Transcript Outline

Role of housing in helping
people stay at home for
longer
Mary Taylor
Housing Policy and Practice Unit
University of Stirling
September 2009
Issues and questions
 What do we mean by ‘home’?
 What do we mean by ‘housing‘?
 Who is ‘housing’?
 What ‘housing‘ can contribute?
 How to get ‘housing’ involved
What do we mean by ‘home’
 Place we can be, in private
 What we regard as our place to live, somewhere to feel
safe and at peace
 A place where we want to be, ourselves
 A dwelling not an institution
Being at home is different and better
– from being in ‘A Home’
Home could be …
New homes
New housing in Scotland since 1920
50,000
45,000
40,000
Completions
35,000
At 2008 we had 2.4 million dwellings
We regularly add 1% p.a to the existing stock
(27,000 in 2008), mostly by private building
30,000
25,000
20,000
15,000
10,000
5,000
0
0
5
0
5
0
5
0
5
0
5
0
5
0
5
0
5
0
5
192 192 193 193 194 194 195 195 196 196 197 197 198 198 199 199 200 200
Public sector & housing association
Private sector
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Proportion
Where do we live?
Estimated stock of dwellings by tenure (Scotland) 1984 to 2008
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
Owner occupied
Rented privately
Vacant private / second homes
Housing Associations
Local Authorities
What do we mean by ‘housing’
Different perceptions
 The thing – the house, a form of shelter
 The people in a department or service
– Usually the public sector
 The policy domain
– Focus on houses provided by councils
 The resources
– to achieve public policy goals
Perception depends on starting point, what we
know already and our focus
Changing…
Focus of housing policy today
Volume and use of resources for investment,
1.
–
–
Who builds, who receives subsidy, how much
Management, costs, efficiency, value for money
Homelessness
2.
–
–
Increasing supply to address shortages
Regulating access of those in need
•
Vs choice
Quality of housing - public and private
3.
–
increasingly on privately owned housing,
•
–
more services to private owners, and regulation of private
operations
Not only social housing and social tenants
Who is ‘housing’?
 Changing, complex and (maybe) confusing
 Used to be simple – all councils
– Typically focussed on housing management (letting,
rents and repairs of council housing)
• Some wider services
 Providers / landlords include
– Councils
• 26 out of 32 councils still own and manage housing for rent
– Housing associations / RSLs
• Some 200
– different sizes, roles and area coverage
– Private landlords
• Preferred in some areas over social housing
• leasing arrangements in some areas for temporary housing
Who is ‘housing’?
Cont’d
 All councils have strategic and enabling powers
– lately reinforced via Housing etc (Scotland) Act 2006
– NB some duties
 All operate differently depending on market,
political will, structure & resources
– Post-transfer councils no single dept or service called
‘housing’ and relevant services dispersed:
• Environment, Technical, Community, Social Work, Planning,
Revenues
– Authorities with housing to rent tend to remain
focussed primarily on that role
• Though ‘Housing’ in Edinburgh covers really extensive range
 Changing !
Resources for housing
 New socially rented housing can be funded by public
resources
– Primary rationale for regulation
 Private funding element challenging in current climate
– Obstacle and constraint, for how long?
 Landlords have accounts ring-fenced for services to
tenants
– In principle
 Wider council strategic services funded from General Fund
– Never enough, even for duties,
• may get worse
– Competition with others
What housing can contribute
1. Professional knowledge - of issues around
buildings, money and people
–
Customer service
• View of users and power relations determined by
managing contracts with tenants
–
Attitudes changing ?
• relations with customers
2. Access to resources
– Subsidised investment for new housing
– Funding of adaptations
–
Easier when tenants
• But Care and Repair works for everyone
–
Revenue funds
• Eg Supporting People
How to get ‘housing’ involved
 Find out who they are and what they do
 Ask!
– For input, advice, financial contributions
 Ask!
– Early
 Ask!
– Often
– Establish and develop relationships
– Set expectations