Kenneth Gibb

For decades, British housing taxation has fuelled inequality, distorted housing markets and undermined local government finance. This urgent book makes the case for clear, evidence-based reform.

The world has still to emerge fully from the housing-triggered Global Financial Crisis, but housing crises are not new. The history of housing shows long-run social progress, littered with major disasters; nevertheless the progress is often forgotten, whilst the difficulties hit the headlines. Housing Economics provides a long-term economic perspective on macro and urban housing issues, from the Victorian era onwards. A historical perspective sheds light on modern problems and the constraints on what can be achieved; it concentrates on the key policy issues of housing supply, affordability, tenure, the distribution of migrant communities, mortgage markets and household mobility. Local case studies are interwoven with city-wide aggregate analysis. Three sets of issues are addressed: the underlying reasons for the initial establishment of residential neighbourhoods, the processes that generate growth, decline and patterns of integration/segregation, and the impact of historical development on current problems and the implications for policy.

One of the key objectives of government neighbourhood policy is to encourage a sustainable mix of tenures and incomes. This report addresses questions of why integration has been so difficult to achieve in practice and draws conclusions for future policy. The report analyses data from three related empirical studies. The first models, locally, the links between housing, labour markets, migration, deprivation and segregation. The second examines the factors behind the individual moving decisions that lie at the heart of segregation and how policy can influence choices. The third presents three case studies. These are the first empirical studies of their kind to show how segregation and deprivation arise. Economic segregation in Britain is aimed at policy practitioners, economists and academics working in the fields of housing and neighbourhood revitalisation. Although the report deals with technical modelling issues, it is written in a style accessible to the non-specialist.

Housing finance is central to people's well-being, to the economy and to society as a whole. In this comprehensively updated and extensively revised text, the authors map out the shape of the UK's housing finance system - its public, private and voluntary sectors. The impact of recent change is assessed, as well as the forces that will shape change in the future. Like its predecessor, it will be essential reading for students and practitioners alike.