Using the social security system to deliver housing policy

Abstract

This thesis examines the interaction between housing policy and the social security benefits that support housing costs. Analysis concerns the extent and type of State intervention in housing, thus explaining the dynamic between State and individual responsibility in housing policy. This thesis involves an exploration of the different treatment of the owner-occupied and the rented housing sectors, with reference to the social security benefits which fund ongoing housing costs. This thesis seeks to trace how the State financing of the home can be linked to the popularly researched notion of the ‘home’ in English housing law. The research questions whether the use of the home as an investment is an appropriate starting point for analysis, particularly when public funds are involved. Central to this thesis is the identification of the individualisation of responsibility of housing provision, primarily through the promotion of homeownership and the contraction of social housing. The development is seem as a consistent objective since at least the mid-20th Century through diminishing State expenditure to support ongoing housing costs in both tenures through social security payments, primarily in the form of Housing Benefit and Support for Mortgage Interest to support. The conclusion however questions the effectiveness of this strategy. It is argued in this thesis that there is a mismatch between the macro housing policy which encourages homeownership and the social security benefits that support ongoing housing costs.

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ORCID for Emma Laurie: orcid.org/0000-0002-2178-1593

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