Social housing—past,present and future

Over the past decade in Western Europe there has been a growth of unmet low‐income housing needs. There are now as many as 3–5 million homeless people in the EC countries and many more who are paying more than they can afford for poor quality accommodation (Quilliot, 1992, p. 12). In the 1970s it seemed as if the acute post‐war shortages of low‐income housing had finally been overcome and mass programmes of social rented housing had played a key role in bringing this about. In addition, rising prosperity had opened up private market housing opportunities for broad sections of the population. However, the profound economic, social and political changes since the mid‐1970s have destroyed this optimistic scenario. Now we face, on the one hand, the re‐emergence of a large scale problem of housing availability and affordability and, on the other hand, the reluctance or inability of most governments and societies to respond to this problem. In particular, no government now seems likely to support large scale programmes of social rented housing construction to help meet the rising tide of low‐income housing needs. Indeed, large parts of the existing stock of social rented housing are beset with social, economic and physical problems. Also, in some countries, Great Britain and Germany for example, the size of this sector is rapidly diminishing as privatisation takes place. The purpose of this policy review is first to place the current circumstances of social rented housing in a longer‐term historical perspective, and second to compare the current situation of social rented housing in several Western European countries. Finally, the review will reflect on the prospects for social rented housing.     

Development of a model to estimate the benefit‐cost ratio performance of housing

A simulation model based on classical population dynamics is developed to estimate the benefit‐cost ratio performance of different typologies of housing with the purpose of identifying potential reductions in the total costs and hence resources used to sustain housing. A typical New Zealand dwelling constructed of lightweight timber framing is used as an example. Dwellings within the simulation model undergo periodic cycles of refurbishment based on best practices. When the simulated housing stock expands at the rate of 1.5% per year, an annual expenditure equivalent to the costs to construct one dwelling sustains the services provided by 26.7 dwellings after adjustment for economic depreciation. This benefit‐cost ratio performance improves by 32.4% when the housing stock is stationary. Further improvements of 5.3% can be achieved by deferring refurbishment and accepting a higher level of economic depreciation of dwelling services. The results of all scenarios indicate that structural systems with a service life of only 50 years should not be used unless the costs of such systems are substantially less than the costs of traditional structural systems and that lightweight timber framed dwellings should not be sustained well beyond a service life of 90 years.     

Housing Associations and Housing Policy in Britain Since 1989

Important changes in the pattern of new building, investment and ownership of social rented housing in Britain in the period since 1989 can be seen as moves towards a more European style of provision. Similarly, reductions in general subsidy and a switch to greater reliance on personal income related forms of assistance with housing costs are consistent with developmentselsewhere, as is concern to contain public expenditure by placing more emphasis on private finance. The themes of the paper are the growth and transformation of housing associations in Britain. The importance of stock transfers from local authorities has grown to the point where they have become the major source of growth, and it is argued that within the foreseeable future the majority of the social rented sector may be owned by housing associations or other registered social landlords. The paper looks at finance, development and governance issues, concluding that housing associations have been drawn into an ever closer relationship with the state.     

Social housing in Spain: what role does the private rented market play?

The global economic and financial crisis has hit the Spanish economy hard, creating an unstable framework for employment and growth. Since 2007, housing markets have been deeply affected by the crisis. The private rented market has exhibited two specific consequences: on the one hand, the bursting of the real estate bubble has inhibited profit gains in the homeownership sector, providing better incentives to operate in the rented market. On the other hand, huge social conflict has emerged in relation to the lack of proper shelter for certain households which can be seen in the increase in evictions and in homelessness. We want to focus on the latter: since Spain lacks a critical mass of social housing, low-income households have been attracted by the private rented sector, particularly during expansion periods, as quite often there is no available (and affordable) alternative. In periods of economic recession, the substantial pressure that rents put on the financial situation of these households might even cause them to move out of their homes. The hypothesis we will test in this paper is that private rented markets fill several aspects of the role of social housing provision in Spain reinforcing the negative effects the lack of social housing creates in the country, highly visible during recession periods.     

RENEWING PEOPLE AND PLACES: INSTITUTIONAL INVESTMENT POLICIES THAT ENHANCE SOCIAL CAPITAL AND IMPROVE THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT OF DISTRESSED COMMUNITIES

ABSTRACT: The challenges confronting distressed communities in the United States are complex and multifaceted. Communities large and small have been significantly affected by a myriad of social, environmental, and economic forces, including a continuing decline in manufacturing employment, uncontrolled sprawl, and the transition to a global economy. The traditional choice between a “place‐based” theory of redevelopment strategy versus a “people‐focused” theory no longer seems feasible or appropriate. This article outlines sustainable development as an alternative strategy that combines a place‐based development strategy, a human development focus, and an environmentally mindful approach. It posits that there exists a direct positive relationship between the creation of social capital, the redevelopment of the built environment utilizing sustainable development practices, and community‐based organizations in distressed communities. Furthermore, the authors suggest that through community investment—a socially responsible investment strategy—institutions of higher education can facilitate the rebuilding of communities by providing financial capital while gaining a moderate yet secure financial return as well as a substantial social return.     

Starters in the housing market in an urban region: The case of the Randstad Holland,a diversified housing‐shortage area

The access of newly formed households to their first independent dwelling is a useful indicator of the provision of housing for households with a weak position in the housing market. This is particularly the case in a densely populated urban region, where the housing market is tight. However, starters in the housing market do not form a homogeneous group. They differ by age, household composition, and socio‐economic status. Particularly when there are two wage earners in the household, access may be gained to more expensive dwellings. This article examines the housing situation of starters in five types of residential environment in the Randstad Holland: metropolitan areas, strongly, moderately, and weakly urbanised areas, and growth areas. The metropolitan areas contain many small and inexpensive dwellings and thus accommodate many non‐working (often student) starter households. In the least urbanised municipalities dual‐earner married couples are strongly represented among starters. All residential environments play an important part in the housing of starters, who usually locate in the residential environment where they had already been living. Particularly in the metropolitan and (strongly) urbanised areas so‐called substitute dwellings, such as rented rooms, caravans and houseboats, are important in accommodating newly formed households. They help ease the pressure on the stock of inexpensive housing. Starters living in suburban areas tended to move directly from the parental home into their first independent dwelling.     

基于LCCA的既有居住建筑节能改造成本效益分析

为了对既有居住建筑节能改造的成本效益问题进行分析,首先运用全寿命周期成本理论分析既有居住建筑节能改造的增量成本与增量效益构成;再运用建筑能耗基本公式推导节能改造增量经济效益测算模型,并通过数学推导证明热源热网节能改造的经济效益要远好于建筑围护结构节能改造的经济效益;最后,运用增量经济效益测算模型和项目经济评价理论对实际案例的成本效益进行分析,计算结果表明:仅进行建筑围护结构节能改造存在投资额大、收益率低的特点,而仅进行热源热网节能改造本身投资收益水平较好。由此可见,建筑围护结构节能改造本身无法吸引社会资金投资,需要政府给予更多的经济激励才能吸引社会资金;而热源热网节能改造在政府适当的经济激励下能够通过市场进行改造资金筹措。     

Pride and Prejudice: Discourses of Normalisation in Public and Private Accounts of Home Ownership

This paper fills a gap in the literature surrounding the social and economic consequences of the rapid and widespread growth of home ownership in Great Britain. Hitherto, the debate has focused on the causes and consequences of the 'residualisation' of social rented housing. It has been characterised by economic conceptions of power influenced by Weberian and Marxist social theory. Foucault's work on power has made few inroads into this debate. Drawing upon a reading of Foucault's work, it is argued in this paper that home ownership has been subject to a process of normalisation, and that this is at least as important as widely rehearsed coerced exchange and social exclusion arguments in explaining the labelling of social rented housing estates. Evidence for the normalisation of home ownership is presented through an analysis of selected landmark policy documents and in data collected as part of an ethnographic study of home owners in Bristol undertaken in the early 1990s. The paper contends that the normalisation of one form of housing consumption has been instrumental in legitimising the residualisation of social rented housing and that if policies to encourage social balance and area based regeneration are to be successful then strategies to challenge the power relationships constituted by these discourses are crucial.     

Gebäude aus Lebenszyklusperspektive – Ökobilanzen im Bauwesen

Life cycle assessment in the construction sector. Under the impression of an increasing demand for sustainability thinking in the building and construction sector, the method of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is constantly gaining relevance. LCA is a method to quantify and assess the environmental impacts of technical systems – in the building and construction sector, these could be both, building products or complete buildings – over their entire life cycle. In the construction sector, LCAs of building products have been well established, while LCAs of entire buildings are just now becoming more common. The German certificate for sustainable buildings strongly promotes this development by including Life Cycle Thinking into the rating of the sustainability of buildings. Due to this development, planners and other stakeholders in the construction industry have to face the necessity of life cycle based environmental optimization of a building already during the planning phase of the building. With the cooperation of LCA experts and experts in the field of assistance in the planning and construction process, dedicated and feasible solutions for this task can be developed. This article provides an overview on LCA in the building and construction sector and presents a possible approach to the question of planning‐integrated environmental optimization of buildings.     

Transforming Social Housing: Taking Stock of New Complexities

The last 10 years has been a period of rapid change in the social rented sector, reflecting broader changes in the nature of housing problems, structures of housing provision and patterns of housing consumption in the UK, rooted in fundamental shifts in the political, economic and social landscape. By way of introduction to this special issue, this paper cuts across conventional frameworks of analysis to explore the pressures and challenges raised by these changes for the social rented sector through consideration of three key facets of the contemporary housing system: market change, community dynamics and modes of governance. Within this framework, patterns of increasing differentiation and fragmentation within the UK housing system are revealed and the extent to which the transformation of the social rented sector is working with the grain of these changes is considered.     

The Housing and Location Preferences of Adelaide Residents

There has been a growing mismatch between household and housing types in Australian cities in recent years. At the same time housing has become increasingly expensive, while low-density urban development has meant increasing social and economic costs for households in fringe suburbs. This paper explores current housing and location preferences of Adelaide residents. The findings suggest that home ownership and the single-storey detached dwelling are well entrenched preferences among residents, and that as yet, the personal costs of the linear spread of the city have not impacted significantly on housing and location preferences.     

Periodic refurbishment and reductions in national costs to sustain dwelling services

This paper uses a simulation model to make exploratory estimates of current and potential reductions in national costs to sustain dwelling services due to refurbishment. Data and parameters are based on a typical New Zealand dwelling of lightweight timber framed construction. Dwelling service years provided by a dwelling over one year adjusted for depreciation serve as a proxy for benefits. The costs to construct one dwelling and fractions thereof serve as a proxy for the costs of maintenance, refurbishment, replacement, and new construction. Current levels of refurbishment reduce national average costs to sustain dwelling services by a magnitude of 15%. Potential reductions in national costs are modest (5%) should the housing stock be stationary, but are negligible when the expansion rate of the housing stock is as high as 2.0% per year. A decline in the expansion rate of a housing stock has a greater impact on reducing national costs than an increase in the number of cycles of refurbishment.     

The life cycle impact of refurbishment packages on residential buildings with different initial thermal conditions

Existing buildings constitute a large portion of the UK’s housing stock. Refurbishment of existing buildings can, therefore, have an important role in achieving the UK government’s CO₂ reduction targets. While building regulations and rating frameworks mainly focus on the improvements of the operational performance of buildings, Life Cycle Analysis is considered to be a more appropriate framework to account for long–term CO₂ savings. This study evaluates a range of retrofit approaches (simple, medium, and deep), in terms of Life Cycle Carbon Footprint applied on a terraced house—one of the most common housing archetypes in London. The initial state of the original building has also been examined assuming three initial states (never refurbished, refurbished in compliance with the 1976 and with the 2000 building regulations). Results showed that for all initial state scenarios, deep retrofit achieved the lowest life cycle carbon emissions, in absolute figures, compared to the simple and medium retrofits. Simple retrofit packages, on the other hand, achieved quick and significant improvements, especially in buildings with poor initial thermal conditions. The study also indicated that retrofit packages applied on highly efficient building fabrics result in longer carbon payback time periods. The study recommends establishing a ‘staggered’ retrofitting approach, which pushes for ‘older building first’ and ‘simple retrofit packages first’, as these gain quick CO₂ savings. Deep retrofit packages and treatment of relatively new buildings should be implemented at a later stage, to push buildings further to Zero–Carbon target.

     

Rental housing in Central and Eastern Europe as no man's land

The central question addressed in this paper is whether both thesocial and private rented sectors in Central and Eastern Europeancountries are based on robust institutions or constitute a no man'sland. The latter case is a position a landlord tries to avoid andpublic authorities try to abandon by promoting home-ownership.As we argue in this paper, during the transformation of economic and housing policy in Central and Eastern Europe,the perception of the social rental sector as a no man's landis not far from the truth. The same applies for private renting,which has the reputation of being an extension of the owner-occupiedsector. A truly professional private rented sector is still lackingin Central and Eastern Europe. National and local governments try to get rid of rented dwellings by promoting owner-occupation.If they want to prevent the rented sectors from remaining orbecoming a no man's land, they have to create regulations andinstitutions like those in West European countries to supportboth social and commercial rented housing.     

House building,profits and social efficiency in Sweden and Britain

The paper examines why the housing sector in Britain performs so badly in producing housing. Completion rates are decreasing, dwelling quality is getting worse, while both construction costs and consumer costs are increasing. It does this through discussion of alternative routes to profitability in house building, supported by a comparative analysis of two contrasting cases: Britain and Sweden. In Britain land development gains and speculative extra profits are significant profit sources for house‐builders. Making profits through building itself is neglected; the concomitant is a fragmented labour process, loss of scale economies, low capitalisation, inadequate technical innovation and stagnant labour productivity. In Sweden house‐builders do not have easy access to land development gains or extra profits. Moreover, they are faced by a well organised and well paid labour force. They are pushed onto the road of making profit through increasing labour productivity and through product improvement. The result is controlled construction costs, improving housing quality and the capacity for sustained output.     

Competition between social and market renting: a theoretical application of the structure-conduct-performance paradigm

Housing policies in many countries have become more market orientated as the role of governments has shifted from the direct supply and funding of non-market housing towards the role of a regulator and facilitator. Central to this development is the notion that providers of social housing have to become more competitive. Arguably, these social housing changes have important implications for the relationship between social and market rented housing and thus the rental market as a whole. Conceptual frameworks that facilitate the understanding of this relationship are sparse commodities. This paper seeks to develop a theoretical framework that can be used to shed light on the conditions, processes, and effects of the new relation between the two rental tenures from an economic competition viewpoint. Therefore, this paper adapts the structure-conduct-performance paradigm to rented housing and discusses the framework’s applicability and value on a theoretical level.     

Appropriate energy efficient building envelope technologies for social housing in the Irish climate

Extensive dynamic thermal simulation parametric analyses have been undertaken of energy efficient fabric alterations to social housing in Northern Ireland culminating in priorities for deployment. Five ȁ8basecaseȁ9 simulation models were used to represent the predominant characteristics of the existing social housing stock. The majority of technologies studied provided annual space-heating energy savings of more than 10%. The variation of energy savings and economic performance across the basecases highlights the value of a dwelling specific approach to selecting energy efficient building envelope technology solutions for energy rehabilitation programmes. The paper further outlines a framework for prioritising appropriate energy efficient building envelope technological solutions for a large regional building stock, i.e. existing social housing stock in Northern Ireland, highlighting influential parameters. An energy efficient building envelope inter-technology ranking approach provides a method of comparison across the various different dwellings in the regional housing stock. Airtightness ranked consistently highest across the dwellings studied with some solar technologies performing better than more technologically mature solutions such as insulation.     

Scenarios for the future of human settlements in the Nordic countries

This is a study of long‐term perspectives for dwelling, construction and planning. It describes postindustrial features of a rich welfare society and the significance of these features for the household and for local life in the residential area—changed patterns for the time devoted to paid and unpaid work, changed household patterns, the spread of self‐service and an incipient saturation in the consumption of goods and housing. The latter is regarded as a consequence of a rapid increase in standard and an even more rapid increase in cost which can no longer be compensated by housing subsidies.

Three scenarios of the future, with the organization of work as a central variable, are outlined from this point of departure. The effect of shorter working hours per week, of lower retirement ages or of extensive exclusion from gainful employment are discussed. The report also discusses which economic and administrative control instruments can be used in housing policy to provide an acceptable housing standard and to protect households against disruptive migrations. One scenario includes a discussion of measures which can lead to increased local cooperation. It is assumed in one scenario that the housing market will be characterized by a situation in which the residents own their own homes, while another scenario develops an administrative municipal housing allocation. It is assumed in all three scenarios that the addition of new dwelling units will be small. As a result, conditions are required which can promote a turnover of the dwelling units so that shrinking households place their excessively large dwellings at the disposal of growing households.     

基于全寿命周期理论的可持续住宅研究

将全寿命周期理论应用于住宅系统工程中,提出可持续住宅的理论内涵和内容要求,同时采用系统工程学的方法、层次分析法和模糊数学综合方法,建立全寿命周期可持续住宅的评价模型和方法;通过对设计方案的评价,选择最优的实施方案,将住宅作为一个有机循环的可持续发展系统,实现其全寿命周期的成本最佳化、质量最优化、效益最大化。     

Obstacles and opportunities for reducing dwelling size to shrink the environmental footprint of housing: tenants’ residential preferences and housing choice

The environmental footprint of housing is greatly influenced by the size of a dwelling. Housing size is the result of households’ dwelling selections; accordingly, it is critical to consider residential preferences and choices to inform efforts towards housing sustainability. This study aimed to understand tenants’ preferences for and choices of housing size as one amongst several dwelling characteristics and identify obstacles and opportunities for reducing size in the light of promoting sustainable housing. We employed logistic regression models to analyse a survey with 878 Swiss tenants, and our results identify preference for large dwellings as a major obstacle for reducing dwelling size among affluent tenants. Conversely, tenants with lower income might be forced to move to a smaller dwelling due to financial constraints or attribute higher importance to the financial benefit of lower rents. However, financial disincentives along with substantial non-monetary costs of moving, such as the disruption of local bonds and the difficulty of finding a satisfactory dwelling, can outweigh the benefits of moving to a smaller dwelling. To overcome such obstacles, we suggest offering incentives and other facilitating measures for downsizing moves as well as ensuring an adequate supply of smaller dwellings capable of providing high living quality. We highlight the potential of studying housing functions to conceptualize dwellings fulfilling these requirements.