Social housing in Europe: now and tomorrow

1
Social housing in Europe now and tomorrow

• Kath Scanlon, LSE/SBi
• Paris, 22 November 2007

2
Structure of presentation

• Methodology
• Findings
• Ownership
• Decision-making
• Rents
• Demographics
• Trends and current issues

3
Objectives of the project

• Not to obtain detailed descriptive information,
  but
• To understand key attributes of the social rented
  sector across a range of European countries
• To clarify major trends, past and future
• To get a feel for political and other pressures
  for change

4
Participants methodology

• Specialists in 9 countries
• Austria, Denmark, England, France, Germany,
  Hungary, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden
• Country reports
• Seminars
• Editing process

5
Social Housing in Europe

• English version funded by UKs Higher Education
  Innovation Fund
• Short overview of comparative trends
• Chapter on each country, plus general overview of
  transition economies

6
Housing tenure / size of social sector
7
Trends in supply

• Demand for social housing is generally high and
  increasing, with long waiting lists at least in
  major urban areas.
• Oversupply in some areas (eastern Germany
  Northern England) has led to large-scale
  demolitions.
• Even in pressure areas like Dublin, Amsterdam
  Paris, social housing from 1950s -1970s is being
  demolished.

8

• Large estates that are demolished (in whole or in
  part) are often replaced by mixed-tenure housing
  (France, Denmark, England), possibly at higher
  densities and with mixed use to sweat assets.
• Increasing emphasis on construction of
  sustainable buildings/zero carbon emissions
  (Germany, France, Denmark, suddenly UK)
• Special needs housing makes up increasing of
  new buildSweden, Denmark (gt 50). Definitions
  of special needs differ, but include housing for
  the elderly, handicapped, sometimes large
  families.

9
Ownership
10
Involvement of private sector
11

• Privatisation tends to remove the better-quality
  stock from the tenure.
• Ireland, UK decades
• Netherlands since late 1990s
• Denmark tentative first steps
• Germany special case. About 100,000 units of
  social housing per year move to the private
  sector as rent restrictions expire. Sale of
  municipal housing stocks to private investors.
• Hungary restitution/privatisation after 1989

12
Decision-making

• ANC amount of new construction R system for
  rent determination
• LNC location of new construction definition
  of financing/subsidy system
• ?? in negotiation with

13

• Shift from national to more local
  decision-making
• Austria 1987/88
• Netherlands 1989
• Denmark 1994
• Hungary 1990s
• France 1982, 1991, 2000 2004
• Germany 2006
• England moving against the trendshifting
  decision-making away from local government to
  national government or landlords

14
Social vs private rent determination cost-based
rents
15
Other rent systems
16

• Cost rents by definition cover historic costs,
  but have no direct relation to market forces,
  producing distortions. Economists advocate
  moving to more market-based system.
• Rents related to income produce low revenue, make
  it difficult to employ private finance. Experts
  argue against (associated with small social
  sectors - Ireland also USA Australia)
• Countries with low average rents (Hungary,
  Ireland) have affordable housing but receipts
  dont cover costs so major problems of management
  and maintenance.
• Rent system bound up with housing benefit/rent
  allowanceand in transition economies there is
  none.

17
Access to social housing
But access based on housing need
18
What if incomes exceed limits?
19
Demographics of social housing
20

• Increasing income/social segregation in many
  countries, especially on worst estates not
  obviously related to size of sector
• Near-universal preference for owner-occupation
  and government policies to promote it ? departure
  of middle classes
• Subsidy becomes better targeted, but poor
  households become more concentrated

21
Ethnicity
In Vienna 33. Until 2006 only Austrian
citizens had access to municipal housing
22
Ethnic patterns by country

• Denmark Immigrants concentrated on large urban
  estates and newer estates
• Germany On some large estates in Berlin
  western Germany, 35-40 of residents are
  immigrants. German-Russian migrants concentrated
  on large east German estates
• Austria Non-Austrians not allowed in municipal
  housing until 2006. Influx of naturalised
  immigrants in 1990s? tensions on some estates

23

• France Large immigrant population in estates on
  peripheries of cities.
• Netherlands Concentrations of minorities on
  postwar estates with low-rise flats. Concern
  about segregation of housing, neighbourhoods and
  schools.
• England High concentrations of minority
  households on large urban estats. Competition
  for housing greatest area of tension between
  established households and new migrants.

24

• Minorities tend to live disproportionately in
  social housing
• Low incomes
• Tend to live in cities
• May prefer living in own communities
• Move to mixed communities and tenure integration
  unlikely to reduce the level of segregation,
  unless income distribution/levels of migration
  change

25
Current debates

• Demographics Does social housing generate
  segregation?
• Politics Is social housing now seen to be the
  problem, rather than part of the answer?
• The social contract Should social housing go to
  local residents, or to those with the greatest
  need?
• Location What should be done about a mismatch
  between locations of supply and demand?

26

• Supply How can pressure for new supply best be
  met?
• Tenure/use mix Is it better to provide social
  housing in separate areas, or in those with mixed
  tenure and use?
• The role of social housing providers Should they
  be given new functions?
• Rent determination Should rents be based on
  costs, income, or market value?

27
Trends

• Housing providers increasingly separate from
  local authorities shift towards more local
  decision-making
• Newly constructed social housing is generally
  mixed tenure. Efforts made to introduce a mix in
  existing stock and use public assets more
  effectively a dominant idea but difficult to
  realize in practice
• Private sector increasingly askedor forcedto
  become involved in provision of social housing

28
Trends (2)

• Ethnic minorities live disproportionately in
  social housing, often on large estates issues
  of need versus entitlement
• Highly targeted subsidies can lead to
  residualisation lack of provision for employed
  households and intermediate market
• Countries where social housing does cater for
  intermediate market running into problems with EU
  for subsidising the undeserving--SGEI question.