Michael Portillo has been telling the National Housing Federation conference that if he was in government, he would be pressing for large reductions in social housing as a means of pushing for greater levels of home ownership. He cites a correlation between occupation of social housing and worklessness, but without any analysis of whether there is a causal link between the two issues. At the present time, to push people into home ownership who are at the margins of being able to afford to do so, could be consigning them to years of debt and misery. And remember, mortgages are only likely to increase, which could go along with house prices falling, which could result in people believing that they are able to sustain the payments, only to find that they are unable to do so, and also perhaps being left in negative equity too. We all need to learn lessons from the past if we are to develop a truly sustainble housing policy which caters for all, including those who are unable to afford home ownership. Does society need to rethink its obsession with home ownership and to view renting - whether within the private or social sector - as being just a different route to ensuring that we have somewhere to live and call home?
David Wardle
www.learning4housing.co.uk
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