Is social housing only available to poorer people?

Amsterdam lost a case in 2021.

Paris has gone further in requiring owners to apply for a change-of-use permit from residential to commercial, that includes a requirement to pay toward a programme of converting commercial units into housing.

Enforcement of any regulations is difficult, with limited capacity of authorities to check and ever new ways for landlords to conceal their lettings. To date, say the researchers, only Barcelona and Paris have managed to strike agreements requiring platforms to give them lists of active ads, though the authorities say these have been incomplete.

Sharing of data is regarded as essential to good enforcement. In one recent court case, Airbnb was found not to have a general obligation to monitor the content of its listings. Conversely, a separate case found that the public interest of combatting a long-term rented housing shortage could justify proportionate regulation.

Covid has of course dampened the market for short-term lets. But as tourism begins to get going again, local authorities will face a dilemma, the researchers say. With city economies highly dependent on tourism they will want to support that sector. But the demand to protect local housing stocks for local people will remain.

There are three recommendations: • That national and local governments must give local authorities the necessary tools to regulate in the public interest, in a way that takes the local context into account • That city authorities should have a right to access relevant, accurate, and individualised data on housing used for short-term letting • That any debate on managing or controlling the growth of short-term lets should be part of a wider discussion on solving the housing crisis and housing inequalities.

Full research published by Property Research Trust https://bit.ly/35OULvB

A fascinating study by Becky Tunstall looks at the process of residualisation in social housing, and concludes that the process halted many years ago, writes Janis Bright.

There has long been a popular belief that social housing in England has become residualised – in other words, housing only the poorest in increasing concentrations, driven by the shortage of housing. But while Tunstall, building on earlier work by Pearce and Vine, accepts that strong differences in the tenures remain, she challenges the view that residualisation strengthens inevitably over time.

According to Tunstall, significant differences in income among housing tenures were a phenomenon of the late twentieth century, becoming more marked as the private rented sector declined. In the 2000s political leaders used the concept of residualisation to frame social housing as problematic, and therefore in need of change.

Origins of the process

When did residualisation in social housing begin? Tunstall records that in the mid-1970s council tenants’ income was just under three quarters that of owner occupiers, on average. (It should be noted, however, that council tenant households tended to contain several earners – for example, adult children.) By 1983 that figure had moved to under 45%, and by 1999 to just one third.

In employment and economic activity, there was little difference among the tenures in the 1960s. But that changed through the 1980s and 90s, and by 2004 economic activity among social renters was down to 56% of the average. Unemployment among social renters was commensurately higher than average.

The turning points in these trends came during the 2000s, Tunstall finds. From 2000 to 2012/13 the relative poverty rate among social renters fell from 234% of the average to 201% - still high, but less than before. Similarly, social renters made up 68% of all housing benefit claims by 2016/17, compared with 79% in 2008/09.

Employment rates among social tenants grew from 60% of the national average in the 00s to 70% in the mid-2010s, while unemployment first stabilised then moved toward the national average.

Further change

All of this points to a reverse of residualisation, or de-residualisation, Tunstall finds. However, she suggests a further reverse may be emerging now. The proportion of housing benefit claims made by social tenants has gone up again, from 68% in 2016/17 to 71% in 2018/19. Convergence with the