Resisting Dehumanising Housing Policy: The Case for a Right to Housing in England

Abstract

This article surveys the development and politics of English housing policy from the 1800s to the present, arguing that housing policy has never placed the needs and interests of the dweller – as a human rights holder – at its centre. Rather, the individual has been an instrument of broader goals or social visions, or envisaged not as a human being per se, but as a productive and pacified worker, a self-regulating and responsible asset holder, or a savvy financial actor whose quest to climb the housing ladder will generate asset wealth and security for herself, and for the state as a whole. The article argues that the right to housing as a human right can act as a touchstone and rallying cry for a more positive housing policy; one that places the equal dignity and moral worth of the person at the centre of all policy questions.