What we don't know about housing and poverty

Hard work by James Gregory (Visiting Research Fellow, CASE, LSE)…

…presented by Jim Vine (Director of Innovation, HACT)

@jim_vinejim.vine@hact.org.uk

OverviewRelationship between housing and poverty

Particular reference to social housing

Existing evidencePerceptions of the evidence

Social landlordsThink tanks

ContextWelfare reform

Housing benefitOverall benefit cap

Provisions of the Localism Act (2011)Allocations (local connections and working

households)Weaker social tenancy rightsDischarge of homelessness duty in PRS

Affordable Rent

Social landlord responsesStill building…

…for Affordable RentDiversification

Market rent(Continued) market saleLeisure centres…

Questioning purpose

Quantitative pictureHouseholds Below Average Income (HBAI)

statistical reportLimitations

Lowest income not necessarily lowest living standards

Relative income definitionCorrelation between different situations and

low income, but not causationQuantitative, not lived experience

HBAILow income: below 60% of median incomeEquivalised (household composition)

MeasuresBefore Housing Costs (BHC)After Housing Costs (AHC)

Relative and ‘Absolute’

9.8 million people

Owners:

Owne

d out

right

Owners:

Buy

ing w

ith a

mortg

age

Socia

l ren

ters

Priva

te re

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101520253035

Composition of low income households by tenure (BHC) (%)

2.7

mill

ion

peop

le

1.9

mill

ion

peop

le

5 million

people

“Half t

he poor”

From: Table 3.4db

Owners:

Owne

d out

right

Owners:

Buy

ing w

ith a

mortg

age

Socia

l ren

ters

Priva

te re

nter

s05

101520253035

Composition of low income households by tenure (AHC) (%)

From: Table 3.4db

UK Housing Review 2014 (published yesterday so apologies for image quality)

Another view of povertyBasket of goods approach

Minimum Income Standard (MIS)Poverty and Social Exclusion (PSE)

PSE findings:33% of households not able to afford ≥3 necessities2.3 million households (1.5 million children) cannot

afford to heat living areas2.7 million households (2.5 million children) damp600,00 children in homes with insufficient bedrooms

Another view of povertyMIS 2013 findings:

Single people need to earn at least £16,850 a year before tax

Couples with two children need to earn at least £19,400 each

Housing and poverty linksHousing impact on income

(the BHC AHC shift)Housing impacts on material deprivation

Educational outcomes (overcrowding)Health (damp, for example)Mental health (sink estates)

Perceived knowledge gaps“Are we there to just house the vulnerable, or

actually make them less vulnerable?”The role of social housing(…and, implicitly, the ambiguous social and

welfare function of homeownership)Are social housing providers best-placed to

intervene in neighbourhoods and individual’s lives?

Perceived knowledge gaps“We are very pro mixed communities. But we

would like more evidence about them.”Better understanding of neighbourhood effectsBetter understanding of tenure effects

Source: Ends and means: the future roles of social housing in England

ReferencesHouseholds Below Average Income (HBAI) statistical

report (June 2013)https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/206778/full_hbai13.pdf

UK Housing Review 2014, Steve Wilcox and John PerryFalling below minimum standards (PSE 2012)

http://www.poverty.ac.uk/pse-research/falling-below-minimum-standards

A minimum income standard for the UK in 2013http://www.jrf.org.uk/publications/MIS-2013

Ends and means: the future roles of social housing in Englandhttp://eprints.lse.ac.uk/5568/1/Ends_and_Means_The_future_roles_of_social_housing_in_England_1.pdf

Any questions……that you want to answer?

Literatures on Tenure effects – The Hills EffectMixed communities and neighbourhood effectsRoles of the tenures