Passage Reference: Over the past 20 years in Britain, the proportion of social homes in the total stock has fallen from 31% to 21% and their number has declined from 6.8m to 5.3m. Blame-or credit-Margaret Thatcher for this. Her government forced local authorities to sell homes cheaply to existing tenants and stopped them building new ones. New social homes were to be financed centrally and run by local housing associations.

Tips: Look for numbers and trends over time. They often signal a heading about increase or decrease.

Why the other options are wrong:

• Councils give way to housing associations: Housing associations are mentioned, but only as background. The paragraph is not mainly about management changes. This is an example-as-main-idea trap.
• Increased spending: There is no mention of higher budgets or more money here. This is a wrong section trap.

Key Vocabulary:

• declined = went down
• proportion = percentage

Question Focus: Main idea - government plans to spend more money on social housing

Passage Reference: . It now looks like the long squeeze is over. Next week, the government is expected to announce a near-doubling of the Housing Corporation's £1.2 billion annual budget and plans to extend eligibility for social housing. An extra £1 billion would build around 20,000 new homes each year at current rates. This could be stretched further by reducing the amount of subsidy per house.

Why this is correct: The paragraph focuses on more government money for social housing. The near-doubling of the budget and the extra £1 billion clearly show increased spending.

Tips: When you see money, budgets, or funding, think carefully about headings related to spending.

Why the other options are wrong:

• A shrinking supply: This paragraph is about expansion and new funding, not decline. This is a contradiction trap.
• New demands on developers: Developers are not mentioned here. This belongs to a later paragraph. This is a wrong section trap.

Key Vocabulary:

• budget = amount of money
• subsidy = financial support

Question Focus: Main idea - housing costs force key workers out of the market

Passage Reference: C. The government is hoping that this move will help solve its housing difficulties. Thanks to nimbyism, the supply of new houses in Britain falls well short of demand, by more than 50,000 a year according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, a social research charity. The result: surging housing costs which have priced modest earners out of the market, particularly in London and the south-east of England. Chief among the victims are public-sector workers, such as nurses and teachers.

Why this is correct: The paragraph explains how high housing costs affect people like nurses and teachers. These public-sector workers are being pushed out of the housing market.

Tips: Always check who is affected. Headings often focus on a specific group.

Why the other options are wrong:

• The cost of moving home: Moving home is not discussed. The problem is affordability, not moving costs. This is a context shift trap.
• Still difficult to move around: The issue here is cost, not mobility. This is a paraphrase trap.

Key Vocabulary:

• nimbyism = opposition to local building
• modest earners = people with average income

Question Focus: Main idea - developers required to include more social housing

Passage Reference: D. The government will try to fulfil its ambitions in part through a phenomenon known as planning gain. Councils are grabbing an increasing share of rising land prices by bumping up the amount of social housing developers must build as part of a new scheme and hand over to the local housing association. Even before the government's fresh money arrives, some local authorities in southern England are relying on planning gain to help meet demanding targets. In plush regency Cheltenham, the council wants 30% of new housing to be social; the figure is 40% in comfortable Poole in Dorset, while the Greater London Authority is targeting 50% in the capital over the next twenty years.

Why this is correct: This paragraph is about rules for developers, forcing them to include social housing in new projects. That is a clear new demand on developers.

Tips: When rules or requirements are described, look for headings about obligations or demands.

Why the other options are wrong:

• Increased spending: This is about obligations, not government budgets. This is a partial truth trap.
• Councils give way to housing associations: Housing associations are mentioned, but the focus is on developers' duties. This is an example-as-main-idea trap.

Key Vocabulary:

• planning gain = benefit required by planners
• targets = goals

Question Focus: Main idea - avoiding past mistakes in social housing design

Passage Reference: E. Will this policy just create new ghettos? Maybe not. People have learnt from the mistakes of the post-war housing boom. Providers have got better at design and building. Everybody now knows that concrete blocks do not work in rainy countries. The stigma of social housing can often be eliminated by making it indistinguishable from neighbouring private housing. Social housing developments are even winning awards in competition with private sector developments-the Peabody Trust's Bedzed development in Surrey won the Evening Standard Lifestyle Home of the Year award-though it is worth remembering that some of the most notorious 1960s and 1970s council housing estates also won design awards.

Why this is correct: The paragraph reflects on past failures and explains how planners now design better housing. This clearly shows learning from earlier mistakes.

Tips: Words like learned, mistakes, and now usually signal reflection on the past.

Why the other options are wrong:

• A shrinking supply: This paragraph is about quality and design, not numbers. This is a wrong focus trap.
• New demands on developers: No new rules are explained here. This is a wrong section trap.

Key Vocabulary:

• stigma = bad reputation
• indistinguishable = looks the same

Question Focus: Main idea - housing associations manage social housing better than councils

Passage Reference: . F. Housing associations are generally better at getting repairs done than are councils. They have also been more effective in tackling problems like drugs and prostitution through innovations such

Why this is correct: The paragraph compares housing associations with councils and shows associations perform better. This supports the idea that councils are giving way.

Tips: Comparison words like better than help you identify the main focus.

Why the other options are wrong:

• Learning from the past: Although lessons are mentioned, the focus is on who manages housing better. This is a partial truth trap.
• Still difficult to move around: Movement or mobility is not discussed here. This is a context shift trap.

Key Vocabulary:

• caretakers = staff who look after buildings
• tenure = type of housing ownership

Question Focus: Main idea - social housing limits workers' mobility

Passage Reference: t. G. Happens to the teacher who lives in social housing in one borough, and is offered a job in a borough that cannot offer her new cheap housing? What happens to a nurse in cheap housing who wants to move into a new profession? A government so keen on enterprise and initiative should not be recreating a system that makes it difficult for people to change their lives. If public-sector workers cannot afford to live in the south-east of England, then the government should be changing pay scales that currently discriminate in favour of public sector workers in cheap bits of the country and against those in expensive bits, rather than reintroducing something that once looked like a boon to the poor and turned out to be a s

Why this is correct: The paragraph argues that social housing can trap people, making it hard to move jobs or change careers. This matches the idea of limited mobility.

Tips: Look for problems or criticism in opinion paragraphs. The heading often reflects the complaint.

Why the other options are wrong:

• The cost of moving home: The issue is access to housing, not the price of moving. This is a paraphrase trap.
• Public-sector workers squeezed out: Public-sector workers are mentioned, but the focus is on mobility, not affordability alone. This is a partial truth trap.

Key Vocabulary:

• shackle = something that restricts
• discriminate = treat unfairly

General Tips:

• Read all headings first and underline key words before matching.
• Focus on the main idea of each paragraph, not one interesting detail.
• Remember that headings follow paragraph order from top to bottom.
• If two headings seem possible, choose the one that covers more of the paragraph.
• Do not reuse a heading once you have matched it.