Rationing Homes

Abstract

Housing is a basic human need; but it is also dependent upon the availability of a fundamental and finite economic resource — land. Consequently housing provision in Britain today is governed by the complicated legal regulation of economic resources and the conflicting political policies adopted towards meeting human need. In particular it is governed by the contradictory ideologies of free-market regulation and state provision for welfare, and as we shall see, these have resulted in legal measures which, while they may recognise a problem, often only deal with its harshest effects and are then amended or repealed by succeeding governments who can not surprisingly point out that these measures have not worked.