There are few forms of consumption that match the depth of feeling brought to homeownership. Political and cultural expectation in Britain sets ownership as the ‘natural’ choice of all those who have the means to buy into it, realising for the owner the personal ideals of security and independence. In this idealised, and ideological, construction of home ownership, housing consumption is not only private – chosen through the market and the site of the most personal expressions of identity and filial bonding – but also privatising; it rests on an understanding of ‘independence’ as social distance, an intentional withdrawal from the support of collective institutions. But if homeownership has brought security and independence for some it has also, as we all know, come to mean insecurity for others, as housing costs escalate and entrench inequalities of wealth and income.
Whichever way Brexit-limbo plays out, this is set to get worse: the latest figures compiled by Shelter show that in 2017 median house prices in England were nearly 8 times greater than annual median earnings – a gap that is wider even than the pre-crash figures of 2007. At the same time – in a perhaps surprising parity of consumer mistreatment - the number of private developments revealed to have been built with the same cladding that caused the Grenfell tragedy continues to grow (Inside Housing, April 3rd, 2019). Prices rise, quality declines; inequality nevertheless grows.
Addressing housing inequality within the existing framework
Housing inequality clearly stands out as the tangible challenge for distributive justice. But for those who want action on inequality but do not want not to reject ownership as a legitimate policy goal there is a more fundamental challenge: can homeownership serve the ideals of private choice and consumption without radically privatising implications? Egalitarian-minded supporters of homeownership who don’t ask this question risk extending the good of ownership, only to find we have just brought more people into the social dynamic of independence as separation.
