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The paper contributes to research that examines how state actors support the financialisation of land via the development process and how planning systems have facilitated the accumulation of privately-owned land-based wealth. The empirical focus is the specialist residential land promoter sector in England. This is a particularly appropriate case study because of how this sector of the land market has become integrated with the planning system via crisis-driven planning reform that has facilitated the commodification of planning risk and the financialisation of land. The paper examines the business models and strategies of land promoters to show how they have been shaped both by the politics of planning reform as well as the financial objectives of their funders. The research is in dialogue with international literature on the relationship between planning and the land market, how this relationship is shaped by risk and uncertainty, and the role of state regulation in reshaping the physical environment in accordance with financial logics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractEthnic inequalities in housing in England are entrenched and long-standing. Minority ethnic groups are more likely than the White British population to experience housing disadvantage and deprivation. In recent years, little attention has focused on what steps housing policy is taking to promote race equality. This study fills this gap in knowledge. Focusing on four key housing policy interventions, it traces the policy approach to race equality in England since 2000. A paradigmatic shift is revealed. Previously, policy actively promoted race equality. Inequalities remained but progress was made tackling disadvantage. In contrast, the contemporary policy approach is characterised by non-intervention. This shift is related to the retreat from multiculturalism and increasing influence of postracial notions about the fading legacy of racism, allied with neoliberal understandings of inequality as the product of individual responsibility and choice. In conclusion, the paper calls for research to scrutinise these presumptions and explore whether policy is following a similar trajectory in other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decent, affordable housing continues to be a major concern for policy-makers, providers and society at large. This paper contributes to the debate over the future of social housing in England by reviewing the Affordable Homes Programme (AHP). The AHP (2011–2015) saw the level of grant funding reduced dramatically; with the shortfall to be filled from housing associations own resources, increased rents and borrowing. To understand the implications of the AHP, this paper utilizes the concept of financialization. Financialization is a multifaceted process that seeks to explain the increased role and power of the financial markets in society. Specifically, the paper shows that the AHP leads to increased debt levels in the social housing sector, is predicated on short-termism and accumulation by dispossession. Finally, by employing financialization the paper also addresses debates about the nature of housing policy and how it can best be conceptualized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gated communities are becoming increasingly common across England, yet very little is known about the impact these developments have upon the residents of the wider community or those within the confines of the gates. This paper draws on empirical research carried out in a gated community in the north of England to explore social ties amongst the residents, in the presence of a legal framework (lease and residents' management company) which provides behavioural rules, sanctions and a structure for resident management of the development. The data suggest that gated residents' rights and responsibilities are, by and large, confined to legalities, rather than extending to a commitment to enhance social networks either within the development or in the adjacent wider community. The paper concludes that gated communities of the type discussed here, ready-made new developments introduced into established neighbourhoods, may also exacerbate the effect of physical and social barriers between residents within and outside the gated community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In England, housing market renewal (HMR) proved an urban policy cause célèbre held to be representative of state-sponsored gentrification. This paper considers some critiques and explores the relocation experience of a group of residents in South Yorkshire, England during the implementation of HMR policies during 2005–2007. This paper argues that: (i) from the mid-1970s, ‘place-based citizenship’ and participation standards had been eroded and the introduction of HMR was an antidote to state neglect; (ii) state failure in addressing ‘slow-burn’ shocks such as deindustrialisation and housing market restructuring can be viewed as a form of ‘passive revanchism’ and (iii) HMR can be viewed as a means of addressing deficits in participation standards that arise from differential experiences of place: the term ‘citizenship of place’ is therefore used to signal the call for a more nuanced account of policy interventions such as HMR in order to assess how complex processes of restructuring affect citizens across spatial and temporal scales. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The movement of housing policy across space/time has attracted considerable policy and scholarly interest. But once we accept that policy moves, interesting questions arise. Particularly: what is it that moves? Why do some policies move but others do not? Academic conversations have involved concepts like "policy diffusion", "policy transfer", "lesson-drawing", "fast policy", "policy mobility" and "policy translation" - but a clear picture of how these concepts have been used to interpret housing policy developments is absent. Through systematic bibliographical searches, we identified 55 'housing' publications to review. Our concern is the theoretical assumptions underlying these studies and their implications for the questions stated above. Through a grounded analysis, we identified 'dominant knowledge' as the key element shaping housing policy movement; highlighted five strategic conditions for mobility (summarized as ontological, ideological, institutional, legitimizing devices, and contingency); presented the sporadic engagement with questions of immobility; and synthesized authors' policy recommendations, particularly their calls for deeper engagement with the people affected by policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The private rented sector (PRS) in England has often been described as having a ‘residual’ role in accommodating low-income households who are unable to gain access to social housing. This paper examines the accuracy of this residual role thesis. It does so using secondary analysis of the 2007 English House Condition Survey. The paper shows that the PRS plays a disproportionately important role in accommodating households living in poverty. It also shows that the odds of being income poor are the same for private tenants as for social housing tenants and three times higher than for owner-occupiers. It is concluded that, as a source of accommodation for low-income households, the role of the private rented sector is not residual at all. In addition, the paper assesses how well accommodated low-income households are in the PRS compared with non-poor private tenants and with low-income households in social housing and owner-occupation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports research on people who live in housing that is defined as non-permanent by policy makers in England, and focuses on two particular groups: residents of park homes and residential boaters. The paper emphasises how the distinctive environments in which such housing is set may facilitate particular lifestyles, contributing to residents' identities. The notion of liminality is used as a framework to help understand the views of residents, highlighting the diversity of their experiences. Both park home residents and residential boaters ascribed a range of positive qualities to the environments in which they lived, underscored by the perception that the spaces that such accommodation occupied were often associated with leisure. Nevertheless, the nature of tenure relations in both settings potentially leads to vulnerabilities in the way that some people can maintain these lifestyles. These positive and negative facets were reflected in ambivalent feelings towards home both between groups of respondents and within individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper begins by considering the series of reviews of aspects of housing policy carried out by the Westminster government between 2004 and 2007. It then moves on to describe and evaluate the legislative changes derived from those reviews in the form of the Housing and Regeneration Act, 2008. Responsibility for funding social housing was separated from the regulatory role, after more than 30 years during which they had been combined within the Housing Corporation. The changes were intended to introduce and promote a new culture, on the one hand encouraging wider involvement of private, profit-seeking organisations in the production and management of social housing. On the other hand, the expressed intention was to develop a more consumer oriented approach to the regulation of social housing. The paper concludes by asking whether the Act marks a new era for social housing in England. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines housing policies aimed at establishing mixed income communities. Based on stakeholder interviews and case study analysis in England and Scotland, the paper pays particular attention to the impact of interventions in housing management. The first part considers the policy context for mixed communities and considers the conceptual basis underlying contemporary housing management through discourses of culture and social control. The second part considers how this agenda has resulted in the adoption of intensive management strategies within mixed communities; illustrated in the development of allocation policies, initiatives designed to tackle anti-social behaviour, and proposals to develop sustainable communities. The main argument is that given that the concept of mixed communities is based on the premise of social housing failure, citizenship has been defined largely in response to private sector interests. This approach to management has been a contributory factor in the construction of social housing as a form of second-class citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers how local areas become stuck in poverty traps and develops models exhibiting thresholds, where deprivation has to fall to a certain level before taking off. Using aggregate data for local authorities, the paper models cross-section movements of house prices to identify the threshold level of poverty. The paper argues that the resource requirements for bringing the most deprived areas to the take-off point are likely to be high. But for areas that are already close to the threshold, regeneration can be successful. Therefore, identifying the thresholds is important. Testing for thresholds is not straightforward, but the paper provides empirical evidence. The implications for policies concerned with social mixing are not encouraging. However, mixing may be more successful in areas that lie close to the threshold. For example, few high-income households want to live in the most deprived areas if the expected capital gains are low. But capital gains are maximised close to the take-off points. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores homeless women's use of public spaces and buildings in England. In doing so it problematises the spatial boundaries typically presented in the literature and research which suggest homeless women are largely confined to institutional or private spaces of homelessness. The paper argues that homeless women also use highly visible public spaces and semi-private spaces, and that these practices can be conceptualised in terms of resistance. Homeless women challenge the rules associated with occupying public spaces that either directly or tacitly exclude them, and they engage in identity work to resist being labelled as homeless. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence of racialised inequalities in housing in England has been accumulating for more than 40 years. While recognising the strengths and importance of this evidence base, this paper identifies a fundamental gap in current understanding of minority ethnic housing situations and experiences; the failure of analysis to acknowledge and understand the extent to which situations and experiences vary between places. Few studies have been sensitive to the particulars of minority ethnic housing experiences in different locations and those that have tend to have focused on the same small number of major towns and cities. Small town and rural experiences have remained largely invisible, despite increasing numbers of minority ethnic households living beyond the multi-ethnic metropolis. This paper recognises and responds to this situation by venturing beyond the current evidence base to explore the neglected housing experiences of minority ethnic people in small town England. Two key points are asserted. First, that minority ethnic people living in small towns encounter many of the same housing inequalities as their counterparts in metropolitan England. Second, that small town England presents a series of unique challenges demanding distinct responses and resulting in experiences very different to those recognised within the existing evidence base. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critiques the process of arriving at housing allocation figures for development planning in England, focusing upon regional debates. It considers the balance struck between policy (national) considerations and (local) political priorities, illustrated through two case studies: the East of England (and RPG14) and the English North West (and RPG13). These particular regions exemplify the dual poles of current planning policy in relation to housing provision: avoiding over-supply in the north of England and delivering managed growth in the south. The paper concludes by looking at ‘ownership’ of regional and county figures, at the excesses of central intervention, and at how such interventions run contrary to government's own philosophy for planning for housing in England. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers policy integration between housing and other sectors at regional level, focusing on Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) and regional planning. Regional housing structures and policies have had only a marginal impact on other sectors and this seems to be due in part to the fragmented nature of the housing sector, in particular to limited private sector involvement in regional housing structures. RDA emphasis on economic growth over social and regeneration issues also acts as a barrier to RDA engagement with housing. Housing involvement in planning is hindered by lengthy and cumbersome planning processes. Fragmentation and lack of coordination, in fact, seem to be characteristic of the regional level in England and this acts as a general barrier to integration, along with the lack of a mechanism for dealing with conflicting priorities, pointing to a pressing need for the government's proposed directly elected Regional Assemblies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the emergence of housing strategies at the regional level in England in the context of wider ambiguities over establishing this new tier of governance. The paper notes the growing differentiation in local housing markets across the country and examines the implications for national policy formation and the development of new regional structures and responsibilities. These trends are interpreted by reference to different models of governance and the 'rescaling' of government functions and responsibilities in housing. The implications of these processes for housing strategy formation at the regional level are then assessed. The development of regional housing strategies is then considered against three key challenges: the growth of 'network' forms of governance, the applicability of the regional level as a tier for strategy formulation and development, and the different policy responses in other sectors towards housing market change at the sub-national level. The paper concludes by briefly considering likely future developments in regional governance. In conclusion it suggests that the aim of achieving greater integration between housing, planning and economic development strategies may be threatened by underlying processes of uneven economic growth and social polarisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This paper provides an opportunity to review the New Labour policy framework for dealing with low and changing demand for housing, review emerging policy agendas for regeneration and suggest alternative strategies for neighbourhood renewal. The paper argues that targeted housing and regeneration policy has limited effectiveness in dealing with the scale of the problems of low demand in Britain's northern cities and that a more strategic and planned policy agenda is required. The residential structure of cities in the north of England and the Midlands remain, disproportionately a product of the Victorian infrastructure which was built to fulfil the socio-economic circumstances of the time and the monolithic social housing neighbourhoods conceived during the 1940s and the 1950s. Since the mid-1970s housing and urban policy has concentrated on preserving and managing this infrastructure and initiated limited restructuring of small neighbourhoods. The scale of market change now being experienced in some urban areas is rapidly making this public policy framework redundant and as a consequence many existing New Labour regeneration initiatives will be undermined. Using administrative data at sub-regional, local and neighbourhood level (see Appendix), this paper illustrates processes and outcomes affecting housing abandonment in Liverpool. The paper also discusses policy responses within Liverpool and how these relate to the emerging pattern of abandonment and neighbourhood decline. The paper concludes by assessing the limitations of the current approach to regeneration in cities experiencing changing demand for low-income neighbourhoods, assessing the appropriate spatial scale of interventions and discusses the implications for housing strategies and regenerative partnerships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The private rental sector in England is often regarded as a largely transitional tenure. It is seen as forming the lower rung of a hierarchical tenure ladder, up which households move over time on the way to an ultimate destination of owner occupation or, failing that, social rented housing. It has been recognised, however, that households may 'fall out' of the two main tenures and return to private renting. Drawing on data from the 1996-97 Survey of English Housing, this paper examines the characteristics of households that had moved into or out of the private rental sector in the previous 12 months. Although the sector remains a net exporter of households, it was found that only part of the reverse flow back into private renting could be accurately described as a process of 'falling out' of the two main tenures. A significant share of the movement from social housing into private renting was due to households who had moved in order to live in a better house or neighbourhood. The paper outlines the reasons for this phenomenon and discusses its implications for the role of private renting in England. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to current debates on the psycho-social determinants of health by offering a qualitative analysis of the health consequences of the experience of mortgage possession. Previous research has shown that it is possible to decipher a statistical relationship between the onset of mortgage indebtedness and health. This paper extends this work by examining how this statistical patterning is generated at the level of the ‘lived experiences’ of families experiencing the loss of their mortgaged home. The narratives of 44 adults and 10 children from a sample of 30 households who have experienced mortgage possession are analysed. The results of this qualitative analysis are related to current debates in both the sociology of health inequalities and the sociology of the emotions concerned with the specification of what Elstad has called “the psychological stress, relative deprivation and psycho-social injuries of inequality structures”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with the determination of rents in the local authority sector. It concentrates on the determination of relative rents in particular. Local authorities in England have traditionally had autonomy in determining the rents for individual dwellings in their housing stock, but the 1989 Local Government and Housing Act introduced the requirement that the relativities in the public sector should be determined with reference to those obtaining in the local private rented sector. This policy, which still remains in force under the new government, is intended to price public housing more efficiently and links to long standing concerns with issues such as under-occupation. The paper critically examines the rationale behind this policy. It advances the argument that not only are the price differentials in the private sector not necessarily a good guide for efficient pricing in the public sector, but also that the conditions in the public sector are unlikely to ensure that changing rent differentials will achieve the policy objectives. Even so, the policy raises important issues of principle in pricing in the public sector which require further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of flood risk on the value of English residential properties. We find that a location within a flood zone significantly lowers property values even if we control for the proximity to a watercourse, the history of flooding and neighbourhoods effects. Although the flood risk discount is more compelling for waterfront properties, it is still highly significant for dwellings further from the water. The markdown arises around 2004-2005, which coincides with the publication of detailed flood maps by the UK Environment Agency and with a more risk-based pricing of flood insurance policies. As expected, the effect of flood risk on house prices is stronger in the months following major flood events but, interestingly, it almost disappears in a hot market when buyers have arguably less negotiating power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on international comparative research, this paper examines recent policy moves to withdraw security of tenure in social housing in England and Australia. We contend that there are theoretical and empirical grounds for believing that tenure security is crucial both to social housing tenants themselves and to conceptualisations of the sector. Starting from this premise we analyse the underlying rationale(s) for phasing out open-ended social tenancies. First, we consider the ‘welfare dependency’ argument and the claim that ‘conditionality’ mechanisms will incentivise social renters to (re)engage with the labour market. Second, we interrogate the, arguably more influential, rationale which stresses equity considerations in ensuring that scarce social housing resources are targeted to those in greatest need. We conclude by reflecting on the implementation prospects for this high-level policy reform, arguing that individual social landlords' motivations will be crucial in shaping the practical impacts of the new regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines governance processes shaping the experiences of neighbourhood restructuring-induced residential relocation in Housing Market Renewal (HMR) areas in England. Since the 1950s and 1960s, residential relocation has been examined as a matter of social and political debate, especially in gentrification studies focusing mainly on negative residential relocation outcomes long after the process was over. This paper argues that such a focus had led researchers to ignore subtle, practical dimensions of relocation delivery and the causal relationships between these and often very diverse relocation experiences. Based on the HMR case, the study shows that residential relocation in a differentiated polity is delivered by complex networks of actors and that residential relocation outcomes are the result of cooperation or non-cooperation of network members. Key innovation rests in devising a theoretical vehicle that shows how governance has a profound impact on relocation delivery and residential relocation experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper demonstrates the assemblage of a distinctive body of combative beliefs among social housing tenants in England engaged in formal participation with their landlords. Applying the social movement diagnostic of frame analysis, the paper identifies three ‘collective identity frames’ that signify the construction of common cause among a diverse and fragmented tenant population. These frames celebrate social housing as a public good, promote grass-roots decision-making and advocate direct democracy to public services. They champion local knowledge and local services and articulate a commitment to collective action and collective provision that opposes itself to the individualising discourse of the market. Although a lack of unity characterises the organisation of social housing tenants, this assemblage of contentious claims may signify the continuation of narratives of a tenants' movement and indicate the cautious mobilisation of a distinctive ‘counter-discourse’ in housing policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with issues of equity and efficiency in the Housing Benefit (HB) system in the private rented sector (PRS) in England. Using information from a survey of low- income working households (LIWH) and in-depth interviews with LIWH families, it addresses two policy-relevant questions. First, there are mixed findings on whether the current HB system enables HB recipients to consume more housing than is available to otherwise similar non-HB-recipient households in the PRS. HB rules on eligible property size appear not to unduly favour HB claimants compared with LIWH. LIWH, however, tend to pay a rent which is less than the maximum amount an HB recipient could receive. This is particularly true for LIWH families with children who are most likely to be living in properties smaller than allowed by HB regulations. Second, there is no evidence that the HB system incentivises LIWH to give up work or otherwise seek to become eligible for HB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a result of the recommendations of the Barker Review of Housing Supply in 2004, the Department of Communities and Local Government in England commissioned the construction of an econometric model of regional housing markets in order to examine the effects of different levels of housing construction on long-run affordability. The model has been regularly used as part of the policy-making process in England. The paper describes the structure of the model, which includes sectors covering house prices, household formation, tenure, migration flows, demographics and labour markets. Furthermore, through simulation analysis, the paper examines some of the key policy questions that have occurred in UK housing in recent years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the enormous body of scholarship that has tracked the transformation of social housing from the 'public housing model' of the welfare state era to the 'social housing model' of today, large gaps remain in our understanding of this shift. This paper addresses on one such vacuum-the controversial use of the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) as part of the Labour Government's Decent Homes programme in England. Focusing on 'council housing' schemes, a critical overview is presented of the housing PFI experience so far. The main purpose is to understand the motives and drivers behind the use of PFI in housing at different scales, assess the progress of the national PFI programme and explore the significant issues, controversies and challenges encountered. The paper concludes that PFI has proved to be more complicated and expensive than its proponents predicted and should be discontinued in the social housing sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of planning for housing development has never been wholly resolved in England but instead re-invented in different guises as successive governments have sought to reflect values and interests in ascendancy at any particular moment. This paper seeks to trace and explain how this has happened over the past 40 years, and especially between 1997 and 2010, by reviewing policy developments around the overall supply of housing land, the split between brownfield and greenfield locations and the extent to which market-based information has been considered relevant to planning decisions. The account points to policy evolution, rather than radical departure, and suggests limited manoeuvrability for policy makers, when faced with wicked problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There have been increasing calls for studies of housing systems that are more integrative and pluralistic in nature. Understanding the relationship of social housing systems to the wider housing market remains a key challenge. The mobility of households and the structural configuration of supply are both of importance, demanding methods able to reconcile both. This paper propounds vacancy chain models as offering significant potential in this regard, allowing policy analysis and options appraisal to be built on more dynamic conceptualisations of housing systems. The theoretical basis for vacancy chain models is developed before an account is given of a model developed of the Bradford (UK) social rented sector. The results suggest that social renting is very closely linked to the wider housing market and consequently the impacts of policy and investment may be felt beyond the sector. Observations on the future development of vacancy chain models are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper empirically evaluates the market and welfare impacts of rent restructuring policy in the housing association (RSL) sector. The focus is on the financial viability of housing associations in the north of England, the affordability problems of tenants in the south, and the changes of turnover rates of RSL tenancies that have resulted. Using data from the Regulatory and Statistical Returns and the CORE (COntinuous REcording) from 2001/02 to 2005/06, the analysis shows that the 'market' component of the rent formula plays a more substantial role in affecting the RSL rent levels despite the 'welfare' measures in the policy—the greater emphasis on local earnings, the restriction of annual rent increase and the imposition of rent ceilings. Given that social housing in England is essentially a residual mode of provision, it is argued that a more flexible approach in balancing these two conflicting principles in rent setting is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper considers the proposal in England that a continuing requirement for residential developers to contribute directly to the supply of affordable housing in return for planning permission should operate alongside a new tax on land value increases due to planning permission. The paper asks whether it is right in principle for affordable housing to be supported by the implicit taxation of development. It is argued that in terms of transparency, clarity, and certainty explicit taxation is to be preferred to implicit taxation. It is thus suggested that once the new explicit tax is in place developers should no longer be routinely required to pay an additional implicit affordable housing tax. Affordable housing should, it is argued, be supported on the basis of need, not the resources available from the development process. The link between the provision of affordable housing and planning obligations should be broken. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High profile commitments to stemming homelessness have been integral to New Labour's emphasis on promoting social inclusion since 1997. During this period official policy has favoured an increasingly assertive approach in this area as exemplified by the successful post-1998 programmes to reduce street homelessness. The period since 2002 has seen a broader ministerial drive to reduce homelessness, mainly through encouraging local authorities (LAs) to adopt more pro-active, preventative approaches to the problem. Aided by substantial central funding LAs have responded by developing numerous initiatives to this end. Particularly where they involve assisting people at risk of homelessness to access private tenancies, such schemes are often justified by LAs as empowering consumers and promoting choice. With official homelessness figures in England having fallen dramatically since 2003/04, it would appear that the new 'homelessness prevention regime' has made a marked impact. However, what such figures do not reveal is the extent to which this results from the adoption of more restrictive interpretations of LA duties under the homelessness legislation. This could mean that the problem is being re-defined rather than resolved. Drawing on a recently completed study, this paper explores the tensions between helping resolve people's housing problems, on the one hand, and upholding legal rights to accommodation, on the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the significant characteristics of many poor neighbourhoods is that the schools which serve them are characterised by poor performance in terms of attainment and other measures. This feature is seen as critical in the reinforcement of disadvantage, its transmission between generations, and as a barrier to social integration. Government policies in the UK have increasingly targeted improved school standards and performance, while other policies on urban regeneration and housing may interact with this issue. This paper examines the particular role of homeownership tenure alongside the other factors (notably poverty) which affect school attainment. After reviewing existing literature it presents new analyses of attainment based on linked pupil, school and small area-level datasets for selected areas in both England and Scotland. This provides some evidence to support the contention that homeownership has an additional effect on school attainment, beyond that explained by poverty and other associated variables, although there is some uncertainty about how separable these effects are at school or neighbourhood levels. It also points out the significant role of changing tenure mix in housing regeneration in transforming the overall profile of neighbourhoods and schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twenty-five years ago, social housing accounted for almost one-third of England's entire housing stock. Since then, mainly because the sales to sitting tenants and demolitions have exceeded new construction, the sector has contracted substantially. However, at the same time, and particularly in the period since 1989, the sector has been undergoing far-reaching restructuring. This paper charts this process focusing, in particular, on developments under the Blair administrations since 1997. The paper discusses the external pressures experienced by social landlords over this period. Such pressures are differentiated between those emanating from central government policy initiatives on the one hand, and from changing housing market conditions on the other. The paper then goes on to analyse the evolving structure of the sector post-1997, the processes that have contributed to this, and the impacts that have resulted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses the Delphi method as a way of studying organisational and sector change. It provides a brief introduction to Delphi, its application to public management and its relevance to research on the transformation of social housing. It then describes an application to research on the future shape and structure of the housing association sector in England. The method is used to clarify areas of consensus and divergence, and to identify differences between types of association and key trends in sector transformation. Conclusions are presented on changing sector identity, governance, spatial level of operations, organisational scale and organisational form and on learning from this application of the Delphi method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anecdotal evidence suggests that 'gated communities' are growing in popularity. This paper uses empirical evidence to profile the location and characteristics of gated development in England and details the relative integration of residents. The paper also attempts to think through the wider theoretical and urban policy impacts of gating. In contrast to the view that gated communities provide an extreme example of residential segregation we go further and argue that the time-space trajectories of residents suggest a dynamic pattern of separation that goes beyond the place of residence. Gated communities appear to provide an extreme example of more common attempts by other social groups to insulate against perceived risk and unwanted encounters. Patterns of what we term time-space trajectories of segregation can thereby be seen as closed linkages between key fields, such as work and home, which enable social distance to be maintained and perceived risks to be managed by elite social groups. We conclude that gated communities further extend contemporary segregatory tendencies in the city and that policy responses are required which curtail the creation of such havens of social withdrawal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The policy approach towards Gypsy and Traveller accommodation in England is currently being reviewed. In this context, the paper explores issues around accommodating nomadism. Drawing primarily on the findings of research carried out by the author on behalf of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, it establishes that a number of Gypsies/Travellers actively pursue a traditional travelling lifestyle. Culturally-specific accommodation, mainly in the form of residential Gypsy sites, is inadequate to accommodate the desired amount of movement without unauthorised encampments. Unauthorised encampments fail to provide adequate standards for Gypsies/Travellers, tend to perpetuate their social exclusion and lead to friction with the settled community. A network of transit sites and stopping places is needed to accommodate travelling. The main barrier to provision is the planning system and, more fundamentally, resistance from the settled population to the idea of new sites for Gypsies and Travellers. The nature of nomadism itself also makes its accommodation difficult, especially in a society where settled ‘sedentarist’ interests are paramount and other lifestyles may be viewed as deviant. Several proposals are made which might assist policy making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes and evaluates the reactions and responses of house-builders in England and Wales to government regulation concerning disabled people's physical access to new housing. The paper begins by discussing the role and relevance of government regulation in addressing issues of housing quality and, in particular, the housing needs of disabled people. Then, referring to postal survey and interview data, the impact and implications of Part M of the building regulations, set up to ensure a degree of access for disabled people to new housing, is assessed. The paper concludes by discussing different ways in which housing policy ought to address the concerns of housebuilders in relation to Part M while, simultaneously, addressing the, as yet, unmet needs of disabled people for good quality, accessible, housing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalisation has been associated with the development of 'command node' cities in the global economy (Friedman, 1986; Sassen, 1991). Some scholars have argued that the social and spatial structure of such cities has been polarised, because of changing demand for labour and land. A number of debates have developed around this hypothesis, challenging the general applicability of these socio-economic trends to all global cities (e.g. Bruegel, 1996; Hamnett, 1996), while the spatial changes in the housing markets of global cities have been shown to be varied (Marcuse & van Kempen, 2000). They are heavily dependent on local context, but always associated with increased segregation of rich and poor, whether through displacement of the poor from the urban core (Smith, 1989) or through their displacement within it (Lyons, 1996). The present paper suggests that much can be learnt about urban change in an era of globalisation, from analysis of the differences between global and other cities. The hypothesis is that spatial restructuring of housing markets in London, a global city, is likely to have important similarities with those of other cities in England, which occupy lower positions in a global urban hierarchy. A comparison of the extent of socio-spatial clustering of home ownership in London, with six English cities at various levels of the urban hierarchy is presented, which partly supports the hypothesis, comparing change over a 20-year period, based on cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses of ONS Longitudinal Study data for the years 1971, 1981 and 1991. Findings were that, despite its more socially polarised labour market, London's home ownership market was less spatially segregated than that of other cities in the sample. Implications for global city theory, and for the interpretation of the dynamics of other urban markets, are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This paper explores social and tenurial change on two estates of high quality state housing in the south of England. In doing so it offers a corrective to dominant contemporary perceptions of state housing as stigmatised policy failures and engages with wider debates about social change and tenure diversification. The paper argues that while tenurial distinctions are evident they are less significant than might be assumed from contemporary debates. Residents are as likely to construct narratives of neighbourhood change around life course and lifestyle as around the growth of home ownership. The paper also offers a further contribution to literature which has tracked the social consequences of privatisation policies in the state housing sector in Britain. The research involved unstructured interviews with 50 residents and key actors on the two estates which were examples of early British post-war state housing. Using administrative files, tenants and owners were drawn from different time periods, including both original and new residents. The research also involved archival work and a postal survey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between education and gentrification in contemporary London. The paper draws on Stephen Ball's work on parental choice and educational markets in the context of empirical work that the authors have recently undertaken in five gentrified areas of inner London. The work of Mike Savage and Pierre Bourdieu is also referred to in the conception of a metropolitan habitus and how different middle-class groups operate within it. It is argued that parents pursue different educational strategies which are partly a consequence of their own economic capabilities and their 'consciences' but are also influenced by the nature of the 'circuits' of primary and secondary education in areas in which they live. Data are provided which confirm Bali's work on parental choice and it is suggested that education has now become a social 'field' alongside that of employment, housing and consumption in relation to the contemporary metropolitan habitus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper briefly outlines the housing careers of Vietnamese households since their arrival in the UK in the late 1970s and draws on a series of focus groups to examine the role that ethnicity has played, and may continue to play, in their housing careers. It notes that the first arrivals lacked the infrastructure of an existing Vietnamese community in the UK and were further disadvantaged by the dispersal policy adopted by the voluntary agencies responsible for their resettlement. The research indicates that ethnicity has been a crucial influence on the housing careers of Vietnamese households, and in particular on the location of the communities. It is argued that it is essential that researchers pay attention to the role of ethnicity as a resource and a constraint within a housing career. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

House sharing amongst young adults is often regarded as being of significance only as a short term, transitional arrangement, and is associated with economic constraint. This association is, however, undergoing change, as it is a household form increasingly adopted by young people in professional and managerial occupations. This paper focuses on the experiences of these rather more advantaged sharers, and explores their own accounts of why they live in shared housing. The language of choice features heavily in their narratives, embracing a consideration of the material and non-material benefits of sharing, and of their own projected domestic trajectories. It is concluded that, whilst financial concerns are not unimportant in their decision-making, most regard their living arrangements as appropriate to the needs and demands of their current lifestyles, and do not experience their living arrangements as products of constraint. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This paper presents an interim assessment of Housing Action Trusts (HATs)--special purpose, limited duration, Government agencies--charged with the task of comprehensively regenerating run-down housing estates in England. HATs' track record remains under--analysed despite the large sums of public money involved and their relevance to the latest experiments in estate regeneration. The paper briefly profiles the six HATs' designated areas, then assesses the degree to which they have achieved their main objectives. HATs have thus far had mixed success. They have attached greater priority to employment and training and quality of life measures, community empowerment and sustainability than earlier estate regeneration programmes. However, they have still devoted the lion's share of their resources to housing investment and the question remains whether they have gone far enough in tackling the deep-rooted social and economic problems of deprived neighbourhoods. HATs have proved relatively expensive compared with alternative methods of injecting new investment into social housing, largely because of their emphasis upon durable design, good space standards and energy efficiency and also resident empowerment and wider measures. Only time will tell whether the extra cost is justified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Suggests a framework for analyzing the regulation of social housing providers in England. Types of regulation in the English social housing sector; Examination of the English regulatory regime; Application of interest group approach; Key interests and influences on Housing Corporation regulation.

The housing system in England has experienced unprecedented stress and instability over the last decade, absorbing the impact of demographic pressure, a credit-fuelled boom, financial crisis, recession and policy change. A failing supply system and unexpected tenure changes now confront austerity and welfare cutback. How have these conditions impacted on traditional and contemporary indicators of housing need and what does this tell us about the drivers and dynamics of housing need outcomes? Drawing mainly on analysis of large-scale longitudinal and cross-sectional surveys, linked to subregional market data, this paper describes and models the changes in housing need outcomes over two decades. It explores the impact of demography, market affordability, labour markets, tenure change and supply on these outcomes. Particular attention is paid to the persistence or recurrence of need in the context of different housing pathways and different market contexts, including the relationship with poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we investigate the spatial extent of the housing search. Using the concepts of mental map and awareness space, we argue that search space is affected by households' preferences, what is available on the housing market, and the use of information channels as well as their interactions. We hypothesize that households whose members disagree with each other have a larger search spaces than those whose members agree. Furthermore, the supply in the housing market and the use of different information channels may influence the search space differently for agreeing versus disagreeing households. We collected data from face-to-face interviews with 82 households (couples with or without children) who purchased a home in the New York City area between 2004 and 2009. The results support our hypotheses, suggesting that intra-household dynamics plays an important role in housing search. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The adoption of administrative boundaries as approximations of housing markets has long restricted the scope for housing market analysis and planning policy development to be undertaken within a functional housing market framework in England. This has prompted consideration of the value of deriving housing market areas (HMAs) to underpin the development of housing market intelligence for planning and policy purposes. Drawing on a case study of North West England, this paper critically reviews alternative approaches that have been used to define HMAs. The review highlights that in practice technical and methodological constraints have restricted the operationalisation of an idealised conceptualisation of HMAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The past 30 years have seen England's housing associations (HAs) transformed from marginal players in the wider housing market to a point where, in 2008, they overtook local authorities as majority social housing providers. This paper reviews theoretical perspectives on the evolution of the UK social housing and the rise of HAs since the 1970s, with a particular focus on the ‘modernisation’ thesis advanced by Malpass & Victory (2010). Against this backdrop, we analyse the sector's recent reconfiguration, integrating the impacts of housing stock transfers and HA mergers. Our analysis focuses on the consequences of sector restructuring in terms of organisational homogenisation and, at least as perceived, the growing dominance of giant landlords. Finally, within the context of the Coalition Government's localism rhetoric, we discuss the accountability implications of restructuring activity and the light our analysis sheds on theoretical understandings of social housing change processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2007, the UK Government announced an ambitious zero-carbon target for all new housing in England. This paper shows how the definition and its associated policies emerged from discourses of environmental policy innovation; how the problem subsequently became framed as one of mainstreaming, consequent upon the apparent success of experimental schemes and defined in more detail through the interaction between pressure group politics and the technical analyses that accompanied the government's consultation exercises. Finally, it shows how regional and local variations in housing and property markets are likely to influence the ease of zero carbon development. The analysis uses concepts drawn from both the science and technology literature and the literature on policy implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]