Introduction

If we were to design a housing system from scratch, we certainly would not start from where we are. Of course, this is not a helpful observation, but it highlights the fact that housing is a path dependent process where even the most reforming governments are heavily constrained by the history of past policy decisions and the inherited structure of the built environment. The residential structure of cities, for example, changes only slowly because annual net additions to the housing supply are modest in relation to the existing stock of dwellings and infrastructure patterns have often been set many decades, or even centuries, ago. Both help to lock in historical patterns of social advantage and disadvantage. Since the Second World War, there have been major advances in housing conditions for the average household, but change has been gradual, subject to major cycles, and there are no quick fixes.

Moreover, housing policy is further constrained by conflicting objectives. The last chapter discussed the origins of the propertyowning democracy and the limitations this puts on modifying taxation. We have also stressed the impact of monetary policy on housing and the fact that housing is always likely to take second place to wider macro objectives such as the control of inflation and stabilization policy. The position of housing is also weakened by the fact that it has no single champion within government coordinating policy under a ‘Big Idea’. In the English case, housing policy is technically the remit of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government; but the Bank of England oversees policies concerning mortgage debt and interest rates; policy involving taxation or subsidies needs the agreement of the Treasury; the Department of Work and Pensions has a key role in housing affordability through the housing benefit and Universal Credit systems; the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Policy oversees the construction industry; and the National Infrastructure and Project Authority is in charge of major initiatives, many of which involve housing. In none of these departments is housing the sole (or in most cases the primary) concern.