Housing policy – the link between welfare and economic development

Many Western European countriesturned into welfare states in the 1950s, wherebyhousing became a tool of income redistribution,largely through the construction of a largesubsidized rental stock. In Northwestern Europe,over 60 percent of the present stock was built after1945. The states' response to housing shortages wasgeared to increasing social equity; a huge financialeffort was needed to accommodate the rapidly growingnumber of households. Since the early 1970s,governments have been trying to increase theeconomic efficiency of their housing systems withoutcompromising social equity. Consequently, the focusof housing policy shifted from blanket regulation totargeted support for households in need. Morefundamental changes lie ahead, as governments nowgive priority to economic development goals. Thisarticle outlines the role that housing policy canplay in Europe's economic development. Whereashousing policy generally follows the economy, thatlink could also work the other way around. As localgovernments compete for economic growth, a promisingstrategy is to improve local housing conditions.     

Political Economy and Housing in the Twenty-first Century – From Mobile Homes to Liquid Housing?

The recent Global Financial Crisis started as a crisis in the US sub-prime mortgage market, and rapidly spread to a wider financial crisis. This article suggests that beyond the crisis, we can now see that households are playing an evolving role as a site of risk absorption. In so doing, households have become a frontier of capital accumulation, not just as producers and consumers, but also as financial traders. Households are increasingly buying financialized products as an ordinary part of daily subsistence – houses, insurance, education, electricity and mobile phones. But at a level beyond the household’s daily reality, these regular purchases are being re-specified as assets, on which asset backed securities are built and then traded. It is in this way that by securitizing mortgage debt, finance has given global liquidity to housing. The size of securitized markets on housing as well as household assets and payment streams now dwarfs stock markets. The requirements of this emergent financial citizenship for the house and households extend beyond just honouring payments on a home purchase, it is requiring a culture of financial calculation that becomes absorbed as part of the daily norms and dispositions of social being. The presumption of rights of access to housing, education and health care are being replaced by the acceptance of individual financial participation and calculation. Here, we argue housing is being reconstructed as both the capital base for, and site of, individualized life course risk management.     

Changing Preferences with Ageing – Housing Choices and Housing Plans of Older People

Planning for the housing situation of an ageing population is one of the challenges of many countries. To increase our understanding of the needs of the ageing population, a nationwide survey stratified on age and municipality type was conducted. Research questions referred to the current housing situation and plans. The aim was to investigate how preferences, location, and/or the type of housing preferred changes with age and if they are housing market dependent. Results of 10-year cohorts show that the most marked change is between the cohort 75–84 years old and the oldest cohort 85+. There is a gradual change over time of moves from large to small housing, from owner-occupation to rented housing. Respondents in the major cities and in the rural or tourism-dependent municipalities are less inclined to move compared to those from other types of municipalities. The study predicts a shortage of rented apartments.     

Fire toxicity – The elephant in the room?

Fire toxicity is the largest cause of death and injury from unwanted fires, yet it is the least well studied area of fire science and engineering. Fire toxicity increases by factors up to 50, as the fire becomes under-ventilated. This has proved difficult, but not impossible, to replicate in a controlled way on a bench-scale. Clear correlations have been observed between the stoichiometric equivalence ratio, and the yields of the major asphyxiants, carbon monoxide and hydrogen cyanide. In addition, irritant components of fire effluents, which have an instantaneous effect, can incapacitate fire victims, trapping them in a fire. However, the longer term toxicants present in fire effluents, such as the carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and the microscopic particulates which result from their agglomeration are probably responsible for hundreds or thousands more deaths than the acute asphyxiants and irritants.     

Housing and Resilience – When,for Whom and for What? A Critical Agenda

ABSTRACT

As a concept resilience is proving remarkably…resilient. It has become a keyword used to describe the contemporary urban and environmental condition. However, unlike that other prolific keyword “sustainability”, it lacks both the ethical intent (if not practice) and international agreement of the Brundtland Report directive to seek to balance economic, social and environmental outcomes for the benefit of future generations. Resilience, like concepts such as flexibility, efficiency or social capital, can be highly politicized and often mean very different things to different people. Herein lies both the potential and pitfalls of such a term, especially when it has become such a powerful signifier for how best to respond to the conditions inherent in our climate of change. Within housing research scholarship and practice, the concept is both ubiquitous and under-theorized. This special issue seeks to draw critical attention to the use of the concept. Key questions for housing include: Resilience in housing how, when, for whom and for what?     

Large-Scale Water Spray and Water Mist Fire Suppression System Tests for the Protection of Ro–Ro Cargo Decks on Ships

This paper summarises a series of large-scale fire suppression tests conducted to simulate a fire in the trailer of a heavy goods freight truck on a roll-on roll-off (ro–ro) cargo deck. The tests were conducted with a traditional deluge water spray system as well as a deluge high-pressure water mist system. Parameters such as the water discharge density, the system operating pressure, the nozzle K-factor and whether the fire was fully exposed to the water spray or shielded were varied. The total and convective heat release rate of the fire was measured in order to determine the fire suppression and fire control capabilities of the tested systems. Test results indicate that a water discharge density of at least 10 mm/min is necessary to provide fire suppression of a fire in a heavy goods freight truck, whilst 5 mm/min would provide fire control. Furthermore, the test results indicate that a high-pressure water mist system would require higher flow rates as compared to a traditional water spray system in order to provide fire control.     

Housing and the elderly in Singapore – financial and quality of life implications of ageing in place

In spite of the unprecedented success of publichousing in Singapore, the rapid rate at whichthe population is greying is causing housingstress in the matured Housing and DevelopmentBoard (HDB) estates. Although new housingoptions such as studio apartments are beingprovided by the public sector while a recentlyformed housing cooperative is developing aretirement village, the majority of the elderlyin Singapore prefer to age in place,notwithstanding the imbalance between thedemands of their homes and the functioninglevel of the elderly persons' physical andbiological systems. This implies that homemodification, rather than new-built elderlyhousing, may be a more pragmatic solution tothe elderly Singaporeans' housing problems thatcould also improve their quality of life. Since85% of the population of Singapore live inpublic housing, this paper examines the typesof home modifications that could be carried outto the existing stock of public housing so asto create a suitable living environment for theelderly. In addition, the paper considers thehousing finance predicaments of the elderlySingaporean and explores possible financinginstruments that could be implemented tosupport home modifications for Singapore'sgreying population. The paper concludes thatsince home modification(s) could improve thequality of life of the elderly persons morethan specialised housing, public funds shouldbe diverted from building new specialisedhousing to home modification(s) for elderlyhome owners.     

‘Race’, Deprivation and the Research Agenda: Revisiting Housing,Ethnicity and Neighbourhoods

Building on a general account of recent changes and on local case study material, this paper develops an overview of contemporary issues in the interconnected research domains of UK ethnic relations, disadvantage and housing neighbourhoods. It aims to contribute to some rethinking of ethnic disadvantage and discrimination within analytical frameworks, while looking towards more defensible research strategies. Matters referred to in our overview of change include regulatory developments, diversities within and between settled minority ethnic groups, changed patterns of in-migration, disadvantage amongst low-income white households and convergence between ethnic groups in internal socio-economic differentiation. A West Midlands case study used to complement this broad coverage provides reminders of shared problems across ethnic boundaries, and of the merits of caution when hypothesising causative links between deprivation and ethnicity in disadvantaged areas. The section ‘Towards Better Research Practice?’ discusses research approaches and priorities, suggesting that it may be useful to revisit the ‘traditional repertoire’ deployed in the UK ethnic relations and housing.     

How Far Do People Search for Housing? Analyzing the Roles of Housing Supply,Intra-household Dynamics,and the Use of Information Channels

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

Combined Fire Retardant and Wood Preservative Treatments for Outdoor Wood Applications – A Review of the Literature

A collaborative Australian national project funded jointly by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation and the Forest & Wood Products Research and Development Corporation has been undertaken to develop a ‘proof of concept’ for a combined fire retardant/wood preservative treatment technology for P. radiata to satisfy the requirements of both the Australian Bushfire and Wood Preservation Standards. The focus of the work was on products that found use in exposed outdoor, above-ground applications. This paper reviews the literature currently available regarding the impregnation of wood with chemical systems that offer resistance to both fire and biodegradation and are also suitable for exterior applications. We have found that in general, researchers have chosen to utilise the dual functionality of boron compounds to achieve both fire retardancy and wood preservation. Often, such systems are applied in multi-step processes, which involve an impregnation step followed by a curing step. Because of the leaching problems associated with boron, a great deal of effort has gone into the development of systems which fix the boron into wood so that its preservation properties can be maintained throughout the useful life of the material.     

Water quality and the demand for recreation†

This paper considers the linkage between one facet of environmental quality and utilization of the environment. Following a simple theory of market demand for recreational sites we attempt to quantify the relationship between water quality and visits to parks using Illinois data for 1976. The main conclusion is that weak responses of the demand for recreation are detected for changes in water quality parameters leading us to believe that statistical analysis of better data would show stronger responses.