Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Notes on contributors
- One The transformation of the welfare state? The Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition government and social policy
- Two The coalition government, public spending and social policy
- Three The changing governance of social policy
- Four The coalition, social policy and public opinion
- Five Health policy and the coalition government
- Six The coalition government, the general election and the policy ratchet in education: a reflection on the ‘ghosts’ of policy past, present and yet to come
- Seven Coalition housing policy in England
- Eight Social security under the coalition and Conservatives: shredding the system for people of working age; privileging pensioners
- Nine Welfare and active labour market policies in the UK: the coalition government approach
- Ten ‘It ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it’: adult social care under the coalition
- Eleven Family policy: the Mods and Rockers
- Twelve One step forward, two steps back: children, young people and the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition
- Thirteen The coalition and criminal justice
- Fourteen Equalities: the impact of welfare reform and austerity by gender, disability and age
- Fifteen Social policy, the devolved administrations and the UK coalition government
- Sixteen Conclusions
- Index
Seven - Coalition housing policy in England
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 September 2022
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Notes on contributors
- One The transformation of the welfare state? The Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition government and social policy
- Two The coalition government, public spending and social policy
- Three The changing governance of social policy
- Four The coalition, social policy and public opinion
- Five Health policy and the coalition government
- Six The coalition government, the general election and the policy ratchet in education: a reflection on the ‘ghosts’ of policy past, present and yet to come
- Seven Coalition housing policy in England
- Eight Social security under the coalition and Conservatives: shredding the system for people of working age; privileging pensioners
- Nine Welfare and active labour market policies in the UK: the coalition government approach
- Ten ‘It ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it’: adult social care under the coalition
- Eleven Family policy: the Mods and Rockers
- Twelve One step forward, two steps back: children, young people and the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition
- Thirteen The coalition and criminal justice
- Fourteen Equalities: the impact of welfare reform and austerity by gender, disability and age
- Fifteen Social policy, the devolved administrations and the UK coalition government
- Sixteen Conclusions
- Index
Summary
Introduction
Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition government housing policy in England from 2010 to 2015 was virtually indistinguishable from Conservative housing policy. As Tunstall (2015, p 13) points out:
The two Liberal Democrat manifesto pledges that were most distinctive and ideologically distant from those of the Conservatives, the pledge to investigate changing public sector borrowing requirement accounting rules to allow local authorities to borrow more, and the pledge to scale back the HomeBuy scheme, did not make it into the [coalition] Agreement.
The influence of the Liberal Democrats on coalition housing policy was, in fact, negligible – the housing ministers, for example, were all Conservative (Grant Shapps, Mark Prisk, Kris Hopkins and Brandon Lewis). For reasons of space, the chapter does not discuss housing policy in Scotland or Wales, nor has it been possible to devote as much attention as I would have liked to the geographical variation in housingrelated problems and needs across England (eg much more serious shortages of housing in the South than in the north [Dorling, 2014]).
Background
The number of homes in England has risen over the years since the Second World War, but the rate of increase has varied roughly according to the trade cycle, slowing down from 300,000 per year in the 1950s and 1960s to 200,000 in the 1980s, to not much over 100,000 in the 1990s, recovering in the later 1990s and 2000s, falling to its lowest point (24,000) in the year after the financial crisis in 2008/09, and showing a fluctuating but rising trend since then (see Table 7.1). Table 7.1 shows that the numbers of owner-occupiers in England rose year on year, from 9.7 million (57%) in 1980 to 14.7 million (71%) in 2003, then remained at more or less the same level until 2007 (70%), after which they started to fall year on year, from 14.6 million (68%) in 2008/09 to 14.3 million (63%) in 2013/14. In contrast, the numbers of private renters fluctuated between 1.7 million and 2.1 million (9–12%) from 1980 to 2001 but then rose year on year to 4.4 million (19%) in 2013/14 (see also Figure 7.1).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Coalition Government and Social PolicyRestructuring the Welfare State, pp. 153 - 178Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2016