The Implementation Of Indemnificatory Housing Policy: Difficulties And Solutions Of Local Government

In the period of the three decades of the reform and opening up, China’seconomy has been in a state of steady and rapid growth, people’s living standard hasalso been significantly raised. Also, in general, the living conditions of urbanresidents have been greatly improved. However, the slow growth of the income isunlikely to meet the requirement of the rapid rise in house prices in recent years.Therefore, housing difficulties have become one of the biggest issues that affect socialharmony. To alleviate this problem, it is urgent to solve the housing problem oflow-income families so that the harmonious development of the society can beachieved. Admittedly, China has formulated the indemnificatory housing policy thatmainly includes low-rent housing policy, public rental housing policy, afford housingand so on, which has basically constituted a multi-level indemnificatory housingsystem. Moreover, with the gradual improvement of the indemnificatory housingpolicy by the government, it does play a certain role in solving the housing problemsfaced by urban residents and low-income families. Nevertheless, as the localgovernment has been laying more emphasis on the market rather than indemnificationin the process of economic development, the construction of indemnificatory housinghas lagged behind and its effects have not been achieved the best, which means manylow-income families are still facing housing difficulties.This article has illustrated the following points. Firstly, it summarizes theindemnificatory housing policies formulated by the central government at differenttimes, including the housing allocation under the planned economic system, theinitiation of “housing project”, the formulation of the indemnificatory housingpolicies and its reformulation and improvement. Secondly, it analyzes theresponsibilities of local government in the implementation of indemnificatory housingpolicy, which are the responsibilities of policy implementation, investment, guidanceand inspection. Thirdly, it summarizes the achievements and shortcomings of China’sindemnificatory housing policy. What’s more, it focuses on the difficulties faced bylocal government in the implementation of this policy, namely the difficulties in land,fund, location, the formulation of the implementation programs, allocation andinspection. In addition, it discusses the causes of the problems stated above: the unreasonable distribution of responsibilities of the government; the inequalitybetween the financial authority and power of the local government; the imperfectionof the entry and exit mechanisms of the indemnificatory housing; the lack ofmotivation and recognition in its construction and the problems in its inspection. Inthe end, under the principle of the indemnificatory housing policy implemented bylocal government, this article proposes some suggestions to tackle these problems-toensure the land supply of its construction, to expand the sources of funding, todevelop the implementation programs, to improve its allocation, exit and inspectionmechanisms. In conclusion, it is expected that the indemnificatory housing policy willplay a more efficient role so that more low-income families will be able to achieve“housing dream.”...