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This Policy Gives Financial Assistance Relating To Housing Needs To The Key ...

This policy gives financial assistance relating to housing needs to the key workers (e.g. teachers and those working in the health and social services). Specifically the assistance takes the form of ‘equity loans' of up to £50000 in some cases and this money makes it more affordable to buy houses in the open market. These houses however need to be built by registered social landlords.
The key workers these services are aimed at are those working in jobs where recruitment proves difficult and where there are shortages of key workers due to retention difficulties. The geographical area which this scheme is aimed at in particular is London. Other areas such as the South East and the East of England are included in the scheme, but the problem of affordable housing is experienced most acutely in the London region. This scheme also incorporates shared or co-ownership schemes where it is possible to purchase a percentage of the property and rent the rest of the property at a subsidised rate.
However, the question of whether this assistance is really of benefit to the community must be posed. One could ask, is the problem of affordable housing just a symptom of wider public policy issues (Greater London Authority, 2006), such as inadequate salaries in the public sector for professions like teachers, nurses and social services employees which is ignored? It may be argued that the piecemeal contribution which affordable housing schemes make towards improving the overall standard of living of these groups just conceals the problem of low paid public sector workers in London. In any event, the problem of affordable housing is continuing to grow and the next section will look at why.
Specifically, the next sections will attempt to explain, within a sociological and political framework, the reasons why affordable housing continues to pose major challenges in terms of policy and a potential solution (Greater London Authority, 2006, Rugg, 1999). This analysis will begin with a look at some relevant statistics.
3.5 Statistics Associated with Affordable Housing in London
In spite of the above mentioned schemes problems associated with affordable housing continue to rise (Greater London Authority, 2006, Rugg, 1999). The issue of affordable housing and problems associated with it are intrinsically linked to the rapidly growing population (Greater London Authority, 2006; section 2.3) within London and associated demographic cleavages such as the fact that households are getting smaller (Greater London Authority, 2006; section 1.1) and London (and indeed the UK) has an increasingly ageing population (Greater London Authority, 2006; section 2.3).
The effects of an ageing population in London have been explained in the following way:
‘The UK is far from exceptional. By 2030, the share of the over 65s in the adult population of Germany will have grown to about half, compared to one-fifth now.


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