Good housing needs more than good housing policy: housing policy needs to be part of wider social changes towards a more equal, community-centred, environmentally sustainable society, but good housing policy can make an important contribution to those changes. Economic considerations remain key, but we need to transcend the destructive veneration of GDP.
This paper outlines a radically different approach to housing policy. It also looks at immediate improvements that will be steps on the way to more fundamental transformation.
― The current focus on housing as speculation fails to provide the homes people need, pushes up housing costs, encourages bad design and short-termism, concentrates wealth among a small elite, and has brought economic crisis on a world scale.
― We need to move housing away from the market, and this means a major shift of focus towards social and environmental priorities.
― Various policies are outlined with the aim of moving housing policy away from satisfying “the market” and towards ensuring adequate housing provision.
― These include Land Value Taxes, expanded mortgage-to-rent schemes, better regulation of private renting and second homes, and better planning for Green New Deal quality housing.
― Housing policy is integral to the wider economy, so we must look beyond the moral imperative to the wider economic implications and the economic case for public investment.