Sustainable home ownership

JRF has a long history of working in this field through its housing practice, research and policy development work. This is being continued through the work of the JRF Housing Market Taskforce.

Key issues

• Levels of owner occupation have grown significantly in the last 60 years, it now accounts for around 70% of all housing.
• It is however, far from a risk-free tenure. In the decade between 1988-97, 450,000 households had their home repossessed, and levels of repossessions are sadly rising again in the current economic downturn.
• Our research highlights that losing their home is very distressing for adults and children, incurring long lasting effects.
• There are some measures in place to help people in financial difficulty, but there is a need to examine longer term options to make the system more sustainable for households.

Overview

In July 2008, JRF published a round up document which compares some of the emerging issues of the current economic down turn with those in the early 1990s. JRF hopes that this will help ensure that past research and lessons learned in this area are duely considered as practitioners and policymakers develop their responses to the current difficulties.

It highlights that, while there are many differences with past housing market down turns, there are also many similarities. Notably the lack of more comprehensive solutions to prevent the most economically vulnerable from facing prolonged arrears and ultimately repossession.

With this and the linkages to the wider housing system in mind, the Foundation launched a new programme to examine long term options for reform. This is being undertaken through the JRF Housing Market Taskforce.