Understanding Housing Policy

✍ Scribed by Brian Lund

• Publisher: Policy Press
• Year: 2017
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 366
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

The 3rd edition of this bestselling textbook has been completely revised to address the range of socio-economic factors that have influenced UK housing policy in the years since the previous edition was published. The issues explored include the austerity agenda, the impact of the Coalition government’s housing policies, the 2015 Conservative government’s policy direction, the evolving devolution agenda and the recent focus on housing supply. The concluding chapter examines new policy ideas in the context of theoretical approaches to understanding housing policy: laissez-faire economics; social reformism; Marxist political economy; behavioural perspectives and social constructionism. Throughout the textbook, substantive themes are illustrated by boxed examples and case studies. The author focuses on principles and theory and their application in the process of constructing housing policy, ensuring that the book will be a vital resource for undergraduate and postgraduate level students of housing and planning and related social policy modules.

✦ Table of Contents

UNDERSTANDING HOUSING POLICY
Contents
Detailed contents
List of boxes, figures and tables
Boxes
Figures
Tables
List of acronyms
Acknowledgements
Preface
1. Understanding housing policy
What is housing policy?
Understanding housing policy
Laissez-faire economics
Social reformism
Marxist political economy
Behavioural approaches
Social constructionism
Overview
Questions for discussion
Further reading
Websites
2. Housing policy: continuity and change
Housing becomes a social problem
Housing, health and the public good
The slum
The housing issue circa 1906
Housing policy: 1915 to 1939
Labour 1945–51: a planned solution
The Conservatives and housing policy, 1951–61
Housing policy 1961 to 1979: consensus years?
Cities in the sky
‘Thatcherism’ and housing policy
New Labour
The coalition government (2010–15)
The 2015 Conservative government
Devolution
Overview
Questions for discussion
Further reading
Websites
3. Governing housing
The Westminster core executive
Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG)
Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)
Homes and Communities Agency (HCA)
National Infrastructure Commission (NIC)
The English regional dimension
Local government
Housing associations
Tenant empowerment: exit and voice politics
The financial institutions
The construction industry
Private landlords
The European Union
Devolution
Overview
Questions for discussion
Further reading
Websites
4. Comparative housing policy
Why compare?
Housing policies: five national case studies
USA
Germany
Sweden
Spain
The Czech Republic
The ‘convergence’ thesis
Policy transfer
Housing outcomes (EU)
Housing outcomes (USA)
Overview
Questions for discussion
Further reading
Websites
5. Need, demand and supply
Private landlordism
The 1919 Housing, Town Planning, etc. Act
A golden housebuilding age?
The ‘numbers game’
Lean years
Housing requirements
Devolution and development
Promoting housing supply
Overview
Questions for discussion
Further reading
Websites
6. ‘Affordable’ housing
What is ‘affordable’ housing?
Affordability in the 19th century
Standards and affordability
From producer to consumer subsidies
Housing benefit
Private landlord subsidies
The Right to Buy
Low-cost homeownership
Allocating social housing
Immigration and ‘social’ housing
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
Monitoring housing affordability
Overview
Questions for discussion
Further reading
Websites
7. Homelessness
What is homelessness?
The causes of homelessness
Homelessness: constructing a social problem
The 1948 National Assistance Act
The 1977 Housing (Homeless Persons) Act
‘Perverse incentives’ and the 1996 Housing Act
The 2002 Homelessness Act
Preventing statutory homelessness
Rough sleeping
Homelessness: the coalition government
Overview
Questions for discussion
Further reading
Websites
8. Decent and sustainable homes
The slum
The 1930s clearance drive
The bulldozer returns
Clearance or improvement?
Income selectivity and home improvement
‘Decent’ homes
New Labour and sustainable homes
Overcrowding
Measuring overcrowding
Overcrowding: its impact
Bed and breakfast hotels
Houses in multiple occupation
The 2004 Housing Act
Regulating the private landlord sector
The coalition government
The 2015 Conservative government
England: progress and stability
Overcrowding
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
Housing conditions in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
Overview
Questions for discussion
Further reading
Websites
9. Neighbourhood deprivation
Area-based programmes in the 1960s and 1970s
Priority estates
Architectural determinism
New Labour and unpopular housing
Low demand
Balanced communities
New Labour and mixed communities
Mixed communities: do they work?
New Labour and neighbourhood deprivation: evaluation
The coalition government
The 2015 Conservative government
Overview
Questions for discussion
Further reading
Websites
10. Housing and social justice
What is social justice?
Social justice and social exclusion
Why is social justice in housing important?
Social class
Tenure
Property wealth
‘Social’ tenants
Housing and income distribution
Gender
Ethnicity
Disability
Supported housing
Lifetime homes
Disabled Facilities Grants
The bedroom tax
Need and supply
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
Overview
Questions for discussion
Further reading
Websites
11. Conclusion: Let’s be builders
Laissez-faire
‘Radical’ social reformism
‘Moderate’ social reformism
Ameliorative social reformism
Marxist political economy
The behavioural approach
Social constructionism
Housing politics
Brexit
Let us be builders
Fixing our broken housing market
References
Index
Untitled