Public attitudes towards housing benefit and planning reform

Energy & Environment

New research by Ipsos, for Inside Housing, shows the Great British public supports spending less on housing benefit to spend more on other things and to reduce the national debt, but not if it means an increase in homelessness.

 

New research by Ipsos, for Inside Housing, shows the Great British public supports spending less on housing benefit to spend more on other things and to reduce the national debt, but not if it means an increase in homelessness. Half the public support building more homes in their community and simplifying the way planning decisions are made to make this easier, but there is little appetite for involvement in decisions about building new homes in their community.

Attitudes towards housing benefit

More than a quarter of people in Great Britain think the Government should spend less on housing benefit, but more think spending should stay the same:

  • More than two-fifths, 44%, think that spending on housing benefit should stay the same
  • More than a quarter, 27%, think less should be spent on housing benefit, while one in five, 20%, think more should be spent

More support than oppose spending less on housing benefit to spend more on other things:

  • Nearly half, 46%, support spending less on housing benefit if it means the money saved could be spent on other things

Likewise more support than oppose spending less on housing benefit to help pay off the national debt

  • More than two in five, 44%, support spending less on housing benefit to help pay off the national debt whereas a third, 32%, are opposed

Opinion is split if spending less on housing benefit means tenants have to move to a different area for cheaper accommodation

  • Nearly two in five, 38%, support spending less on housing benefit even if it means tenants have to move to a different area although 36% are opposed

There is strong opposition to spending less on housing benefit if it means an increase in homelessness

  • Three in five, 60% oppose spending less on housing benefit if it means an increase in homelessness

Involvement in local planning decisions

More than half the public say they would not like to be involved in decisions about building new homes in their community

  • A quarter of the public say they would not like to be involved at all in decisions about building new homes in their community
  • Nearly a half, 46%, say they would like to be either very or fairly involved

Public attitudes toward development

Half the public support building more homes in their community and simplifying the way planning decisions are made to make this easier

  • Half, 51%, of the British public support simplifying the way local planning decisions are made if it makes it easier to build news homes in their community. Nearly one in five, 19%, oppose this
  • Half support the building of more homes in their community compared with 28% who oppose this
  • Of those who want to be involved in planning decisions, more than half (56%) support the building of more new homes in their community.

Downloads

 

Technical note

  • Interviews with a representative sample of 1,002 British adults aged 16+
  • Undertaken face-to-face, in-home between 6th - 12th May 2010
  • 155 sampling points across Britain
  • Data are weighted to the national population profile by:
    • Age, sex, working status, region, ethnicity, car in household, and tenure
  • Where figures do not add up to 100% this is a result of computer rounding or multiple answers
  • An asterisk (*) indicates a score of less than 0.5% but greater than zero
  • Results are subject to sampling tolerances e.g. ±3 for a 50% finding based on 1,002 adults (95% confidence interval)
  • Research carried out by Ipsos on behalf of Inside Housing

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