Housing ladder also has snakes for those on low incomes
Minister’s York home truths
WORKING YOUR way up the housing ladder is a myth for people on low incomes, with many trapped on a ‘treadmill’ of inadequate accommodation, a new study has revealed.
University of York researchers have conducted what they describe as the first in-depth analysis of the interaction between housing and low income over the course of people’s lives.
The study, commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, worked with participants on low incomes, of all ages and from across the UK over three years.
They found that finding a safe and sustainable place to call home is often a struggle, particularly when people experienced major life changes such as illness, redundancy, relationship breakdown or a need to care for others, affecting their income or capacity to work. This led some along a “snakes and ladders”-style path of gaining and losing homes over time, while others remained stuck in overcrowded or unsuitable accommodation, unable to move on to a better home or a better neighbourhood.
Many of those studied said that only an unexpected inheritance or other windfall would give them any choice or control over their own housing situation.
Lead author of the study Karen Croucher, from the Centre for Housing Policy at the University of York, said: “Let’s be absolutely clear – the individuals whose housing histories and experiences we explored for this report were not Benefits Street stereotypes.
“Many were working either full time or part time, some were retired, some were students, some were ill or disabled, and some were full-time carers.
“Rather than a housing ladder, the closest analogy is perhaps that of a housing ‘treadmill’, where people were running to stay still, or a game of snakes and ladders where the meanest of the snakes leads you onto the streets or into temporary accommodation.”
Ms Croucher said that Britain should have a housing policy driven by human needs as well as house-building targets, saying it should recognise that “people’s lives rarely follow an easy or steady course”.
JAMES BROKENSHIRE will have no shortage of advice as he succeeds Sajid Javid as Housing, Communities and Local Government Secretary. He could begin by studying today’s report produced by the University of York and Joseph Rowntree Foundation. It reveals that it’s not just individuals on low incomes who can’t gain a tentative foothold on the bottom of the property ladder; this also applies to aspirational people in reasonably paid jobs. And this is Mr Brokenshire’s biggest challenge. If more people are to become homeowners, rather than struggling to pay the bills as they lurch from one rent review to another in accommodation of dubious quality, he needs to preside over the construction of a new era of affordable housing. This means working with developers, large and small, to ensure they advance schemes that are sensitive to the needs of communities – while also making the positive economic and social case for new homes to those Nimby residents whose natural, and default, instincts are to oppose all new developments.