Home ownership is " a form of housing provision characterised by unevenness and inequality rather than homogeneity and uniformity of benefit and experience" Discuss

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Home ownership is “ a form of housing provision characterised by unevenness and inequality rather than homogeneity and uniformity of benefit and experience” Discuss

This essay will be looking at several aspects of home ownership including low cost home ownership, normalisation, owner occupation and how it effects the home owner, grants to home owners and divisions in cities due to ethnicity. These will all be useful in explaining whether or not home ownership is

“ a form of housing provision characterised by unevenness and inequality rather than homogeneity and uniformity of benefit and experience”

Home ownership is when a member of the public uses money they have or borrow enough money to buy a home. Public ownership is when the government provides the housing and you pay a rent to the government in the form of a housing association or Local authority. It is also know as social rented housing.

There has been a rise in owner occupation in Britain since the Second World War and the process of residualisation was sped up by the conservatives when they were in power from 1979 to 1997. Residualisation rose because of the policies of the time, favoured privatisation rather than public works. This process of privatisation included the housing policy. The Conservative government encouraged people to buy their own homes. They encouraged people to buy their own council houses by providing huge discounts while increasing rents. This gave those in council houses little choice but to buy their houses. This caused inequality because if you lived in a high rise you could buy it but not have the choice of buying a better council house with a garden and in a better area. You were stuck with what you already had. Also mortgages were easier to get. Previously a person that wanted a mortgage may have had to wait until they had been with a bank or building society for a set period of time, and also had a substantial deposit. Nowadays you can get a mortgage that is 110% so that you can borrow enough money to decorate or renovate your home, no need for a deposit and no need to wait until you’ve been with them for years. They want your money so you can walk in off the street and get a mortgage.

This all creates more money and business for the banks. But you still have to have  certain credentials to be able to get one. For instance a good credit rating and a permanent job. This can cause inequalities as not all of us have permanent jobs.

Social division in British cities have been caused by the residualisation of council houses. There is a stigma attached to council houses and people believe that council houses are the last resort for a place to live along with some of the inner city privately rented sector.

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There is also a big ethnic divide between council estates and privately rented or owned sector.

There is a problem in British cities of social exclusion and it can be seen most clearly in the council estates but it can also be seen in the poorer areas of home ownership. Social exclusion occurs in council estates because of the stigma, which is now attached to living there. The problem with looking for inequalities in council areas with regards to social exclusion would be that the privately owned inner city areas problems would not be addressed and if we look ...

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