Two Worlds

A blog about UK housing, Latin America, migration and the environment

  • Home
  • About
  • Masaya projects
  • Housing and migration publications
  • Contact
You are here: Home > housing policy > Page 2

housing policy

Whose housing is subsidised by the taxpayer?

March 15, 2016

The government wants higher-earning council tenants to pay more rent because it’s concerned that hard-working people are “subsidising the lifestyles of those on higher than average incomes”. But have they looked carefully at whose housing is taxpayer-subsidised? And is the answer what they say it is? The UK Housing Review 2016, published this week (see […]

Category: Housing | Tags: council housing, private rented sector, housing investment, housing policy, homeownership

What’s happening to the Affordable Homes Programme?

March 15, 2016

Ever since the Spending Review was published in November there has been uncertainty about where this leaves the HCA’s Affordable Homes Programme. In finalising the UK Housing Review, out today, we’ve been disentangling what has happened. Here is a summary of our findings although, of course, some figures may change again as a result of […]

Category: Housing | Tags: housing finance, housing investment, housing policy

The wrong debate about regulation of social landlords

The wrong debate about regulation of social landlords

November 17, 2015

Reclassification of housing associations was an accident waiting to happen,  but it’s wrong to let it determine what kind of regulation should apply to the sector. It’s ten years since Steve Wilcox in the UK Housing Review first warned of the possibility that housing associations could be reclassified as public bodies. At that time the […]

Category: Housing | Tags: council housing, borrowing rules, housing policy, tenant involvement

Who will pay for the right to buy?

Who will pay for the right to buy?

October 6, 2015

In their general election manifesto, the Conservatives promised to ‘extend the Right to Buy to tenants in Housing Associations’. More than 1500 housing associations, all registered charities and some, like Peabody and Guinness, over a century old, would have to let tenants buy their houses at discounts of up to £103,000 each. The cost would […]

Category: Housing | Tags: council housing, housing policy, right to buy

We can’t tackle child poverty without investment in affordable housing

We can’t tackle child poverty without investment in affordable housing

May 3, 2015

It’s a formidable task: there’s cross-party commitment to radically reducing child poverty in the next five years. Indeed, the Chancellor said in the March budget that ‘child poverty is down’. But is that true and what is needed to ensure that the number of children in poverty not only stays down but falls to 10% […]

Category: Housing | Tags: private rented sector, housing, housing finance, housing policy, rents

Should councils borrow to build houses that aren’t for social rent?

February 2, 2015

A Whitehall-backed housing review has suggested councils could borrow from general funds if they have reached their Housing Revenue Account borrowing cap. But would such an approach make sense? When Natalie Elphicke and Keith House launched their new report on local authorities’ role in house building last week, they called on councils that have reached […]

Category: Housing | Tags: council housing, borrowing rules, housing investment, housing policy

The hidden families who have to share

The hidden families who have to share

February 10, 2014

When there’s a housing shortage, only a fraction of those affected end up sleeping on the streets or in council temporary accommodation. What happens to the rest? Analysis of data from the 2011 Census is building up a picture of those most affected by the housing crisis.  The latest revelation is that well over a […]

Category: Housing | Tags: housing, housing policy, census

Simplistic view of social housing

August 23, 2012

Is it blindingly obvious that social landlords should sell off expensive properties to fund new house building? Not if you consider the unintended consequences and the better options offered by alternative strategies.

Category: Housing | Tags: housing policy, tenancy reform, allocations

Who is social housing for?

May 31, 2012

The government’s focus on reviving right to buy, and insisting on market rents for replacement social housing, undermines  the aim of creating mixed communities.

Category: Housing | Tags: housing policy, rents, right to buy

Why housing is politically important, whatever they tell you

Why housing is politically important, whatever they tell you

March 11, 2012

A review of The Housing Debate by Stuart Lowe There are plenty of books on the history of housing policy but few are as readable or as short as this one. It has other advantages, too. The author Stuart Lowe makes frequent international comparisons, asking questions like ‘why did Britain and Germany, with massive housing […]

Category: Housing, Book reviews | Tags: council housing, housing finance, housing policy

« PreviousNext »

Subscribe

Subscribe to the Two Worlds blog and we'll send you an email alert when we publish a new post. Please review our Privacy Policy if you have any questions or concerns.

Categories

  • Housing
  • Migration
  • Latin America
  • Masaya project updates
  • Energy and the environment
  • Central America wildlife
  • Book reviews
  • Obituaries

Tags

allocations ALMOs Amazon river Argentina armadillos asylum beds in sheds Berta Cáceres birds Bolivar borrowing rules Brazil budget butterflies caribbean census chile climate change Colombia community cohesion coronavirus Costa Rica council housing Cuba daily life destitution dictators drugs economics Ecuador El Salvador energy efficiency env environment Green Deal Guatemala Gypsies and Travellers Haiti homelessness homeownership Honduras housing housing associations housing benefit housing finance housing i housing investment housing market housing policy human rights iguanas immigration checks India inequality integration interoceanic canal investment Ireland Latin America Latin writers local authorities Malvinas Masaya media Mexico migration migration policy migration statistics mining model cities Nicaragua Nicaragua crisis Northern Ireland outsourcing panama Paraguay pension funds planning private rented sector public transport race refugees regeneration rents right to buy right to rent Scotland sloths slums solar energy Spain Spanish conquest stock transfer tenancy reform tenant involvement transport US intervention Venezuela Vista Alegre volcanoes welfare reform

Blogroll

  • Blogs for the London Review of Books
  • Articles for The Guardian
  • Blogs for Open Democracy
  • Blogs for Council on Hemispheric Affairs
  • Articles for Counterpunch
  • Articles for The Grayzone

Related websites

  • Chartered Institute of Housing
  • Housing Rights
  • Leicester Masaya Link Group
  • Council on Hemispheric Affairs
  • UK Housing Review
Housing Guardian contributor

Admin

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org
John Perry John Perry lives in Masaya, Nicaragua where he works on
UK housing and migration issues and writes about those
and other topics covered in this blog.
Copyright © 2012- Two Worlds. Privacy & Cookie Policy. Powered by WordPress and Hybrid.
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.AgreePrivacy & Cookie Policy