Paper short abstract:

This paper looks into cases of squatting and the responses of the authorities in the United Kingdom to them. It explores the potential of squatting to challenge the liberal notion of citizenship. The analysis takes into account the context of austerity measures and retrogression from the provisions of affordable housing.

Paper long abstract:

This paper is an attempt to discuss to what extent squatting may represent a solution to those in housing need, and whether or not it amounts to a radical challenge to the liberal paradigm which effectively prioritises the protection of the right to property over the right to adequate housing. Through an analysis of responses of the authorities to squatting in the UK, we explore how squatting - frequently motivated by one's socio-economic situation - is conceptualised as a 'socially harmful phenomenon' that requires criminalisation. Such conceptualisation, we argue, is deeply rooted in liberal perspective which through a particular emphasis on the right to property protects the interests of the elites.

In the past decade, a considerable body of public policy research continued bringing up the problem of lack of affordable homes in the UK. Steady fall in the homeownership rates, residualisation of social housing, continuation of underregulated private rental have left a growing number of people in a volatile housing situation. Although squatting represents a marginal response to the housing crises it has provoked strong responses from the authorities that escalated in the coalition-government proposal to criminalise squatting. This paper will analyse the justification of this proposal and will also look at the conceptualisation of squatting in the English case law.

To explore the motivations and modalities of situations of squatters, this paper will build on the existing research on the correlation between squatting and homelessness and will bring examples of individual stories based on interviews with squatters in London.