Out of harmony

Scotland’s housing shortage could last for up to 20 years, according to an Audit Scotland report last year. In the past eight years, local authorities and registered social landlords have built 14,000 fewer houses than were needed. In this context, the way in which scarce social housing is allocated really matters.

Ties that bind, a new Demos report out last week, supported by the charity Quarriers, indicates how these decisions affect family and community life. The research, which explored the causes and consequences of disadvantage in Scotland, found that people’s social networks - friends, family neighbours - often provide invaluable support.

Everyday things such as providing childcare, sharing transport costs, offering short-term loans, pointing people towards jobs, or simply offering advice help many families keep their heads above water. Many of the people providing this support to one another would not be classified formally as ‘carers’ by the government, but they help each other in ways and at times that are easily ignored. Welfare and housing policy has the power to make this kind of mutual support easier or harder. The ‘under-occupation penalty’, dubbed the ‘bedroom tax’ by opponents, is one such example of policy doing harm.

The families in the study found themselves being asked to find money many felt they did not have - or move away from the support networks that made life liveable. The report recommends the policy, which is projected to save £500 million in its first year should be scrapped. This could be paid for by cancelling the government’s new married tax allowance, which will cost around £700 million.

Beyond this, there are opportunities for policy to actively lend a hand. Local authorities have certain legal obligations that they must fulfil as they allocate housing, including making a priority of tackling homelessness and overcrowding. But beyond this they have the scope to help people live close to other family members, when they wish to. This is already policy for some authorities - the report recommends spreading the practice more widely.

Many of those who can afford to own their own homes move closer to friends and family when they have children of their own. Those in social housing have less power over where they live and can be separated from families by bad policy. A ‘family first approach’ to housing policy, which helps support rather than undermine vital social networks, would help change this for the better.

Co-written by Duncan O’Leary, deputy director of Demos
Paul Moore is chief executive of Quarriers