What ever happened to asset-based welfare? Shifting approaches to housing wealth and welfare security

Abstract

This paper contributes to current debates by reframing recent transformations in housing, policy and property equity in terms of a transfigured asset-based welfare regime. The analysis thereby advances earlier, more descriptive evaluations of asset-based welfare and challenges suggestions that its relevance has faded since the global financial crisis. We argue, drawing on the UK as a case with broad international salience, that the home has become even more central as an asset base of individual welfare since the global financial crisis, yet under distorted conditions of access and distribution, with housing wealth polarisation undermining financial inclusion and welfare security more broadly.