludes with a discussion of whether these issues can be regarded as ‘yesterday’s’ problem or whether they should be viewed as a continuing feature of the contemporary social and economic landscape.

Housing advantage? The role of student renting in the constitution of housing biographies in the United Kingdom

Research on young people leaving the parental home has tended to focus most closely on charting and explaining the age at which young people leave, and exploring the incidence of returning after a period of living either ‘semi‐autonomously’ or independently. The majority of these studies have been quantitative and fairly static in approach. This paper develops an approach to the topic that is more qualitative in its orientation and that views housing biographies as essentially dynamic. Using primary data from the United Kingdom, the paper constructs five ‘ideal’ typical housing pathways followed by young people: a chaotic pathway, and unplanned pathway, a constrained pathway, a planned (non‐student) pathway, and a student pathway. The paper then gives particular consideration to the characteristics of the student pathway, and compares the experience of students studying away from the parental home with the long‐term housing biographies of their non‐student peers. The paper concludes that the typical student housing experience—including a supervised leaving of the parental home and a ‘sheltered’ spell in the private rented sector—constitutes an essential education in housing that enhances the housing and labour opportunities of graduates compared with other young people who have not studied away from the parental home.

Owner Occupation, Employment and Welfare: The Impact of Changing Relationshipson Sustainable Home Ownership

This paper is concerned with the changing relationships between owner occupation,employmentand welfare that increasingly present a challenge to sustainable home ownership. While the discussion centres on the emerging position in Britain, the potential significance of the issues for a number of other countries is noted. The paper first identifies the conditions for sustainable owner occupation and then traces out the impact of three illustrative aspects of labour market change on sustainability. The three issues discussed are the growth of job instabilities,the rising incidence of unemployment and the growth of low paid employment.The extent to which the impact of the changing relationship between the housing and the labour market is already visible will be discussed-potentialindicators include deterioratingphysical conditions, changing attitudes to home ownership and financial difficulties, mortgage arrears and possessions. The latter form the focus for the discussion. This is set in the context of the ch...

Self-Employment and Home Ownership after the Enterprise Culture

This paper examines the relationship between patterns of self-employment and patterns of home ownership in England in the 1990s. It does this via a secondary analysis of the Survey of English Housing. It argues that for many of the self-employed both the housing boom and the economic boom of the 1980s and the housing and economic recessions of the 1990s have been mutually constitutive. The growth and sustainability of self-employment and of home ownership are two sides of the same socio-political coin. In the 1980s they both boomed and in the early 1990s they both bust. For the future, after the enterprise culture, the two forces are likely to pull in opposite directions, with increasing reliance on self-employment but with housing constituting both a constraint and a risk. Owner occupation is unlikely to offer the means for small business growth that it did in the 1980s, but equally, will make financial demands that the self-employed may find hard to meet. The extremes of boom and bust may be avoided towards 2000, but the livelihoods and homes of self-employed mortgagors are still likely to be precarious.

Limiting Possessions? Managing Mortgage Arrears in a New Era

Abstract Over the last 30 years the UK has seen a structural increase in mortgage default, interacting with cyclical economic trends to provide peaks and troughs of default. The latest upturn in mortgage arrears, from 2004, has been exacerbated by recessionary pressures since 2006. Despite significant exposure to risk and a distinct configuration to the current recession, lenders initial responses in 2006 and 2007 to managing arrears were limited and unchanged from the 1990s. This paper explores the extent to which such practices then changed, why and with what consequences. The paper identifies a shift in lenders’ responses to mortgage arrears and possessions from ‘pay or possess’ to more ‘managed forbearance’. It explores the ways in which commercial considerations, housing market drivers, a more stringent regulatory environment and government intervention have influenced this change resulting in a slower than expected growth in possessions. The paper considers the contingent nature of these changes and the implication for the longer-term sustainability of homeownership. The paper is based upon a qualitative study of lenders’ and government agencies’ responses to the current market downturn. The paper has a UK focus, but, in the context of global recession and significant homeownership markets in many developed countries, the issue of mortgage default and its management may resonate beyond the UK.

A Place in the Country? The Housing Circumstances of Young People in Rural England

ABSTRACT The contemporary housing circumstances of the one-fifth of all young people in England between the ages of 16 and 24 who live in rural areas are examined. Although young people are often seen as a key group in wider debates, not least because they so clearly represent the maintenance of the continuity of local people, they are infrequently examined in the research literature. More typically the young are simply ‘tagged on’ to existing studies of rural housing, demonstrating perhaps the urban emphasis of both housing research and youth studies. A rural focus on housing and youth when it does occur tends to be on extreme housing need, whereas—as this paper demonstrates—the range of issues and consequences with respect to housing are much wider. Three questions are addressed. First, what are the current household and housing circumstances of young people in rural areas of England? Second, what preferences do young people living in rural areas have in relation to housing, and how do these interact wi...

Mortgage Default: Consequences

Mortgage default has a wide range of potential consequences: social, economic, financial, political, and organisational. These consequences impact in a diverse manner and can be experienced by borrowers, housing market institutions, central and local states, as well as affecting national economies. Increasingly, there is an international impact from more localised mortgage default. The exact nature of the impact of arrears and possessions is shaped by a number of mediating factors, including the extent to which there are risk mitigation strategies in the form of state support with housing costs and effective private insurance, and statutory provision for rehousing homeless households. The nature of the judicial system in any country also shapes the extent and experience of possession.

Mortgage Payment Protection Insurance

Risk has come increasingly to characterise homeownership, and the provision of risk mitigation has become more important, particularly in terms of ensuring that borrowers can maintain their stream of mortgage payments. The state often provides some support to borrowers without income but this article considers the contribution of private mortgage payment protection insurance (MPPI) in enabling borrowers to cover key risks. The United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia are among those countries with developed MPPI markets. Nevertheless, take-up can be low and the reasons for this are discussed as are the measures of effectiveness. It is suggested that MPPI cannot cover all risks, operates with a number of exclusions, can be costly, and does not always preclude mortgage arrears. As risk grows, the article suggests that there is a need to develop more effective safety-net systems.