Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T01:39:28.391Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Housing Allowances in West Germany and France

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2009

Roger Lawson  and
Cindy Stevens
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Means-tested housing allowances have played an increasingly important role in housing policies in a number of European countries in recent years. They have also provoked considerable controversy, particularly when associated with neo-liberal reforms. This has happened in West Germany, where a national scheme was introduced in 1965 as part of a reform programme involving widespread rent decontrol and a substantial reduction in ‘social housing’ expenditures. The discussion in this paper suggests that the new scheme was not very successful, either in preventing financial hardship or in providing a stimulus for house-building. Since 1965 there has been growing resistance to the idea of housing allowances as a primary instrument of housing policy, and the present government has favoured a different approach with the allowances complementing other more direct controls over the housing market.

Different interpretations of the role of housing allowances are examined in the section on France, and there is also discussion of controversial issues of a technical character. In an attempt to adapt aid closely to particular needs the French have developed extremely complex arrangements, which clearly create difficulties for administrators as well as potential recipients. There has also been conflict between an endeavour to use the allowances to improve housing standards and the aim of providing help for the poorest sections of the community.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 3 , Issue 3 , July 1974 , pp. 213 - 234
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1974

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Exposé sur l'evolution de la situation sociale dans la Communauté en 1959, EEC Commission, June 1960, p. 271. There is some discussion of housing allowances in most of these ‘social reports’ of the EEC, which have been published annually since 1959. Housing allowances have also played an increasingly important role in the housing and social security policies of Sweden, Denmark, Austria and Switzerland during the past decade. The Swedish provisions (a national scheme was introduced in the 1930s) are perhaps the most interesting to compare with those of Britain, West Germany and France. The current provisions are described in ‘Social Benefits in Sweden’, The Swedish Institute, 1972. See also C. G. Uhr, Sweden's Social Security System, US Dept. of Health, Education and Welfare, Social Security Administration, Research Report No. 14, 1966.

2 For an example from Britain of the ‘liberal’ economist's approach to housing allowances, see Pennance, F. G. and West, W. A., Housing Market Analysis and Policy, IEA, Hobart Paper 48, London 1969, pp. 29f.Google Scholar This paper strongly criticizes the view of housing allowances in Donnison, D. V., The Government of Housing, London: Penguin Books, 1967, pp. 264–5.Google Scholar

3 For a detailed account of German housing policies in this period see Wendt, P., Housing Policies – the search for solutions, pp. 111–44, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1962.Google Scholar

4 In 1961 approximately 450,000 households were receiving regular cash allowances from the public assistance authorities, and most of these households appear to have had their rents paid in full.

5 For an interesting discussion of the relationship between the housing reforms and other economic and social policies, see Denton, G., Forsyth, M., MacLennan, M., Economic Policies and Planning in Britain, France and West Germany. London: P.E.P., 1968.Google Scholar

6 Bericht der Sozialenquéte-Kommission: Soziale Sicherung in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Erster Teil, pp. 323f. Gmbh., W. Kohlhammer 1966).Google Scholar In the second half of the 1960s roughly one third of the dwellings constructed in the Federal Republic were subsidized ‘social houses’, compared with more than 60 per cent in the 1950s.

7 The German decontrol measures are discussed in Hallett, G., ‘Housing Policy in West Germany’, Loughborough Journal of Social Studies, 1969.Google Scholar The following figures give some indication of the overall impact of the rent reform:Index 1961 – 1001964 1966 1968 1970 1972(Sept)Rents 111 117 145 163 185Cost of living 105 113 116 124 140

8 Like the previous national legislation, the 1965 Act is a Federal Act, but the provisions areadministered by the individual provinces. The funds from which the allowances are paid are advanced by the provinces, but there is a 50 per cent refund by the Federal Government.

9 In 1965 average net earnings (wages and allowances less tax and social security contributions) of a male industrial worker with a wife and one child were 9,152 DM. For a family with three children the corresponding figure was 9,828 DM. These figures were well below the eligibility limits for the housing allowances.

10 The amount of floor space that was subsidised was defined in the Act as follows:single person — 40 square metrestwo persons — 50three persons — 65four persons — 80each additional person — 10These figures excluded kitchens, bathrooms and storage space. The upper limits for rents varied from 2 DM per square metre (for older housing without baths and central heating) to 3.70 DM per square metre. There were no less than twenty-four, different limits.

11 Erster Wohngeldbericht, Drucksache V/796, 27 February 1966.

12 The number of households receiving allowances increased as follows between 1964 and 1969:in thousands1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969263 395 606 691 811 851An analysis of the recipients is presented in the Third Housing Allowance Report (Dritter Wohngeldbericht, Drucksache V/1687, 5 February 1970).

13 The housing crisis is discussed in detail in the main articles in Der Spiegel, 20 July 1970 and 30 October 1972. As a result of the crisis German house-building rates fell at the end of the 1960s to their lowest levels since 1950. Within the EEC both France and the Netherlands have built more dwellings per thousand inhabitants than West Germany since 1967. In every year between 1950 and 1967 the Germans had the highest construction rates in the Community countries.

14 Das Wohnen in der Bundesrepublik, Bundesministerium für Städtebau and Wohnungswesen, Bonn, 1972, pp. 9f.Google Scholar

15 Ibid., pp. 10f. The change succeeded in raising the number of ‘social houses’ built in 1971 to 150,000 (134,000 in 1970), and approximately 200,000 were built in 1972. The target for ‘social housing’ over the next five years is an annual rate of 250,000.

16 Bericht der Sozialenquéte-Kommission, op. cit., pp. 323f.

17 Pickles, D., French Politics, London: OUP, 1953, p. 263.Google Scholar After the war the average age of French housing was about 60 years. More than a quarter of the dwellings in the towns and more than half of those in the country were over 100 years old.

18 Ibid., p. 264.

19 For a discussion of the rent reform of 1948 and subsequent rent legislation see ‘Housing in Britain, France and West Germany’, P.E.P., Planning. Vol. XXXI, No. 490, August 1965.

20 The family allowance funds are semi-autonomous bodies, which collect contributions from employers in their area and pay the nationally prescribed benefits to families. Families were eligible for the housing allowance if they received a family allowance (paid to families with two or more children), or a single wage allowance (for families with any children and only one wage earner). In certain circumstances the housing allowance was granted to other families receiving pre-natal allowances and other specialised benefits, and to young couples in the first two years of marriage.

21 See, for example, Colin, R., ‘Premier bilan des allocations de logement’, in Population 7, 1952, pp. 237–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar There was some pressure at the time for a general increase in family allowances, but this was resisted on the grounds that it would be ‘an unjust measure, which would provide the same assistance to a father agreeing to a reasonable increase in his housing costs in order to be better housed as to one who did not accept such an increase because he was voluntarily or involuntarily badly housed’ (ibid., p. 240).

22 Allocation compensatrice des augmentations de loyer. The system was reformed in 1961, when a rent allowance (allocation de loyer) was introduced.

23 The allowances were, however, paid to anyone whose income was low enough, regardless of whether they were in receipt of other public assistance allowances.

24 In the general family allowance scheme (which covered the whole population except miners and employees of six nationalized industries), the number of recipients was 55,400 in 1951–2, less than 2 per cent of all families receiving family allowances. The number rose to 402,700 by 1958, but this was still only 11 per cent of family allowance recipients.

25 Colin, , op. cit., p. 247.Google Scholar

26 Ibid., p. 248.

27 A survey published in July 1959 by the Ministry of Construction showed very clearly the extent of the housing crisis at the beginning of the Fifth Republic. In Paris 84.3 per cent of the housing stock was built before 1915 and 18 per cent before 1850. In other cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants the proportions were 62.2 per cent and 11.5 per cent respectively. 41.6 per cent of all French dwellings were not equipped with interior water supplies, 73.4 per cent had no personal W.C., and 89.6 per cent no bath or shower facilities.

28 Habitations à loyer modéré. Until the early 1960s more than 90 per cent of French house holds were eligible for ‘social housing’. Since then the income limits have been reduced, and ‘social housing’ has been built mainly for families with modest to low incomes.

29 Between 1963 and 1970 there was a 76 per cent increase in rents in France, compared with a 32 per cent increase in consumer prices. House-building rates continued to rise steadily in the second half of the 1960s. 8.4 dwellings/thousand inhabitants were completed in 1965, 8.5 in 1967 and 9.2 in 1970. In 1970 ‘social housing’ still accounted for more than 70 per cent of the dwellings constructed. However, within the ‘social housing’ programme far more emphasis was placed on capital market and private sources of finance than in the early 1960s.

30 The numbers receiving housing allowances increased from 499,500 in 1958–9 to 1,331,800 in 1968–9. A new rent allowance for old and disabled, introduced in 1961, covered tenants in all forms of newer property. It was, however, still run by the public assistance authorities.

31 It was mainly for financial reasons that a single national allowance scheme was not created in 1971. It would not have been acceptable to the family allowance funds to transfer all the costs of the schemes to them, while a state subsidy to the funds could have been interpreted as an erosion of their traditional independence. However, the government was not prepared to shoulder the burden of the family housing allowance, which had always been borne by the funds. Thus two systems of finance had to remain, at least in the short term.

32 Approximate sterling equivalents £625, £1,250 and £3,750.

where K is the coefficient, R is the annual net income and N is the number of parts (0.5 per person).

34 In 1966, for example, a report prepared by the Cour des Comptes expressed some concern about the problem of uptake.

35 Less than £30.

36 In the nine years following the 1959 survey (see footnote 27), the proportion of French dwellings without inside running water decreased to 16.8 per cent and those without bath or shower to 58.6 per cent. The percentage of the Paris housing stock built before 1915 had decreased to 43.2 (5 per cent Sample Census of housing, Institut Nationale de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques, 1972).

37 According to the 5 per cent Sample Census, the extent of under-occupation in the country as a whole increased from 32.9 per cent of the total stock to 38.4 per cent between 1962 and 1968.

38 Property built after 1969, for example, must be of a higher quality, with a separate bathroom and kitchen sink in addition to the requirements of drainage and drinking water. The W.C. must be inside and the heating must be able to exceed 18°C. The standards apply to the old and the disabled, but for the time being if their property fails to meet the requirements they are denied the allowances only if they have refused the offer of an appropriate dwelling.