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Issue Description
Until recently, the housing market was enjoying a boom period, with property prices higher than ever before – however, the global financial crisis put an end to this. How has the crash affected the ordinary homeowner, as well as those looking to get onto the property ladder? Will the shortage of social housing now need to be addressed? How have mortgage providers dealt with the crisis? This title examines the issues.
The information comes from a wide range of sources and includes government reports and statistics, newspaper reports, features, magazine articles and surveys, literature from lobby groups and charitable organisations.
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Key Facts
- The average age of first-time buyers who do not receive financial backing from relatives has risen sharply from 33 to 37 in the past two years. (page 1)
- The Government has set a housing target of 240,000 homes per year by 2016, and a total of three million homes by 2020. (page 2)
- Nearly a third of men and a fifth of women aged 20 to 34 live with their parents, the Office for National Statistics reports. (page 4)
- Almost seven in ten first-time buyers in the UK have given up hope of ever owning their own home, according to new research published by PropertyLive.co.uk. (page 5)
- Around 6.5m people – or one in ten of the population – will be on social housing waiting lists in England by 2020 unless urgent action is taken, according to new figures. (page 8)
- Four generations ago, families in social housing included almost the full social range. Council and housing association homes offered high quality. However, from the 1960s, home ownership took over from social housing as the main type of housing for families. (page 9)
- Less than two per cent of the occupants of council houses or housing association homes arrived in Britain in the past five years. New immigrants are far more likely to be found in privately-rented accommodation. (page 12)
- Nearly a third of households with children in England live in poor housing. (page 13)
- Over one million children are now trapped in overcrowded housing, a rise of 54,000 in the last two years, Shelter has revealed. (page 14)
- New homes are failing to provide enough space for everyday activities. (page 15)
- Ministers want to clamp down on houses of multiple occupation (HMOs) – homes rented by six or more unrelated people – as a part of a knee-jerk reaction to so-called ‘studentification’. (page 19)
- 1,556,000 hectares of land make up England’s Green Belt. This is 12 per cent of the area of England. (page 21)
- In the early 1980s, council tenants’ average income was 73 per cent of the national average. Today, two-thirds of social housing tenants are among the poorest 40 per cent of the population. (page 35)
- At least 30% of housing in the proposed eco-towns will be affordable. (page 37)
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Table of Contents
Chapter One: Housing Problems
First-time buyers wait to get on property ladder, Household projections to 2031, England, Home building, Rural residents face 280-year wait for a home, Nearly a third of young men live with their parents, Brits have given up hope of ever owning a home, Affordable housing target will be missed, Profiting from repossession, Social housing waiting lists ‘growing’, Growing up in social housing in Britain, Who’s living in my social housing?, A third of households with children live in poor housing, One million children overcrowded, Attitudes to social housing, New homes ‘too small for everyday life’, Your rights as a tenant, Research reveals Britain’s ‘reluctant landlords’, Student housing options, Government clamps down on shared accommodation, Squatting, Green BelT, Greenfield development trends.
Chapter Two: Housing Solutions
What political parties say about housing policy, Planning for buying a new homE, Low-cost home-ownership options, Young people and housing, Taking out a mortgage, Reform housing system to build 300,000 new homes, Community Self Build, Shared ownership, Self-help housing – making use of empty properties, Gen Y wants freedom from flat ownership, Housing poverty, Give council tenants the right to move, Eco-towns glossary, An introduction to eco-towns, Eco-towns approved amid country devastation fears, Getting real about sustainable housing.
Key Facts
Glossary
Index
Additional Resources
Acknowledgements
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The Study Guide for: The Housing Issue - Volume 181
Each book in the Issues series has a study guide. These four-page guides provide a variety of discussion points and other activities to suit a wide range of ability levels and interests.
Publisher: Independence Educational Publishers
Price: £1.95
ISBN: 978 1 86168 521 6