3. The Lease

In the previous chapter, we developed a history in which some fairly complex ideas became enjoined into one simple, financialised product, which became known as shared ownership. Despite the complexity inherent in the idea of ownership, shared ownership had a fit with housing policy. We noted how the label led to a legal puzzle, for there was no such thing as shared ownership. This chapter is concerned with how shared ownership became legible. It is a story of the way a long-used and well-known technique, the lease, was manipulated so that it became the device through which shared ownership was and is delivered. It is another remarkable story. It enabled KS3 to say, in one breath, that shared ownership is not complicated, and, later on in our interview, recognise that it was rather more complicated than that. It was the lease which produced the option chaos and, as we develop in this chapter, other problematics. Nevertheless, despite its well-known failings (see, e.g., Karn et al. 1985; Stewart 1981), the lease was adopted as the legal technique for the delivery of this complex idea.