Finance for Housing

In the years since distressed mortgage-backed securities sparked the 2008 economic crisis, several nations have implemented austerity programs that aim to reduce their debt by stabilizing shaky financial institutions. Cathy Davis contends that the British coalition government is actually using its austerity plan as a way to dismantle the welfare state—and that housing remains at the heart of the matter. Explaining why mortgages and rental costs are rising even as people with low incomes receive substantially less help from the government, she reveals the longstanding links between housing finance and broader social and political issues.