Social Housing in the UK - Essay Example

Introduction Social housing is considered as one of the important moves towards social inclusion by allowing secure and sufficient housing on rent basis to those who otherwise cannot afford it. One of the key objectives of providing social housing is to create affordable housing alternatives for those who need them most. As such, due to very nature of social housing, it is normally offered by the councils or the non-profit organizations across whole UK. Apart from empowering low income families to have affordable housing, another important parameter of the social housing is to actually reduce the social gaps existing within the society on the basis of income. It is also because of this reason that social housing units are often developed in high cost areas to reduce the gap between rich and poor as for housing is considered. A key perceived benefit of this approach is to create a sense of community through diversified and mix communities. This is done in order to ensure that the low income families can also have access to other amenities such as better schools, parks and other facilities.  (Monk, 2009, pp. 21--38) What is critical to note however, is the fact that sense of community has not been developed in social housing sector despite the fact that efforts have been made to create mixed and diversified communities. Issues such as security are considered as important for reducing the impacts of social inclusion on those living in any such communities. This paper will discuss and explore the issue of why the contemporary social housing actually failed to address the issues of creating community sense in such communities. Sense of Community Sense of Community is a multi-dimensional concept which is not only part of the community psychology but that of the social psychology also. The sense of community focuses more on having positive experience of community rather than focusing on the overall structure of the community. Sense of community is considered as an integral part of one’s commitment towards the neighborhood as well as the overall level of satisfaction. Various research studies concluded that those living a satisfied and happier life tend to see their neighborhood as the smaller community within the city while at the same showing loyalty to the neighborhood. It is critical therefore those neighborhoods are developed in a manner which can ensure the development of this sense of community. (Arthurson, 2012) Design is one of the key issues in dealing with the issue of creating the sense of community. Community halls and easily accessible amenities carved out of the existing space. Facility designs therefore are of the critical importance in order to ensure that design does not support any kind of exclusion. Creating community halls and the places where community members can combine and discuss several of their day to day routines needs to be created to allow greater sense of community. It is also critical to note that majority of the cost of new homes is based upon the planning and design therefore a careful approach towards planning as well as the design side of the homes can actually result into an improved savings. One of the key reasons as to why the sense of community has not been developed within the social housing sector in UK is the changing social preferences. People consider social housing as temporary homes as inspiration to own your own home are on the rise. Due to this tendency, the overall housing and neighborhoods designs are not made in a manner which can support further sense of community. This also results into lack of care for the homes and amenities provided in these neighborhoods as residents view their stay as a temporary stay and remain mentally prepare to move once their financial position improves. Social Inclusion The overall concept of social inclusion is considered as abstract in nature and even poses greater challenge to politicians and planners to properly define and establish the concepts of social inclusion to establish the relevant policies. Social inclusion as a concept suggests that those individuals, families or communities who are otherwise not part of the mainstream society shall be included in the mainstream society in order to improve their standards of life and overall sense of well-being. (Jones and Evans, 2008) A historical look at the legislative efforts undertaken in UK to actually improve the social inclusion dates back to 19th century and indicates that philanthropic efforts were on rise to actually increase charitable housing. In the early 1890s, government started to legislate for the housing to the working class tenants however, government funding was not offered in this regard. During this period, council in the London also started to accommodate the homeless dwellers however, they were smaller in size and were erected in multi-story buildings with little or insufficient amenities offered. During 20th century, cooperatives also entered into the market and started to use the pooled savings of its working class members. These savings were used to develop the housing for the working class however, over the period of time these schemes or organizations vanished. However, the period following the Second World War witnessed a gradual change in the legislation as well as other efforts which witnessed a renewed focus on the development of social housing developed for the purpose of social inclusion. Social inclusion has also not become possible for social housing in UK because the immigrant communities are diverse in nature. The sheer diversity of the low income immigrant class in UK makes it relatively difficult to not only achieve and develop the sense of community within such smaller communities. Social inclusion also becomes difficult when tenants choose the housing based upon their ethnic associations and refuse to live at places where overall community may radically differ from that of the original community of the person. (Edgar and Doherty et al., 2002) Terms like ethnic penalty are being used to identify even those individuals and families who attempt to live in areas where their ethnic communities do not exist. In such social housing communities, such families are already excluded and segregated on the basis of race and racial associations. As such social housing in UK therefore failed to ensure social inclusion at the desired level. How to bring people together in social housing There are various factors which are the cause of social housing sector in UK not performing up to the expectations. Considering the overall economic downturn and the fiscal austerity measures by the government, there are chances that the funding to this sector may decline over the period of time. As a result of reduction in the government funding, the council housing specially is going to suffer due to poor quality as well as lack of all the required facilities and amenities to socially excluded families. (Preece and Ward, 2012, pp. 763--778) In order to bring more people together in the social housing sector, it is important to first create healthy competition in this sector. Currently, the UK social housing sector is relatively less competitive due to presence of a very low number of players in the market. Due to complicated and a complex web of the regulations in the social housing market, it becomes relatively difficult for the existing players to deliver efficient and quality services. Due to this, it becomes less critical for the tenants to expect quality services from the existing service providers. It is therefore important that the competition in this sector is increased along with simplifying the overall regulatory framework. (Jones, 2013, pp. 2--2) It is also critical to note that there is a drastic need to actually reduce the costs to the end users of the social housing. Having lower costs may actually allow those preferring to remain closer to their ethnic communities to consider reallocating to the areas which are less costly to live. There is also an acute need of helping social landlords to actually avoid tenancy related fraud and avoid any anti-social or discriminatory behavior. Since social housing sector in UK is dominated by the racial preferences, it is therefore more critical that the social landlords are educated towards this to help them improve their overall behavior. (Rosenberg, 2011, pp. 113--122) Apart from this, funding to local authorities may be increased in order to not only refurbish the homes but also create fences and other security infrastructures around the communities which can help the smaller communities to develop a safe and secure life style. Apart from this, local community policy shall be improved in order to ensure that local communities are safe and secure for residents belonging to all the ethnic communities. Social Housing and how it can be improved Over the period of time, the performance of social housing sector in UK has deteriorated due to various reasons. There are certain reasons for the same including an increasing lack of sense of community, security concerns as well as social and racial preferences of individuals. Apart from this, there is also an issue of government support and the role of councils in ensuring quality social housing to those who deserve it. These factors combined together has resulted into a consistent decline in the quality of social housing and an increasing dissatisfaction over the security concerns and the lack of other amenities make it more difficult to increase the overall social housing inhabitants. (Swan and Ruddock et al., 2013, pp. 181--193) One of the key reasons as to why the overall social housing went wrong was the gradual influx of the immigrants in UK. UK received consistently high number of immigrants over the period of time along with those who sought asylum. As a result of this, the number of persons availing the social housing actually declined over the period of time. It is also important to note that due to financial crisis, UK government initiated drastic fiscal austerity measures which resulted into decline in the overall funding to the social housing sector. As a result of the lack of funding to this sector, the overall quality of the housing units and neighborhoods declined too. There has been a gradual encroachment of greater land and communities by the large urban centers thus making less land available for the development of social housing units in major urban areas. As a result of this forests and other natural resources are being depleted in even rural areas also thus resulting into the fragmentation of the land and other land resources. What is critical to note that due to these encroachments, the overall density of the homes has increased thus leaving little room for parking, amenities, sidewalks, broader streets and roads? The reduction of the open space as well as that of the natural resources existing within the social housing communities also resulted into further reduction in the overall area available for residence purposes. From the perspective of the architects, it is also critical to actually improve the design and development side of the social housing communities. Factors such as individual requirements of the families, environmental and ecological protection, implementing design aesthetics and other technical specifications need to be taken into consideration. Good designs can actually help the architects to save money and help the authorities to actually redeploy these resources to increase the number of other related amenities. What is also critical to note that architects have the role to actually design and develop the dwellings in such a manner that they can result into reduction of the social injustice and biasness? The concept that market based housing can only be afforded by those having higher level of income need to be overturn however; it can be achieved provided architects consider the above mentioned facts while designing such social housing communities. Conclusion Social hosing in UK has been marred by the security and satisfaction issues due to various reasons. Diversity of the communities living in UK, racial preferences, lack of funding, limited role of councils as well as local representatives and the fraudulent practices made it relatively difficult for the individual families to adapt social housing. Social housing is normally aimed at providing quality shelter to those low income families who cannot otherwise afford the same. In order to increase the social inclusion and achieve better social cohesion, social housing units are provided. In order to improve the overall state of the social housing, it is important that the role of local councils is improved through an effective legislative process. Apart from this, other measures may also need to be taken in this regard. References Arthurson, K. 2012. Social Mix and the City. Melbourne: CSIRO Pub. Edgar, B., Doherty, J. and Meert, H. 2002. Access to housing. Bristol: Policy Press. Jones, C. 2013. Managing the challenge to social housing of an ageing English population. Housing, Care and Support, 16 (3/4), pp. 2--2. Jones, P. and Evans, J. 2008. Urban regeneration in the UK. Los Angeles: SAGE. Monk, S. 2009. Understanding the demand for social housing in the United Kingdom: Some implications for policy. International Journal of Housing Markets and Analysis, 2 (1), pp. 21--38. Preece, D. and Ward, C. 2012. Union leadership in UK social housing. Leadership \& Organization Development Journal, 33 (8), pp. 763--778. Rosenberg, J. 2011. Social housing, community empowerment and well-being: Part one--empowerment practice in social housing. Housing, Care and Support, 14 (4), pp. 113--122. Swan, W., Ruddock, L., Smith, L. and Fitton, R. 2013. Adoption of sustainable retrofit in UK social housing.Structural Survey, 31 (3), pp. 181--193. Read More