Unit 1 Micro: Empty Housing and Economic Efficiency

Channel 4 recently focused on the causes and effects of the hundreds of thousands of empty homes in the United Kingdom. Why is it given persistent shortages of affordable housing that perhaps a million homes lie empty and unused whilst an estimated two million families are in severe housing needs. New housebuilding has collapsed and in Britain we are building 100,000 fewer new houses every year than we need just to keep up with the changing mix of households and demographic change.

An interesting exercise is to show students some of the Channel 4 Campaign videos and then get them to put together policy ideas as to how to reduce the volume of empty homes and reduce the length of housing waiting lists.

Links to some of the Channel 4 videos can be accessed below:

Who needs an empty home?

Unit 2 Macro: Cyclical and Structural Economic Issues Facing the UK [23 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Migration and the UK Economy [20 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Measuring Inflation in the UK [20 May 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Poverty and Inequality and Market Failure [12 May 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Revision Blogs on Markets and Intervention [10 May 2012]
Unit 3 Micro: Monopoly and Economic Welfare [6 Apr 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Revision on Maximum Rents in Housing [1 Apr 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Government launches New Buy Loan Guarantee Scheme [12 Mar 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Policies to Drive Economic Recovery [9 Mar 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: The UK Housing Market in 2011 [26 Dec 2011]
Behavioural Economics: Herd Behaviour [28 Nov 2011]
Government Plans to boost the Housing Market [21 Nov 2011]
Economics at the Movies: Contagion [24 Oct 2011]
UK Macro: Risks of a Double Dip Recession [12 Sep 2011]
Starter Video: The Slums of Manilla [11 Sep 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: FirstBuy, Affordability and Effective Demand in Property [10 Jul 2011]
Chinese inward investment in the London property market [12 Jun 2011]
A2 Macro: Consumer Spending [30 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Competition and Efficiency [19 May 2011]
AS Macro: Extended House Price Deflation? [5 May 2011]
AS Micro: Importance of Elasticity of Supply [23 Apr 2011]
Key AS Micro Terms: Economic Efficiency [16 Apr 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Bubble [4 Apr 2011]
Timetric: Mortgage Lending and Mortgage Rates [14 Mar 2011]
Combining monetary and fiscal policy to curb inflation in China [16 Feb 2011]
David Smith on Shifting Sands in the Global Economy [8 Feb 2011]
Economics Q&A: Will the rise in VAT harm the UK’s economic performance? [17 Jan 2011]
Revision: Types of Economic Efficiency [2 Dec 2010]
AS Micro Revision - Market Forces and Resource Allocation [2 Dec 2010]
Extend and Enrich with EconoMax [29 Oct 2010]
Beware the return of the Gazunderer [16 Oct 2010]
Housing market and negative equity [31 Aug 2010]
AS Micro: Effective demand for after school activities [29 Aug 2010]
Reasons to fear a jobless recovery [11 Aug 2010]
Consumer sentiment weakens as double dip looms [2 Aug 2010]
China’s housing market - fantastic interactive resource [7 Jun 2010]
Unit 2 Macro: How can supply-side policies help in a recession? [6 Jun 2010]
Housing and the British Economy [5 Jun 2010]
AS Macro Revision: Consumer Borrowing [30 May 2010]
Euro Land and Optimal Currency Areas - A Valentine’s Day Massacre [29 May 2010]
Warnings of hysteresis for the EU economy [29 May 2010]
Two examples of government failure [20 May 2010]
UK inflation hits 17-month high [18 May 2010]
RES Essay Competition: Preventing Housing Bubbles [12 Apr 2010]
Paris punishes the purse strings [12 Mar 2010]
Revision Presentation - Market Failure & the Environment [21 Feb 2010]
Revision Presentation - Housing & the UK Economy in 2010 [26 Jan 2010]
50-year decline in housing affordability [20 Jan 2010]
How to make a profit from a free good [2 Dec 2009]
Broadband and economic development [24 Oct 2009]
Walmart and Amazon Price War - Hyper Efficiency and the Consumer [23 Oct 2009]
Gloomy summary [13 Oct 2009]
The Wealth Effect [12 Sep 2009]
What happens when the hose pipe is turned off? [23 Aug 2009]
Tentative signs of a pulse in the housing market [30 Jul 2009]
Economics Snapshot - EU Migrants in the UK Labour Market [26 Jul 2009]
Housing the global economic crisis [23 Jul 2009]
Revision - Monopolistic Competition [27 May 2009]
Revision - External Shocks [24 May 2009]
Finding affordable food [18 May 2009]
Revision: Deflation in Residential and Commercial Property [14 May 2009]
Policy Failure - Rising Inequality [10 May 2009]
After the storm [3 May 2009]
Revision presentation - UK Housing Market 2009 [25 Mar 2009]
Bubble Behaviour [22 Mar 2009]
Homeowners step away from equity loans [1 Jan 2009]
Barclays Boss says housing downturn is only half done [16 Dec 2008]
Buyers desert the property market - with good reason [30 Oct 2008]
Negative equity - why is it a problem? [20 Oct 2008]
Housing - a buyers market [27 Sep 2008]
Housing market activity - some interesting data [26 Sep 2008]
Rock fall was symptom of wider malaise [13 Sep 2008]
Shaking foundations [26 Aug 2008]
Out of pocket? Students face much higher inflation. [21 Aug 2008]
Sharp fall in London property “asking prices” [18 Aug 2008]
Winners and losers from the housing crash [11 Aug 2008]
Telling it like it is [7 Aug 2008]
Get me to pay day - ok - but it will cost you 1500% [28 Jul 2008]
Moscow coffee had better be good! [24 Jul 2008]
Change of gear and direction for Ford [24 Jul 2008]
Bricomortis [21 Jul 2008]
Poverty Trap worsens [18 Jul 2008]
15 Charts on the UK Economy to Kickstart Lessons in September 08 [14 Jul 2008]
The Great Depression? [11 Jul 2008]
Housing slump and negative multiplier effects [11 Jul 2008]
UK house prices down 2% in June [10 Jul 2008]
The Cracks are Widening [6 Jul 2008]
Migration and the UK housing market [3 Jun 2008]
Back to the 1990s [29 May 2008]
Lower house prices and the route to happiness [26 May 2008]
House prices down, rents up [20 May 2008]
Growing demand for social housing [19 May 2008]
Mervyn faces the Music [14 May 2008]
Elegy for Estate Agents [11 May 2008]
Property - then and now [9 May 2008]
Developments in the housing market [27 Apr 2008]
The social curse of the property boom [19 Apr 2008]
Sub prime risks for the UK [19 Apr 2008]
Economic Resilience? [9 Apr 2008]
Chart of the Day: Falling UK House Prices [8 Apr 2008]

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