Look for a house on HomeSwapper, a property-comparison website, and the deals seem too good to be true(好得令人难以置信). Three-bed houses in leafy(绿树成荫的) London postcodes(邮政编码区域) are being rented for less than £800 ($1070) a month; on other sites similar properties go for well over three times that. Try to put in an offer, though, and you will probably be blocked. HomeSwapper is a service that lets existing social-housing tenants swap their homes. Anybody living in the private sector doesn’t get a look-in(获得机会参与).
在房产比价网站HomeSwapper上找房子，有些交易好得令人难以置信。伦敦绿树成荫的邮编区的三居室月租不到800英镑（1070美元）；在其他网站上，类似房产的租金是这个数字的三倍多。然而，如果你试图出价，很可能会被阻止。HomeSwapper是一项允许现有社会住房租户交换住房的服务。任何住在私人部门的人都无法参与。
Many private-sector renters, used to handing over a third of their pre-tax income to landlords, look enviously(羡慕地) at social-housing residents. These homes are owned by local councils or charities and let at sub-market rates(低于市场价的租金). Although England already has one of the highest levels of social housing in Europe (see chart 1), over 1.3m households are on waiting lists for a social home. Andy Burnham(安迪·伯纳姆，英国工党政治家) is clamouring(大声疾呼、强烈要求) to build more. The probable next prime minister has made a major council-house building programme a cornerstone of his platform(其施政纲领的基石).
许多私人租房者习惯将税前收入的三分之一交给房东，他们羡慕地看着社会住房居民。这些房屋由地方议会或慈善机构拥有，以低于市场的租金出租。尽管英格兰的社会住房水平已是欧洲最高之一（见图表1），仍有超过130万户家庭在等待名单上。安迪·伯纳姆（Andy Burnham）大声疾呼要建造更多。这位可能的下一任首相已将大规模公屋建设计划作为其施政纲领的基石。
One problem with his plan is that it would be expensive: we estimate it could cost as much as £10bn a year. The other is that it keeps intact England’s broken system of housing support, which rests on two overlapping(重叠的) subsidies. Social housing gives over 4m households (16% of the total) discounted rents. Means-tested benefits meanwhile provide cash to those on low incomes or out of work, to cover some or all rent. Two-thirds of social-housing tenants draw on both(同时使用两者), using the cash to shrink(缩小、减少) their rent further. In addition, more than 1m households in private accommodation (24% of all private renters) get cash alone.
他的计划有一个问题：造价昂贵——我们估计每年可能高达100亿英镑。另一个问题是，它维持了英格兰破碎的住房支持体系，这个体系建立在两种重叠的补贴之上。社会住房为超过400万户家庭（占总数的16%）提供折扣租金。同时，经济状况调查福利向低收入或失业者发放现金，用于覆盖部分或全部租金。三分之二的社会住房租户同时使用这两种补贴，用现金进一步降低租金。此外，超过100万户私人住房家庭（占所有私人租房者的24%）仅获得现金补贴。
