Housing is at the heart of the financial squeeze families are facing

In spite of rising wages and falling inflation, many households feel worse off than before

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We’re more than two years into the cost of living crisis, and some politicians are cheering its end off the back of falling inflation. However, given that more families say their finances have got worse, not better in recent months, these politicians risk looking out of touch. Indeed, according to the Resolution Foundation, the average … Continued

A loan scheme for renters could stop tenants from being made homeless

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The protracted length of the coronavirus crisis has led to rent arrears reaching twice the level observed going into the crisis. In January 2021, we estimate that over 750,000 families were behind with their housing payments, 300,000 of which contained dependent children. Before the pandemic hit, many families spent a high share of their income … Continued

Covid-19
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Housing

Government has further to go to protect livelihoods during this crisis

Steps taken by the government to protect individuals and the wider economy are welcome, but gaps remain

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This downturn is very different from the last. The 2008 crisis originated in the financial services sector, rippling out to the rest of the economy and leading to an increase in unemployment of just over one million between 2008 and 2011. This time is different. The UK, and much of the world, is about to … Continued

Young people are no longer footloose and fancy free – and rent rises are to blame

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Millennials, eh? They never stand still. Always on the move, with their ‘portfolio careers’, side hustles in the gig economy, and no loyalty to the companies they work for. With an attitude like that, it’s no wonder they struggle to find decent work and pay. There’s only one problem with this common trope though. It’s … Continued

To build, or not to build: that is the question

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They say a week is a long time in politics (at the moment a day can feel like a long time). The same isn’t often true about economics. Arguably the most important forces in economics are long-running; demographics, big infrastructure projects, technological change. Things that don’t happen overnight. Therefore this blog – the latest in … Continued

Social renting: a working hypothesis

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Social housing has many virtues: it provides families with a secure home at a reasonable rent, and the state with a smaller benefit bill and an asset to leverage. So what’s not to like? Other than the upfront cost, perhaps the most enduring objection we hear to the tenure is that it may have a … Continued

The one million missing homes?

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The relationship between housing supply and demand is always going to be of interest to those (like us) who care about living standards and housing costs. The ONS household figures published last month have prompted us to think more about this topic, especially given the new data suggests fewer households will form over the next … Continued

All aboard the Millennial Express – longer commutes for less pay

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The ONS serve to uplift and depress analysts like me in equal measure. And today they served up the latter, with new figures showing that the number of people commuting for more than an hour to get into work has increased by almost a third (31 per cent) since 2011. Longer commutes are good news … Continued

Lifting the lid on the HRA cap

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Budget 2018 may have been a bigger deal than most of us expected but it’s been underwhelming when it comes to housing, especially given the government claimed just weeks ago that ‘solving the housing crisis is the biggest domestic policy challenge of our generation’. That said, we do now have details about the lifting of … Continued

Two housing crises

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We occasionally host guest blogs on important controversies and here, Ian Mulheirn responds to a blog last year by Kate Barker and Neal Hudson. Resolution Foundation’s latest housing report Home Affront is available here. We will shortly be publishing a housing policy paper as part of our Intergenerational Commission.   At a time when politics has rarely been … Continued

Matthew Whittaker

Time for some housing honesty

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The return to work after Christmas is never easy. Unless you’re an estate agent: they love January. Following the pre-Christmas lull, families rush back into wanting to buy and sell their houses (helped in part by the traditional post-festivity spike in family breakdown). But for an increasing number of us, house hunting is becoming little … Continued

Will building more homes help to reduce housing costs?

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As part of the Foundation’s ongoing housing work, leading economist and Intergenerational Commission member Kate Barker and Housing market analyst Neal Hudson write about the impact that boosting housing supply could have on prices and wider housing costs.   Since the mid-2000s the dominant narrative about housing in the UK has been around a shortage … Continued

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