ABSTRACT
A "Big Bang" for owner occupation policy would simply pre-empt essential time for the Parliament to form clear objectives and answer convincingly the key policy questions. This chapter aims to set out the background to and questions for such a reassessment of housing market policies for Scotland. It outlines "macro" patterns of home-ownership in Scotland emphasising market expansion and evolution. This is followed by a more "micro" or household level emphasis and considers home-owners and their homes. Both of these identify system outcomes which may be regarded as problematic and these issues, along with new social and economic trends constitute the focus for the discussion of policy options. With home-ownership as a diverse, expanding and major tenure the housing market will be a recurrent issue in the Parliament's deliberations. Housing expenditure priorities will, rightly, lie in other sectors. Scotland, led by the Parliament, could change that for the better and re-engineer the housing market.
