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| Government's 'Right-to-Buy' policy is a parasite feeding itself on social housing stock, another drain on the scarce resources at the disposal of local government to protect the public welfare of their communities. |
Few things symbolise the UK's problems like the housing crisis. The escalating price of housing has plagued Britain for more than a decade, and has roots even deeper than the housing bubble that contributed to the 2008 Financial Crisis.
Beveridge, who had answers for so many other issues of social welfare, struggled to address the complications and implications of the housing sector (Birch, 2012). The housing benefit bill, his stop solution gap, has only escalated.
The housing crisis will be a key issue in this week's local and assembly elections. Studies released suggest confusion over the nature of the crisis, with a misplaced belief that immigrants are somehow responsible for the housing shortages and rising prices (Tigar, 2016) - rather than the more complicated reality behind the broader issue of cost living.
But there are fewer doubts about the impact of the crisis. The overwhelming majority, in a society that places emphasis on home ownership, have been disenfranchised (Helm & Doward, 2016), being effectively priced out of ever taking part. More division and social strife are not going to solve that problem.
The housing crisis, beneath the murky layer of divisive negative politics (Oborne, 2016), has dominated the London Assembly debate. As expected, that has led to candidates making grand promises and trying to find ways to work around Westminster-imposed austerity.
For instance Caroline Pidgeon, the Liberal Democrat candidate for Mayor of London, has proposed using the Olympic levy to fund the building of 50,000 homes under direct Mayor's office supervision (Hill, 2016) - to be council houses kept safe from the government's social housing draining Rent-to-Buy policy.
A similar pattern has emerged in Scotland. Devolved control over taxation is being taken as an opportunity to differentiate the country from Westminster government policy.
The opposition Labour and Lib Dems have both proposed to use new tax powers to raise tax, by a penny in the pound, to increase education funding - in stark differentiation from the cuts policy of the Westminster government. This follows into housing.
The Liberal Democrats have pledged 50,000 new homes for Scotland, with four fifths being for social rent (BBC, 2016), while Labour have pledged 60,000, with three quarters to be rented out by councils, housing associations and co-operatives (BBC, 2016{2}).
Increasing social housing stock is definitely a good idea, not least for the social security it offers. It is also one of the few ways that has been shown to help in keeping the housing benefit budget under some semblance of control (Johnson, 2015).
So far government aims to encourage home building has stalled in private hands, regardless of policy (Wright, 2016). So the question remains if these devolved institutions will have more luck than Westminster in getting developers to, effectively, act against their own interests and increase the housing supply.
That is a particularly tough ask when councils have been dealt an even shorter leash than other devolved bodies. While some powers have been handed over for various areas, the capacity to fund them has been decreased and the level to which democratic authority extends is being curtailed.
From alterations to local business rates or the administration of schools being made centrally at Westminster and imposed on local bodies (Butler, 2016; Cook, 2016), to responsibility for social care being added to the jobs of protecting front line services even as council funding is being dramatically slashed (Wintour, 2016; Oliver, 2015), local bodies are being handed new responsibilities and poor funding hand in hand.
In the face of these restrictions, how much can councils really do to help ease the housing crisis?
Well, elsewhere in Europe, municipal governments are getting organised - building horizontal alliances with other councils, pooling funds and looking for innovative solutions during times that have imposed thrift on an entire continent (Zechner & Hansen, 2016).
In Spain, Barcelona En Comu have been leading a municipalism movement that has seen it working with local citizens and other cities to overcome the hindrance of austerity. The movement, of whom Mayor Ada Colau is a member, has found innovative and resourceful solutions to increase social housing availability in the city (Rodriguez, 2016).
Westminster's support for local government has been sporadic and erratic (Wainright, 2016). To fill the gaps left in budgets, local government has to look to build new kinds of partnerships. And a spirit of cooperation will have to be a part of that.
Regardless of who wins where, all councillors and assembly members will have to be willing to work across party boundaries, and even across local government boundaries. To overcome the challenges ahead, local government needs elected figures with constructive voices who are prepared to cooperate and build alliances across the usual borderlines and divisions, in order to protect vital services and the welfare of their communities.
References
Jules Birch's 'The problem of rent: why Beveridge failed to tackle the cost of housing - Some 70 years after his groundbreaking report, housing professionals are still trying to solve the problems Beveridge identified'; in The Guardian; 22 November 2012.
David Tigar's 'UK housing crisis: poll reveals city v country split on who to blame: Special report More than two in every three Britons believe the country is in the throes of a housing crisis, according to a new poll for the Observer and Guardian Cities, which also reveals striking divisions between urban and rural dwellers'; in The Guardian; 30 April 2016.
Toby Helm & Jamie Doward's 'Revealed: UK ‘is in the throes of a housing crisis’ - Observer survey finds 71% couldn’t buy without family help, and 37% say home ownership is out of reach for good'; in The Guardian; 30 April 2016.
Peter Oborne's 'How Zac Goldsmith imported Donald Trump's politics into Britain'; in Middle East Eye; 21 April 2016.
Dave Hill's 'London mayor race: the Liberal Democrat vision of Caroline Pidgeon - Her party has been taking a pounding of late, but the Lib Dem candidate for City Hall believes the middle ground can revive its fortunes in the capital'; in The Guardian; 26 January 2016.
'Holyrood 2016: Scottish Liberal Democrat manifesto at-a-glance'; on the BBC; 15 April 2016.
'Holyrood 2016: Scottish Labour manifesto at-a-glance'; on the BBC; 27 April 2016{2}.
Paul Johnson's 'Why is the UK's housing benefit bill so high?'; from the IFS, on the BBC; 21 September 2015.
Oliver Wright's 'UK housebuilders 'restricting the supply of new houses to keep prices unnecessarily high' - Exclusive: A record half a million homes in England now have planning permission granted but have yet to be built'; in The Independent; 1 March 2016.
Patrick Butler's 'Business rate changes in budget leaves councils facing further cuts: George Osborne outlines plans to extend business rate reliefs in a move that will take £7bn out of total receipts'; in The Guardian; 16 March 2016.
Chris Cook's 'Every school to become an academy, ministers to announce'; on the BBC; 15 March 2016.
Patrick Wintour's 'Osborne plans to allow 2% council tax rises to plug social care holes: New source of revenue to be announced in the autumn statement as care home financing crisis gathers pace'; in The Guardian; 20 November 2016.
Matt Oliver's 'Exclusive: Prime Minister David Cameron clashes with Oxfordshire County Council over cuts to frontline services'; in the Oxford Mail; 11 November 2015.
Manuela Zechner & Bue Rubner Hansen's 'More than a welcome: the power of cities - What is the scope for circumventing the national and EU deadlock over migration, and what role can cities, together with solidarity movements, play in overcoming this crisis?'; on Open Democracy; 7 April 2016.
Alba Rodriguez's 'A new drive to secure empty housing for social rent'; on EL Digital Barcelona; 7 January 2016.
Daniel Wainright's 'Council cuts: Who gets the help to cushion the blow?'; on the BBC; 3 March 2016.
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