Theme: Political Economy | Content Type: Journal article

Governments, Home Ownership and Low-Cost Home Ownership Initiatives

Peter Williams

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Mark Hamilton

| 1 min read

Widening the spectrum of households who can enter home ownership has been a long-established policy in the UK. This article explores low-cost home ownership initiatives from the late 1970s onwards and in the context of home ownership more generally. Over the decades, government support for home ownership has shifted from making tax concessions to households and providing building subsides for local authorities, to a centrally driven housing programme focussed around a myriad of part-rent part-own and equity sharing schemes alongside the Right to Buy. The Labour government now faces difficult decisions regarding housing priorities, not least given budget constraints. While its focus will understandably be on providing more social rented homes, there is still a need to assist meeting aspirations around home ownership which have been much eroded in recent years. Both need to be supported with a close eye on cost and impact.

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    Peter Williams

    Professor Peter Williams is a Departmental Fellow at the Department of Land Economy at the University of Cambridge.

    Articles by Peter Williams
Volume 97,  Issue 1

Latest Journal Issue

Volume 97, Issue 1

Contains a collection on the politics and policy of housing, edited by Christine Whitehead, Colm Murphy and Deborah Mabbett. This collection features contributors from geography, economics and politics, and from universities, think tanks, and independent academics. Contributors debate the roots of the housing crisis and illuminate housing policy dilemmas in the UK and elsewhere. Other articles in the issue include 'What Will it Take for a Woman to Become President of the United States?' by Rosie Campbell and Joni Lovenduski, and 'Unity and Division in the Public's Policy Preferences After the 2024 General Election' by Lotte Hargrave. In our Reports section, Darcy Luke and Nathan Critch explain what's wrong with Demos's report 'The Human Handbrake'. Finally, book reviews include Tim Bale's analysis of Conservatism, Christian Democracy, and the Dynamics of Transformation, edited by Gary Love and Christian Egander Skov.

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