Inside Housing – Insight – What Europe can teach us about social housing

The same methodology is applied to a degree in the UK. The surpluses generated by not-for-profit housing associations are reinvested in new build and maintenance. But it is far harder to make it work, because much of the UK’s older, debt-free social housing has been sold off under the Right to Buy.

“The idea that you would sell off a debt-free product for peanuts would feel like a crazy policy to many Europeans,” says Mr Turnbull.

“In places like Vienna and Denmark, the homes are affordable housing in perpetuity. That means the sector can stand on its own two feet financially, as it does in much of Europe, while still charging affordable rents. It’s a scandal which I’m surprised more people in Britain don’t talk about.”

Another example of a successful rolling-fund model comes from France, where a good deal of social housing is funded through personal savings. Many citizens use a popular government-backed savings account called a Livret A, which holds hundreds of billions in savings that the state uses to invest in public projects. 

“That money is pooled and loaned at favourable interest rates to social housing providers,” explains Mr Turnbull. “It has also been used to finance schools, public transport and other public infrastructure.”

“In places like Vienna and Denmark, the homes are affordable housing in perpetuity. That means the sector can stand on its own two feet financially, as it does in much of Europe, while still charging affordable rents. It’s a scandal which I’m surprised more people in Britain don’t talk about”

The French system of social housing involves four tiered levels of rent, catering for those on no income, low incomes, middle incomes and those who need extra care. Municipalities are set targets for the amount of social housing they should have as a proportion of their housing stock, and can be fined if they miss them. The country builds around 80,000 social homes a year.

“Many people in France associate social housing with tower blocks outside Paris, but that’s not the majority of social housing. In cities like where I live, in Lille, the social housing is woven into the fabric of the city,” says Mr Turnbull.

“Politicians see its value, because if you don’t have affordable housing, you don’t have the teachers, nurses, hairdressers and everyone else you need to keep a city going,” he adds.

With key workers being priced out of many of our cities by housing costs, politicians in the UK are yet to really grasp this concept. When they finally do, they may find some of the solutions that are working in Europe also stand a chance of working here.