Deconstructing Generation Rent: Young People’s Housing Options and Future Welfare

Friday 13th February, 09:00 - 16:00 ICOSS Building, Organisers: Drs Tom Moore & Kim McKee

ABSTRACTS & DELEGATE LIST

The Housing Pathways of Young People in the UK: the 2020 vision realised? Peter Mackie,

Clapham et al (2012, 2014) examined the housing pathways of young people in the UK in the years 1999 to 2008. The research identified the nature of young people’s housing pathways and considered the likely changes up to 2020, concluding that we should expect a growing number of young people living in the private rented sector (PRS), including families and young people on relatively low incomes. Clapham et al (2012, 2014) called for fundamental changes to the regulation of the PRS in order to more effectively meet the changing needs of young tenants. Fundamental policy reform has not been forthcoming. In this presentation I will revisit the key predictions of the 2020 report and, drawing on 2011 census data and empirical findings of a household survey of PRS tenants conducted in 2014, consider whether the concerns over 2020 are already becoming a reality.

Young People Coping with Austerity in a Hot Housing Market: The Case of ‘Live-in-Guardians’ - Desiree Fields (Geography, University of Sheffield), Sarah Marie Hall (Geography, ), and Mark Jayne (Geography, University of Manchester)

This paper explores the case of ‘live-in-guardian’ schemes, where property owners offer temporary, affordable housing, heavily marketed towards young, middle-class professionals, in desirable city locations. Contemporary changes in the housing market, exacerbated under austerity, have led to a situation where many young people are unable to access affordable housing in urban areas, often at the same time as limited employment opportunities and significant changes to social welfare provision. The notion of mutual gains underpins the live-in-guardian scheme: property owners benefit from having a ‘secure’ and occupied property, financial control and assurance without the restrictions and responsibilities of long-term tenants; guardians are given the opportunity to access housing stock typically beyond their financial reach, free from the constraints of a long-term rental contract; and the broader community benefits from reduced vacancies and associated vandalism and crimes. We provide an original academic critique of these issues based on qualitative research undertaken in London with guardians, property owners and local stakeholders (including private companies running guardian schemes, housing charities and local authorities). Our findings xaminee the impact of guardianship living on the spatialities of home-making, proximate living and intimate relationships, and how young people living as property guardians are required to accept and accommodate alternative standards of safety, comfort and privacy in their everyday living. We conclude by reflecting on how this paper to broader debates around the lived experiences of austerity, affordable urban housing, and expectations of the life-course, and to thinking about urban informality in the Global North. Economic Precariousness and Young Adults’ Housing Transitions in the UK Ann Berrington, Centre for Population Change, University of Southampton

Recent media attention has focused on the trend for increased co-residence of adult children with their parent(s). It is generally assumed that this trend relates directly to the increased economic uncertainty of young adults, combined with the challenges of affordability in the housing market (Berrington & Stone, 2014). Evidence from cross-sectional data suggests that at older ages, it is men in the most economically precarious positions, who are least likely to have made the transition out of the parental home (Berrington et al., 2014). The current paper is motivated by the need to identify the consequences of economic uncertainty for young adults’ abilities to make successful housing transitions. Longitudinal data from the United Kingdom Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS) are used to identify how dimensions of precariousness are related to the likelihood of young adults (aged 18-34) leaving the parental home, becoming a home owner or being in private or social rented accommodation in the UK. Our findings suggest early transitions to residential independence are not necessarily associated with parental economic resources or an individual’s economic position, but that among those still living with their parents in their mid- to late- twenties, the chances of leaving are much lower among the unemployed and those in insecure work. This is especially so for men. Among young adults living away from the parental home, private renting is the dominant form of tenure apart from lone parents and relatively disadvantaged young men and women living alone, who are more likely to be in social rented accommodation. The paper concludes by considering policy implications of these findings.

Housing Rights and Housing Duties : the twisted legacies of investments in the UK’s private rental market Dr Martin Field, Collaborative Centre for the Built Environment, University of Northampton

This paper proposes an examination of the values that are apparent in the recent growth of the UK’s private sector rental housing market. It looks at assumptions of ‘rights’ and ‘duties’ that successive generations have supposed will govern access to future housing resources, and challenges the manner in which current economic narratives camouflage the deliberate orchestration of housing-based wealth creation towards distinct sets of stakeholders, at a growing cost to households whose circumstances are outside of those privileged sets.

Particular consideration is given to how a traditional discourse on ‘rights’ and ‘duty’, and its regard for a corresponding responsibility from one set of stakeholders towards others, has been undermined by the political and neo-liberal priorities now given to housing ‘investment’, rather than to securing appropriate long-term accommodation for all the UK’s population.

A current ‘investment’ initiative discussed by the New Economics Foundation will be used as a case study for this shift in the shaping of future housing opportunities, and will illustrate the extent to which contemporary UK funding and residential provisions represent the antithesis of ‘sustainable development’, given that they are harnessing social, economic and built environment forces into a demonstrable weakening of what is needed to sustain wider UK society.

Putting the Squeeze on Generation Rent: the consequences of extending the Shared Accommodation Rate for HB claimants in the private rented sector - Ian Cole, Ryan Powell and Elizabeth Sanderson, CRESR, Sheffield Hallam University

This paper will examine the consequences of the decision to increase the age threshold for Shared Accommodation Rate for Housing Benefit in the private rented sector to ‘single people’ from 25 years old to the age of 35. It will draw on the findings of detailed qualitative and quantitative research undertaken with landlords, claimants and housing advisers in19 areas in Great Britain as part of the national evaluation of the changes to Local Housing Allowances introduced by the Coalition Government in 2011 and 2012.

The paper will discuss these changes at different levels. First it will examine the government’s rationale for the policy in the light of the crisis of housing access and affordability across all tenures and the assumptions being made about the domestic arrangements and housing market behaviour of younger people. Age is increasingly being used as a criterion to ration access to benefits and to decent housing, and this is sometimes compounded by the stigmatising attitudes of landlords. The more punitive approach to some of the groups receiving Housing Benefit is shown to be reflected in changes to lettings priorities, as landlords seek to avoid “riskier” options. The paper illustrates how these responses are also shaped by local housing market factors, notably the level of demand in the PRS.

The consequence of these changes has been to increase the marginalisation of lower income younger tenants, especially in pressurised rental markets. The paper will then explore some of the personal experiences for some of the claimants subject to sharp decreases in their Housing Benefit entitlement, and the disruption and stress that resulted. In conclusion the paper will reflect on the contradictory impulses between the government’s espousal of the benefits of stable family life for young people, on one hand, and the disruptive effects of various benefits changes, on the other. These tensions may intensify, if plans to remove Housing Benefit from all those under the age of 25 (which were shelved in 2013) come to fruition after the May 2015 election. ‘Generation Rent’ Strikes in the London Housing Crisis: The Focus E15 Campaign as a Nomadic War Machine - Paul Watt, Birkbeck, University of London

This paper examines the spatio-political contours of the contemporary London housing crisis in relation to ‘Generation Rent’ via the geophilosophical framework of A Thousand Plateaus (1987) by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. It focuses on the Focus E15 (FE15) Campaign based on a group of young mothers who had been residents of the E15 Foyer for homeless youth in the east London borough of Newham, but are now living in private rental housing. The FE15 Campaign provides an example of how Generation Rent are politically contesting the dire housing circumstances that many find themselves in – youth therefore as political agents rather than as consumers or passive victims. The paper draws upon a range of empirical material including participant observation, interviews and documents. The FE15 Campaign has engaged in a series of actions which form a distinctive way of doing housing politics in London, a politics that can be understood using Deleuzoguattarian concepts including ‘nomadology’, ‘the war machine’, and ‘smooth and striated space’. Various FE15 Campaign actions are discussed, for example a tea party held at a housing association and the temporary occupation of a boarded-up block of flats at the Carpenters council estate in Stratford. The paper argues that the FE15 Campaign has been able to create smooth space in a manner which is quite unlike most London housing campaigns which have, by contrast, tended to remain within the confines of state-dominated striated space. It is this political creativity – operating as a nomadic war machine – which has given rise to the high-profile nature of the FE15 Campaigners as young women who have gained a reputation for not ‘knowing their place’.

Young and Homeless: a positive housing pathway for young people? Francesca Albanese, Homeless Link

In 2014 over half (53%) of homeless people using homeless accommodation services in England were aged under 25 (Homeless Link 2014). At the same time trends in statutory homelessness figures show that the number of 16 to 24 year olds accepted as homeless by local authorities has steadily decreased since 2006 (DCLG 2014). Yet recent attention concerning the housing options of care leavers and the higher proportions of vulnerable young people using homelessness services highlights how difficult it is for these marginalised groups to navigate the current housing system.

This paper presents the findings from two surveys with over 200 staff working in local authority housing departments and frontline staff of youth homelessness organisations, as well as interviews with young people. Using the positive pathway model it sets out how agencies should work together to ensure that the support needs of young people are considered through routes both in and out of homelessness. It examines the current emergency and supported accommodation provision for young people, the move on options available, and the changing trends among the young people seeking support. The paper also considers the impact of welfare reform including the sanctions process and changes to the Shared Accommodation Rate.

Niches Accommodating Younger Households in the PRS in Birmingham Ben Pattison,

The recent growth of private renting has become popularised as Generation Rent and is front page news in England. This popular discussion tends to focus on households who are ‘priced out of owner occupation’. However, private renting is “a sector that defies sweeping generalizations” and it is generally agreed that private renting consists of different sub- markets or ‘niches’. My ongoing PhD research suggests that the private rented sector is highly diverse – both spatially and demographically. In this paper I will explore this diversity by focusing on young people’s housing circumstances within the private rented sector.

This paper will use a case study of Birmingham to investigate the different types of niches which are accommodating younger households. Geo-demographic analysis highlights key features of the circumstances of younger households within private renting. These include student niches, city centre living, low income households on the fringes of the city centre and more affluent households renting in suburban areas. Differences between these niches include housing stock, landlord types, and the concentration of private renting. This analysis suggests that the private rented sector is taking on a range of different roles in the housing pathways of younger households. Sociality, Ideology and Everyday Life in shared houses and housing cooperatives Dr Katherine Davies, University of Sheffield

Due to the challenges posed by the UK housing market, shared living is often the only housing option available to many young adults. Whilst sharing with friends is commonly understood as a standard life-course stage for those in their early twenties, increasing numbers of young people are finding it impossible to ‘move on’ to what is often seen as the next stage of the ‘ladder’: home ownership.

Shared living arrangements can live or die according to the relationships on which they are founded. Drawing upon qualitative interview data generated by an on-going ESRC-funded project investigating the possibilities and limitations of different kinds of shared living arrangements in the UK, this paper will compare and contrast the everyday socialities at the heart of two quite different types of sharing: professional house shares and housing cooperatives. House shares (comprising non-related ‘housemates’ sharing a, usually privately rented, home) are a common ‘means to an end’ for young adults in the UK. Housing cooperatives on the other hand (schemes involving joint ownership of coop members) are often rooted in some sort of ideological vision for a different way of living. In comparing these two types of sharing in which young adults in the sample were engaged, particular attention will be paid to exploring the mundane, everyday realities of life in shared housing from cooking, cleaning, and paying the bills to socialising and ‘getting on’. The paper will also consider how these aspects of everyday life relate to the different ideological underpinnings of house shares and cooperatives.

Delegate List

Name Affiliation Email Francesca Albanese Homeless Link [email protected] Darren Baxter University of York [email protected] Paul Bedford Sheffield Hallam University [email protected] Ann Berrington University of Southampton [email protected] Ian Cole Sheffield Hallam University [email protected] Katherine Davies University of Sheffield [email protected] Richard Dunning University of Sheffield [email protected] Melissa Fernandez London School of Economics [email protected] Martin Field University of Northampton [email protected] Desiree Fields University of Sheffield [email protected] John Flint University of Sheffield [email protected] Richard Goulding Sheffield Hallam University [email protected] Alison Herrington Department for Work and Pensions [email protected] Paul Hickman Sheffield Hallam University [email protected] Roger Jarman Independent Housing Consultant [email protected] Peter Mackie University of Cardiff [email protected] Lindsey McCarthy Sheffield Hallam University [email protected] Kim McKee University of St Andrews [email protected] Tom Moore University of Sheffield [email protected] Matt Padley Loughborough University [email protected] Ben Pattison University of Birmingham [email protected] Ryan Powell Sheffield Hallam University [email protected] Elizabeth Sanderson Sheffield Hallam University [email protected] Paul Watt Birkbeck, University of London [email protected] Eleanor Wilkinson University of Southampton [email protected]

ST ANDREWS Centre for Housing Research