Grants to home-owners: A policy in search of objectives

This paper examines the policy of providing capital grants to home-owners i n England and Wales for repairs and improvements to their properties since its origins in the late 1940s. Such grants have been the major mechanism fo r delivering state support to home-owners with repairs and improvements and at times have formed a major component of public spending. Grant aid, usua lly covering 50 per cent of approved costs, was initially intended as an in centive to owners (mainly landlords) to install amenities and facilities wh ich had not been provided when properties were constructed in the 19th cent ury. With the growth of low-income home ownership, grants were extended to provide assistance with repairs and to cover a greater proportion of the co sts of work. In some cases, 100 per cent grants under which the organisatio n of work was taken out of the owner's hands completely were provided in or der to secure better works quality. Unfortunately these approaches coincide d with financial retrenchment. From 1990, the government reaffirmed that re pairs and improvements were primarily the responsibility of home-owners and grant aid was residualised, that is focused on the poorest households in t he worst condition properties, leading to a dramatic reduction in the numbe r of home-owners receiving state assistance. Subsequently other objectives such as community care, public health, energy efficiency and environmental concerns have further eroded the resources available for housing stock reno vation. Despite the mismatch between the grant policy mechanism and availab le resources, there has been little progress in the development of a new ph ilosophy defining the interest of the state in the condition of private sec tor housing and the respective responsibilities of the state and private ow ners and the introduction of alternative ways of helping low-income owners with repair and improvement.