Social housing

Good Houses For All

Stephen Richard — Tue, 07 Sep 2021 08:08:35 +0000

Good Houses For All

Primary Author or Creator

Craig Dalzell

Stephen Richard Tue, 09/07/2021 - 09:08

Additional Author(s) / Creators

Common Weal

Date Published

Sun, 04/05/2020 - 12:00

Category

Social housing

Type of Resource

Policy Paper

Fast Facts

This paper presents a model for building an unlimited number of houses for social rent on a zero-subsidy basis using the Scottish National Investment Bank.

These houses would be built to extremely high standards of thermal efficiency and on a stable finance model ensuring costs to the tenant are far lower than the private market.

The case is made that this model could be used as a post-pandemic stimulus scheme which will reform and secure the housing and construction sector.

More details

― Scotland’s housing market should offer people a quality public rental option, whether for young professionals not ready to enter the mortgage market, lower income renters who have few good rental options or families at any point on the income scale who simply don’t want their lives dictated by mortgages. Public policy should also seek to constrain house price rises but also drive up the highest possible thermal performance for new build houses.

― Scotland also needs forms of stimulus after the Covid lockdown and public rental house building linked to an industrial strategy to create many more domestic supply chains can create that stimulus.

― There is a financing model which means this can be achieved at unlimited
scale without public subsidy, involving three steps:

Use ‘Land Value Capture’. At the moment the public buys land and pays
for it as if planning permission had already been granted – but planning
permission is a value added by the public sector and the public sector
can capture that value rather than give it away by buying land only at
its current use value and not its later value with planning permission.
Then borrow from the Scottish National Investment Bank over
mortgage-style periods of time (30 years) and spread the cost of the
borrowing over that period so that rents are low.
Finally, build in a proper maintenance budget so these remain high-
quality houses in perpetuity. It is also possible to sell off a limited
number of plots (for self build) and a small proportion of the houses.
This can give the public developers some additional budget to include
extra public infrastructure in new developments.

― To achieve this the Scottish National Investment Bank should be given
immediate dispensation to operate as a proper bank and local authorities
should open ‘lists’ for families who want to live in one of these houses.
Supply can then be allowed to meet demand.

― In the current market a three-bedroom family home would incur a monthly
cost in rent, heating and maintenance of about £1,400. A house built using
the above methodology would have a monthly rent, maintenance and
heating bill of only £820.

Resource Address (URL)

https://commonweal.scot/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Good-Houses-For-All.pdf

Keywords

Scottish National Investment Bank

Housing quality

House prices

Language English

A Living Rent for Scotland’s Private Tenants

Stephen Richard — Wed, 18 Aug 2021 18:00:28 +0000

A Living Rent for Scotland’s Private Tenants

Primary Author or Creator

Gordon Maloney

Stephen Richard Wed, 08/18/2021 - 19:00

Additional Author(s) / Creators

Common Weal

Alternative Published Date

September 2015

Category

Private rental

Social housing

Type of Resource

Policy Paper

Fast Facts

Initial rents should be set against a points system to reflect the value of the property. Rent increases be capped at a rent affordability index to ensure increases do not push tenants into hardship. A move towards indefinite tenancies as default, away from short-term contracts. Ensure that all tenants are entitled to a hardship defence in relation to evictions. Create a Scottish Living Rent Commission, to oversee these recommendations and to serve as a centre of expertise for the Scottish Private Rental Sector.

More details

Rents in Scotland are increasing faster than many tenants can afford, and many are being forced into poverty by these increases. Women are particularly hard-hit by high rents due to a gender pay gap of almost 18%. PRS tenants are disproportionately young, non-white and non-British, meaning there is a crucial equalities aspect to making the PRS fairer. High rents, insecure tenancies and poor quality housing have an enormous public cost; directly through housing benefit and discretionary housing payments; and indirectly through the costs associated with homelessness and the health impacts of damp and cold housing. Scotland’s tenants are amongst the least secure in Europe.

SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS

In order to bring rents under control and to give tenants security of tenure, we propose the following changes: That initial rents be set against a points system to reflect the value of the property That rent increases be capped at a rent affordability index to ensure increases do not push tenants into hardship A move towards indefinite tenancies as default, away from short-term contracts Ensuring that all tenants are entitled to a hardship defence in relation to evictions The creation of a Scottish Living Rent Commission, to oversee these recommendations and to serve as a centre of expertise for the Scottish Private Rental Sector

Resource Address (URL)

https://commonweal.scot/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/A-Living-Rent-for-Scotlands-…

Keywords

Language English

Housing For A Better Nation

Stephen Richard — Wed, 18 Aug 2021 17:48:18 +0000

Housing For A Better Nation

Primary Author or Creator

Sarah Glynn

Stephen Richard Wed, 08/18/2021 - 18:48

Additional Author(s) / Creators

Common Weal

Alternative Published Date

August 2014

Category

Social housing

House ownership

Type of Resource

Policy Paper

Fast Facts

Good housing needs more than good housing policy: housing policy needs to be part of wider social changes towards a more equal, community-centred, environmentally sustainable society, but good housing policy can make an important contribution to those changes. Economic considerations remain key, but we need to transcend the destructive veneration of GDP.

This paper outlines a radically different approach to housing policy. It also looks at immediate improvements that will be steps on the way to more fundamental transformation.

More details

― The current focus on housing as speculation fails to provide the homes people need, pushes up housing costs, encourages bad design and short-termism, concentrates wealth among a small elite, and has brought economic crisis on a world scale.

― We need to move housing away from the market, and this means a major shift of focus towards social and environmental priorities.

― Various policies are outlined with the aim of moving housing policy away from satisfying “the market” and towards ensuring adequate housing provision.

― These include Land Value Taxes, expanded mortgage-to-rent schemes, better regulation of private renting and second homes, and better planning for Green New Deal quality housing.

― Housing policy is integral to the wider economy, so we must look beyond the moral imperative to the wider economic implications and the economic case for public investment.

Resource Address (URL)

https://commonweal.scot/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Housing-for-a-Better-Nation…

Keywords

Language English

Housekeeping Scotland: Discussion paper outlining a new agenda for housing

Stephen Richard — Wed, 18 Aug 2021 17:21:35 +0000

Housekeeping Scotland: Discussion paper outlining a new agenda for housing

Primary Author or Creator

Malcolm Fraser

Stephen Richard Wed, 08/18/2021 - 18:21

Additional Author(s) / Creators

Common Weal

Alternative Published Date

October 2016

Category

House ownership

Social housing

Type of Resource

Policy Paper

Fast Facts

The United Kingdom’s housing policies have been ideologically-driven, and have led to the current crisis of strangled investment, under-provision and a general flow of power and money from civic society to the wealthy. UK housing has suffered greatly from its politicians’ fixation with a single form of home and tenure, the mortgage-backed and privately-owned home. But it is clear that not everyone is going to get a mortgage; and it is also clear that the ideological pursuit of this helped poison, and nearly bring down, the world economy, as well as being a key contributor to our current housing crisis. While Scotland has shown some appetite for broadening our housing horizons it needs to set out a clear agenda for achieving a diverse and sustainable market, that suits all incomes and interests while providing the shelter that is a fundamental right for all, and this brief paper suggests the three overarching principles we should consider, and key areas of change which, taken together, would deliver them.

More details

KEY POINTS

― Principle 1: Sustainability: the Built Environment as Precious Resource, and the Need for Structural Change to Reflect this. A better strategy is needed around returning vacant homes to use and VAT must be changed to make it more advantageous to repair and rebuild houses than it is to build new stock.. Land and Planning regulations can be changed to reduce “land banking” and to help regenerate town centres. Compulsory Purchase Orders and taxes such as a Land Value Tax or Derelict Land Tax can correct land ownership inequalities and allow land to be used more effectively.

― Principle 2: What We Build, and How. Public Rental: Scottish National Investment Bank and Company based on a re-engineered Scottish Futures Trust. Self-Build: models set out to encourage Local Authorities to bring land and cooperative groups together. The Private Rented Sector (PRS): ‘build to rent’ – long term investment. Infrastructure Funding: community-infrastructure projects. Land Assembly: Local Authorities given power to acquire land.

― Principle 3: Leadership. The Scottish Government needs to create a central Housing Unit, which can assist Local Authorities, Registered Social Landlords, Volume Housebuilders and house buyers and renters to deliver the programme we need.

Resource Address (URL)

https://commonweal.scot/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Housekeeping-Scotland.pdf

Keywords

Housing

Land Value Tax

Derelict Land Tax

Local Planning powers

Rental Housing

Language English

Better than This

Stephen Richard — Sat, 31 Jul 2021 07:25:57 +0000

Better than This

Primary Author or Creator

Common Weal

Stephen Richard Sat, 07/31/2021 - 08:25

Alternative Published Date

2021

Category

Type of Resource

Policy Paper

Fast Facts

Resilient Recovery. We must emerge from the Covid pandemic in a way that fixes the problems raised by the crisis, fixes the problems evident before the crisis and makes us resilient; a green new deal; a new democracy; a national care service; Land reform; housing revolution; Controlling our own energy; better banking; and a focus on independence,.to future crisis like the climate emergency.

More details

KEY POINTS

― Resilient Recovery. We must emerge from the Covid pandemic in a way that fixes the problems raised by the crisis, fixes the problems evident before the crisis and makes us resilient to future crisis like the climate emergency. Based on our Resilience series.

― Green New Deal. Averting the climate emergency means more than just hitting a “net zero” target. It is also about making our economies sustainable in so many other ways and doing so in a way that reduces inequality and hardship. Based on Our Common Home Plan.

― A New Democracy. Scotland is the least locally democratic country in Europe and the institutions of our Government are frayed and strained in many places. We should develop a functioning system of local democracy, a Citizens’ Chamber to oversee Parliament and improve transparency at all levels of government.

― A National Care Service. Scotland needs a National Care Service that matches the ambition of the National Health Service, that is fully publicly owned, free at the point of need and can offer full training and proper pay to all staff. See our papers on the impact of Covid on Care Homes, our submission to the Feeley Review, the Manifesto for an NCS and our proposals to reform Social Work.

― Land Reform. Fewer than 500 people own half of Scotland. 700,000 acres are owned by tax haven companies. We can’t build our rural economies or fight climate change if we can’t access the land under our feet. Land Reform must happen now. See our Land Reform Week for more information.

― Housing Revolution. Scotland’s housing sector is badly broken. We don’t build anywhere near enough social housing, which allows private rents to skyrocket. The houses we do build are cold and expensive to heat, we can’t access the land to build them at affordable rates and the way we tax buildings is based on valuations more than a quarter of a century out of date.

― Taking Control of Our Energy. Scotland’s potential for renewable energy generation is world-leading but we aren’t yet making the best of it. Common Weal has produced a wealth of papers on the changes that need to happen to reach that potential.

― Better Banking. Scottish communities were being cut off from banking and basic financial services even before the pandemic. This trend has only accelerated. Without those services, local economies cannot function and the communities are soon left behind. We have a blueprint for a publicly-owned, mutually-controlled bank that could support all communities in Scotland.

And finally, the next Parliament will almost certainly see the topic of independence intensify. Everything we’ve suggested above can be at least started using the powers of devolution but to complete the job – especially the Green New Deal – Scotland will need to become independent and will need to do it right. Should the government in Westminster seek to oppose an independence referendum, then we must have a plan to make one happen regardless.

Resource Address (URL)

https://commonweal.scot/policies/better-than-this/

Keywords

Coronavirus Support

Scottish Independence

Housing

National Care Service

Housing

Green new deal

Climate Emergency

Language English