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Second, there has been a general privatisation of housing. In many ways, housing is unusual compared with health and education as housing is predominantly supplied by the private sector. The trend to see housing as a private rather than a social problem has shifted since the middle of the twentieth century and, in turn, also affected the political relevance of housing.

Back in 1950, the Conservative Party described housing as ‘the first of the social services’ and the Labour Party employed similar language. Over time, this conception changed. Fewer people see housing as a responsibility for government.

‘There is not a general view, that may have been there 50 or 60 years ago, that connects a common interest of those who own their homes […] and those who want to buy their own homes, who are renting or in social housing. People’s circumstances and housing nature are different and they tend to be fragmented, so you don’t get that “We all have an interest in the NHS, or the state of the economy and jobs”.’

John Healey, former Minister of State for Housing and Planning

This stems from two principal factors – the rise of homeownership and a shift away from public and social housing provision.

The rise of homeownership

Over the past 100 years there has been a dramatic change in housing tenure of the

population. In 1918, homeownership levels stood at 23%. By 1981, this had increased to 57% and by 2001 to 69%. The proportion of homeowners peaked in 2003 at 71%. So the housing

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circumstances of the electorate have changed, and this is likely to have shifted their interests and expectations relating to housing policy.

The rise in home ownership over the last century was driven by rising incomes, and Government support to help people meet their aspirations to own their own home. But the political motivation to increase home ownership was also linked to ideology – for example, the belief in the benefits of a property-owning democracy, as explored in the box below. Property owning democracy

Homeownership has steadily grown in the UK until its peak five years ago.

Conservative Party ideology can lay the earliest claim to close alignment with the concept of homeownership. In the political context of mass enfranchisement, middle-class

consumerism and anti-socialism, as well as more innate ideologies such as personal responsibility and self-reliance, Conservatives such as Noel Skelton, Neville Chamberlain and Stanley Baldwin took the first steps towards promoting a ‘property-owning democracy’ from the 1920s.74 _{However, the policy really took grip after 1945 in part as antithesis to}

Labour’s nationalisation programme.

‘We wish to develop in our country the idea of a property-owning democracy. That means that people should be owners as well as earners. Our theme is that property, power and responsibility alike must not become absorbed into the State machine, but be widely spread throughout the whole of the community. To this end, we shall encourage home ownership.’

Conservative Party manifesto 1951

The growth in homeownership has encouraged policymakers to focus on boosting and protecting homeownership. The totemic policy of Right to Buy encapsulated social mobility, inclusivity and the small capitalist. Marketing of Right to Buy focused on wealth and

inheritance,75

As Annex 2 demonstrates, for much of the period the Labour Party put less emphasis on property ownership than the Conservative Party. For much of the Thatcher years, the national Labour Party was opposed to sale of council housing, but it retreated once faced with the popularity of the policy.76 _{In the last 25 years, the Labour Party has also advocated}

homeownership widely, extolling it as a means to redistribute private property and boost individual security.77

74

Morgan, ‘The Conservative Party and mass housing’

75

Ray Forrest and Alan Murie, ‘Marginalization and subsidized individualism: the sale of council houses in the restructuring of the British welfare state’, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Volume 10, Issue 1, pages 46–66, March 1986

76

Forrest and Murie, ‘Marginalisation’

77

Ben Jackson, ‘Revisionism Reconsidered: ‘Property-owning Democracy’ and Egalitarian Strategy in Post-War Britain’, Twentieth Century British History, Volume 16, Issue 4, Pp. 416-440.

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In recent years, levels of homeownership have dipped, with recent figures suggesting that just below two-thirds of households are owner-occupiers.78 _{A number of factors explain this,}

including: the rise in house prices; stricter lending terms imposed after the financial crash; demographic factors such as a faster growth of certain sections of the population less likely to own a home (such as single adults) than other groups (such as conventional families); high levels of migration; and, less job security. Other factors may continue to put downward pressure on the number of homeowners: such as tax concessions for investors in the private rented sector.79

However, it is easy to overstate the importance of the modest dip in homeownership levels. The popularity of homeownership shows little sign of waning despite the financial crisis. In recent decades there has been remarkable stability in people’s theoretical preference for home ownership above renting (86% in 2010 and 85% in 1996 said they would choose to buy rather than rent if they had the choice).80 _{Chart 6 suggests the same, with remarkable}

consistency in the overall emphasis on homeownership as a good thing in the last 25 years, with no more than 3% of the population advising against buying a home at all. 81

Chart 6: Advice for a young married couple

Source: Natcen, British Social Attitudes Survey, 28th _{Edition (2011), Chapter 8.}