How long should housing last? Some implications of the age and probable life of housing in England

The objective of this comment is to supplement the paper by Meikle and Connaughton, published in this journal. That paper concentrated on the non-replacement of an ageing housing stock, and the maintenance implications of the recent shift towards owner-occupation in England. The ethics behind this trend of tenure change were not questioned; an acceptance of ‘individual’ ownership and responsibility seemed apparent. The relative success of public sector housing management was not considered. This comment will aim to address this. While recent changes in housing tenure will create new problems to overcome, and will therefore need to be examined carefully, a multitude of existing problems remain. This comment will seek to illuminate one problem area: the effective management of multiple-unit housing stocks, and how this may provide a framework for the maintenance of the nation's ageing housing stock.     

What are the strategies to manage megaproject supply chains? A systematic literature review and research agenda

This systematic literature review explores strategies to manage complex supply chains in megaprojects, connecting project management and operations management literatures. A total of 2,106 titles and abstracts were analyzed and 94 papers were fully reviewed, identifying six categories of strategies: inter-firm collaboration and coordination, governance, procurement, projects as networks, production and logistics, and risk management. We present the multi-level Megaproject Supply Chain (MSC) framework, unpacking the complex inter-organizational structure of megaprojects in five levels and units of analysis to guide future research. The MSC framework identifies the micro, meso and macro levels of megaprojects and introduces two additional hybrid levels to identify inter-organizational relationships: the meso‑micro and meso‑macro. We suggest four avenues to advance supply chain management in megaprojects through multi-level explorations: (i) Supply Chain Structure: Permanent vs Temporary, (ii) Strategic Procurement and Commercial, (iii) Supply Chain Design: Standardization vs Customization, (iv) Supply Chain Governance: Collaboration and Coordination.     

A silent shift? The precarisation of the Dutch rental housing market

The traditional Dutch rental contract is permanent (i.e. time unlimited), but there are indications that in recent years the number of temporary rental contracts has increased considerably. Dutch housing policy appears to be responding to this by pursuing deregulation of the conditions under which temporary rent is permitted. It is in this regard startling that there is no reliable data available about the size or character of the temporary sector, and it has thus far not attracted any scholarly attention. Given that temporary rent can be viewed as a form of precarisation, a transfer of risk to citizens, with corresponding negative effects on the lives of those involved, it is imperative to close this knowledge gap. This paper is a first attempt to do this. Firstly, I systematically review the scarce evidence that is currently available, and secondly, I explore why the rise of temporary rent has thus far failed to stimulate any social debate; it appears to constitute a silent precarisation that contrasts with the politically sensitive issue of labour precarisation. In doing so, I will identify the research questions that must be answered if the significance of this process for both tenants and wider welfare-state restructuring is to be fully understood.     

Do indoor pollutants and thermal conditions in schools influence student performance? A critical review of the literature

To assess whether school environments can adversely affect academic performance, we review scientific evidence relating indoor pollutants and thermal conditions, in schools or other indoor environments, to human performance or attendance. We critically review evidence for direct associations between these aspects of indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and performance or attendance. Secondarily, we summarize, without critique, evidence on indirect connections potentially linking IEQ to performance or attendance. Regarding direct associations, little strongly designed research was available. Persuasive evidence links higher indoor concentrations of NO(2) to reduced school attendance, and suggestive evidence links low ventilation rates to reduced performance. Regarding indirect associations, many studies link indoor dampness and microbiologic pollutants (primarily in homes) to asthma exacerbations and respiratory infections, which in turn have been related to reduced performance and attendance. Also, much evidence links poor IEQ (e.g. low ventilation rate, excess moisture, or formaldehyde) with adverse health effects in children and adults and documents dampness problems and inadequate ventilation as common in schools. Overall, evidence suggests that poor IEQ in schools is common and adversely influences the performance and attendance of students, primarily through health effects from indoor pollutants. Evidence is available to justify (i) immediate actions to assess and improve IEQ in schools and (ii) focused research to guide IEQ improvements in schools. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: There is more justification now for improving IEQ in schools to reduce health risks to students than to reduce performance or attendance risks. However, as IEQ-performance links are likely to operate largely through effects of IEQ on health, IEQ improvements that benefit the health of students are likely to have performance and attendance benefits as well. Immediate actions are warranted in schools to prevent dampness problems, inadequate ventilation, and excess indoor exposures to substances such as NO(2) and formaldehyde. Also, siting of new schools in areas with lower outdoor pollutant levels is preferable.     

What weight should be assigned to future environmental impacts? A probabilistic cost benefit analysis using recent advances on discounting

Cost-benefit analysis is a standard methodological platform for public investment evaluation. In high environmental impact projects, with a long-term effect on future generations, the choice of discount rate and time horizon is of particular relevance, because it can lead to very different profitability assessments. This paper describes some recent approaches to environmental discounting and applies them, together with a number of classical procedures, to the economic evaluation of a plant for the desalination of irrigation return water from intensive farming, aimed at halting the degradation of an area of great ecological value, the Mar Menor, in South Eastern Spain. A Monte Carlo procedure is used in four CBA approaches and three time horizons to carry out a probabilistic sensitivity analysis designed to integrate the views of an international panel of experts in environmental discounting with the uncertainty affecting the market price of the project's main output, i.e., irrigation water for a water-deprived area.The results show which discounting scenarios most accurately estimate the socio-environmental profitability of the project while also considering the risk associated with these two key parameters. The analysis also provides some methodological findings regarding ways of assessing financial and environmental profitability in decisions concerning public investment in the environment.     

Is ventilation duct cleaning useful? A review of the scientific evidence

Ventilation duct cleaning (DC) is widely advocated to provide good indoor air quality (IAQ), health benefits, cost savings, and enhance ventilation system performance. The aim of the present review is to evaluate the scientific evidence as shown in the literature. There is evidence that under normal operating conditions, ventilation ducts can be contaminated with dusts and serve as reservoirs for microbials to proliferate. While controlled experiments noted that contaminants resuspension can elevate exposure levels indoors, no field studies have correlated poor IAQ with duct contamination. Despite high efficiencies of contaminant removal within the ducts during cleaning, reductions for different indoor air pollutants vary widely, where, post-cleaning air pollutants concentrations can be higher than pre-cleaning levels. Further, there are health concerns in the use of biocides, sealants and encapsulants. There is inadequate evidence to show that DC can improve airflow in ducts and reduce energy consumption. Although epidemiological studies indicate suggestive evidence that improperly maintained ducts are associated with higher risks of symptoms among building occupants, this review finds insufficient evidence that DC can alleviate occupant's symptoms. In summary, the need for duct cleanliness has to be properly balanced by the probable generation of indoor pollution resulting from DC and subsequent potential health risks. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: Existing evidence is insufficient to draw solid conclusions regarding positive impact of duct cleaning on IAQ, health benefits, cost savings and HVAC performance. Maintaining duct cleanliness has to be properly balanced by the probable generation of indoor pollution and potential health risks.     

Could sperm quality be affected by a building environment? A literature review

The human body responds psychologically and physiologically to the thermal environment to which it is exposed. Fanger's PMV model has been adopted for the design of built environments and building maintenance from the end of the 1960s. The sperm quality of humans has been decreasing since the 1970s. The thermal environment is one of the most important factors of the Sick Building Syndrome (SBS). It is well known that spermatogenesis is very sensitive to heat exposure. Mild thermal exposure increases tissue microcirculation and consequently produces an appropriate supply of nutrients and oxygen to tissue cells; thus, it can modulate the proliferation of Sertoli cells in which the spermatogonia stem cells develop into adult spermatozoa. Excessive exposure to heat is harmful to spermatogenesis, and excessive testicular cooling can cause the cessation of spermatogenesis.     

What did the Germans ever do for us? A century of British learning about and imagining modern town planning

This article uses contemporary sources to trace the recurrent ways in which the British planning movement has drawn on its German equivalent from the early twentieth century to the present day. As with most such European links, the resultant learning has varied. In some cases British references to German planning have been merely to inform or more generally to inspire emulation or occasionally avoidance. But often the learning has provided specific ideas, practices or techniques that have been directly adopted or more usually hybridised or synthesised into the British planning repertoire. German influences have been apparent in aspects of British planning such as land use zoning, city extension, regional planning, housing design, motorways, pedestrianisation, traffic calming and sustainable eco‐suburbs. What, however, has made the British planning movement’s long‐term and mainly admiring engagement with German planning so intriguing is that it has evolved alongside major conflicts and long term suspicion of the German nation itself. The prevailing popular and political imagination within Britain has seen Germany as an especially problematic country from which to learn, more so than, for example, the USA or Scandinavia. This makes British planning’s German connection an instructive case study of cross‐national learning and lesson‐drawing and the factors shaping these processes. It shows the limitations of more conventional conceptualisations of them as rational searches for ‘good practice’. This article shows that they also must be seen as explorations in imaginative geography, concerned with real places, ideas and practices, but viewed through particularly powerful ideological and cultural lenses.     

Repackaging the poor? Conceptualising neoliberal reforms of social rental housing

This paper considers the need for conceptual renewal in comparative housing research. Since the mid-1990s, Kemeny’s model of ‘unitary’ and ‘dualist’ rental markets and Harloe’s classification of ‘mass’ and ‘residual’ social housing provision have been repeatedly recycled in comparative studies of ‘social’ and ‘public’ housing provision. Amidst international neoliberal policy mobilities, their models based on liberal welfare regimes wield particular power. Conceived during neoliberal cutbacks of public services, Kemeny’s ‘dualist’ rental market and Harloe’s ‘residual’ model of social housing similarly depict state-subsidised rental housing provision as bureaucratic, and targeted to the poor. Despite empirical change, these models are still used to describe liberal welfare regimes, and to theorise international policy convergence. Based on a review of recent market-oriented reforms of state-subsidised rental housing provision in the US, Australia and England; original neoliberal ‘sites of production’, this contribution asks whether these conceptual models still reflect the empirics. Findings diverge from the models, undermining their assumptions about how neoliberal reforms progress.     

How do housing and labour markets affect individual homelessness?

Abstract

We examine the impact of housing and labour market conditions on individual risks of homelessness. Our innovation is a focus on homelessness entries, although findings from jointly estimated homelessness entry and exit probit equations are reported. Risky behaviours and life experiences such as regular use of drugs, the experience of violence and biographies of acute disadvantage lead to a higher risk of becoming homeless. Public housing is a strong protective factor. We find clear evidence that for certain subgroups it is being the ‘wrong person in the wrong place’ that matters most when considering risks of entering homelessness. Indigenous Australians, for example, are no more likely to become homeless than other vulnerable groups holding housing and labour market conditions constant. However, tighter housing markets and weaker labour markets expose Indigenous Australians to significantly higher risks of entering homelessness.     

How long do households remain in housing affordability stress?

We develop a model that specifies the duration of housing affordability stress for particular types of households. Using panel data from Australia, households are considered in semi- and parametric analysis against different household characteristics, revealing whether these characteristics predict the duration of housing affordability stress. For most types of households, an experience of housing affordability stress lasts less than one year. A group of household types disproportionately made up of renters and sole persons remains in stress for longer periods. Chronic housing affordability stress occurs if the duration of stress lasts for more than three years. Linking the duration of stress to household types, and demographic, financial and educational characteristics makes it possible to design more targeted, and therefore more efficient housing affordability policies.     

What has debt got to do with it? The Valuation of Homeownership in the Era of Financialization

Based on comparative focus group data from Norway, Denmark and England, this article asks why people take on substantial mortgages to become homeowners. It argues that financialization of the housing market has resulted in a widespread investment philosophy at the household level and changed the way people think and talk about “the home”. High levels of mortgage borrowing have become commonplace and are justified by social valuations of owner-occupation based on beliefs around freedom through homeownership. Like previous research, the study shows that homeownership offers social identity, stability and belonging. But, this is wrapped up in an investor’s language, such that the distinction between homes as socially valued living environments and homes as investment objects has become blurred. This makes it difficult – perhaps impossible – for households to assess the risks involved in home purchases.     

How can authorities support urban consolidation centres? A review of the accompanying measures

Freight transport affects urban welfare primarily through congestion and emissions. An urban consolidation centre is regarded as a solution that can reduce those negative impacts of freight vehicles on the city. However, previous experience has demonstrated the challenge that these centres face in being self-sustaining. Given their positive effects on the city, authorities have supported these logistics schemes with different types of accompanying measures. In order to bring to practitioners an overview of these measures, the paper presents the results of a literature review where the different measures are classified according to their financial support, their regulatory support and their indirect regulatory support.     

What attributes should a project coordinator possess?

Construction projects are increasingly multidisciplinary and the role of a project coordinator has become critical for success. A clear differentiation is drawn between the roles of a project manager and a project coordinator, and the attributes required in a successful project coordinator are defined. A total of 24 such attributes were identified through a survey of available literature and personal interviews with top construction professionals based in India. A ranking has also been assigned to these attributes on the basis of a questionnaire survey. Statistical analyses of responses indicated a distinct difference between the attributes possessed by the project coordinators in projects that were considered successful, and those that were considered failures. Project coordinators of successful projects were found to excel in certain important attributes such as relationship with client, consultant and contractor; timeliness; technical knowledge of the subject; belief in team playing spirit; and coordination for achieving quality compared to their counterparts in projects which were regarded as failures. Interestingly, the required attributes remained the same for project coordinators whether they worked for the contracting agency or the owner's organisation. Factor analysis was used to group the 24 attributes into three major skills categories: team building skills; contract implementation skills; and project organisation skills. These findings will be useful to practitioners during the recruitment of project coordinators.     

What do you want from the 2001 census? Results of an ESRC/JISC survey of user views

"The author describes the results of a survey of user views about the next Census of Population in the United Kingdom, to be held in 2001. Some 140 respondents reported their views, which included strong support for a question on income, endorsement of the new one number census methodology and support for postcode-based outputs. The author sets these views in the context of the Census Development Programme being carried out by the U.K. Census Offices and the proposals for outputs which are being discussed with the main census user sectors of central and local government, business, the Health Service, and the academic community."     

Inclusionary housing policy in England: the impact of the downturn on the delivery of affordable housing through Section 106

Section 106 (S106) of the English 1990 Town and Country Planning Act provides local planning authorities with powers to require developers to contribute towards affordable housing provision. Over the last two decades, the success of S106, which seeks to extract some of the development value created by planning consent, has been predicated on rising land values and market demand, thus enabling developers to agree and fulfill their planning obligations. The purpose of this article is to explore how negotiations between local authorities and developers with regard to meeting S106 have altered during the economic downturn in England. Drawing on recent empirical research, and through the use of case studies, the article highlights the ways in which S106 agreements have been renegotiated at the site level, with the discretionary nature of the planning system allowing compromises to be made. Despite S106 being tied to market activity, with developer contributions being reduced in a downturn, it remains an important policy tool in securing affordable housing and achieving inclusionary housing goals within England to date.