A Christmas Carol for Social Housing

By Adam Borrie · 1 December 2025

I’m sure we’re all familiar with Charles Dickens story “A Christmas Carol”.  The story follows Ebenezer Scrooge, a wealthy but miserly old man who despises Christmas and all things joyous and generous. On Christmas Eve, he is visited by the ghost of his former business partner, Jacob Marley, who warns him that his selfishness will doom him in the afterlife. That night, Scrooge is taken on a journey by three spirits: the Ghost of Christmas Past, who shows him memories of his lost innocence and kindness; the Ghost of Christmas Present, who reveals the struggles and warmth of those around him, including his clerk Bob Cratchit’s family and the ailing Tiny Tim; and the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, who presents a bleak future in which Scrooge dies unloved and forgotten. Horrified, Scrooge repents and awakens on Christmas morning transformed. He embraces generosity, reconnects with his family, aids the Cratchits, and becomes a symbol of kindness and the true spirit of Christmas.

The Promise of Post War Social Housing

As we approach the Christmas season, this story, in many ways, reminds me of the history and current state of social housing, as well as what the future might hold. My grandparents lived in a prefab immediately after the war, as did many others from the working class. When they were alive, they described the excitement surrounding the launch of the welfare state and how the government prioritised mass housebuilding, with local authorities leading the effort. Perhaps the most striking aspect of what they told me was that social housing was once regarded as a respectable, mainstream housing option. 

Wanting to show the local authority that they cared for their home; my grandmother cleaned their prefab before it was demolished. My grandparents, along with my mother and uncle, moved into a newly built estate of low-rise flats, where they lived until they passed away over 60 years later. This young family, in many ways, embodies the ghost of Christmas past in Charles Dickens’ tale: a time when social housing was regarded as a national asset.

Today’s Landscape: A Sector Under Strain

Fast-forward to the present day, and the ghost of Christmas present shows us a very different landscape. Social housing now makes up about 17% of the housing stock, down from about a third in the 1970s. Supply is limited, with demand far outstripping availability, resulting in long waiting lists in most areas. The supply of housing is now much more targeted to those in the greatest need: low-income households, the elderly, people with disabilities, those at risk of homelessness, and refugees. This marks a significant change from the mid-20th century, when it was a mainstream option for working families.

The Right to Buy, introduced by the Thatcher government, allowed many tenants to purchase their homes at a discount.  My grandparents were beneficiaries of this policy, purchasing their flat in the late 1980s so they could leave some inheritance to their family.  The behaviour of my grandparents neatly encapsulates part of the motivation behind this policy, because my grandfather at least, voted Conservative thereafter.  The consequence of the right-to-buy has been a decline in social housing stock and a narrower social housing population. 

The Decent Homes Standard (introduced in the 2000s) has raised quality, requiring modern kitchens, bathrooms, insulation, and safety measures, but the standard remains minimal, with longer lifecycles than one might experience outside of social housing.  The sector has also been blighted by problems:  damp, overcrowding, maladministration, and disrepair. The Grenfell Tower fire in 2017 and more recently the sad death of 2-year-old Awaab Ishak have highlighted safety failings and brought housing conditions under intense scrutiny.

For the last 40 years, government policy has focused more on homeownership than the provision of new social housing, and rent increase controls, against a backdrop of cost inflation, have tightened the resources available to organisations to maintain their stock.    

Social housing today is smaller in scale, mainly run by housing associations, heavily targeted at those in greatest need, and delivers less social mobility than it did previously. While standards have improved in some areas, resource shortages, affordability pressures, and safety concerns remain major challenges.  Because social housing now houses a smaller share of the population, it is also politically less important. 

As Marley explains to Scrooge ″Business! Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!”

Marley goes on, “I wear the chain I forged in life…I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it.”   These lines should remind providers to think very carefully about the impact they have on tenants today and in the tomorrows to come.  The challenge for leaders within organisations is not doing the things they wanted to do in the past, but using their skills and experience to focus service delivery on what tenants want, need and deserve now.

Looking Ahead: The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come

So, what about the ghost of Christmas yet to come?  If the status quo prevails, then social housing might end up going full circle – comprising an ever-smaller percentage of the overall stock, with the private rented sector emerging as the only option for those who cannot afford to buy, and average rents converging with the market rate.

A report titled “Two Nations,” published by the Centre for Social Justice in 2023, found that “the country is deeply divided. There are those who are getting by, and there are those who are not. Those left behind face multiple disadvantages and entrenched poverty. For these people, work is barely worth it, their lives are marked by generations of family breakdown, their communities are torn apart by addictions and crime, they live in poor quality, expensive, and insecure housing, and they are sick.” This would have been a picture Dickens was all too familiar with. But the future doesn’t have to be bleak.

The social housing population has evolved compared to 60 and 70 years ago. Providers today should engage with tenants to better understand their needs, allowing services to be tailored accordingly. This is reflected in the Transparency, Influence and Accountability standard, which states: “Registered providers must give tenants a wide range of meaningful opportunities to influence and scrutinise their landlord’s strategies, policies and services.” This requires organisations to revise historical operating models to ensure they are fit for purpose now and in the future. This is an ongoing and iterative process, and although it presents operational challenges for many in the sector, it is achievable.  It is reliant upon establishing a clear purpose and a prioritised set of desired outcomes.  It also requires good data and data management.

Because resources are tight for providers, they should ensure that resources are targeted on the right things at the right time:  namely keeping tenants safe, providing homes of sufficient quality that you’d be happy to house members of your own family in, and keeping the areas surrounding social housing in good order.

Raising the Bar: Homes and Neighbourhoods That Inspire Pride

It is possible for social housing to be less distinguishable from, and better than, other forms of tenure if providers care deeply about the homes they manage.  No more Grenfells and no more Awaab’s. 

The Beveridge report, published in 1942 was a best seller, and I have a copy that was once purchased for 2s 0d.  On pages 6 and 7, Beveridge outlines three principles guiding his recommendations, the first of which contains sage advice still relevant today:

“Any proposals for the future, while they should use to the full the experience gathered in the past, should not be restricted by consideration of sectional interests established in the obtaining of that experience.  Now, when the war is abolishing landmarks of every kind, is the opportunity for using experience in a clear field.  A revolutionary moment in the world’s history is a time for revolutions, not for patching.”

If the government doesn’t prioritise social housing as much as we believe it should, then our responsibility is to prove that it can be a success without government support. Our goal is to show the government that social housing is being well-managed and generates positive outcomes for tenants.  This is the best way of safeguarding its future. Any provider, regardless of size or location, acts as a custodian of each asset under its care: entrusted with safeguarding, protecting, and preserving something valuable. If conditions do not improve, many of the issues affecting the sector will surely continue.

Like Scrooge, we should rightly worry about the status quo because of where this potentially leads.   It is within our power to create a better today and a better tomorrow.  As Scrooge says at the end of a Christmas Carol, “I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach.”  As we approach 2026, this seems to be good advice.

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