The Thinkhouse Review: homelessness, Right to Buy, zero-carbon planning and housing with care

It is a comprehensive review of currently available data, although fails to address the issue of potential double-counting between sources, and acknowledges that there would be unavoidable under-counting of evictions and harassment that are not reported. 

Amnesty International’s An Obstacle Course reviews homelessness assistance and makes the case for there being a human right to housing. It documents the huge difficulties that homeless people have in accessing housing, although the policy asks do not really get to grips with how to tackle the housing shortage, without which it is hard to see how a right to housing could be translated into practice.

Moving on from homelessness, The Right to Own by Alex Morton, head of policy at the Centre for Policy Studies, revisits ideas set out a decade ago which made the case for extending the Right to Buy to housing association tenants. Mr Morton makes some well-argued critiques of the left-wing inclination to blame the Right to Buy for all the ills of UK housing – he points out that the UK homeownership rates are lower than most of Europe and that the shortage of social housing has grown with rising house prices – reflecting growing numbers unable to afford homeownership, rather than falling supply of social housing.

“[The report] documents the huge difficulties that homeless people have in accessing housing, although the policy asks do not really get to grips with how to tackle the housing shortage”

Mr Morton goes on to propose a new model of selling off social housing: the ‘Right to Own’, which involves government-backed mortgages for tenants to purchase 60% of a property, with the remaining 40% gifted to them at the end of the term.

The ‘interest’ on this loan is back-loaded via an annual increase in the buyer’s payments in line with the rent increases for social housing. The model is complex, especially once you get into the details of how to treat people who want to move on, the interaction with benefits, a joint liability for repairs, or how to make it work in high-value areas.

His argument is that this will be a more attractive offer than the Right to Buy, but – despite potentially lower payments in the early days – the complexity makes it hard to see the appeal to tenants or the government.

Mr Morton also remakes the case for extending the Right to Buy to housing association tenants, although it does not really get to grips with the main challenges to this identified in the recent pilot. The paper was published back in June, just before the Right to Buy extension was re-announced, with Boris Johnson clearly in support. It is clearly an area that the Conservatives are keen to explore, however it remains to be seen how these ideas will be greeted by whoever takes the reins in the next government.

Consultancy Altair’s Older People’s Care in Social Housing: A Manifesto for Change asks what role registered providers should have in older people’s housing and care. It is a well-written, timely and thorough overview of this sector today. It is a manifesto with actions to improve housing with care, ranging from ensuring that older people can remain independent in their homes to making housing and care a more desirable career, as well as tackling planning issues and financial risks.

“The report… goes on to look internationally, highlighting the greater availability of housing with care in many countries”

The report is underpinned by a wealth of evidence, including a historical look back at how the housing and care sector has changed over the past 70 years and examining some of the newer models and innovative technologies to assist in independent living.

It guides the reader through the current policy environment and then goes on to look internationally, highlighting the greater availability of housing with care in many countries and the growing focus on communities for older people.

Finally, the Association for Public Service Excellence has looked at the role of housing and planning within local authorities in rising to the climate change challenge. This is not an easy read – it is long and dense. It does, however, give a thorough review of planning legislation in this area and highlights the tensions between local and national policymaking. 

It points out that local authorities are often more ambitious than central government in driving up environmental standards. This is clearly something for the government to consider as it takes forward its plans for levelling up and reforms to the planning system.

Anna Clarke, research and insight manager, Peabody