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Housing for health: can the market care?

Easterlow, D.; Smith, S.J.

Authors

D. Easterlow

S.J. Smith



Abstract

For over two decades British public policy has been fuelled by the notion that markets are the most effective way to accumulate and distribute resources. Such markets are driven by price, respond to ability to pay, and are not, for the most part, seen as having a welfare role. Using the example of housing, and drawing on lay experiences of ill health, the authors suggest that British households do, nevertheless, look to markets (in this example, to owner-occupation) to meet some welfare needs. Households value, in particular, the qualities of flexibility and security which they associate with homeownership and which promise both practical and psychosocial gains. However, there is a notable gap between what people aspire to and what they can achieve. This arises not because markets cannot care but because, so far, there has not been sufficient political imagination to make them do so.

Citation

Easterlow, D., & Smith, S. (2004). Housing for health: can the market care?. Environment and Planning A, 36(6), 999-1017. https://doi.org/10.1068/a36178

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date 2004
Deposit Date Nov 7, 2006
Journal Environment and Planning A
Print ISSN 0308-518X
Electronic ISSN 1472-3409
Publisher SAGE Publications
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 36
Issue 6
Pages 999-1017
DOI https://doi.org/10.1068/a36178
Keywords Home ownership, Owner-occupation, Welfare, Physical, Mental illness, Health experience, Housing pathways.

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