Planning for Small-scale Retailing: Evidence from Scotland

This article aims to discuss whether there is a need to have a fully integrated national spatial planning framework for the UK to: (1) improve the co-ordination of different policy frameworks; (2) provide completed national spatial coverage and consistent monitoring frameworks; (3) develop a national spatial vision of development; and (4) provide more effective national solutions to the pervasive force of changing spatial structure. A test case of housing and employment is used to explore inter-sectoral issues and the spatial impacts brought by their close interactions. Finally, a future policy and research agenda is outlined to shape the continuous debate and development of a UK Spatial Planning Framework.     

Privatising Public Housing in Hong Kong: Its Impact on Equity

Three processes are examined to assess the impact on equity of policies to privatise public housing in Hong Kong. These are changes in the inter-sectoral distribution of subsidies, changes in the quality and quantity of public rental housing, and changes in access to public housing. It is found that housing subsidies have remained concentrated in the public rental sector, and the quantity, quality and amenity of housing in this sector has actually increased. The Hong Kong Government has not sought to reduce eligibility for and access to public housing; the lengthy waiting list to join this tenure reflects increases in demand since the privatisation policy was introduced. Thus, unlike the experiences of many other countries, the Hong Kong Government's policy to privatise public housing has not had a notably adverse impact on housing equity to date.     

Local Innovation And Global Change: ‘Remaking The Welfare State’ In Sweden1

Swedish urban planning and housing policies have been seen as exemplars by many Australian policy makers. The mixture of state activism, strong local government, broad concepts of welfare policy and social housing, coupled with wide community acceptance of these ideals, has enabled major innovations in housing policy. This article describes the historical background and recent changes to these policies within Sweden's changing political framework. It also shows that global fiscal changes, coupled with Sweden's entry into the ‘federalising’ European Union, have changed the context of these policies. Swedish housing and urban policy is changing; Swedish local government has a strong role in the development and implementation of these changing policies. There are many interesting lessons for Australian urban policy in these changes.     

Integration in the Regions: Cross-sectoral Housing Policy Co-ordination at Regional Level

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

An Institutional Approach to Analysis of State Capacity in Housing Systems in the Developing World: Case Studies in South Africa and Costa Rica

Mutually balanced roles and activities within state, market and society are needed to underpin effective and equitable housing systems. How these develop and interact necessitates negotiation, which in itself requires certain basic structures to be in place and certain capacities to be available. In the developing world this is often not the case, leading to theories based on the limitations of the command economy, market failure, or promoting state-market partnerships. While it draws on a political economy analytical framework, the paper is grounded in the application of new institutionalism to the study of housing systems, which it argues provides a more relevant theoretical framework for housing system analysis than previous structural analyses. The paper focuses on the constraints that state capacity can have on state-society relationships within the broader context of negotiations between the state, the market and society on housing policy and delivery issues. The empirical experience of state capacity vis-à-vis housing policy development and delivery is investigated in South Africa and Costa Rica, which, despite being very different in many respects, display a number of striking similarities in the analysis.     

Reconciling Policy Tensions on the Frontlines of Indigenous Housing Provision in Australia: Reflexivity,Resistance and Hybridity

In Australia, significant recent reforms reposition Indigenous housing provision and management in remote and town camp communities under the mainstream public housing model. Two competing discourses surround this shift: a federal discourse of standardisation and state discourses of local responsiveness centred on the introduction of new community engagement processes into Indigenous public housing. This paper reports on qualitative research into the micro-scale of policy implementation to highlight policy-to-practice translation on the frontlines of Indigenous housing. Based on interviews with Indigenous housing stakeholders, this paper argues the capacity to support locally responsive housing management is problematic under the current arrangements. The analytical framework of realist governmentality reveals frontline housing professionals' role in the local resolution of tensions between federal and state policy levers. A focus on agent reflexivity and resistance on the frontline assists in capturing the dynamic (hybrid) identity of Indigenous public housing, as an atypical Australian example of hybridity in social housing.     

China's Concealed Crisis

Architectural historian and author Edward Denison and architect and researcher Guang Yu Ren lift the lid on the complex and urgent matter of China's ageing population. The impending crisis is not only a matter of numbers – a third of China's population are projected to be over 60 by 2050 – but also one of shifting social responsibility. Whereas the care of ageing relatives has traditionally been the individual family's responsibility – filial obligation being written into the constitution – urban migration and economic development and the legacy of the One Child Policy are disrupting this, creating a greater need for state and private housing provision for the elderly.     

The long-term effects of housing policy instrumentation: Rio de Janeiro’s case from an actor–network theory perspective

Abstract

This paper explores the long-term effects of Rio de Janeiro’s slum upgrading, a key policy instrument of municipal housing since the 1990s, and an essential reference for housing initiatives worldwide. From a theoretical stance, this paper builds on the Political Sociology of Public Policy Instruments (PPI) and actor–network theory (ANT). The paper argues that Rio’s slum upgrading instrumentation, that is, its constitution and use, has been key to the various housing policy oscillations over the past three decades. It also contends that this instrumentation contributed to the depoliticization of the municipal housing policy through the fostering of a ‘community of practice’ centred on slum upgrading, formed by a wide range of state and non-sate actors, and based on a technical rationality. This community and its practices have weakened the political control over Rio’s housing policy in the past decades.     

Reassessing State Housing Trust Funds: Results of a Florida Survey

While their structure and targets vary, state housing trust funds offer an increasingly common form of assistance designed to flexibly meet local housing needs. Frequently they are generated through real estate transaction fees, making them particularly relevant in high growth states such as Florida. For 16 years, Florida's housing trust fund (SHIP) has consistently met its major funding targets, assisting housing initiatives from rural counties to the largest urban centers. A survey of local SHIP administrators provides insight on defining characteristics and key policy dilemmas. Although this critical housing program fails to consistently meet certain goals, those stakeholders involved in its passage, maintenance and implementation consider it a success. Given these conditions, strengthened state oversight to ensure consistency with housing plans and increased state support for other programs, particularly those targeting rental strategies and the lowest income, rather than major legislative changes, could result in more informed, effective and equitable local implementation.     

Land,urban form,and politics: A study on Dubai's housing landscape and rental affordability

There is a general perception that Dubai is built for the well-off. The construction of mega developments feeds a longstanding narrative that Dubai is solely a luxurious place. This study assesses this portrayal of Dubai and explores Dubai's residential landscape in terms of morphology and affordability. In particular, we ask: What are the different housing patterns prevailing in Dubai's built landscape? What are the major driving factors that influenced Dubai's housing transformation? How affordable is Dubai to its residents? Does Dubai's built landscape accommodate a large spectrum of income classes?The study argues that to fully assess the affordability of a city's housing, it's necessary to understand its spatial forms, morphogenesis, and the forces that shaped these patterns. Taking Dubai as a case, the study uses geospatial mapping to reveal nine distinct residential patterns in the city's history. The identified patterns are presented under six thematic periods stretching from 1900 to 2016 to highlight the contributing forces that shaped Dubai's housing landscape. Results expand the terms of discussions of affordable housing issues to address concerns related to authoritarian land use control and its impact on housing forms. Findings reveal that Dubai's land use policy creates spatial and housing affordability challenges. The state housing policy of providing large plots and exclusive suburbs for natives and the government's partnership with the private sector to brand Dubai through projects for the well-off have created a formidable housing challenge for the middle class. One major challenge is the lack of sufficient affordable housing units for the middle-class population; rental figures for this group are at crisis point. Only 23% of total housing units, which corresponds to a mere 7% of the total housing floor area in Dubai, are affordable for this group. To eradicate these ills of housing affordability, the planning profession in Dubai must derive practices from a number of internationally recognized planning and rental control policies.     

Preventing Asthma through Housing Interventions: How Supportive is the US Policy Environment?

This paper investigates whether the policy environment in the United States is supportive of addressing the asthma epidemic through housing plans and policies. Asthma is increasing at an alarming rate worldwide and is linked to allergens in the housing environment such as ground-level ozone, excessive moisture and dust, rodents and pests, and environmental tobacco smoke. The study finds basic laws and regulations are in place regulating outdoor air quality and calling for the maintenance of public and rental housing in good condition, but there is still a need for specific standards to be adopted into law, for better enforcement of existing laws, and for increased funding. Because asthma prevention programs are relatively new, the paper reviews the US experience with lead-based paint hazard control programs to identify the components of effective strategies. These include explicit health objectives in housing plans and policies, promotion by both health and housing officials, advocacy by citizens' groups and tenants' associations, adequate funding for implementation, and focus on multiple health outcomes.     

Housing Stock Transfer in Glasgow—the First Five Years: A Study of Policy Implementation

In 2003 the City of Glasgow saw the largest housing stock transfer in the UK, involving around 80 000 dwellings. Since then, the implementation of the stock transfer policy has been heavily criticised. This paper uses a framework developed from implementation studies to analyse why this policy has been susceptible to difficulties and to reflect upon the important elements of a revised analytical framework. The paper finds that the study of policy implementation must contain an appreciation of the effects of having multiple policy objectives, multiple layers of governance and multiple actors involved in policy delivery. Additional elements of a policy implementation framework are: the specification of the stages of implementation; consideration of interactions between policy objectives; the need for government to oversee and ensure the effective management of policy networks; and finally, consideration of the effects of competing political interests and perspectives.     

Housing Investment Trusts: A New Structure of Rental Housing Provision?

Recent governments in Britain have sought to attract financial institutions into private rental housing in order to increase the scale, professionalism and reputation of the sector and thereby to 'modernise' private landlordism. In 1996, in order to provide an attractive vehicle for the financial institutions to invest in the sector, the government introduced legislation permitting the establishment of housing investment trusts. These residential property companies have a reduced tax liability compared with normal property companies. However, no housing investment trusts have so far been established and none seem likely to be set up. This paper reports on qualitative interviews with financial institutions to examine why housing investment trusts have proved to be a policy failure. It is argued that the rules governing such trusts did not reflect the normal operations of a property company and that the existing structure of housing provision in the private rented sector was itself an obstacle to the modernisation of private landlordism.     

From Low Demand to Rising Aspirations: Housing Market Renewal within Regional and Neighbourhood Regeneration Policy

The paper draws on qualitative empirical evidence from studies of regeneration in North-East England, and seeks to link housing market renewal to wider regeneration issues at regional and neighbourhood levels. It suggests that the discourse on, and justification of, housing market renewal has shifted from a specific concern with low housing demand and abandonment to a more generalised modernisation agenda seeking the restructuring of low-income neighbourhoods in terms not only of housing quality but also of tenure and population. This modernisation discourse is strongly linked to a regional economic regeneration agenda. It is argued that despite claims for the holistic nature of market renewal policies, it seems unlikely that these will improve the economic circumstances of existing residents as opposed to serving regional economic development objectives. Moreover, the more sweeping change implied by the modernisation agenda may reinforce the tension at neighbourhood level between community-led neighbourhood renewal and the restructuring of tenure and population through market renewal.     

The Development of Housing Policy in the English Regions: Trends and Prospects

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

The Supply-Side Modernisation of Social Housing in England: Analysing Mechanics,Trends and Consequences

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

Building the Connection Between Housing Needs and Metropolitan Planning in Sydney,Australia

The theme of a more compact city has been a central feature of planning policy for Sydney's development over the last two decades. Urban consolidation, in the form of attached dwellings in medium- and high-density configurations, has become the predominant form of new residential development since the early 1990s. One of the largely untested claims for this policy is that it provides more housing choice for an increasingly diverse population and that simply building larger amounts of smaller housing in high-density concentrations will be sufficient to meet that demand. As a result, planning for higher density housing has been undertaken with little explicit recognition of the housing sub-markets higher density housing caters for or their specific spatial characteristics within the city. These issues are examined by an analysis of the socio-economic characteristics of areas with high concentrations of attached housing. These data are processed by factor analysis to identify and locate the range of sub-markets within attached housing and additional small area data used to fill out the market profiling. The results reveal that a range of specific housing needs are met by this form of housing with discriminative characteristics in certain locations. In other words, higher density housing is associated with a range of locationally specific and spatially distinctive sub-markets. These findings are particularly relevant and timely as a new metropolitan strategy is in preparation for Sydney where an estimated 60–70 per cent of new dwelling provision in the next 30 years will take place within existing suburbs through higher density redevelopment. Planning for such development must take into account the local markets for such accommodation which have very different characteristics in different parts of the city.     

The changing nature of financing low‐income urban housing development in Kenya

The poor state of housing in the cities of developing countries has been the subject of numerous studies. Only a few published articles on the topic, however, emphasise the complexity and interrelatedness of the key components of housing such as land, finance, building materials, and construction technologies. This article examines one of these components, namely finance, and assesses its importance to the development of appropriate low‐income housing in Kenya's second city, Mombasa. Kenya's urban housing policy emphasises home ownership rather than rentals. For the low‐income groups, the twin package of site and service and settlement upgrading has been the main programme of action. One of the most recent projects of this nature, the Second Urban Project (SUP) is evaluated here in so far as the nature of its financing has had important repercussions on the low‐income urban housing sub‐sector in Mombasa. It is the contention of this paper that the introduction into Mombasa's low‐income settlements of the conventional or formal systems of financing residential development has resulted in socio‐economic turbulence of gigantic proportions. It has led to clandestine plot sales, absentee landlordism, escalating rents, and the ‘invasion’ of low‐income settlements by higher income groups. Prior to the implementation of this World Bank funded project, the financing of low‐income housing had been primarily done on an informal basis under a traditional method known as the ‘tenancy‐at‐will’ system which encouraged progressive housing development, and discouraged absentee landlordism. This article concludes that it is not cost‐effective to rapidly replace non‐conventional methods. It would be more appropriate to integrate the two in a pragmatic way by adopting more novel ways of financing low‐income residential development in a way that would minimise the current rampant failures of these projects in meeting their stated objectives.     

Policy Review: Reforming Private Housing Finance: Evaluating the Achievements of the Clinton Administration

The financial infrastructure of guarantees, insurance and regulation that underpins US housing markets is an important federal policy tool. Historically, housing policy in the US has relied much more heavily on regulating private market actors to achieve public goals, than it has on direct expenditures. But the commonalities between the US and restructured welfare states such as the UK and Canada have become more striking in recent decades. Similar dilemmas face policy makers in many settings: if homeownership is to be the centerpiece of housing policy, how do we ensure it is affordable and sustainable for those once served by a larger social housing sector? If direct expenditures are to be cut back, with what do we replace them? The story of the Clinton administration's efforts to reform the US financial infrastructure illustrates how these dilemmas have been addressed (although obviously not resolved) in a specific instance.