The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister published its autumn performance report for 2005, providing information on progress made against its public service agreement targets.
Source: Autumn Performance Report 2005, Cm 6722, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report
Date: 2005-Dec
A report reviewed the recommendations of an inquiry into British housing (mounted in 1984), considered what steps had been made towards implementing them, and discussed what further steps needed to be taken. The Treasury had benefited from billions of pounds a year in additional revenue following the abolition of mortgage tax relief and other policy changes relating to housing. But the extra money although badly needed for housing purposes had been spent elsewhere.
Source: Richard Best, Inquiry into British Housing 1984 1991 - Chaired by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh: What has happened since?, York Publishing Services for Joseph Rowntree Foundation, available from York Publishing Services Ltd (01904 430033)
Links: Report | JRF press release
Date: 2005-Dec
A report called for local authorities to be given a bigger role in developing housing strategies.
Source: Merron Simpson, Ruth Lucas, Bob Blackaby and Sarah Davis, Visionary Leadership in Housing: A new future for local housing strategy, Chartered Institute of Housing (024 7685 1700) and Local Government Association
Links: CIH press release | LGA press release
Date: 2005-Nov
A report investigated the links between housing systems and social cohesion, and which structures within the housing system could lead to a reduction in the problems resulting from increasing risks of poverty, the transformation of family and demographic structures, and increasing social and ethnic inequality.
Source: Mark Stephens and Emily Lynch, The Cost, Quantity and Quality of Housing Consumption in the UK: Comparisons with other European Union countries, Centre for Housing Policy/University of York (01904 433691)
Links: Summary
Date: 2005-Oct
Campaigners called for the Welsh Assembly to suspend council tenants right to buy their homes, in view of the continuing growth of homelessness in Wales.
Source: Controlling the Right to Buy, Shelter Cymru (01792 469400)
Links: Report (pdf)
Date: 2005-Sep
A report said that the rise in the use of short-term tenancy agreements was undermining efforts to create sustainable communities.
Source: Liam Reynolds, Safe and Secure: The private rented sector and security of tenure, Shelter (020 7505 4699)
Links: Shelter press release
Date: 2005-Sep
A report said that a planned mix of homes for ownership and rent on three estates built more than 20 years previously had helped them avoid many of the problems associated with large concentrations of social housing. Despite having higher than average levels of deprivation, they had developed into mature, 'ordinary' communities where demand for empty property remained high.
Source: Chris Allen, Margaret Camina, Rionach Casey, Sarah Coward and Martin Wood, Mixed Tenure Twenty Years On: Nothing out of the ordinary, Chartered Institute of Housing (024 7685 1700) for Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Links: Report (pdf) | JRF Findings 0465 | JRF press release
Date: 2005-Sep
A report said that the vast majority of people believed that living in a safe neighbourhood and being able to afford their housing costs were more important than owning their own home. This called into question the government's policy of using public cash to help first-time buyers rather than build affordable rented homes for those who were homeless or badly housed.
Source: Laura Edwards, Home Truths: The reality behind our housing aspirations, Shelter (020 7505 4699)
Links: Report (pdf) | Shelter press release
Date: 2005-Aug
A new book explored the meaning that housing had for individuals and households, by examining 'housing pathways' - the varying household forms that individuals experienced, and the housing routes that they took over time.
Source: David Clapham, The Meaning of Housing: A pathways approach, Policy Press, available from Marston Book Services (01235 465500)
Links: Summary
Date: 2005-Jul
A new book said that gaps between the housing rich and poor were increasingly the reason behind social inequalities.
Source: The Great Divide, Shelter (020 7505 4699)
Links: Shelter press release
Date: 2005-Jul
An article examined the community cohesion policy agenda in England, and in particular the role of housing.
Source: David Robinson, 'The search for community cohesion: key themes and dominant concepts of the public policy agenda', Urban Studies, Volume 42 Number 8
Links: Abstract
Date: 2005-Jul
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister published its annual report for 2004-05.
Source: Annual Report 2005, Cm 6526, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report (pdf)
Date: 2005-Jun
A book chapter examined recent developments in housing policy.
Source: Peter Malpass, 'Housing in an 'opportunity society'', Social Policy Review 17: Analysis and debate in social policy, 2005, Policy Press, available from Marston Book Services (01235 465500)
Links: Table of contents
Date: 2005-Jun
A new book examined housing and social policy themes. Each chapter considered a specific social category - such as class, gender, or disability - and evaluated the experience and understanding of housing and social policy under this category.
Source: Peter Somerville and Nigel Sprigings (eds.), Housing and Social Policy: Contemporary themes and critical perspectives, Routledge (01264 343071)
Links: Summary
Date: 2005-Jun
A report said that failures in housing policy had led to increasingly onerous consequences for the poorest and most vulnerable members of society.
Source: Memorandum to the Prime Minister on Unaffordable Housing, Zacchaeus 2000 Trust (020 8376 5455)
Links: Report (pdf)
Date: 2005-May
A pamphlet set out a series of steps designed to to revitalize towns and cities, address the shortage of low-cost housing, and reverse the 'affordability crisis'.
Source: Housing Associations: Work with us for better neighbourhoods, National Housing Federation (020 7278 6571)
Links: Pamphlet (pdf)
Date: 2005-May
A report used experiences of housing policy in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and New Zealand to consider the possibilities and challenges for modern housing policies. It said that a revived recognition of housing s significance for both social and economic well-being was leading to new policy approaches.
Source: Duncan Maclennan, Housing Policies: New times, new foundations, Joseph Rowntree Foundation (01904 629241)
Links: Report (pdf) | Summary
Date: 2005-Apr
A report said that Wales needed a national housing action plan, with specific targets on supply and housing quality across all sectors.
Source: Action on Housing in Wales, Chartered Institute of Housing Cymru (029 2076 5760)
Links: Report (pdf) | CIH press release
Date: 2005-Apr
The results were published from a survey of local authorities on the housing and planning implications of the government's sustainable communities plan (launched in 2003). It said that increasing the supply of affordable housing remained the most important issue for local authorities; that the reduction in capital funding for housing was likely to have major implications for local authorities in meeting local demand for housing; and that there was growing evidence of closer joint working between housing and planning departments.
Source: Communities Plan: Housing and planning implications, Local Government Association (020 7664 3000)
Links: Summary (pdf)
Date: 2005-Apr
A campaign report said that, over the previous 10 years, housing wealth per child in the wealthiest areas had increased by 20 times more than in the worst-off areas. There was 'alarming evidence' of suicidal depression and self-harming among children living in bad housing. The housing gap was having a severe effect on social mobility. The report called on the government to treble spending on social housing as a proportion of national income, and to create a government department dedicated to housing and communities.
Source: Generation Squalor: Shelter's national investigation into the housing crisis, Shelter (020 7505 4699)
Links: Report (pdf) | Shelter press release | Young People Now report | Guardian report
Date: 2005-Mar
A report presented an overview of the key messages from an independent desk-based evaluation of English housing policy between 1975 and 2000. Separate themed reports examined whether policy through the period had addressed the issues of supply, need and access to housing; had addressed the issues of finance and affordability of housing; had achieved improvements in housing and neighbourhood quality; had widened the choice for households in England; and had improved the effectiveness of management of the social rented sector.
Source: Mark Stephens, Christine Whitehead and Moira Munro, Lessons from the Past, Challenges for the Future for Housing Policy, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (0870 1226 236)
Links: Main report (pdf) | Summary (pdf) | Links to themed papers
Date: 2005-Feb
A report examined the local impacts of housing, environment and regeneration policy since 1997.
Source: Caroline Paskell and Anne Power, 'The Future's Changed': Local impacts of housing, environment and regeneration policy since 1997, CASEreport 29, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion/London School of Economics (020 7955 6679)
Links: Report (pdf)
Date: 2005-Jan
A Cabinet Minister said that an extension of home ownership was needed to tackle social inequalities. He said the deepest inequalities were between those who owned concrete assets such as shares or housing, and those reliant solely on wages and benefits. Although more social housing was needed, it was also necessary to break the 'prevailing orthodoxy' that social housing was the only future for those who did not already own their own homes.
Source: Speech by Alan Milburn MP (Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster), 16 January 2005 Links: Text of speech | Guardian report
Date: 2005-Jan
The government published a five-year plan for housing in England. It included a wide range of measures to extend opportunities for homeownership; to deliver housing growth in the south of England; to extend quality and choice for people renting their homes; and to provide more support for people with particular housing needs.
Source: Sustainable Communities: Homes for All, Cm 6424, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, TSO (0870 600 5522) | House of Commons Hansard, Debate 24 January 2005, columns 21-39, TSO
Links: Plan (pdf) | Hansard | ODPM press release | CIH press release | NHF press release | Shelter press release | Homeless Link press release | LGA press release | CPRE press release
Date: 2005-Jan
An article examined what current theory and evidence had to teach about how local governance should be changed in order to make it more conducive to human emancipation. It assessed the potential for democratization at community level, given the 'persistence of oligarchy', and suggested ways to build countervailing power in order to promote democratization.
Source: Peter Somerville, 'Community governance and democracy', Policy & Politics, Volume 33 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2005-Jan
Countryside campaigners said that the reality of the government's sustainable communities plan was a long way from the rhetoric. Without an urgent change of course by all those involved in the plan's implementation, the countryside, urban regeneration and the quality of life of countless communities were set to suffer lasting damage.
Source: Sustainable Communities? The gap between rhetoric and reality in the sustainable communities plan, Campaign to Protect Rural England (020 7981 2800)
Links: Report (pdf) | CPRE press release
Date: 2005-Jan
