Homelessness, need and desert in the allocation of council housing

The polarised positions of the 1979-97 Conservative Government and pressure groups over the Housing (Homeless Persons) Act 1977 impeded vigorous analy sis of its merits. To assess the value of the homelessness legislation, thi s paper broadens the debate to review the moral basis underlying all counci l house allocations. A utility maximising framework is adopted to clarify t he principle of allocation according to need, and it is argued that this is best described as a (revised) principle of allocation by long-term depriva tion. The Conservative Government's case for amending the homelessness legi slation is tested against this revised principle and it was found that it w as not supported by the available evidence. This utilitarian framework prov es capable of explaining the rival principle of allocation by desert, and a lso reveals the relevance of the collective impacts of allocations policies . The analysis suggests that neither a return to the 1977 Act nor the syste m established under the 1996 amendments are satisfactory. Instead, argument s are put forward for a new legal framework for allocations to be establish ed. This would oblige local authorities to assess all households on the bas is of long-term housing deprivation. However, it is also suggested that thi s system should seek to reduce over-concentrations of homeless households o n undesirable estates.