Renting beyond their means? The role of living rent in addressing housing affordability

Article

Nearly 5 million households in England face a problem with their housing affordability. These affordability problems are the result of a series of interlinked problems including the undersupply of housing, the ongoing decline of social housing, reductions in housing subsidies, the financialisation of housing, changes to the benefit system, and low wages and regional disparities between wages.

As the UK government moves its focus from the public health response to Covid-19 to economic recovery, it must learn the lessons of this crisis. Many of these are in relation to public health, but there are also lessons to be learnt about the need for greater economic and societal resilience.

The recommendations outlined in this report, if implemented, would help restore affordable housing’s role as the “first social service”, ensure it is genuinely affordable through the implementation of a ‘living rent’ approach, and build support for affordable housing by widening access to tenure, helping the very ‘key workers’ that have kept the country going during the Covid-19 crisis. These recommendations would also help drive our economic recovery through a massive green housebuilding programme.

Related items

  1. Young male delivery cyclist working part-time, riding through city streets with food backpack on.

    Raising the bar: Strengthening living standards while banning exploitative zero-hours contracts

    Labour’s manifesto committed to banning exploitative zero-hours contracts as part of sweeping upgrades to workers’ rights.
  2. The Bank of England is watched over by a statue of the Duke of Wellington seated on his horse

    Beyond headroom: Why we need a better fiscal framework to fix the UK’s long term problems

    There has been long-standing debate about the UK’s fiscal rules and fiscal framework.  
  3. Drax coal fired power plant in North Yorkshire, UK with coal stack and Biomass storage tanks at sunset

    Financing carbon capture, usage and storage: The case for extended producer responsibility

    The government has run out of road on funding infrastructure through energy bills.