Tuesday 15 January 2013

New JRF research programme to explore how housing can provide a buffer against poverty in the UK

via JRF – Combined Feed by Kathleen Kelly

How could housing protect people in the UK from the worst effects of poverty?

Kathleen Kelly highlights some of the issues JRF is exploring in its new work on housing and poverty.

Looking at how little the Coalition’s mid-term review mentioned the Government’s fundamental changes to housing policy, I’m really pleased that JRF is investing in a new research and development programme on housing and poverty.

We want to understand more about how people’s housing circumstances can be a springboard out of poverty, a buffer against its worst effects – or make things worse perhaps because of costly, poor quality housing. We want to understand how we can make best use of public and private funds to build more homes and meet the pressing housing needs of those 1 in 12 families in England on the social housing waiting list.

The 70-year anniversary of the Beveridge Report sparked a discussion of what Beveridge would make of today’s social security and housing systems.

Seventy years ago it must have felt like a neat side step to argue that there would be a massive council house building programme that would bring down housing costs (not to mention rent controls). But for all the political rhetoric, a massive house building programme looks extremely unlikely these days.

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