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Food and shelter are necessities of life: affordable housing for everyone has been a priority for successive Governments, whose policies have had major effects on housing over the last century.
Immediately after the Second World War, local councils, new town development corporations and Scottish Special housing associations undertook major programmes of house building: these continued until the mid-1960s. Slums were demolished and people moved to new towns and new housing estates in the suburbs. A high proportion of the available housing was in public ownership, with most people renting a home from the council. Increasingly, however, people wanted to own their homes, and by the 1990s private house builders provided most new housing.
In 1981, the Government introduced legislation which allowed tenants of public sector organisations to buy their home, often at substantial discounts. This lead to increasing levels of owner-occupation in Scotland.
Social rented housing is also provided by locally managed housing associations. Since the 1980s, housing associations have become the major providers of new housing for social renting. They have also taken over stock transferred from local authorities and Scottish Homes. Housing associations may specialise in providing housing for particular client groups, such as the elderly or the disabled.
Compared to other countries, the UK has high levels of home ownership: some commentators argue this has adverse effects on labour market mobility, particularly when major differentials in house prices arise between areas, as has happened in the South East of England.
The private rented sector has undergone significant changes. Concerns about the behaviour of landlords resulted in Government legislation to provide protection for tenants, for example, from eviction or rent increases. Landlords found themselves unable to make a profit from renting and withdrew from the market. However, young people still often first enter the housing market by renting privately, before buying their own property.
Improving housing has been a major strand of programmes for area re-renewal, with the emphasis increasingly on providing choice, rather than centralised solutions.
However, some people still find themselves homeless and begging on the streets.
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