Housing or property? The dynamics of housing policy and property principles in the right to buy

This paper examines the interplay and tension between housing law and policy and property law, in the specific context of the right to buy (RTB). It focuses on funding arrangements between the RTB tenant and another party. It first examines how courts determine the parties' respective entitlements in the home, highlighting the difficulty of categorising, under traditional property law principles, a contribution in the form of the statutory discount conferred on the RTB tenant. Secondly, it considers possible exploitation of the RTB scheme, both at the macro level of exploitation of the policy underpinning the legislation and, at the micro level, of exploitation of the tenant. The measures contained in the Housing Act 2004 intended to curb exploitation of the RTB are analysed to determine what can be considered to be legitimate and illegitimate uses of the scheme. It is argued that, despite the government's implicit approval, certain funding arrangements by non-resident relatives fail to give effect to the spirit of the scheme.

The housing pathways of young people in the UK

The authors examine the housing pathways of young people in the UK in the years 1999 to 2008, and consider the changing nature of these pathways in the run up to 2020. They employ a highly innovative methodology, which begins with the identification and description of key drivers likely to affect young people’s housing circumstances in the future. The empirical identification and analysis of housing pathways is then achieved using multiple-sequence analysis and cluster analysis of the British Household Panel Survey, contextualised by qualitative interviews with a large sample of young people. The authors describe how the interactions between the meanings, perceptions, and aspirations of young people, and the opportunities and constraints imposed by the drivers, are having a major impact on young people’s housing pathways, resulting in considerable housing policy challenges, particularly in relation to the private rented sector