In the UK the majority of additional affordable housing is provided either with the help of up-front grants (Social Housing Grant) allocated to social landlords or through developer contributions to affordable housing on market sites. There is a significant gap in affordable housing policies aimed at helping those a little further up the income scale who are still unable to afford acceptable housing, especially in pressure areas. Equally, developers see little reason to concentrate on the affordable end of the market. The paper reports on a survey of policies applied in a range of countries, which might have some value within the UK context. This entailed a short questionnaire of relevant experience and of available evidence on the evaluation of available instruments. The survey showed that, while there was a wide range of mechanisms available the majority concentrated on subsidies, which, in a UK context, could add more to prices than to output. Others provided useful insights into possibilities for encouraging provision for the intermediate market. On the basis of the available evidence a possible package of measures with the potential for assisting the provision of affordable is developed.

A particular concern in the UK at the present time is that there is inadequate assistance for low income employed households who are unable to gain access to traditional social housing but who are unable to afford adequate accommodation from their own resources. The UK support system is generous in terms of housing cost payments for households who have no working members or on the very lowest pay but provides little or no help for those on incomes above that level. This problem of affordability is illustrated in figure 1 – which shows the large gap in housing costs between those renting social housing and those who have to depend on the lower end of the market. Equally, the evidence suggests strongly that the market is not prepared to provide for this group of households. New supply is running far below that required to meet the needs even of newly emerging households and the balance between households and dwellings has tightened dramatically (Barlow et al, 2002). Moreover the planning obligation (Section 106) policy introduced in the 1990s which requires that a proportion of affordable housing be provided in market developments is adding relatively few additional affordable homes to the stock (Crook et al, 2001).