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His paper looks at the implications of a judicial review last July of four cases concerned with the eligibility of service charges for Housing Benefit funding. It explains why the NHF recommends that funding for tenancy support should remain part of the housing system rather than be moved to social services.

The paper's aim is to estimate the benefits and costs of China's affordable housing program, as well as to provide recommendations to this housing policy.

The Cobb‐Douglas utility function is employed to estimate the net benefits of the affordable housing policy. Both of the sunk costs and current costs are computed, and an improved housing affordability index is used to measure the levels of housing affordability in cities in China.

The total net benefits of this policy are estimated to range from $234,176.7 million to ¥271,020.4 million. The costs are divided into sunk costs and current costs, computed to be ¥447,598.63 million and ¥328,685.21 million, respectively. The supply size of affordable dwellings is far from adequate due to the low level of housing affordability in China.

The data in this study is insufficient and some information such as the income of occupiers has yet to be estimated. However, if more individual data was available, the conclusion would be confidential.

From this paper the policymakers may understand how to estimate the welfare efficiency of affordable housing policy, adjust the participant regulations and determine the supply of affordable houses.

This paper estimates the benefits and costs of China's affordable housing program as the first study in this area. The Cobb‐Douglas utility function was used in the analysis of China's housing policy.

This chapter addresses housing policy in England since 2007 and changes in housing opportunities and inequalities. The credit crunch and its aftermath were experienced across the United Kingdom, and speeded the established trend to greater inequality. Many problems identified in England are relevant elsewhere, but the distinctive housing policies adopted in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are not discussed here. The chapter argues that the policy direction adopted since 2010 failed in its ambition to increase housing supply and home ownership and further increased social and spatial inequalities.

The proliferation of homelessness and housing precariousness, along with a dramatic growth in food banks, are two signs that while parts of the UK economy may be recovering from the 2008 financial crisis and recession, the same cannot be said for the living conditions of much of the poor and working class population. Much of the media discussion has centered on the ways in which these social ills have been caused by government policy, particularly cuts to social and welfare services introduced under the banner of “austerity.” I argue in this paper, however, that a narrow focus on austerity risks obscuring some of the longer-term structural transformations that have taken place under neoliberal capitalism, namely: (1) financialization and (2) the privatization of social reproduction. Situating these two trends within a longer history of capitalism, I argue, allows us to understand the contemporary housing and food crises as specific (and highly gendered) manifestations of a more fundamental contradiction between capital accumulation and progressive and sustainable forms of social reproduction. Doing so further helps to locate the dramatic proliferation of household debt, which has been supported by both processes, as both cause and consequence of the crisis in social reproduction faced by many UK households.

This paper aims to examine the main characteristics of the housing taxation and subsidy systems in six European Union countries. The structure of this support over the past two decades, before and after the global financial crisis has been investigated and its total effective dimensions have been approximated.

Official national data and existing literature on housing policy expenses have been analysed and the authors add their own estimations of missing data, where possible. Latest changes in housing policy guidelines and expenses were interpreted.

It was found that state support for housing is heavily underestimated by official data in most countries, mainly due to missing estimates for the value of imputed rents tax relief, reduced VAT rates and low real estate and capital gains taxation. Our estimates suggest that total public support for the housing sector reaches more than 3 per cent of the gross domestic product in three of the six countries, and about 2 per cent in the others. State support to the housing sector has developed quite differently in the investigated countries over the past decades. In particular, there was no universal downward trend.

This is the first attempt to provide a more comprehensive analysis of national housing policy expenses applying a very broad definition of state support for housing. In particular, we consider indirect tax advantages to the housing sector that are generally not taken into account. Furthermore, we apply a discounted present value approach of current housing policy expenses to facilitate international comparison.

This paper aims to give guidance on the level of service charges that can be claimed by residents in sheltered housing as part of their housing benefit claims.

The paper reviews the relevant legislation and recent opinions and rulings of both the Upper Tribunal and the Supreme Court.

A broad based non arithmetical approach must be taken, particularly as many key words are not statutorily defined.

Claimants, advocates and decision makers should use the guidance outlined when considering housing benefit claims by sheltered housing residents.

This briefing paper was commissioned by Help the Aged to inform a meeting held earlier this year. The recommendations from that meeting are summarised at the end of the briefing. The paper draws on the following sources: a short survey of national advice, housing and older people's organisations carried out in April 2002, a brief review of previous research reports on older people and housing advice, and a summary of current government and other initiatives relevant to older people and housing advice.

This article highlights the links between housing and health and suggests that the health sector has much to benefit from joined‐up working with the housing and support sector. There are advantages to both sectors of working in this way, particularly in the area of commissioning services. By working creatively together at key points along the care pathway, local partners can support each other in the delivery of services. Many housing associations are uniquely placed to deliver services that offer key solutions to person‐centred working and can help to build healthier communities.

Prior research showed that danwei, the work unit, was very important in determining workers' social, economic, and political lives in pre-reform urban China. In this chapter, we argue that danwei continues to be an agent of social stratification in contemporary urban China. Using data from a 1999 survey that we conducted in three large Chinese cities, Wuhan, Shanghai, and Xi'an, we assess the extent to which workers' socioeconomic well-being depends on the financial conditions of their danwei. Results show that the financial situation of danwei remains one of the most important determinants of earnings and benefits. However, the explanatory power of danwei's financial situation is much greater for earnings than for benefits.

Background: Rising food bank usage in the UK suggests a growing prevalence of food insecurity. However, a formalised, representative measure of food insecurity was not collected in the UK until 2019, over a decade after the initial proliferation of food bank demand. In the absence of a direct measure of food insecurity, this article identifies and summarises longitudinal proxy indicators of UK food insecurity to gain insight into the growth of insecure access to food in the 21st century.

Methods: A rapid evidence synthesis of academic and grey literature (2005–present) identified candidate proxy longitudinal markers of food insecurity. These were assessed to gain insight into the prevalence of, or conditions associated with, food insecurity.

Results: Food bank data clearly demonstrates increased food insecurity. However, this data reflects an unrepresentative, fractional proportion of the food insecure population without accounting for mild/moderate insecurity, or those in need not accessing provision. Economic indicators demonstrate that a period of poor overall UK growth since 2005 has disproportionately impacted the poorest households, likely increasing vulnerability and incidence of food insecurity. This vulnerability has been exacerbated by welfare reform for some households. The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically intensified vulnerabilities and food insecurity. Diet-related health outcomes suggest a reduction in diet quantity/quality. The causes of diet-related disease are complex and diverse; however, evidence of socio-economic inequalities in their incidence suggests poverty, and by extension, food insecurity, as key determinants.

Conclusion: Proxy measures of food insecurity suggest a significant increase since 2005, particularly for severe food insecurity. Proxy measures are inadequate to robustly assess the prevalence of food insecurity in the UK. Failure to collect standardised, representative data at the point at which food bank usage increased significantly impairs attempts to determine the full prevalence of food insecurity, understand the causes, and identify those most at risk.