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Housing policy in the UK: the importance of spatial nuance
Abstract
The UK has been engaged in an ongoing process of constitutional reform since the late 1990s, when devolved administrations were established in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. As devolution has evolved there has been a greater trend towards divergence in housing policy, which calls into question any notion of a ‘UK experience’. Whilst the 2014 Scottish independence referendum again returned constitutional reform high onto the political agenda, there still remain tensions between devolved governments and the UK Government in Westminster, with England increasingly becoming the outlier in policy terms. Informed by ideas of social constructionism, which emphasises the politics of housing, this paper draws on an analysis of policy narratives to highlight the need for greater geographical sensitivity. This requires not only more spatial nuance, but also a recognition that these differences are underpinned by divergent political narratives in different parts of the UK. This emphasis on the politics underpinning policy has relevance internationally in other geographical contexts.
... We deepen this argument in sections four and five by illustrating how racial capitalism is integral to two key processes shaping HAs: financialisation and bordering. The paper concludes by building on arguments for 'spatial nuance' (McKee et al., 2016), showing that specificity is needed when analysing racial capitalism, something a focus on HAs provides. ...
... The 50% figure is found in London, the area with the largest proportion of racialised minorities living in HAs, illustrating how such minorities can be locked into housing disadvantage and poverty through a 'racial wage' that perpetuates racial capitalism (Robinson, 2021). McKee at al. (2016) have argued for 'spatial nuance' when analysing HAs in terms of national policy differences, but actually existing racial capitalism plays out through variegations across and even within cities (cf. Brenner & Theodore, 2002). ...
... More research and data are needed to unpack the manifold connections between race and HAs. Second, there is a real need for 'spatial nuance', as HAs have long differed across the UK depending on devolved national housing policies (McKee et al., 2016). Moreover the level of HAs' financial variation across and within UK cities is enormous (Clegg, 2019). ...
This paper provides a critical intervention into recent geographical debates on racial capitalism, interrogating the role that Housing Associations (HAs), the main form of UK social housing, play in its (re)production. Housing Associations are institutional, third‐sector spaces within which novel forms of financialisation and bordering take place. Race is central to these processes, but insufficient critical attention has been afforded to the intersections of class, race, and migratory status in extant research on UK HAs. Moreover, existing research into housing and racial capitalism is provincial in its North American focus, typically examining home ownership and private renting. We argue this is a significant lacuna given that new and multiple forms of racialised exclusion, inequality, and extraction cohere in social housing. There is accordingly a pressing need for a robust interrogation of racial capitalisms through UK HAs, and of the role of HAs via the conceptual lens of racial capitalism. In concluding, the paper argues for a new focus on ‘actually existing’ racial capitalisms, and the need for detailed analyses of the logics and practices of racial capitalisms across a variety of sites and scales, helping debates move beyond their conceptual heartland in North America.
... Having in mind London's position as a global city and a major financial hub, the nature of the housing problem is very different in the North of England, for example, than in the Greater London region. McKee et al. (2016) emphasise the importance of spatial nuance and maintain that there is no such thing as a 'UK experience' in housing and housing policy. On the other hand, house price movements in London have tended to anticipate those across the rest of the UK and ripple out across the South East and beyond (Meen, 1999;Muellbauer & Murphy, 1997). ...
... Furthermore, despite the importance of spatial nuance in housing studies (McKee et al., 2016) and the significance of London's housing developments for the country as a whole, there are strikingly few modelling studies of long-term housing developments that focus on London in particular. Based on a review of the state of the art of mainstream economic housing market models in the UK, Bramley and Watkins (2016) observe that '[t]here is a lack of whole-system simulation models, as opposed to models focussed on particular variable' (Bramley & Watkins, 2016, p. 4). ...
... UK as a whole, as argued byMcKee et al. (2016), when speaking of the housing crisis there is no such thing as a uniform 'UK experience' since the nature of the crisis in London is very different from that of other regions in England or the UK. Therefore, the focus on Greater London seems a justified choice.The model is a continuous-time model, with years as the base time unit: it is intended to capture dynamics that happen at the yearly scale or longer, and not shorter-term fluctuations. ...
In London, housing affordability has been rapidly declining over the past few decades. Furthermore, London, and the UK in general, has experienced persistent volatility in house prices, new housing supply, and housing finance. These features characterise the main aspects of London’s housing crisis which is the topic of this PhD. Our existing understanding of this crisis remains largely fragmented and mostly qualitative. In this thesis, I build a novel quantitative system dynamics model based on existing literature and statistical data to explain developments in London’s housing system since 1980, with a particular focus on the feedback loops between house prices and housing credit. The model is shown to be capable of endogenously reproducing the salient features of the system’s past behaviour, such as the excessive growth in prices and housing credit as well as the characteristic boom-bust cycles. Extending the simulation into the future under business-as-usual continues to generate exponential growth and increasingly larger amplitude oscillations. Furthermore, I simulate a number of policies aimed at mitigating the unchecked growth and volatility. Supply side policies considered include a steep increase in affordable housing construction, a relaxation of planning restrictions, and a combination of the two. These policies show promise in slowing the growth in house prices (and housing debt) but do little to curb market volatility. Demand side policies considered include introducing a capital gains tax on all residential property, lowering average loan-tovalue ratios, enforcing historically anchored property valuations for mortgage lending, and a combination of all three. These policies, particularly when combined, appear to be highly effective in eliminating periodic oscillations. They also serve to slow down the worsening of affordability to some extent, but demand-side policies alone do not appear capable of stopping the trend in deteriorating affordability. In order to eliminate largescale market volatility and simultaneously stop the continual worsening of affordability, it is shown to be necessary to intervene on both sides of the problem with a portfolio of targeted policies. In conclusion, I argue that the unit of analysis in housing policy and discourse must become feedback loops rather than individual factors. Integrated, feedback-centred, dynamic simulation tools are needed in long-term planning for the affordability and stability of the housing market in London and in the UK. The system dynamics model introduced in this thesis serves as a proof of concept for a promising approach to policymaking in the area of the UK’s housing policy.
... In order to safeguard revenue streams and produce more ideal tenants HAs have also become sites of neoliberal governmentality, with, for example, financial literacy, citizenship, and employability classes (Preece and Bimpson, 2019;Wainwright and Marandet, 2019) accompanying more explicit and violent policing of anti-social behaviour Perera, 2019). It is important therefore to delve deeper and ensure spatial nuance (see McKee et al., 2016;Thompson, 2020); therefore the next sections, drawing on our own research, add crucial compositionist detail to this story. ...
... And much like in a workplace, it is vital to understand that this fragmentation is rarely accidental, instead central to technical (spatial) compositions. This argument was made forcefully by Graham, a social housing tenant, activist, and researcher in Glasgow, where the stock transfer of social housing from local authority to HA was much more recent and sudden than in England, reinforcing the importance of 'spatial nuance' (McKee et al, 2016): ...
This paper explores the potentials and challenges of organising in (and at times against-and-beyond) social housing. Drawing on extended research across the UK with a range of tenants, activists, and housing staff we illustrate the need for fine-grained and spatially attuned analysis. In particular we adopt an autonomist Marxist ‘spatial composition analysis’, arguing that this approach is ideally placed to examine social housing struggles. We show how although changes to social housing are grounded in accumulation and control, immanent to these shifts can be conditions for resistance. Insights from campaigns—both successful and otherwise—emphasise the need for collective, bottom-up inquiry in order to develop properly spatially-attuned analysis. We also consider the complexities that emerge when trying to build solidarity between social housing tenants and workers, with staff occupying ambivalent positions both in-and-against and in-and-for wider, often-racialised structures. Ultimately social housing struggles can be powerful and transformative, but one size does not fit all. By emphasising both the theoretical and practical value of a spatial composition analysis we argue that autonomist Marxist ideas can play a powerful role in housing studies and struggles.
... in Wales, 14.6% in Scotland, and 9% in Northern Ireland, [1]. In terms of government policy support, the U.K. has helped to buy focus, enabling the market to be stimulated to generate sales, [25]. However, such a policy does not address the issue of affordability, as [3], explained that stimulating housing demand increases the price range without improving supply rates. ...
... According to [26], the criterion for housing policies can be based on working-class affordability, adequate demand, and government projects that meet supply. The study, [25], reports that supply has increased regularly in the U.K., but demand has resulted in skyrocketing prices. Also, universal content must be added to provide adequate information for the policy paper. ...
The housing crisis in the UK is imperilling what Abraham Maslow described as a vital physiological necessity. This paper examines how the housing issue in the UK is complicated by the policy intricacy of The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and the capability of the management and workforce to adapt to a changing political agenda, public administration and the current as well as the concomitant issues in the housing sector. It explores and focuses on core policy elements and how they impact the housing crisis. These policy factors include accountability and transparency, institution administration and style, network governance, data management and communication, strategic and policy-making systems and response to emerging agendas in public administration and governance. This study reveals the severity of the housing issue’s problems and offers important advice that will help remedy the UK’s housing quandary to accomplish this research objective, a mixed research approach was used, which helped in the presentation of findings that showed how the situation has affected the UK. Lastly, the study will assess the internal and exterior difficulties MHCLG faces in carrying out its duties and examine how it has responded to recent developments in governance.
... Just as questions of sustainable development are political, complicated and complex, so too are planning processes. Along with education and health, planning and housing have been devolved in the UK since 1999 (McKee et al., 2017). Settlement patterns illustrate diverse approaches to how land is used for housing across the UK and are reflective of highly politicised processes. ...
... Settlement patterns illustrate diverse approaches to how land is used for housing across the UK and are reflective of highly politicised processes. Indeed, cogent arguments have asserted that there is no such thing as a UK housing experience, instead advocating a policy approach that is more 'spatially-aware ' (McKee et al., 2017). Probably housing is one of the most contentious issues in modern UK society as new developments in both rural and urban contexts attract resistance from local residents and environmental groups. ...
... This term reflects the barriers that today's young adults face in saving for a deposit and taking on a mortgage in order to buy a home. This, in turn, forces them into the private rental sector for a longer period of time than previous generations (McKee, 2012;McKee et al., 2017). In this regard, young adults express their frustrations about the gap between their socially constructed aspirations to acquire a home, while they are trapped in the rental sector (Colic-Peisker & Johnson, 2012;Hoolachan et al., 2017). ...
... Furthermore, young adults today are following longer educational trajectories before building a career and accumulating resources, leading them to postpone familyformation and their housing career (Clark, 2019;Coulter et al., 2020;Iacovou, 2010). However, the traditional narrative still pushes homeownership as an expected event at this stage in life (Colic-Peisker & Johnson, 2012;McKee et al., 2017). ...
This study investigates class inequality in homeownership and the mortgage debt burden of young adults (aged 25-35) in Israel, from the present cohort and from the 1980s. These two time points reflect the shift from a social-welfare system to a neoliberal regime. Data was drawn from the Household Expenditure Survey for the periods 1975 and 1980, as well as 2012-2013 (Israel CBS). The findings reveal that while gaps between the probability of mortgaged homeownership and outright ownership have remained remarkably stable for the low-income and middle-income classes, the high-income class has substantially improved its probability of mortgaged homeownership and decreased its probability of non-homeownership. Furthermore, the middle class has the highest mortgage debt burden. However, in late young adulthood (ages 30-40), the low class is saddled with a higher mortgage debt burden relative to income than the middle class, residing in locations with lower socioeconomic status. Moreover, the high class has a higher mortgage debt burden than the middle class, when residing in areas with higher socioeconomic status. This practice increases the latter's wealth prospects and shows the financial burden imposed upon the low class in order for its members to have 'a roof over their head'.
... This term reflects the barriers that today's young adults face in saving for a deposit and taking on a mortgage in order to buy a home. This, in turn, forces them into the private rental sector for a longer period of time than previous generations (McKee, 2012;McKee et al., 2017). In this regard, young adults express their frustrations about the gap between their socially constructed aspirations to acquire a home, while they are trapped in the rental sector (Colic-Peisker & Johnson, 2012;Hoolachan et al., 2017). ...
... Furthermore, young adults today are following longer educational trajectories before building a career and accumulating resources, leading them to postpone familyformation and their housing career (Clark, 2019;Coulter et al., 2020;Iacovou, 2010). However, the traditional narrative still pushes homeownership as an expected event at this stage in life (Colic-Peisker & Johnson, 2012;McKee et al., 2017). ...
This study investigates class inequality in homeownership and the mortgage debt burden of young adults (aged 25-35) in Israel, from the present cohort and from the 1980s. These two time points reflect the shift from a social-welfare system to a neoliberal regime. Data was drawn from the Household Expenditure Survey for the periods 1975 and 1980, as well as 2012-2013 (Israel CBS). The findings reveal that while gaps between the probability of mortgaged homeownership and outright ownership have remained remarkably stable for the low-income and middle-income classes, the high-income class has substantially improved its probability of mortgaged homeownership and decreased its probability of non-homeownership. Furthermore, the middle class has the highest mortgage debt burden. However, in late young adulthood (ages 30-40), the low class is saddled with a higher mortgage debt burden relative to income than the middle class, residing in locations with lower socioeconomic status. Moreover, the high class has a higher mortgage debt burden than the middle class, when residing in areas with higher socioeconomic status. This practice increases the latter's wealth prospects and shows the financial burden imposed upon the low class in order for its members to have 'a roof over their head'.
... As a result of the increased demand, there was a lack of units, resulting in an affordability crisis. However, the housing stock has improved throughout the years, and in the last decade, the proportion of non-decent houses has dropped below 20% from a high of 35% in 2006 (Mckee et al., 2017). Following discovering the fundamental issue, the government plans to produce 1 million units in the next five years (2015-2020). ...
... Arts, culture, heritage, and the built environment are the responsibility of devolved administrations in the United Kingdom. Devolution allows for policy divergence between nations and has seen the emergence of distinct national policy narratives (MacKinnon 2015;McKee et al. 2017). In Scotland, national strategies have stressed the importance of connections between people and place and the impact this has on how people value the historic environment (Historic Scotland 2014). ...
Assessing the Social Values of Heritage considers how social values can be better understood and incorporated into the day-to-day work of managing and conserving the historic environment.
Drawing together major strands of thinking from critical heritage studies, ethnography and social research, and science and technology studies, the book explores the theoretical and practical tensions that shifting discourses on value and contemporary significance have created for heritage practitioners. Presenting seven case studies of social value assessments, it discusses how qualitative methods and participatory approaches can be applied in a variety of real-world contexts, revealing the complex interactions that characterise these dynamic knowledge production processes. The book provides unique insights into methods as more-than-technical processes that determine not only how, but which knowledge is (re)produced, shaping understandings of social values. It concludes that bringing social values into heritage practice requires not only new methods and approaches, but new ways of working with emergent understandings and multiple types of expertise. In response to the challenges - and the opportunities - identified, the concept of a ‘methods assemblage’ is employed, offering an effective model for more reflexive and inclusive future practice in this area.
Assessing the Social Values of Heritage provides the first systematic, comparative review of methods for social values assessment. It will be essential reading for practitioners, academics and scholars engaged in the study of heritage, participatory research, and people-centred methods.
... As a result of the increased demand, there was a lack of units, resulting in an affordability crisis. However, the housing stock has improved throughout the years, and in the last decade, the proportion of non-decent houses has dropped below 20% from a high of 35% in 2006 (Mckee et al., 2017). Following discovering the fundamental issue, the government plans to produce 1 million units in the next five years (2015-2020). ...
This research explores the concept of sustainable housing, focusing on Swabi, Pakistan, as a case study for its development. It considers the role that government planning and design can play in fostering sustainable housing, as well as economic factors and cost-efficiency. Additionally, the study investigates how sustainable housing impacts residents' comfort. Data was collected through a self-designed survey targeting professionals in construction and development such as architects, planners, and designers. The respondents were selected through random sampling, and the survey was administered online through Google Forms. Hypothesis: Sustainable housing is highly influenced by government policies in terms of housing plans and design and economic considerations. In turn, sustainable housing significantly affects the improvement of comfort for the residents and ensures environmental safety. A one-sample t-test was conducted to analyze the perspectives of the surveyed population regarding different aspects of sustainable housing. The statistical analysis indicated that the government's role, economic factors, and cost efficiency all are significantly related to promoting sustainable housing in Pakistan. It also points out that sustainable housing is positive for comfort improvement for residents and environmental protection.
... This included cutting local authorities' budgets and housing benefit recipients, capping overall household benefits and increasing taxation on social renters with unoccupied bedrooms (Powell, 2015). Moreover, in 2010, the British government implemented 'affordable rent' models that allowed housing associations and local authorities to provide ownership at reduced market prices and 'affordable' housing at up to 80% of local market rents (McKee et al., 2017). These models supplied public and private affordable housing at near-market rates to foster homeownership among middle-income households and secure profits amid governmental budget cuts (London Tenants Federation, 2017). ...
In this article I expand contemporary political-economic analyses of housing affordability. Specifically, I engage with urban geography research around biopolitical logics within processes of housing financialization and contribute to debates of 'making live' and 'letting die' by mobilizing Sylvia Wynter's anticolonial scholarship to emphasize alternative narrations of human life emerging alongside (bio)political-economic rationales that enable the modern human, Man. In this study, which centres on three years of ethnographic research with the Focus E15 housing campaign in the East London borough of Newham, I stress the human as field of political struggle within debates around housing affordability. Situating my research in the struggle of Focus E15 campaigners against the inhuman conditions of Newham's temporary accommodation residents, I reveal how debates around housing affordability within Newham's urban development become constituted through narratives of mixed/balanced communities, the shifting of responsibilities and coproduction efforts. I argue that these debates rely on Man's narrative of homo oeconomicus, which legitimizes the expulsion of temporary accommodation residents from Newham. In contrast, I highlight how the Focus E15 Campaign imagines affordability beyond political-economic rationales, thus spatializing an alternative way of being human, homo narrans. Consequently, I foreground the human as contested grammar within urban geography research on housing affordability to move beyond Man's geographies of managed life and death.
... This chapter considers housing policy and numbers in England as distinct within the UK. While there are overarching housing trends within the UK, there are substantive enough differences between the economics, demographics and housing policies of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to warrant individual treatment (McKee et al, 2017). Indeed, while we draw evidence, argument and conclusions at the national scale, both housing and planning are always local, and for households in inadequate housing or with limited access to a home, the complexities of state planning for housing are intensely experienced at the micro-spatial scale, whether or not the state seeks to reconstitute spatial governance structures. ...
This topical, edited collection analyses the state of the planning system in England and offers a robust, evidence-based review of over a decade of change since the Conservative-led coalition government came to power. With a critique of ongoing planning reforms by the UK government, the book argues that the planning system is often blamed for a range of issues caused by ineffective policy making by government.
Including chapters on housing, localism, design, zoning and the consequences of Brexit for environmental planning, the contributors unpick a complicated set of recent reforms and counter the claims of the think-tank-led assault on democratic planning.
... This chapter considers housing policy and numbers in England as distinct within the UK. While there are overarching housing trends within the UK, there are substantive enough differences between the economics, demographics and housing policies of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to warrant individual treatment (McKee et al, 2017). Indeed, while we draw evidence, argument and conclusions at the national scale, both housing and planning are always local, and for households in inadequate housing or with limited access to a home, the complexities of state planning for housing are intensely experienced at the micro-spatial scale, whether or not the state seeks to reconstitute spatial governance structures. ...
... Scotland's own approach to policy in general (Cairney et al., 2016) and housing policy in particular is said to be distinct or different (Gibb, 2012;Kintrea, 2007;Mullins et al., 2006;Murie, 2004) from the rest of the UK and it is apparent that Scotland's approach to housing policy (and, to some extent, the approaches in Wales and Northern Ireland) is more fixated on 'social outcomes' (Maclennan & O'Sullivan, 2008) and tenants with low incomes (McKee et al., 2016) than in England. ...
The research, funded by the CIH in partnership with Fife Council, sought to identify the shortfall between LHA rates and advertised rents and to explore potential shortcomings with the LHA rate setting process.
... Scholars have already conceptualized how housing is enrolled in the spaces of finance (e.g. Aalbers 2016) and governance (McKee, Muir, and Moore 2017), as well as housing's interplay with the places and urban contexts (e.g. Leaney 2020; Martella and Enia 2021;McFarlane 2011) where social life occurs. ...
This paper proposes that everyday life in housing contains the possibility to shape and transform its material, cultural, and social conditions. Mobilizing a materialist ontology and insights from human geography, we examine how shared spaces manifest practices of togetherness which prefigure the enactment of socioeco-logical degrowth. We draw on ethnographic fieldwork on a housing estate in Manchester (UK) to identify practices that characterize everyday housing geographies, including reappropriation, com-moning, accepting limits, and territorializing tendencies. These constitute a therapeutic assemblage, facilitating wellbeing while simultaneously enfolded with(in) the political possibilities being realized on the estate to form a contingent, yet durable, instantia-tion of everyday degrowth. We thus contribute to revealing how transformative degrowth politics are sustained in everyday housing contexts.
... The complexity of the housing sector and its role in UK social policy is further challenged by the 'spatial nuance' of housing policy and policy divergence throughout the UK (McKee et al, 2017). Devolution around housing policy has been challenged by the negotiation of powers and the impact of UK welfare reform (Gibb, 2015) alongside the messy and contested realities of governing housing in local contexts (McKee, 2011). ...
Housing has often been regarded as a ‘wobbly pillar’ of the welfare state due to its disjointed position between the public and private realms and the intractability of some problems to policy solutions. Indeed, we can ask whether a ‘housing sector’ exists at all, due to complex systems of governance, financialisation, policy divergence and overall fragmentation of housing-related social policy throughout the UK. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of housing policy, putting ‘the home’ and neighbourhoods into the spotlight. This chapter looks at some of the key emerging and re-emerging issues for housing policy in the UK through the lens of the COVID-19 pandemic. The chapter firstly outlines why housing was considered the ‘wobbly pillar’ going into 2019, including issues surrounding the financialisation of housing. Key COVID-19 housing-related policy responses are then examined in the context of emerging evidence that the pandemic is reinforcing inequalities in housing. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated underlying housing issues faced by more vulnerable groups, yet it has also created an opportunity to showcase radical policy options and highlight the importance of future-proofing housing to be more flexible, dynamic and better quality.
... The complexity of the housing sector and its role in UK social policy is further challenged by the 'spatial nuance' of housing policy and policy divergence throughout the UK (McKee et al, 2017). Devolution around housing policy has been challenged by the negotiation of powers and the impact of UK welfare reform (Gibb, 2015) alongside the messy and contested realities of governing housing in local contexts (McKee, 2011). ...
Emergent and leading international experts in the field present key contributions of emerging social policy issues over the past year. The first part of the volume contains contributions from the Social Policy Association Policy Groups, while the second part focuses on wider issues in social policy.
... As such, England is the only jurisdiction in which housing is exclusively governed through the UK Parliament. Although Westminster retains authority to supersede or retract devolved powers and the 'sub-national' governments face institutional and financial constraints (Connell, Martin, and St Denny 2017), Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have taken distinctive approaches to homelessness (and, indeed, LGBT rights) since devolution (see further Fitzpatrick, Mackie, et al. 2019;McKee, Muir, and Moore 2017). Whilst a valuable project, however, this article doesn't provide a transnational comparison. ...
Through an examination of its discursive presence in the UK Parliament (Westminster), this article explores political elites’ problematisations of LGBT homelessness. In particular, I consider whether the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion that have been critically identified in relation to the mainstreaming of ‘gay rights’ in other sites are evident in the emerging discourse on LGBT homelessness in Westminster. I find that the cross-party emphasis on data collection as a predicate for action on LGBT homelessness enables the Conservatives to signal sexual progress without risking the Party’s traditional supporters. Moreover, the almost exclusive focus on LGBT homeless youth in the parliamentary discourse, which is echoed to a lesser degree in existing research, stabilises divisions of ‘deserving/undeserving’ poor and entrenches the relationship between housing security, normative forms of intimacy and anti-migrant nationalist sentiments. To escape the terms of its current emergence, I argue, a coalitional and grass-roots-led definition of the problem of LGBT homelessness is needed.
... The complexity of the housing sector and its role in UK social policy is further challenged by the 'spatial nuance' of housing policy and policy divergence throughout the UK (McKee et al, 2017). Devolution around housing policy has been challenged by the negotiation of powers and the impact of UK welfare reform (Gibb, 2015) alongside the messy and contested realities of governing housing in local contexts (McKee, 2011). ...
Introduction: COVID-19 putting ‘the home’ and neighbourhoods into the spotlight
Housing policy has often been regarded as a ‘wobbly pillar’ of the welfare state, described also as ‘special’, ‘awkward’, ‘peculiar’ and indeed ‘a sore thumb’ (Torgersen, 1987). This is due to housing being both in the realms of the welfare state but also a commodity linked to tenure (eg home ownership, social or private renting), wealth and market value. The place of housing within social policy is therefore complex due to its disjointed position between the public and private realms and the intractability of some housing challenges to policy solutions. However, Malpass (2003, 2008) challenges the idea of the ‘wobbly pillar’ and argues that housing is a ‘cornerstone’ due to the assets, investment, infrastructure and goods and services that the housing sector supports. This chapter considers the extent to which the impact of the COVID-19 crisis reveals the ‘wobbly’ and more solid foundations of UK housing policy.
The COVID-19 pandemic has put ‘the home’ and neighbourhoods into the spotlight and refocused on the significance of housing – as both a safe and an unsafe space (Gurney, 2020). This chapter aims to outline and offer a positioning paper on the impact of COVID-19 on several high-level housing-related topics, including financialisaton, welfare reform, health, homelessness and housing inequality. Through this analysis, both negative and positive impacts of COVID-19 are explored within the English, Scottish and Welsh housing sectors. Key COVID-19 housing-related policy responses are then examined in the context of emerging evidence that the pandemic is reinforcing inequalities in housing.
The first section, ‘Financialisation, affordability and market failure within the housing sector’, considers financialisation, housing market failure and the inequalities in accessing, maintaining and living well in a house (Blakeley, 2019; Jacobs and Manzi, 2020). Blakeley (2021) highlights that the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to exacerbate these issues, where the UK is ‘sleepwalking’ into a new financial and homelessness crisis around housing.
The second section, ‘Impact of UK welfare reforms’, considers the wider picture in the light of welfare reform, as after experiencing a recession far exceeding the ‘great recession’ of 2008, the government now finds itself with record levels of debt of over L2 trillion, equivalent to over 100 per cent of GDP and 13 per cent higher than the European Union average (ONS, 2021b). Growth in unemployment has resulted in reduced tax income for the government and increased social security expenditure (HM Treasury, 2021). Additionally, furlough payments and the Universal Credit (UC) uplift signified new territory for a government committed to small government and welfare retrenchment, though these measures are relatively shortterm interventions.
... The complexity of the housing sector and its role in UK social policy is further challenged by the 'spatial nuance' of housing policy and policy divergence throughout the UK (McKee et al, 2017). Devolution around housing policy has been challenged by the negotiation of powers and the impact of UK welfare reform (Gibb, 2015) alongside the messy and contested realities of governing housing in local contexts (McKee, 2011). ...
Published in association with the Social Policy Association, the latest volume in this long-running series addresses current issues and critical debates throughout the international social policy field with a particular focus on employment policy, housing policy and climate justice. Contributors also explore key developments including researching during the COVID-19 pandemic, migrants’ access to social benefits in Germany, the right(s) to healthcare in Italy, American and European homelessness policies and much more.
... It is in these wider impacts that the Right to Rent makes housing increasingly precarious for all migrant groups, not simply those named as the targets of a 'hostile environment'. Second, the Right to Rent illustrates the complexities of housing policy and migration in the UK, as it is a legal provision that applies only to England, and not in the devolved nations of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland (McKee et al., 2017). For whilst immigration policy is a matter reserved under the control of the UK government in Westminster, control over housing policy is devolved to administrations in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, thus creating a tension between housing rights and migration policy in these nations (Crawford et al., 2016). ...
Free open access here: https://door.donau-uni.ac.at/view/o:2583
Precarious housing conditions are on the rise across Europe. Precarious housing refers to housing that is either unaffordable or unsuitable, for example because it is overcrowded, in poor dwelling condition, poorly located or even unsafe. While there is much literature on the strong link between employment and housing insecurity and abundant investigations in different aspects of precarious housing, hardly any attempt has been made so far to provide a consolidated overview of the whole topic and thereby put these different facets into the joint perspective of housing-related poverty.
This Critical Guide adds to the debate on causes, symptoms, consequences and possible solutions and makes them accessible for teaching, learning and self-study across multiple disciplines. It is the result of “PusH – Precarious Housing in Europe”, a Strategic Partnership funded under Erasmus+. The seven chapters of this book examine a range of themes, focusing on how experiences of precarious housing intersect with other dynamics of precariousness, associated with insecure immigration status, racism and discrimination, class, wealth, and income disparities, and forms of homelessness and displacement. Each chapter draws on examples from across Europe to explore different experiences of precarious housing, and different responses to these conditions.
The Guide is accompanied by an open access website that provides further resources for teaching and learning
https://mdl.donau-uni.ac.at/push/
... Luo [7] took China's public rental housing (PRH) as the research object and found that the wellintended housing policy mainly proposed three measures: government procurement, new financial arrangements and guided service contents. Furthermore, informed by ideas of social constructionism, which emphasises the politics of housing, McKee et al. [8] emphasized the need for greater geographical sensitivity through an analysis of policy narratives. (2) Factors that influence housing satisfaction. ...
With the rapid development of China’s economy and the acceleration of urbanization, the country’s housing security system is constantly improving. To address the housing difficulties experienced by low- and middle-income populations, China has formulated the housing provident fund system and the affordable housing system. However, especially for the floating population, housing and medical security have not resulted in an equalization of services. We thus analyze data from Chinese Family Panel Studies (CFPS) to describe the influence of housing security on the family medical economic risk of the floating population. According to the results, the payment of housing provident fund can effectively reduce the incidence of catastrophic health expenditures. In contrast, per capita financial expenditure on affordable housing will significantly increase family medical economic risk. Heterogeneity tests based on the household register and income levels show that the impacts of housing security vary across populations. In addition, the influence mechanism analysis shows that the impact is mediated through housing mortgage loans. Based on the conclusions drawn, three policy recommendations of optimizing the guarantee function of the housing provident fund system, expanding the coverage of affordable housing policy, and promoting the coordinated development of housing and medical security are proposed. This research not only has theoretical and practical significance for the establishment of the security system for the floating population in China but also provides an effective reference for the development of housing and medical security systems in other countries.
... LGAs is consistent with that of Leishman and Bramley (2005) and Fingleton et al. (2019), who also focus on local administrative regions. It acknowledges the important role that administrative and political boundaries have in driving housing markets dynamics (McKee et al., 2017). ...
The housing elasticity of supply (HES)—how housing supply responds to price rises—has been a major preoccupation of policymakers in the face of worsening housing affordability in many countries. Yet we lack an understanding of just how this quantity varies across regions, and within cities, or the factors which drive it. We address this question by estimating the HES for 341 spatially disaggregated Australian local government areas (LGAs) from 2001 to 2019 for houses and units (attached homes). Our estimates document considerable variation in HES estimates across LGAs. For houses it ranges from 0.17 at the 25th percentile to 0.44 at the 75th percentile while for units it varies between 0.56 and 1.17. Interestingly, we find no correlation between the LGA HES estimates for houses and units. We explore how variation in the local HES relates to potential housing supply drivers such as accessibility to central business districts, topography, temperature range, annual precipitation, and political orientation. The most important driver of the HES is accessibility—LGAs on the city-fringe have the highest HES for houses, while for units it is highest in the inner-city. We find political orientation and annual precipitation have some impact on the HES for units.
... Marsh, 2018), in part responding to the need to remain financially solvent, while also helping the government deliver its targets for homebuilding (Meek, 2014). New UK policy developments such as 'devolution' (McKee et al, 2017) and 'levelling up' (Heath, 2022) are also changing the UK housing landscape, relying on the mobilization of HAs (and other third sector organisations) to combat austerity and become 'lead agents of local, place-based solutions in tackling the problems facing low-income neighbourhoods' (McKee, 2015:1077, our emphasis). Finally, the sector must also respond to emergent crises, such as working toward decarbonisation due to the climate emergency (NHF, 2021) and addressing the multiple social inequalities exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic (Gurney, 2021). ...
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to conceptualise how place management practices in UK housing associations (HAs) involve processes of ecological place management.
Design/methodology/approach
Ethnographic fieldwork focusing on how communal spaces are organised on a housing estate in a UK city revealed the importance of negotiation with other actors, including an HA which is responsible for managing the estate. The authors draw on extensive participant observation with residents, as well as interviews with both residents and employees of the HA, to show the wider forces and complexities involved in these ecological place management practices.
Findings
This paper identifies hybrid socio-ecological, socio-political and political-economic dynamics unfolding as places are managed and organised. These widen the scope of place management research and practice to account for multiple ways places are organised.
Research limitations/implications
This paper offers a critical perspective on place management, developing an ecological approach that is applicable both to the relatively new context of housing and to more established sites in town and city centres.
Practical implications
This paper’s findings point to ways that housing and place management practitioners, both in the UK and elsewhere, can use an ecological approach to re-frame their strategic and practical actions with regards to “place”.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to unveiling the complexity involved in place management and organisation, thereby encouraging place managers to embrace ecological thinking capable of addressing future challenges.
... Policymakers have expressed ambitions to ensure that new homes are built to ZCH standards, but subsequent targets have been abandoned [48]. In the UK housing sector, the high land costs, the stagnating delivery of affordable new-build homes, and market dominance by many high-volume housebuilders limit progress towards lower carbon new-build homes [49,50]. Framed as a socially innovative means of opening up the demand for technological progress [51], local interventions into market practices, operating in the shadow of the ZCH policy failure, have actively cultivated this relationship more intimately, connecting the benefits to be derived from energy-efficient housing to the people who can enjoy them [36]. ...
BIM, gamification, and Virtual Reality applications are more often used to serve the interests of Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA). This paper presents a comprehensive study to exploit these technologies' innovative approaches and capabilities. The study is specifically adopted to implement small and medium-size architectural and construction practices with a limited budget and time dedicated to visualisation creation. The collected evidence proved that a game-like platform combined with BIM could provide simplified data delivery to a client, leading to customer satisfaction, confidence and increased sales. The designed workflow and templates were tested in the case study of a small self-build construction company. The staff was trained to provide BIM data correctly and use supplied game templates. The case study demonstrated that automation of the VR House Configurator creation is achievable. The study's outcome is an integrated solution to regenerate BIM models in the game environment and utilise the house configurator's organised furniture library and costing interface. Furthermore, the usability tests confirmed the applicability, practicability, and validity of the developed framework and tools to deal with the revealed challenges in the self-build sector. Finally, the research provided a fresh approach for the companies in the sector, a step-by-step guide for implementing the innovative changes, and detailed descriptions of the methodologies and workflows.
... The complexity of the housing sector and its role in UK social policy is further challenged by the 'spatial nuance' of housing policy and policy divergence throughout the UK (McKee et al, 2017). Devolution around housing policy has been challenged by the negotiation of powers and the impact of UK welfare reform (Gibb, 2015) alongside the messy and contested realities of governing housing in local contexts (McKee, 2011). ...
... One example includes abolishing the Right to Buy in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and maintaining levels of funding for social (or affordable) housing development, unlike England. McKee et al. (2017) show that this devolution process is ongoing, fragmented and evolving, where policy includes a variety of actors from national and local governments that have seen a 're-territorialisation of policy spaces'. Devolution has brought different approaches, assumptions and policy settings across the UK that shape how each country views (and finds solutions) to housing problems (Gibb 2021). ...
Inclusive Living is a concept and practical intervention developed from a systematic literature review and co-produced by the Scottish housing sector. The approach aims to implement inclusive change in areas of development, repair, maintenance and service delivery by facilitating longer term planning within housing organisations to create homes that are accessible and allow for ageing-in-place. This synthesis paper critically examines the theories that support the Inclusive Living framework, focusing on adaptations (also known as home and environmental modifications to support accessibility). Current challenges around accessibility are explored: poor-quality homes, disinvestment in repair and maintenance, and the fragmented policy landscape and funding around adaptations. Proactive approaches to adaptations are found to lead to better outcomes for individuals and they need to be understood as a ‘public issue’ not a ‘private trouble’ to encourage investment in housing sector solutions. 'Practice relevance' An Inclusive Living approach supports housing strategy holistically, examining not only physical modifications but also how housing facilitates social relationships and connections, tackling structural inequalities, and supporting social inclusion. This entails a life-course approach, where inclusivity in planning for the future can benefit all groups. A more systematic approach to planning for housing and ageing will be impactful, inclusive and proactive.
... An important factor that motivates this study is devolution. The Scottish Experience is interesting because of devolved housing policy (McKee et al. 2017). Over time, since the early 2000s, Scottish housing has developed its own landscape. ...
The price to rent ratio can be used to identify properties which are either overvalued or undervalued according to market fundamentals. Fluctuations in the price to rent ratio over time, can be traced to either changes in expectations of future house price growth (expected returns) or rental growth. In this paper, we measure the impact of these latent variables in Scotland’s main cities by implementing a state-space model based on the present value. The model estimates show that the proportion of expected rent growth and expected returns driving the price to rent ratio differs across Scotland. Glasgow seems to be driven mostly by expected returns, while rent growth drives price movements in Edinburgh. A geographic dimension is noted as cities on the East coast share similar expected returns and expected rent growth. Housing market trends in Scotland mostly follow the Edinburgh experience. Further decompositions show that house price changes are driven by an equal combination of expected rent growth and expected returns in Dundee and Aberdeen.
... The different regions of the UK exhibit certain and unique characteristics. Northern Ireland is unique in the sense it has achieved an increased level of independence from the UK government since the late 1990s when it comes to social security provisions and the taxation of its housing market [16]. Further there is a strong link between the housing markets of the Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland [17]. ...
The performance of the housing market is currently considered a measure of economic activity. This research explores the connectedness vs. the ripple effect hypothesis in the current house pricing literature. Using linear causality and nonlinear causality tests we show significant bidirectional dependence between the London house prices and other UK regions’ house prices except for Northern Ireland and Wales in contrast to the existing literature where more evidence of ripple effect is reported. Furthermore, linear and non-linear forecasting tests back these results. This result has important implications for policymakers and investors.
... The experiences and issues outlined above are typical of experiences highlighted in previous research about HMOs (Barratt et al., 2015;Irving, 2015;Barratt and Green, 2017;Rugg and Rhodes, 2018a) but also in research about the private rented sector more broadly (Manzi, 2014;McKee et al., 2016;Simcock, 2017;Wilkinson and Ortega-Alcazar, 2017;Rugg and Rhodes, 2018a;2018b). However, this can be contrasted to the experiences of HMO tenants who were provided support alongside their accommodation. ...
The number of houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) in the UK has increased significantly in recent years, with the sector disproportionately housing vulnerable tenants. Government responses to the growth in HMOs has focused increasingly on landlord enforcement and planning controls, with limited attention on the needs of vulnerable residents. Drawing on new research with HMO tenants with multiple and complex needs (MCN), attendance at HMO working groups and consultations with stakeholders, this article argues that, whilst landlord enforcement and regulation are necessary, it is important to balance this approach with appropriate support for tenants with MCN. Whilst living in an HMO can exacerbate personal challenges, the research shows that positive outcomes are possible when tenants with MCN are supported to address their needs. At a time when the number of HMOs is continuing to increase, it is important to explore the significant role of support provided to tenants with MCN.
This paper examines the interaction between ‘radical’ constitutional change, in the form of political devolution, and property systems in the UK, from the perspective of those at the margins of those systems. The paper adopts a property ‘from below’ approach and critically applies the theoretical framework developed by AJ van der Walt in Property in the Margins . In that book, van der Walt outlined how property systems frequently operate to resist democratic and constitutional change and transformation through the functioning of the property paradigm, which refers to a set of doctrinal, rhetorical, and logical assumptions and beliefs about the relative value and power of discrete property interests in law and in society. Building on van der Walt's work, this paper takes eviction, which represents the landlord's apex right, as a case study and considers how qualifications of that right have been reformed by the Private Residential Tenancies (Scotland) Act 2016. It is argued that while the strength of the property paradigm is apparent in both English and Scottish property systems, Living Rent, a national tenants’ union in Scotland, have organised tenants to effectively contest and, in some respects, displace the logic of the property paradigm during the reform process.
This chapter examines the existing Self-Build Housing Sector in the UK and proposes solutions that utilise BIM, game theory, and immersive technologies to develop an interactive visualisation solution that integrates all of these technologies into one solution. The aim of this solution is to increase the market of TFSBS in the UK. The literature review shows that self-build and group self-build housing projects result in significantly better-quality housing, increased environmental efficiency, and value for money. However, self-building can be daunting and discouraging to purchasers. Additionally, the ZCH standard has been perceived as too complex for construction professionals, and even more so for self-builders. Self-building statistics in Scotland and England have confirmed that UK timber frame kit-home manufacturing companies require growth in BIM maturity levels and would benefit significantly from improved interoperability.KeywordsSelf-build housing sectorBIMZCH standardGame theoryAnd immersive technologies
While there is evidence that discrimination against LGBTQ + people can cause homelessness, or worsen experiences, in this paper we consider law, policy and practice to tackle homelessness among LGBTQ + people. Contrasting the different legal systems across the UK nations of England, Scotland and Wales, we firstly consider how law, as structured around the norm of the heterosexual nuclear family, can be designed to discriminate against LGBTQ + people. Turning to practice within organisations tackling homelessness, we then present evidence on how support can be explicitly, or inadvertently, discriminatory while trying to be well-intentioned. Evidence from an organisation that has embedded LGBTQ + inclusion into its services offers a best practice alternative. We conclude, using utopia as a method, by suggesting that a full respect for LGBTQ + lives in homelessness law and policy should ‘queer’ it, making it more inclusive and producing better outcomes for all people experiencing homelessness.
The main topic of this report is to highlight the key characteristics of the housing
policy and – market in Norway and contrast the Norwegian experience with that of
six other European countries: Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Austria, The
Netherlands, and the UK. We emphasize policies towards disadvantaged
households, the role of tenure, and other defining features of the respective
housing sectors
Based on freedom of information responses from English local authorities, the research examines the number of households where a duty to accommodate was accepted that were subsequently housed in other local authority areas. Recognising neoliberal housing policy of increased marketisation and less government intervention, the article identifies market failure, housing unaffordability and welfare reform contributing to households being displaced and social cleansing. Importantly, the research recognises negative housing outcomes beyond the binary of homelessness and the impact on vulnerable households by examining out of area housing, which is currently an under-researched area within housing.
This final chapter interrogates what sustainability transitions might mean for human-wetland relationships. Utilising contemporary scholarship around post-humanism, the chapter explores the ways in which climate change is shaping the way we view and use wetlands. Essential to these arguments are perspectives which draw upon the ‘intra-activity’ of planetary phenomena through intractable socio-technical ‘entanglements’. As our collective future depends on connected adaptations, wetlands are repositioned as essential to sustainable futures. The chapter reflects upon potential barriers and opportunities for wetland expansion, including biosecurity issues, wetland grabbing and green gentrification issues, nature based solutions and green infrastructure which ‘makes space for water’ and a cultural reappraisal of landscapes which animate the ‘terrain vague’. The book concludes with an overview of the themes of human-nature connectivity within wetlands, amplifying the need to protect these most essential of ecosystems.
This paper draws on the figurational sociology of Norbert Elias in understanding the current housing crisis in the UK: one which emphasizes the social interdependencies between individuals and groups, and the power relations that characterize them, in explaining household behaviour. It is argued that such an approach can contribute to a better understanding of housing processes and their differentiated outcomes. At the same time, this analysis exposes the myriad negative consequences that emerge from short-term housing policies based on static, over-simplified assumptions and applied to an ever-increasingly complex housing figuration, which is constantly in flux. These arguments are made with reference to empirical evidence on the impact of changes to housing benefit in the private rented sector, which shows how neoliberal housing policy contributes to long-term detrimental effects on marginalized households and groups. Through this example, it is argued that the governmental presentation of welfare reforms differs markedly from the reality of consequences on the ground and corresponds to “neoliberal state-crafting”. It is suggested that any approach to understanding the complexities of the housing system must retain a focus on historical change, precedents and fluctuations in power balances to avoid the pernicious “retreat into the present” characteristic of policy.
The idea of a “broken society” is advanced by Conservative politicians in the UK as emblematic of social and moral decay. With many echoes of long-standing claims of societal and moral breakdown, the narrative centres on “irresponsibility” and “disorderly” behaviours in disadvantaged working-class communities and asserts that welfare dependency is the underlying condition which produces “social breakdown”. Social housing estates and the populations therein, in particular, are represented as problematic and vulnerable on a number of different levels, especially in the frequently interlinked notion of “welfare ghetto”. In this paper, we adopt an interdisciplinary approach, utilizing Loïc Wacquant’s recent work on “territorial stigmatisation” and his thesis on the “ghetto”, to critique these narratives; and we explore the work these notions perform to legitimize increasingly pervasive state interventions to regulate and control working-class lives and communities. The classed assumptions underpinning these discourses are revealed in this context.
Housing policy formation under the United Kingdom's devolution settlement is currently under-researched and insufficiently understood. This article uses the example of social housing policy-making in Northern Ireland to reflect on its impact. Five factors with the potential to influence post-devolution policy-making are identified: common UK citizenship and ideology, policy networks, the political process, the mechanics of devolution and membership of the European Union. A post-devolution review of social housing policy in Northern Ireland is followed by a discussion of three key issues from the 2007 to 2011 administration: governance, procurement of new social housing, and ‘shared space’ and a shared future. Interviews with policy-makers indicate that 2007–2011 marked the beginnings of a trend away from the technocratic domination of officials towards greater intervention and policy ownership by politicians, but that the significance of this should not be overstated. The implications for multi-level and multi-jurisdictional policy-making in devolved and federal states are considered.
With more than 15 million new urban residents entering its cities every year, China is witnessing one of the greatest socioeconomic and environmental transformations in human history. In addition to these ongoing changes, urbanization in China often involves a significant political dimension, as the government would purposely accord city status to settlements, regardless of their developmental level: Largely rural settlements (eg, Zhen) could be accorded with the city status (eg, Jiedao) overnight by administrative power. Such redesignation is nontrivial as city status often translates into real socioeconomic changes; city status is closely linked to the land-use quota, provision of public services, local governments’ legislature power, as well as residents’ hukou. While socioeconomic and environmental aspects of Chinese cities have been analyzed extensively with aggregated statistics and/or remote sensing data (Deng et al, 2012), little is known about the shifting political geography of Chinese cities: that is, where new city status is being granted. It is this lacuna that our project aims to fill. We focus on the basic building block of a city proper in China: Jiedao (subdistricts). China has three township-level administrative units: Jiedao in the urban area and its counterparts in the rural side (Xiang, townships; and Zhen, towns). The re-designation of city status often involves Zhen and Jiedao: Zhens are considered as ‘next in the pipeline’ for city status and turned into Jiedaos when there is a political and/or economic need. We geocoded the 41 871 township-level units based on the Population Census of China, and estimated the spatial extent of individual units with Voronoi diagrams for the years of 2000 and 2010. The end product is a first map of ‘mushrooming’ Jiedaos in China. The total number of Jiedaos has grown from 5510 to 6923—a 25% increase—during the period 2000–10. Most new cities-proper have been created around major urban regions along the economically more developed eastern coast [eg, Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, Shandong Peninsula, and Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH)]. Other regions with noticeable growth are Central Henan in Central China, as well as the Chengdu–Chongqing corridor in West China. We also mapped out the distribution of Zhens: regions in East and Central China (eg, Shandong and Henan) feature predominantly, revealing the potential for future urban expansion. As city status often translates into real urban growth, we conjecture that the uneven geography of mushrooming Jiedaos would entrench the already huge East–West divide in China.
Few single policies have had a more profound impact on the modern British housing system than the wholesale transfer of public housing to 'new social landlords' -primarily Housing Associations. This important new text provides a comprehensive account of the causes, processes and consequences of stock transfer.
This article considers the ideology underpinning the 2010 UK Government’s welfare reform agenda in order to foreground what we see as the contradictions of localism and its justification in housing policy through the “Big Society” agenda. The article has three sections. It begins by discussing some of the methodological challenges that arise in interpreting contemporary policy and the value of a historically informed approach to understand the wider “politics” underpinning the “Big Society” agenda. To support our argument, the second part of the article traces the “localist” agenda back from the 1970s to the defeat of Labour in the 2010 general election to show how both Conservative and Labour administrations deployed localism as a justification for welfare reform and in different ways created opportunities for market-based reforms. The third section of the article considers the contemporary period, in particular the reforms presented to parliament in 2011 that offer new avenues for interest groups to influence decisions that hitherto have been mainly the preserve of local government. The conclusion provides a summary of the key policy implications and theoretical issues that arise from the analysis.
This book provides an up-to-date review of the social constructionist perspective and considers its philosophical basis. It discusses how social problems are constructed and, in turn, how this informs policy-making. It contributes to the development of a future research agenda for social constructionist research in housing and urban policy.
There is no abstract for this paper.
‘Putting into context’ is a very common phrase - both in the social sciences and beyond. But what exactly do we mean by this, and how do we do it? In this book, leading scholars in public policy and management tackle these issues. They show how ideas of context are central to a range of theories and explanations and use an international range of case studies to exemplify context-based explanation. The book uncovers the complexity that lies behind an apparently simple notion, and offers a variety of approaches to decipher that complexity. Context is indeed a missing link, which enables us to make sense of the vital relationship between the general and the particular.
The May 2010 election of a Conservative-dominated UK Coalition Government unleashed an unprecedented austerity drive under the auspices of “deficit reduction” in the wake of the global financial crisis. This article focuses on housing policy to show how the “cuts” are being used as an ideological cover for a far-reaching, market-driven restructuring of social welfare policy that amounts to a return of what Ralph Miliband called “class war conservatism”. We revisit the main ideological contours and materialist drivers of Thatcherism as a hegemonic strategy, discussing the central role played by housing privatisation in the neoliberal project that was continued, but not completed, by New Labour. We then discuss the Coalition’s assault on the housing welfare safety net it inherited, arguing this has rapidly shut down alternative directions for housing and represents a strategic intervention designed to unblock and expand the market, complete the residualisation of social housing and draw people into an ever more economically precarious housing experience in order to boost capitalist interests.
The May 2010 election of a Conservative-dominated UK coalition government unleashed an unprecedented austerity drive under the auspices of 'deficit reduction' in the wake of the global financial crisis. This article focuses on housing policy to show how the 'cuts' are being used as an ideological cover for a far-reaching, market-driven restructuring of social welfare policy that amounts to a return of what Ralph Miliband called 'class war conservatism'. We revisit the main ideological contours and materialist drivers of Thatcherism as a hegemonic strategy, discussing the central role played by housing privatization in the neoliberal project that was continued, but not completed, by New Labour. We then discuss the Coalition's assault on the housing welfare safety net it inherited, arguing this has rapidly shut down alternative directions for housing and represents a strategic intervention designed to unblock and expand the market, complete the residualization of social housing and draw people into an ever more economically precarious housing experience in order to boost capitalist interests.
Housing policy in Scotland is both distinctive and largely though not wholly devolved. Since 1999, housing has been at the core of divergent policymaking. In the recent referendum period, housing also featured indirectly in terms of the housing-related impacts of welfare reform such
as the bedroom tax. Consequently, the proposed changes devolving aspects of welfare and borrowing proposed by the Smith Commission also have ramifications for housing. However, continuing housing need in Scotland and the various challenges identified in this paper to achieving strategic policy
goals for the housing system mean that housing will remain a priority.
The paradigm shift in international homelessness policies towards a prevention focus has resulted in proven benefits to society and most importantly to individuals at risk of homelessness. Across the developed world, homelessness prevention is being pursued with vigour alongside existing homelessness interventions and yet there has been no pause for a systematic evaluation of how prevention fits alongside existing systems. Wales provides the first case where homelessness services have been systematically reviewed since the prevention turn. This paper critically examines the implementation of homelessness prevention in Wales, identifying how deficiencies echo emerging global concerns about the prevention turn. Drawing upon evidence gathered during a review of homelessness legislation in Wales, the paper examines the extent to which emerging proposals for legislative change will overcome problems with prevention. The emerging Welsh homelessness prevention and alleviation duty is seen as a desirable and replicable model of prevention, albeit it offers no panacea to the social tragedy of homelessness.
The referendum held in Scotland on 18 September 2014 resulted in a rejection of the option of becoming an independent nation-state. The perceived closeness of the vote, however, led to a rush of promises for further devolution from UK politicians. This crisis seems to have resulted in a period of constitutional flux throughout the United Kingdom, with demands for further powers for Northern Ireland and Wales, as well as a broad debate on the status of England. There have also been recent pronouncements on further city-regional devolution within England. The changing political geography of the United Kingdom can be understood in a European context and as part of longstanding debate about the rescaling of the state. Briefly considering the key issues of sovereignty and territorial identity, we argue that nation-states will continue to play an important role in our governance for the foreseeable future, but that there needs to be further devolution in the United Kingdom. Any changes to our state spatial structures will proceed in a halting and path-dependent manner.
In this introductory essay, we outline how recent events have generated considerable debate and discussion surrounding the future constitutional status of Scotland and the current devolutionary settlement in the UK, and how the aim of this collection of papers is to evaluate UK devolution and the policy mobilities surrounding it. We argue that there has been a tendency for scholars to concentrate on the detail of the constitutional and administrative structures and a reluctance to theorise devolution, and suggest geographers can offer a particular contribution here through an understanding of devolution as fundamentally about the interaction of politics, culture and territory. We discuss the value of considering the particular geographies of policy at work, and the role of the everyday work of civil servants in creating and sustaining the creation of new state spaces. We then briefly highlight the main findings of each of the papers in this special collection and show how, together, they add to our understanding of the geographies of devolution and of policy at a critical juncture in the devolution story. We conclude that whatever the particular future for the United Kingdom, the policy interactions between territories will continue to have an important role in their governance.
“The Big Society, Localism and Housing Policy” was the theme of a seminar series funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (2012-14) in the UK. A collaborative venture between the Universities of St Andrews, Sheffield, Reading and Queen’s University Belfast – it brought together academics, policy-makers and practitioners from across the UK to critique contemporary political debates in the context of devolved policy-making in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The papers in this special issue emerged from that seminar series. Whilst the policy discussions that follow are very much UK focused, the wider narratives around localism, empowerment, citizenship and welfare reform have a much broader international relevance as this editorial introduction explains.
In this study, we examine the idea of localism in the context of housing policy and as mediated by the experience of devolution in England and Scotland. After considering arguments for adopting localism in principle, we examine the meaning and limitations of the concept when account is taken of the real nature of housing systems. This forms the basis for a consideration of the experience of localism in the context of social housing provision. We conclude that the implementation of localism by UK policy-makers has exhibited shortcomings and the emerging interpretation of localism may lead to policy dumping rather than enhanced real local autonomy.
Welfare spending is currently a key element of government expenditure in western countries and it has grown considerably since the Second World War. But there have been calls for cuts in spending that have intensified since the onset of the financial crisis and the stress on austerity. This has been associated with a shift in the nature of welfare policy to what has been termed ‘workfare’, where benefits are increasingly means tested, time limited or financially capped and contingent on recipients seeking work. This shift has been seen in Britain since 1997 but has intensified since the election of the coalition government, who have instigated the most radical reshaping of welfare policy since 1945. The paper argues that geographers should pay more attention to the geography of welfare spending. The paper examines the structure of welfare spending in Britain and its geography, the nature and rationale for the welfare reforms and cuts, especially the stress on ‘fairness’, and the social and geographical impact of the benefit cap. It argues that the cuts point to a re-orientation of the welfare state and pose political problems for the Opposition, given the shift in social attitudes to welfare.
Devolution has become a key ‘global trend’ over recent decades as many states have decentralised power to sub-state governments. The UK resisted this trend until the late 1990s when devolution was enacted by the then Labour Government, taking a highly asymmetrical form in which different territories have been granted different powers and institutional arrangements. Devolution allows the devolved governments to develop policies that are tailored to the needs of their areas, encouraging policy divergence, although this is countered by pressures to ensure that devolved approaches do not contradict those of the central state, promoting convergence. This review paper aims to assess the unfolding dynamics of devolution and policy divergence in the UK, spanning different policy areas such as economic development, health and social policy. The paper emphasises that devolution has altered the institutional landscape of public policy in the UK, generating some high-profile examples of policy divergence, whilst also providing evidence of policy convergence. In addition, the passage of time underlines the nature of UK devolution as an unfolding process. Its underlying asymmetries have become more pronounced as the tendency towards greater autonomy for Scotland and Wales clashes with a highly centralised mode of policymaking in Westminster, the consequences of which have spilt over into the devolved territories in the context of the post-2007 economic crisis through public expenditure cuts.
This paper has two aims. First, in contrast to the modernist empiricism of mainstream political science, we provide brief introductions to several interpretive approaches to the study of political science and British government and politics: idealism, social humanism, post-structuralism, and ideational institutionalism. Second, we identify the distinctive research agendas that arise from this family of approaches: namely, critique, decentring governance, ethnographic studies of British politics, and policy analysis as storytelling.British Politics (2006) 1, 84–112. doi:10.1057/palgrave.bp.4200001
The UK’s devolution reforms were built on long-standing practices of differentiated territorial administration in the non-English parts of the UK. With devolution those practices became subject to new democratic processes, transforming territorial administration into territorial politics. The reforms were introduced in a piecemeal basis, lacking an overall conception of the impact of devolution on the UK state, and lacking consideration of how the government of the non-devolved unit of England can, through its size and weight within the UK, impact on and constrain devolved government. The combination of piecemeal reform and the ‘English question’ raises a number of open questions about the coherence and stability of the devolution arrangements, especially at the point when governments run by different parties import partisan considerations into territorial politics.
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.
This paper uses the concept of knowledge communities to account for the relatively low impact of spatial perspectives on welfare policy (marginalization in the economic sphere; limited uptake in the social sphere). However, recent developments in the social sciences include a growing recognition of relationships between discourse, knowledge and power. Central to this work is a recognition of the territorialized nature of knowledge. These developments suggest that social policy has the potential to be reconfigured in a much more geographically sensitive manner.
Neil Brenner has in the past few years made a major impact on the ways in which we understand the changing political geographies of the modern state. Simultaneously analyzing the restructuring of urban governance and the transformation of national states under globalizing capitalism, 'New State Spaces' is a mature and sophisticated analysis of broad interdisciplinary interest, making this a highly significant contribution to the subject. Available in OSO: http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/oso/public/content/politicalscience/9780199270057/toc.html
Constitutional change in the UK in 1998 led to the establishment of devolution for Scotland, and the Scottish Parliament was reconvened in 1999 after a gap of nearly 300 years. Devolution promised the development of policies that were more in tune with ‘Scottish needs’, and was heralded as delivering ‘Scottish solutions for Scottish problems’. Now with a Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) Government in power in Edinburgh committed to greater devolution for Scotland and with a goal of full independence for Scotland, it is timely to assess the ways in which the SNP have approach the question of social policy – and more specifically poverty and inequality. While key areas of social welfare policy, notable in relation to benefits, employment policy and most areas of taxation remain reserved to the UK parliament in London, the Scottish Parliament enjoys powers over most areas of social policy as they affect Scotland: health, housing, education, community development, regeneration and criminal justice. This paper considers some of the main influences on SNP policy making, and in particular explores its concern to develop policies that promote solidarity, cohesion and fairness. However, these are secondary to a strategy which promotes economic growth and Scottish economic competitiveness. The paper also considers the importance of nationalism for the analysis of social welfare arguing that social policy making is often central to nation building, and particularly so in the context of multi-national devolution of the kind that has developed in the UK and elsewhere in recent times.
We examine the impact of devolution in the United Kingdom on transport policies in the first two terms of devolved government, from 1999/2000 to 2007/08. In particular, we discuss the nature and extent of policy convergence and divergence between the devolved territories (Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and London) and England (wherein responsibility for policy formulation remains with the UK government at Westminster), and between the devolved territories themselves. Our analysis builds on existing work on devolution and public policy not only through its focus on transport policy, but also by distinguishing between ‘horizontal’ and ‘vertical’ dimensions of policy divergence and convergence, referring to relations between territories and to links to previous policies adopted within the same territory, respectively. Findings point to a convergence of overarching transport strategies and a complex picture of both convergence and divergence in terms of specific policy measures. The latter provides evidence of a devolution effect on transport policy.
This paper reviews the effect of devolution on housing policy and practice in Northern Ireland. It outlines the history and context of devolution and housing policy in Northern Ireland, including the legacy and persistence of intense social conflict. Current devolution arrangements are reviewed, including the implications of enforced coalition for policy governance. The paper focuses on three dimensions of housing and housing-related policy development and implementation: social housing, especially the distinctive history and changing organisation of social housing provision; policies affecting the housing market, including the changing regime for spatial planning; and, regeneration and tenant participation. The paper argues that housing policy has tended to converge with policies in England, rather than moving towards a distinctively local agenda. Local political agendas remain dominated by disagreements over constitutional status thus policy formulation is determined more by officials than by elected politicians.
This offers an analysis of the political and policy shifts associated with the New Labour government. It draws on social and cultural perspectives on governance, critiquing and extending governance theory. In particular, it highlights the tensions and contradictions associated with working across multiple governance regimes.
This paper reviews the evolution of homelessness policy and practice in Scotland since the establishment of the Scottish Parliament in 1999. It uses, as its reference point, simultaneous developments in England. It critically examines the practicability of flagship Scottish government policy to widen the remit of the homelessness legislation - effectively an extension of citizenship rights. This is compared with the more 'consumerist' tilt of the New Labour housing policy in England. At the same time, the paper draws attention to the parallels in the recent development of homelessness policy in the two jurisdictions; in the promotion of a 'strategic approach' to homelessness on the part of local authorities and the associated advocacy of 'prevention-focused practice'. Drawing on empirical research in both Scotland and England, the paper compares and contrasts approaches to homelessness prevention north and south of the border, and explores the limits of 'devolutionary divergence' in this policy area.
This paper re-examines the role of the state in relation to homelessness in the UK. Taking a long term and macro-level perspective, the paper takes changing levels of poverty and inequality as broad indicators of the effectiveness of differing approaches to welfare, and looks at trends in homelessness across three eras of welfare. The analysis draws on theories of the state and the welfare state to explain differing levels of homelessness and to draw conclusions as to possible future pathways. State intervention in housing in the UK preceded the development of the welfare state, but homelessness intervention lagged behind during a long period of welfare expansion and consolidation. This early period bequeathed a legacy of social democratic policies which had significantly reduced poverty and income inequality, improved housing conditions and introduced legislation to protect households from homelessness. During the Conservative neo-liberal period (1979--97) welfare retrenchment was significant and resulted in real and substantial increases in poverty and inequality. The homelessness crisis resulted in further intervention in homelessness, despite retrenchment in housing. Since 1997, New Labour has claimed to implement a Third Way in social policy. However, this has been limited in its distinctiveness from the Conservative era (rolling out neo-liberalism, rather than rolling back welfare). Nevertheless, state intervention and welfare outcomes can and do change over time and space. Neo-liberalism is neither inevitable nor global, though it is proving to be enduring and widespread. Homelessness levels can be an important and valuable indicator of the most extreme manifestations of inequality and of the differing impact of different welfare regimes.
In this paper we aim to assess critically the relationship between devolved government and democratic renewal through a focus on the potential for stakeholder involvement within elected regional assemblies. Drawing particularly upon evidence from North East England, we will consider how the creation of elected assemblies could reinvigorate democracy, given the constraints imposed (in regions such as the North East) by the unreformed and unrepresentative political terrain upon which any new assembly is likely to be superimposed. We conclude that existing arrangements and practices are a useful development but fall far short of the radical measures needed to overcome the exclusionary nature of traditional models of governance and government.
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