The relationship between size of living space and subjective well-being

Against a background of shrinking new homes and forebodings of “rabbit hutch Britain”, the relationship between size of living space and subjective well-being has never been more topical in the UK. Using the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) and fixed effects regressions, this paper is the first to examine this relationship comprehensively. Two pathways are proposed between space and subjective well-being. First, space facilitates values and activities. Second, space signals wealth which in turn influences social status. It is proposed that wealth is a more important determinant of status for men than women, and that pathway two is therefore gendered. Part one of the paper examines the effect of a change in number of rooms per person on housing satisfaction and subjective well-being in the BHPS as a whole. Despite having a similar effect on the housing satisfaction of both genders, an increase in living space has only a (weak) positive linear effect on the life satisfaction and mental health of men. This suggests that space affects subjective well-being through pathway two, status. Part two of the paper tracks the housing satisfaction and subjective well-being over time of those individuals who move for “larger accommodation”. Consistent with various theories of adaptation, housing satisfaction increases in the year of the move; then decreases slightly before levelling out. Moving for “larger accommodation” has no positive impact on subjective well-being. Overall the results imply a weak positive relationship between size of living space and subjective well-being, but only for men

Ethically-speaking, what is the most reasonable way of evaluating housing outcomes?

This paper addresses one of the most fundamental, but least considered, questions in housing research: how should we ultimately evaluate housing outcomes? Rejecting the fact vs value dichotomy so dominant in the social sciences, this paper draws on the work of Amartya Sen and Hilary Putnam to critically assess the ethical assumptions behind three commonly adopted “informational spaces” for evaluating housing outcomes: economic, subjective and “objective” metrics. It argues that all three fail to account for the plurality of goods that individuals have reason to value and the fallibility of human judgement. As an alternative, it proposes that housing outcomes should be ultimately evaluated in terms of people’s “housing capabilities” - the effective freedoms that people have in their homes and neighbourhoods to do and feel the things they have reason to value – which should generally be determined through a bottom-up process of democratic deliberation involving critical and expert perspectives

The concept of subjective well-being in housing research

The aim of this article is to review the ways in which subjective well-being has been conceptualized within housing research, with a view to evaluating the use of the concept, the insights it has generated, the problems that have been experienced and the possible range of lessons that might be taken forward. The article begins with an analysis of the reasons why subjective well-being has become popular as a conceptual tool in many fields. The article continues with a discussion of the range of definitions that appear in the literature which leads into discussions of the research techniques and methodologies that have been used in empirical research. Empirical studies which focussed on the impact of physical housing conditions and tenure on subjective well-being are reviewed in order to evaluate what is known about the impact of housing on both personal and collective subjective well-being. This review highlights issues of status, reference groups and adaptation that are important insights from the subjective well-being approach that should set the agenda for further research in this area. The conclusion is that the relationship between housing and subjective well-being is a complex one that repays further study in order to understand the rich texture of the role of housing in people’s lives. The article concludes with suggestions for both conceptual and methodological approaches and the focus of future research

Section 106, viability and the depoliticization of English land value capture policy

In England, when land is granted planning permission its value increases dramatically. Historically, the question of who is entitled to this ‘betterment value’ uplift has been one of the central debates in national politics. However, from the 1980s to 2008, betterment value capture policy became depoliticized. This article seeks to understand how that came about. Focusing on the parliamentary sphere, it proposes that depoliticization took place across three ‘faces’. First, economic interests: rising home-ownership and the broader rentierization of the economy strengthened support for house price inflation and private property rights, thus shrinking the space for political debate around these issues. Second, institutions: under Section 106 and the viability regime, the governance of betterment value capture became fragmented, incorporating an array of unelected ‘experts’, models and rules which worked to reduce the discretion of elected local planning authorities. Third, discourse: from the 1980s onwards, the Labour Party's discourse around betterment value capture converged with that of the Conservative Party. This convergence was partly driven by ideational changes in the Labour Party and in the discipline of economics. Taken together, these three faces help explain why betterment value capture policy moved away from the realm of contestation and contingency and towards that of fate and necessity

Housing and happiness: an empirical study

This thesis empirically examines the relationship between housing and happiness, and in particular, how this relationship is affected by adaptation and social status. Standard economic theory assumes housing preferences are constructed independently of past experience and social context. Using fixed effect regressions on the British Household Panel Study (BHPS) and the German Socio Economic Panel Study (GSOEP), this thesis challenges this assumption. Chapter 2 outlines why happiness is important. Chapter 3 traces the role of happiness in economics over time, showing the limitations of choice behaviour as a measure of happiness. Chapter 4 advances an alternative way of measuring happiness adopted in this thesis; subjective judgements. Chapter 5 reviews the literature on housing and happiness, adaptation and social status. The next three empirical chapters represent the main contribution of this thesis. In terms of adaptation, Chapter 6 shows that moving to “larger accommodation” increases housing satisfaction, but this uplift diminishes post-move. Chapter 7 demonstrates that current space preferences are affected by the level of living space experienced in the previous year. In terms of social comparisons, Chapter 7 also demonstrates that space preferences are affected by regional and national levels of living space, implying house size is a positional good. Chapter 8 conceptualises home-ownership (in the UK) as a social norm and positional good, and demonstrates that, consistent with this hypothesis, a strengthening of relevant others’ home-ownership values is associated with increases (decreases) in the happiness of home-owners (renters), while an increase in relevant others’ home-ownership rates decreases the life satisfaction of owners. Chapter 9 discusses the main empirical findings and concludes by operationalising Sen’s capabilities approach as a means to translating the empirical finding into some housing policy recommendations

Why have the volume housebuilders been so profitable? The power of volume housebuilders and what this tells us about housing supply, the land and the state.

Over the last decade the largest housebuilders, and particularly the “big-three”, have consistently reported supernormal levels of profitability. Through comprehensive analysis of earnings call transcripts, annual reports and policy documents, this study explores the drivers of this profitability, and what it tells us about the nature of the housebuilding industry, the development land market and the relationship between volume housebuilders and the state

Are well-designed places possible? A model of design governance intervention in the planning, design and development of new neighbourhoods

UK planning policies clearly state that well-designed places support the creation of sustainable places that generate positive economic, environment and social outcomes. Yet, for decades, the design value of ‘new build’ housing development has remained stubbornly low. Using data from a multiple case study of new housing developments across the UK’s four nations, this paper asks why this persists and explores how it might be overcome. It models nine key stages in the planning, design and development process for new housing illustrating where the ‘critical points of design governance intervention’ lie

Home-ownership as a social norm and positional good: subjective well-being evidence from panel data

Much attention has been devoted to examining the absolute benefits of home-ownership (e.g. security and autonomy). This paper by contrast is concerned with conceptualising and testing the relative benefits of homeownership; those benefits that depend on an individual’s status in society. Home-ownership has previously been analysed as a social norm, implying that the relative benefits (costs) associated with being an owner (renter) are positively related to relevant others’ home-ownership values. The theoretical contribution of this paper is to additionally conceptualise home-ownership as a positional good, implying that the status of both home-owners and renters is negatively related to relevant others’ home-ownership consumption. The empirical contribution of this paper is to quantitatively test for these relative benefits in terms of subjective well-being. We run fixed effects regressions on three waves of the British Household Panel Study. We find that i) a strengthening of relevant others’ home-ownership values is associated with increases (decreases) in the subjective well-being of home-owners (renters), and ii) an increase in relevant others’ home-ownership consumption decreases the life satisfaction of owners but has no effect for renters. Overall our findings suggest that i) the relative benefit of home-ownership are both statistically significant and of a meaningful magnitude, and ii) homeownership is likely to be both a social norm and a positional good. Without explicitly recognising these relative benefits, policymakers risk overestimating the contribution of home-ownership to societal well-being

'Beyond places of safety' - a qualitative study exploring the implementation of mental health crisis care innovations across England

BACKGROUND: Mental health acute and crisis care consumes a large share of mental health budgets internationally but is often experienced as unsatisfactory and difficult to access. As a result, there is an increasing move towards developing innovative community crisis services, to improve patient experience and relieve pressure on inpatient and emergency services. This study aims to understand what helps and hinders the implementation of innovative mental health crisis care projects in England. METHODS: Using a qualitative approach, 18 interviews were conducted with crisis care service managers exploring their experiences and views of the development and implementation of their service developed with support from an English national capital funding programme. A framework analysis was conducted informed by implementation science. RESULTS: Key facilitators to implementation of innovative crisis services included bottom-up development, service user involvement, strong collaborative working, and leadership and management buy-in. Key barriers that affected the projects implementation included the complexities of crisis care, workforce challenges and resourcing issues. CONCLUSION: There is a recognised need to improve, update, and innovate current crisis care offers. Results from this study suggest that a range of models can help address the heterogenous needs of local populations and that new approaches can be implemented where they utilise a whole-systems approach, involving service users and relevant professional stakeholders beyond mental health services in planning and developing the service

Investigating the association between characteristics of local crisis care systems and service use in an English national survey

BACKGROUND: In England, a range of mental health crisis care models and approaches to organising crisis care systems have been implemented, but characteristics associated with their effectiveness are poorly understood. AIMS: To (a) develop a typology of catchment area mental health crisis care systems and (b) investigate how crisis care service models and system characteristics relate to psychiatric hospital admissions and detentions. METHOD: Crisis systems data were obtained from a 2019 English national survey. Latent class analyses were conducted to identify discernible typologies, and mixed-effects negative binomial regression models were fitted to explore associations between crisis care models and admissions and detention rates, obtained from nationally reported data. RESULTS: No clear typology of catchment area crisis care systems emerged. Regression models suggested that provision of a crisis telephone service within the local crisis system was associated with a 11.6% lower admissions rate and 15.3% lower detention rate. Provision of a crisis cafe was associated with a 7.8% lower admission rates. The provision of a crisis assessment team separate from the crisis resolution and home treatment service was associated with a 12.8% higher admission rate. CONCLUSIONS: The configuration of crisis care systems varies considerably in England, but we could not derive a typology that convincingly categorised crisis care systems. Our results suggest that a crisis phone line and a crisis cafe may be associated with lower admission rates. However, our findings suggest crisis assessment teams, separate from home treatment teams, may not be associated with reductions in admission and detentions