Affordable Housing Policy Essay

Affordable Housing policy. This approach is hoping to ‘contribute to the City-wide target for 20% of new housing provision to be affordable’ (City of Manchester, 2012, p. 116). Therefore, another similarity between the two plans is that both have the task of tackling the issue of poverty and both utilise housing as a focal starting point. However, they take varying approaches, the 1945 plan through upgrading home size and facilities meanwhile the 2012 plan attempts to make housing affordable. Regardless of this both have a shared sole aim to increase the standard of living of its citizens.

However, there are a few major differences in housing strategies between the plans, mainly due to the contrasting times in which they were created, such as population structure and age.

Along with this, the population of Manchester has been getting increasingly older as seen in figure 2. Figure 2 reveals that approximately 3.2% of the population of Manchester was aged 65 or over in 1920, however in 2000 this figure has increased to 9.5%. Due to the vastly differing population structures between 1945 and 2012, the priorities in each plan were also different. For example, up until 1940 the population exploded, thus more children means more families creating an increased focus on prioritising families and creating housing for them. This is evident in the plan stating, ‘all other projects… will be in vain if we fail to secure for every family the prospect of a decent home’ (Manchester Corporation, 1945, p. 120). It is revealed here there is a great pressure to provide all families with a suitable home and must be due to the ever present fact that Manchester, at the time, had one of its largest ever populations, most of which was composed of by families and children. In contrast, the population of Manchester in 2012 held a much higher proportion of elderly residents and thus the Manchester City Council were forced to prioritise housing