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Is home ownership the way out of poverty?

27/11/2023

Posted by:
Renata Watson

Opinion is divided over whether buying or renting is the better housing policy.

Centre for Social Justice Executive director Philippa Stroud argues that property ownership is still one of the best defences against poverty.

Royal Society for the Arts chief executive Matthew Taylor counters that home ownership has increased social inequality in terms of the life chances and assets of people who own their own homes, arguing instead that we should foster a massive expansion in the private rental sector and improve the quality of the houses on offer.

Tags: housing, poverty, property, renting, home ownership, home, private rented sector, houses, buying, inequality

Comments:

There is no necessary contradiction between these two arguments, in that social inequality and poverty and not the same thing, and it is possible for the inequality to increase at the same time as poverty decreases.

Having said that, there is a clear correlation between owner occupation and aggregate affluence. The reason for this has been articulated very well by the American philosopher, David Schmidtz, who argues that societies which internalise responsibility - i.e. which ensure that individuals deal with the problems of their own making - tend to be the most affluence and stable. Schmidtz argues that the most effective means of internalising responsibility is through property ownership.

Posted by Peter King on Monday 30 2009 at 08:47 AM

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