A/HRC/25/54/Add.2 and social security by becoming an active consumer of financial assets.24 In this context, individual home owners rely on the appreciation of the values of their homes to sustain themselves in old age. 22. The steady increase in prices in the long term, and the volatile conditions in the short run, have led to a reduction in access and affordability for middle- and low-income households, and has exposed some borrowers to increased risks. Some argue that houseprice volatility is the result of measures taken since the 1980s by which the Government “pursued economic restructuring through privatisation and financialisation, thus altering the norms of provision. This was particularly dramatic in the area of housing where the rolling back of social housing provision was coupled with the promotion of owner-occupation as the default tenure form.”25 23. Consequently, the structural distribution of housing by tenure forms has changed. In 1971, in England, owner-occupied housing represented 52 per cent of dwelling stock; by around 2007, it was close to 70 per cent.26 Social housing accounted for close to 30 per cent of the total stock in the 1970s, while by 2007 it represented about 18 per cent, and the private rented sector has been steadily expanding since the early 2000s.27 Similar shifts have occurred in Scotland: in 1981, less than 40 per cent of dwelling stock was owner occupied. By the mid-2000s, this figure had risen to 62 per cent.28 IV. The current housing situation and measures to address it 24. The Special Rapporteur considers that the United Kingdom faces a critical situation in terms of availability, affordability and access to adequate housing, particularly in some geographic areas. The gap between supply and a much higher demand must not be underestimated. In England, for example, there were around 115,000 completions in 2012, of which 89,000 were by private house builders,29 against a baseline need estimation of 250,000.30 Several years of underproduction31 and lack of sufficient land supply are seen as part of this equation. The lack of housing “is not just a recessionary phenomenon: housing supply has failed to respond adequately to high levels of demand for decades”.32 Clearly, demand will increase due to population growth, new household formation, and the reality of housing as an asset and financial investment. 25. Against this backdrop of underproduction, it is essential to consider the human beings behind the figures. In human rights-based policymaking, not only the gap between the total supply of and demand for housing should be considered; equal attention must be paid to the individuals and population groups most affected by lack of available homes. Policies must aim to address how housing availability is connected with other aspects of the right, be it affordability, security of tenure, location, habitability or cultural adequacy. In this sense, lack of availability is clearly a core, but not exclusive, criterion against which to 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 Matthew Watson, “Planning for a future of asset-based welfare?” (2009), p. 43, cited in Mary Robertson, “What goes up mustn’t come down” (2013), p. 6. Robertson, “What goes up”, p. 1. DCLG, Live tables on dwelling stock, Table 104. DCLG, briefing material for the Special Rapporteur’s visit, “Kick-starting a new private rented sector”, 2013. Government of Scotland, “Housing statistics for Scotland 2013: key trends summary” (2013), p. 9. DCLG, Live tables on house building, Table 244. Griffith and Jefferys, Solutions, p. 13. Steve Wilcox and John Perry, “UK Housing Review 2013 briefing paper” (2013), p. 9. Griffith and Jefferys, Solutions, p. 13. 7