Two different perspectives on the kinds of reforms needed to provide long-term, secure housing for the people least able to afford it.
These Viewpoints were commissioned as part of the JRF Housing Market Taskforce programme, which aims to address the root causes of instability in the UK housing market. They are aimed at stimulating debate.
Matthew Taylor, Chief Executive of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), argues that the UK's 'obsession with home-ownership' creates social and economic divisions and instability, and we need a more balanced approach to different kinds of tenure. Philippa Stroud, co-founder and Executive Director of the Centre for Social Justice and formerly Director of the Conservative Party's Social Justice Policy Group, believes that life tenancies and the benefits system have combined to create social immobility, worklessness and dependency, and that social housing should be the first step on the ladder to home ownership. |