Shared ownership: The socialisation or privatisation of housing?

Shared ownership schemes are being introduced in Australia at a time when there has been a considerable shift in community attitudes towards the role of the public sector. This shift has brought both a push for privatisation and a push for improved targeting of public expenditure.

The emergence of support for shared ownership can be interpreted, in turn, as a desire to prop up home ownership; a means of reducing public expenditure on housing and/or an attempt to improve the targeting of support provided by public housing. Shared ownership has been heralded as the new way of providing social housing by its protagonists and decried as a means of diverting scarce resources from more pressing needs by its critics. Which of these is paramount depends on the way in which shared ownership schemes are implemented.

This paper outlines a basic framework within which an unsubsidised shared ownership scheme can work and indicates how a subsidised approach can be introduced without threatening funds provided for public housing.     

Housing during recession: Illustrations from Latin America

Latin America's cities grew rapidly after 1940 during a period of continuous economic growth. Booming populations were accommodated by a massive increase in the housing stock. Most of the increase in the low‐income housing stock came from ‘self‐help’ construction. Much of the consequent housing was gradually improved and serviced; levels of owner occupation increased.

Since 1980, of course, economic and social conditions in most Latin American countries have deteriorated. The debt crisis, consequent inflation, and governmental responses to those twin problems have led to a sharp deterioration in living standards for poor and middle class alike. This prompts the question: what has happened to the housing stock and how has self‐help construction reacted to conditions of economic recession?

The paper analyses recent changes in the Latin American housing situation with illustrations from Mexico and Venezuela. It examines state policy in the two countries and asks whether self‐help housing constitutes ‘an architecture that works’ even under conditions of extreme economic recession.     

Housing policy in the emergent socialist mixed economy of Eastern Europe

The late 1980s signal a qualitatively new stage in the development of socialist economies. Earlier reforms attempted to move away from a monolithic, centrally planned system, to find more effective mechanisms of economic management, in particular to reduce the role of planning and increase the role of the market within the statist economy. But during the last two or three years a significant change has occurred in the reform discourse. The debate over ‘how much plan and how much market’ has come to be replaced by a call for a reform of ownership (Bauer, 1988). A ‘socialist mixed economy’, with a statist sector complemented by a private sector seems to be in the making.

This paper has two aims.

In the first part I present the trend towards a socialist mixed economy. I will explain the forces pointing in this direction, the likely functioning of a socialist mixed economy, and finally, how different a socialist mixed economy might be from a capitalist one.

In the second part I look at the housing economy, and explore how housing policy may change as the national economy becomes increasingly mixed. Re‐privatisation of housing preceded re‐privatisation or deregulation in other sectors. From the late 1960s onwards the state began to withdraw from housing construction in many countries (Ciechocinska, 1988; Daniel and Temesi, 1984; Tosics, 1987). By the late 1980s a significant proportion of new housing was built which was the individual property of the occupants. Is the housing system therefore already a mixed economy? In my view, the answer to this question is no. The main purpose of the second section of my paper is to show that this ‘re‐privatisation’ or ‘marketisation’ of the housing economy has been highly restricted. As far as the system of production is concerned there has been no private (profit orientated) sector in the housing economy; market‐like forces only regulated the distribution of housing. The task of this paper is to show that the transformation of the national economy into a socialist mixed economy is therefore likely to have far‐reaching consequences for the housing system. I will also try to show, in some detail, what these consequences are likely to be.     

A new publication from the landscape research group

Charles Bridgeman and the English Landscape Garden

by Peter Willis 1977

£50 Studies in Architecture XVII A Zwemmer Ltd

Alexander Pope and the Arts of Georgian England by Morris R Brownell 1978

£16 Oxford University Press

A WORLD WITH A VIEW ‐

An Inquiry into the Nature of Scenic Values

pp 196 (illus.) $15.00

MAPPING MOORLAND CHANGE ‐

A framework for land use decisions in the Peak District.

M. L. Parry: Peak District National Park. 1977     

The State of the Nation's Ecosystems: Measuring the lands,waters and living resources of the United States

Landscape Transformed

London, Academy Editions, 1996, 112 pp., no price given, ISBN 1–85490–452–3

Sculpting with the Environment: a natural dialogue

Baile Oakes (Ed.)

New York, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1995, ISBN 0–442–01642–5, 252 pp., £45.00, hb.

After the Ruins: restoring the countryside of Northern France after the Great War

Hugh Clout

Exeter, University of Exeter Press, 1996, ISBN 0–85989–491–6,332 pp., £35.

Environmental Aesthetics: ideas, politics and planning

J. Douglas Porteous

London and New York, Routledge, 1996, ISBN 0–415–13769–1, 20 pp., £15.99.

Countryside Survey 1990 Main Report

C.J. Barr, R.G.H. Bunce, R.T. Clarke, R.M. Fuller, M.T. Furse, M.K. Gillespie, G.B. Groom, C.J. Hallam, M. Hornung, D.C. Howard &; M.J. Ness

London, Department of the Environment, 1993, 174 pp., £12.00 (available from DoE Publications Sales Unit, Block 3, Spur 2, Government Buildings, Lime Grove, Eastcote, HA4 8SE)

World of Environmental Design, Volume 1: Urban Spaces I (Streets and Squares)

Francisco Asenio Cerver

Barcelona, Arco Editorial, 1995, 255 pp., US$75 (per volume) ISBN 84–8185–004–7 (complete work), ISBN 84–8185–005–5 (Volume 1)

’The Remains of Distant Times’: archaeology and the National Trust

David Morgan Evans, Peter Salway &; David Thackray (Eds)

Woodbridge, Suffolk, The Boydell Press, 1996, ISBN 0–85115–671–1, hb, 235 pp., £29.50

Apostle of Taste: Andrew Jackson Downing 1815–1852

D. Schuyler

Baltimore, fohns Hopkins University Press, 1996, ISBN 0–8018–5229–3, $35.95     

Review

COUNTRYSIDE PLANNING

Andrew W. Gilg, (Department of Geography), University of Exeter

Published by David and Charles. 255 pp.

SCOTLAND'S SCENIC HERITAGE

Countryside Commission for Scotland 1978 (100 ppBibl.)     

American overseas study programs in landscape architecture to Europe: an analysis of program goals

THE LAKE DISTRICT, LANDSCAPE HERITAGE, William Rollinson (Ed.), Newton Abbot, David &; Charles, 1989, 200pp., ISBN 0–7153–9077–5, £14.95.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE, ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN, AND PLANNING, Antoinette Paris Powell, London, Mansell, 1987, (original US ed'n by Oryx Press, 1987), 312 pp, 0–7201–1953–7, £45.00

DET FORäNDERLIGA LANDS‐KAPET — UTVECKLING OCH FRAMTIDSBILDER, (The Changing Landscape —development and future scenarios), Lars Emmelin &; Gunnar Brusewitz, 128pp., maps and tables. Esselte Herzogs, Uppsala, 1985. ISBN 91–36–02259–4.

LOUDON AND THE LAND‐SCAPE FROM COUNTRY SEAT TO METROPOLIS, Melanie Louise Simo, Yale University Press, 1988, pp. 337.

THE GARDEN IN VICTORIAN LITERATURE by Michael Waters, Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1988. pp. xii + 371. £30.00.

THE POETICS OF GARDENS, Charles W. Moore, William J. Mitchell &; William Turnbull, M IT Press, 1989, ISBN 0–262–13231–1.

THE SEARCH FOR THE PICTURESQUE: Landscape Aesthetics and Tourism in Britain, 1760–1800, Malcolm Andrews, London, Scolar Press, 1989, 269pp., ISBN 0–85967–693–5, £45.00.

THE ROAD TO BOTANY BAY: An essay in Spatial History, Paul Carter, pp. xxv + 384, 32 plates, Faber &; Faber 1987, £15.00 HB, £6.95 PB.

VALUING CULTURAL LANDSCAPES IN THE USA, BRITAIN, AND AUSTRALIA, J. A. Russell, Environmental Studies, University of Tasmania, Occasional Paper 22, 1988, Hobart, ISSN 0810–4395, 107 pp, A$ 12.00.

COUNTRYSIDE PLANNING IN PRACTICE: THE SCOTTISH EXPERIENCE, P. H. Selman (Ed.), Stirling; University of Stirling Press, 1988, pp. 279, 0–948812–02–8.

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT: Theory and Practice, Peter Wathern (Ed.), ?London, Unwin Hyman, 1988, 322pp., ISBN 0–04–445042–7 HB, £40.00.

PROPERTY AND LAND‐SCAPE: A Social History of Land Ownership and the English Countryside, Tom Williamson and Liz Bellamy, George Philip, London, 1987. ISBN 0–540–01125–8.     

The social use of market processes in British and Hungarian housing policies

The switch of state subsidies away from support for public housing investment and towards an intensification of market processes is no longer the prerogative of Western countries, but, in the 1980s, has also become a feature of some state socialist societies. However, given the contrasting social, political and economic character of these societies, does the apparently similar process of privatisation in fact have the same characteristics, meaning and social consequences?

In this paper Britain and Hungary have been chosen as countries representative of the two social systems and in which market processes have intensified. The comparison begins by examining the social meaning of'owning’ and ‘renting’, the historical context of the development of housing policy, the allocation systems, rents, and subsidies. Focusing on the social housing sector the paper contrasts current housing issues. Particular attention is given to the “Right to Buy” policy which is a common feature in the 1980s of housing policy in both countries.

As a result of their mainly empirical comparison the authors conclude that privatisation in Britain and Hungary occurred in housing systems which have been similar in their tenure structure but very different in historical context. Because the broad social‐political context of privatisation is different, particularly the economic and institutional interests rooted within this issue, it is not inevitable that the regressive social consequences of measures which promote the privatisation process (which are common to both countries) are automatically negative in terms of the general sociological assessment.Thus comparison can help in the preparation of policy options and the assessment of new possibilities, but only as background. Strategies should be evaluated primarily against the social‐political context of each country and against the current policy objectives.     

Measuring housing need and the provision of social housing

The Bramley Report (ADC, 1988), made a detailed attempt to construct a resource allocation formula for social housing provision. In this paper we stand back from the debate over the detail of the models being proposed by Bramley to consider instead the principles which underlie the modelling of housing needs and resource allocation in this context.

The measurement of housing need depends on a few key concepts; the definition of acceptable standards of accommodation, the total numbers of households, and the supply of housing of at least the required standard. Questions then arise as to which indicator should be included in a needs model and how they should be measured. Overcrowding and homelessness are likely to be included whether these indicators are chosen by consumers or by social decision‐makers. Having chosen the indicators they have to be ‘normalised’ to take account of cyclical factors in the housing market, and of the efficiency and policy stances of local authorities. After this the indicators have to be ‘weighted’, otherwise they are all of equal value. Access to owner‐occupation should not be included in the model because ability to buy is an influence on the indicators, and if so included (a key feature of Bramley's proposals) in effect leads to a double‐counting of the problems of access to owner occupation.

In the final resource allocation process there is likely to be a trade‐off between the equitable and the efficient distribution of scarce funds.     

Race and the allocation of public housing: Changing perspectives,recurrent themes

Housing on Trial. By Elizabeth Burney. Oxford University Press (for Institute of Race Relations). 1967.

What Price Equality? Deborah Phillips, Greater London Council 1986.

Race, Class and the Allocation of State Housing. By Jeff Henderson and Valerie Kam. Aldershot: Gower. 1987.

Race and Housing: New Perspectives. edited by Susan Smith and John Mercer, University of Glasgow, Centre for Housing Research. 1987.     

The struggle for housing provision in Tanzania: A case of confusing policies

This paper uses secondary sources to examine ambiguities inherent in the socio‐economic and political policies which guide national development plans in Tanzania. These ambiguities have negative impacts on overall development strategies including housing.

The main focus of the paper is on post‐independence socio‐economic policies. These have been divided into three distinct periods, that is, pre‐Amsha, Arusha and post‐Arusha Declaration periods. Policies that were enforced in each period are carefully examined and their direct or indirect impact on national development plans evaluated in terms of housing production. Finally, the paper proposes drastic changes within the government machinery if future development policies are to be more successful.     

Book reviews

Hostels to Homes. T. Dant and A. Deacon. Aldershot: Avebury. 1989. £25.00 hardback.

Scottish Housing: Policy and Politics 1885–1985. Richard Rodger (ed). Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1989. pp250. £35.00.

Urban Decline. David Clark. London: Routledge, 1989. pp161. £25.00 (hardback).

Beyond the Inner City. David Byrne. Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1989. pp179. £9.99 (paperback).

Homelessness in Britain. J. Greve with E. Currie. York: Joseph Rowntree Memorial Trust, 1990. pp32.

The New Homeless: The Crisis of Youth Homelessness and the Response of the Local Housing Authorities. R. Thornton. London: SHAC (The London Housing Aid Centre), 1990. pp86. £3.95.

Address Unknown: The Homeless in America. J. D. Wright. New York Aldine de Gruyter, 1989. pp170. DM42 (paperback).     

Book reviews

Reshaping Housing Policy: Subsidies, Rents and Residualisation. Peter Malpass. London: Routledge, 1989. pp196. £9.95 (paperback).

A Nation of Home Owners. Peter Saunders. London: Unwin and Hyman, 1990. pp418. £12.95 (paperback). £35.00 (hardback).

Ethnic Minority Housing: Explanations and Policies. Philip Sarre, Deborah Phillips and Richard Skellington. Aldershot: Avebury, 1989. xxiii, pp384. £35.00 (hardback). Research in Ethnic Relations Series.

Housing Policy in Developing Countries. Gil Shidlo (ed). London and New York: Routledge, 1990.

Rebuilding a Low‐Income Housing Policy. Rachel Bratt. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1989. pp399.

Housing and Social Policy. D. Clapham, P. Kemp and S. J. Smith. London: Macmillan, 1990. pp274. £35.00 (hardback). £9.95 (paperback).

Privatism and Urban Policy in Britain and the United States. Timothy Bamekov, Robin Boyle and Daniel Rich. Oxford University Press, 1989. pp267. £35.00 (cloth).

Housing Policy: An Introduction. Paul N. Balchin. London, Routledge. 1989 second edition. 312pp. £30.00 cloth.     

Review

LANDSCAPE PLANNING: an international journal on landscape ecology, reclamation and conservation, outdoor recreation and land‐use management (p122pp Illus.)

LAND SHAPE by Caroline Tisdall.

A review of The Land: Twentieth Century Landscape Photographs at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and The Land published by Gordon Fraser (hardcover £6.00 softcover £2,75).

Courtesy The Guardian (November 28th, 1975).     

Book reviews

Housing Finance in the 1990s. C. Whitehead & B. Turner (Eds)National Swedish Institute for Building Research, Gavle, 1993, 330 pp., ISBN 91–7111–068–2

Markets and Managers—New Issues in the Delivery of Welfare. Peter Taylor Gooby & Robyn Lawson (Eds) Buckingham, Open University Press, 1993, 190 pp., £37.50 hardback, £12.99 paperback

Housing Finance and Subsidies in Britain. Duncan Maclennan & Kenneth Gibb (Eds) Aldershot, Avebury, 1993, 218 pp., £35

The Estate Action Initiative: Council Housing Renewal, Management and Effectiveness. Ricardo Pinto Aldershot, Avebury, 1993, 286 pp., £35

Keeping to the Marketplace: the Evaluation of Canadian Housing Policy. John C. Bacher Montreal and Kingston, McGill‐Queens University Press, 1993, 327 pp., C$55.00, £42.45 UK

The Reform of Housing in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. B. Turner, J. Hegedüs & I. Tosics London, Routledge, 1992, 362 pp., £45 hardback

Neighbour Disputes: Responses by Social Landlords. Valerie Karn, Rachel Liskinn, David Hughes & John Cawley Coventry Institute of Housing, 1993, 158 pp.     

Book reviews

Cities, Housing and Profits: Flat Break‐up and the Decline of Private Renting. by Chris Hamnett and Bill Randolph. London: Hutchin‐son. 1988. 297pp. £25.00.

A Property‐Owning Democracy? by M. J. Daunton. London: Faber and Faber. 1987. 148pp. $6.95 (£3.95).

Loft Living: Culture & Capital in Urban Change. by Sharon Zukin. London: Radius. 1988. £8.95 (paperback).

Housing Association Law. by J. Alder and C. R. Handy. Sweet and Maxwell. 1987. 330pp. £26.00 (paperback).

The Design Professions and the Built Environment. edited by Paul L. Knox. London: Croom Helm 1988. 313pp. £35.00.

The Local State and Uneven Development. by Simon Duncan and Mark Goodwin. Cambridge: Polity Press (in association with Basil Blackwell). 1988. £8.95 (paperback).

Rehumanizing Housing. Necdet Teymur, Thomas A Markus and Tom Woolley (eds). London: Butterworths. 1988. pp196. £30.00.

Housing Policy and Tenures in Sweden. Lennort J. Lundquist. Gower 1988. pp173. FXX.

Housing in Postwar Canada: Demographic Change, Household Formation, and Housing Demand. John R Miron. Kingston and Montreal: McGill‐Queen's University Press. 1988. pp320. $35.00 (paperback).     

Book reviews

The Housing and Living Environment for Retired people in Australia. edited by Ross Thorne. Sydney: Hale & Iremonger. 1986. pp348 $A 29.95.

The Modern Urban Landscape. by Edward Relph. London: Croom Helm, 1987 pp279. £10.95.

Housing the Homeless. edited by Jon Erickson and Charles Wilhelm New Brunswick, New Jersey: Center for Urban Policy Research, Rutgers University. 1986. pp459. $19.95.

Cities: Special Issue: Shelter and Homelessness. Vol 4 No 1, February 1987. London: Butterworth. pp104.     

Landscape news

Perhaps the key feature about upland landscapes in general is that they demonstrate quite distinctive regional variety and identity. Maintaining the distinct identity or ‘landscape image’ should perhaps be the most basic aim of uplands landscape policy.

Government agencies and local authorities should address themselves to devising landscape policies for the uplands based on conservation of special heritage landscapes, implementation of conservation and development packages in suitable areas, and creation of new upland landscapes in areas where change is acceptable.

Although it is difficult to determine the values in upland landscapes, it should be possible to identify areas where different policies should apply, by considering scenic value, ecological value, historical value, cultural association and amenity value.

Upland landscapes are often very sensitive to change of a very local and subtle character as well as at the wider scale. Such change if extensive enough, or insensitive enough, can destroy the basic image of upland areas. Such threatening changes, and the reasons underlying them, should be identified to ensure that practical policies are pursued in relation to the landscape policy objectives of each area.

Further attention should be given to the merits of a landscape classification system as a tool in devising landscape policies.

The Countryside Commission should encourage extension of the trial of positive financial incentives to areas other than the Peak District, and should monitor the use of all available tools to assist in conservation of the uplands and disseminate information about their use.

There should be mandatory co‐operation between the agencies concerned, to develop agreed policies towards the uplands.

A system should be established for monitoring landscape change regularly and comprehensively.     

Book reviews

Home Ownership: Differentiation and Fragmentation. Ray Forrest, Alan Murie and Peter Williams. London: Unwin Hyman, 1990. pp234. £12.95 (paper).

The Politics of ‘Race’ and Residence: Citizenship, Segregation and White Supremacy in Britain. Susan J. Smith, Oxford: Polity‐ Press, 1989. £29.50 (cloth), £9.95 (paper).

Housing Finance. David Garnett, Barbara Reid and Helen Riley. Harlow: Longman/Institute of Housing, 1990. pp171. £12.95.

Squatter Citizen: Life in the Urban Third World. Jorge E. Hardoy and David Satterthwaite. London: Earthscan Publications Ltd, 1989. pp ix + 374. £9.95 (paperback).

Moving the Housing Market. Ray Forrest and Alan Murie. Aldershot: Avebury. 1990. pp129. £27.50.

Under One Roof. Michael Ball. Harvester Wheatsheaf. 1990.