POLICY REVIEW Tackling Deprivation on Social Housing Estates in England: An Assessmentof the Housing Plus Approach

The poverty and social exclusion experienced by growing numbers of social housing tenants in England is making landlords' task increasingly difficult. Concentrations of unemploymentand other forms of disadvantagetend to lead to other problems such as indebtedness,crime and vandalism which make such housing estates unpopular and expensive to manage and maintain. In response, housing associations (HAs) in England are increasingly seeking to address these wider problems so that their investment in bricks and mortar is underpinned by efforts to sustain community well-being. This has been termed the 'Housing Plus' (HP) approach.But HP raises questions about social landlords' role vis-a-vis that of other agencies. This paper reviews HAs' progress in implementing HP in England,its impact upon residents' quality of life and links with wider regeneration strategies. While some HAs have achieved notable successes, the overall response has been patchy because of differences of view on mission, resource constraints,the modest scale of initiatives in relation to the severity of the problemsand contradictory housing and urban policies.     

Infrastructures for disorder. Applying Sennett’s notion of disorder to the public space of social housing neighbourhoods

This paper contributes to the debate on whether introducing too much order into urban regeneration processes hinders social life and interaction in the public space. It engages with Sennett’s call for introducing certain kinds of disorder into city life. While this debate has been addressed in urban literature, many urban regeneration processes in social housing neighbourhoods have attempted to remove all kinds of disorder from the city, thus removing urban life from the streets. This paper proposes ‘infrastructures for disorder’: strategies for intervention that create conditions for the unplanned use of the public realm in social housing estates.     

Public Art and Urban Regeneration: advocacy, claims and critical debates

Public art has been increasingly advocated on the basis of a series of supposed contributions to urban regeneration since the 1980s. A wide range of advocates have claimed that public art can help develop senses of identity, develop senses of place, contribute to civic identity, address community needs, tackle social exclusion, possess educational value and promote social change. However, these claims have been subject to very little serious evaluation. This paper critically reviews these claims along with salient theoretical critiques of public art's contributions to urban regeneration. It concludes by raising questions that might frame a research agenda for public art within this context.     

Notorious Places: Image,Reputation, Stigma. The Role of Newspapers in Area Reputations for Social Housing Estates

This paper reviews work in several disciplines to distinguish between image, reputation and stigma. It also shows that there has been little research on the process by which area reputations are established and sustained through transmission processes. This paper reports on research into the portrayal of two social housing estates in the printed media over an extended period of time (14 years). It was found that negative and mixed coverage of the estates dominated, with the amount of positive coverage being very small. By examining the way in which dominant themes were used by newspapers in respect of each estate, questions are raised about the mode of operation of the press and the communities' collective right to challenge this. By identifying the way regeneration stories are covered and the nature of the content of positive stories, lessons are drawn for programmes of area transformation. The need for social regeneration activities is identified as an important ingredient for changing deprived-area reputations.     

Social Housing Management,Governance and Delivery in Ireland: Ten Years of Reform on Seven Estates

This paper examines developments in social housing management, governance and delivery in the Republic of Ireland during the last decade, using evidence from two rounds of research conducted in 1997 and 2007 on seven social rented estates, located in a variety of regions. Among the three most significant developments in this regard, the reconceptualisation of the housing management function has had the most positive impact on the views of tenants. Some aspects of the externalisation of social housing provision, such as the growth of the housing association sector and the use of PPP arrangements for social housing regeneration, have also been positive, but the future of this externalisation agenda is uncertain. The impact of the various reforms to the management of the social housing service, such as advent of strategic policy making and performance monitoring, has been uneven in some cases and uniformly low in others.     

Spatio-Temporal Aspects of Gated Residential Security Estates in Non-metropolitan Western Cape

Gated developments have long been a subject of research the world over. Most international and South African studies have focused on gated developments within the metropolitan sphere, with very few studies done on non-metropolitan gated developments. This research attempts to address this research gap by focusing on the spatio-temporal aspects of non-metropolitan gated residential security estates in the Western Cape Province. It was found that most non-metropolitan gated residential security estates were located in settlements along the coast and/or in close proximity to the metropolitan area of Cape Town. Furthermore, the first half of the first decade of the twenty first century witnessed the planning authorisation approval of more than two thirds of all non-metropolitan gated residential security estates. While the locational and temporal aspects of non-metropolitan gated residential security estates in the Western Cape Province are discussed in this paper, there remain a number of avenues for further research into the phenomenon of non-metropolitan gated developments.     

Creating Inclusive Communities through Balancing Social Mix: A Critical Relationship or Tenuous Link?

This paper explores some fundamental assumptions being linked by State Housing Authorities to 'social mix' strategies in contemporary Australian public housing estate regeneration policy. Six case-study estates, two each in New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland form the basis for the empirical analysis. The two major ideas emerging from South Australian and Queensland projects are: first that lowering concentrations of public housing and developing more mixed income communities offers a means to reconnect socially excluded public housing tenants to mainstream society; second that a balanced social mix is a prerequisite for the development of 'inclusive', 'sustainable' and 'cohesive' communities. However, in light of the empirical findings that strong cohesive communities already exist on some estates prior to regeneration commencing, there is no evidence that a balanced social mix is a necessary condition for building inclusive communities. Coupled with findings in the projects of inadvertent negative consequences of implementing social mix policies, the paper questions whether policy makers are over-emphasising the extent to which social mix assists regeneration.     

TRAPPED OR ON THE SPRINGBOARD? HOUSING CAREERS IN LARGE HOUSING ESTATES IN EUROPEAN CITIES

ABSTRACT: In the first three decades after the Second World War in Europe millions of dwellings were built, in most cases on large estates in or near cities. At that time, many people in various kinds of household found these estates attractive and were happy to live on them. But, in the last two decades, in many parts of Europe social, economic, and physical problems have emerged and the reputation of the estates has suffered a deep decline. That is not to say that they have lost their function in the housing market: some groups might still be drawn to them—low‐income households who cannot find a decent, affordable place elsewhere, for example. In this article, we describe the current position of these estates in the housing careers of specific groups. Are there some groups who find them attractive places in which to live? Or do most people want to get away as soon as they can? Are some people “trapped”? We show that the situation differs substantially between parts of Europe, but even per estate and per household category. Our findings imply that intervention strategies with regard to these estates will have to become much more differentiated than they currently are.     

Towards more Social Cohesion in Large Post-Second World War Housing Estates? A Case Study in Utrecht,the Netherlands1

The last few years have seen many studies of large post-Second World War housing estates. At present they are often the most deprived areas of European cities. The turnover of the population on these estates is characteristically rapid, leading to considerable socio-economic and socio-cultural changes and a multi-ethnic neighbourhood. Such areas often have to contend with severe physical, social and economic problems and the consequent dissatisfaction of the residents. This combination of rapid and selective population turnover and increasing numbers of problems may well affect aspects of social cohesion within these neighbourhoods, particularly the social networks. This process is regrettable, because social cohesion is regarded in a positive light, something that enhances the quality of life. Stimulating social cohesion is therefore an important objective of many policies that focus on large post-Second World War housing estates. The authors have found it interesting to discover how important social cohesion is in the opinions and the lives of the inhabitants rather than the policy makers. In their opinion, urban policies focus on social cohesion while the inhabitants' views of its relevance are unknown. On the basis of this paper, certain aspects of social cohesion in large post-Second World War housing estates appear to be valued, but housing market behaviour, such as residential moves, is hardly affected by aspects of social cohesion. Other aspects, such as moving to a better house, are much more relevant. The results may put into doubt the stress placed in urban policies on social cohesion.     

Achieving Social Justice in Estate Regeneration: The Impact of Physical Image Construction

Like many other countries, Australia is grappling with the issues around the future of large public housing estates. This paper explores questions about physical image construction in six estates undergoing regeneration. Whilst improved housing amenity and image of the areas are crucial components of estate regeneration, it is argued that these aspects will not automatically benefit existing socio-economically disadvantaged residents. In the current political context, three key questions are raised: (1) In whose images the estates are being recreated, housing authorities, private property developers or residents?; (2) Whether the physical images are being imposed or democratised and used for the purposes of community development?; and (3) What the overall consequences and housing policy implications are likely to be? It is argued that the entry of market capital and the buying and selling of place through physical image reconstruction, to attract more affluent residents to the estates, is likely to add to rather than ameliorate the inequality of current public housing residents.     

Trends of out-mobility from large housing estates in Stockholm: influences of the housing policy and neighbourhood context

Since 1990s Stockholm housing market has seen deregulations in accordance with liberalization trends in other European welfare states. The new governance principles together with increasing immigration and public rental housing conversions into cooperative housing in attractive inner city areas have put pressure on still rental-dominated estates because fewer rental dwellings must now cater to expanding numbers of people who have little choice on the housing market. In recent decades, many estates have displayed increasing signs of stigmatization, social exclusion, and outflow of relatively affluent people. This paper improves our knowledge of how the housing policy and economic changes have affected out-mobility from the housing estates in case of three cohorts of young people and how the childhood neighbourhood conditions affect this. Individual annual Swedish registry data (1990–2014) are employed to longitudinally study the out-mobility patterns of three cohorts that grew up in the estates against the backdrop of marketization, growing inequality and deteriorating conditions. This study supplements the existing literature on housing estates by clarifying how income has become more and ethnicity less important over time in explaining sorting patterns from these estates. However, the combination of the two has determined sorting throughout the study period. Growing up in a higher socioeconomic status neighbourhood had modest impact on reducing socioeconomic differences in out-mobility from the estates, while leading to more sorting based on ethnic background.

     

Housing context and legitimacy in the transformation of a stigmatized estate: the case of Rosengård

Large housing estates built in the post second world war era have been the object of extensive debates and research in Europe and in North America, due to their social and maintenance challenges but also their high symbolic value. A wide range of regeneration strategies has been employed in addressing issues of segregation and stigmatization of these estates. This paper examines the role of local housing and public management in the selection of regeneration strategies. The paper starts from the concept of housing context as means of explaining the selection of regeneration strategy. The paper is informed by a case study of regeneration efforts in Rosengård, where a minor regeneration effort, the Bokals, led by the municipal housing company, crystalizes a new integrated approach in regenerating the estate. This sets the stage for subsequent developments. We argue that legitimacy, in the sense of management being perceived as a credible agent of change, is critical in the cumulative strengthening and shaping of the regeneration strategy in Rosengård. We put forward the notion of legitimacy trading to capture the mutual and instrumental public support of the main actors. The main contribution of the paper is to demonstrate how including aspects of management legitimacy can develop the concept of housing context, by extending the range of applicability and broadening the range of regeneration strategies that can be accounted for.     

It can be done. Let's think how

This paper explores some fundamental assumptions being linked by State Housing Authorities to 'social mix' strategies in contemporary Australian public housing estate regeneration policy. Six case-study estates, two each in New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland form the basis for the empirical analysis. The two major ideas emerging from South Australian and Queensland projects are: first that lowering concentrations of public housing and developing more mixed income communities offers a means to reconnect socially excluded public housing tenants to mainstream society; second that a balanced social mix is a prerequisite for the development of 'inclusive', 'sustainable' and 'cohesive' communities. However, in light of the empirical findings that strong cohesive communities already exist on some estates prior to regeneration commencing, there is no evidence that a balanced social mix is a necessary condition for building inclusive communities. Coupled with findings in the projects of inadvertent negative consequences of implementing social mix policies, the paper questions whether policy makers are over-emphasising the extent to which social mix assists regeneration.     

Mass housing in Lisbon: sometimes it works

Unlike some European countries, high-rise housing estates have been quite neglected within the Portuguese research agenda. This is partially explained by one of its main national specificities: as many of these estates were developed by the private sector, their major target was the broad spectrum of the middle classes. Therefore, it was not identified as a research priority in the same way as social or illegal housing. Nevertheless, as an emblematic housing type of Lisbon’s suburbanisation that boomed in the (1974) Revolution period, its longitudinal study is an important tool to further knowledge of the social and urban history of contemporary Portugal. This article explores high-rise housing in Portugal (the context of its appearance, development and specificities) through the study of a paradigmatic case: Portela in the north periphery of Lisbon. This case is a contrast with the most visible trajectory of high-rise estates, marked by decay and embraced by stigma: therefore the article also focuses on analysing the factors, dynamics and indicators of its positive trajectory. Here, the analysis explores the context in which the estate developed, the social profile of its inhabitants, their perceptions of it and their daily-life practices by means of both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies.     

A Balancing Act? Tenure Diversification in Australia and the UK

Diversifying tenure on public housing estates, it is frequently claimed, helps to create a healthy social mix and leads to the establishment of balanced communities. This viewpoint stems from the perception that social and economic problems are reinforced on certain estates by the concentration of disadvantaged households. Residents in these areas, it is maintained, are isolated from the wider community, have fewer opportunities to gain education and employment, and are more likely to be engaged in anti-social behaviour or suffer their effects. Diversifying tenure, it is suggested, remedies these problems, creates 'social capital' and leads to a more sustainable social environment. While this perspective has reinforced the strategy of sale and transfer of stock in neighbourhood regeneration over the last decade in both Australia and the UK, much of the research evidence that exists, in both contexts, questions the effectiveness of the strategy. Conceptual difficulties are also apparent in current debates about the nature and role of social capital and the type of 'social cohesion' that is being aimed for. This presents particular difficulties to those wishing to empirically test policy outcomes.     

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.     

‘They Seem to Divide Us’: Social Mix and Inclusion in Two Traditional Urbanist Communities

Mixed tenure communities have become an important element of UK housing policy in recent decades. Whilst valued by policy-makers for generating a range of benefits, particularly for residents living in social rented housing, the empirical literature suggests that tenure mixing is neither a sufficient nor a reliable remedy for addressing issues associated with concentrations of poverty, disadvantage and social exclusion. This paper reports on a doctoral research study that considered tenure mixing practices at two traditional urbanist communities in the UK: Poundbury, Dorchester, and New Gorbals, Glasgow. Conceptually, the paper uses Young's critiques of residential segregation and the integration ideal to evaluate the two communities. Methodologically, it draws on qualitative interviews with residents, planners and social housing providers. The research findings contradict many aspects of Young's ideal and highlight the complex and multidimensional nature of integration in practice. Reflecting on these findings, the paper identifies five housing policy and research priorities that might usefully be pursued in future work.     

Levels of Governance and Multi-stage Policy Process of Brownfield Regeneration: A Comparison of France and Switzerland

This paper compares the multi-stage policy process of brownfield regeneration in France and in Switzerland, two decentralized although different countries that have not fully addressed the issue of brownfield regeneration at a national level. It makes a contribution in developing a framework to analyse the different stages of policy development, with regard to brownfield regeneration. It also fills a gap in comparative studies as French and Swiss contexts lack from coverage in the English speaking literature. It aims to understand why they have not shared and are still not sharing a similar path towards the inclusion of brownfield sites in national planning frameworks. Drawing on the examples of national policies implemented in England, in Germany and in the United States, the paper argues that whereas Switzerland is moving quickly to a national programme of brownfield regeneration highly anchored in an ambition of preserving natural spaces against urbanization, France is sustaining a persistent national concern for social housing estates giving flexibility and leeway to local and regional authorities as regards land-use management and brownfield regeneration.     

Housing transformation and livelihood outcomes in Accra,Ghana

New trends in urban growth in Accra have put many poor households at a detriment, and there is a growing fragility that threatens the economic and social balance of residence in public estates resulting in many transforming their residence to cope and as a new form of urban resilience. This study examines housing transformation and livelihood outcomes in one of Ghana's largest low cost government estates, constructed in 1975 in Accra. The authors collected field data using questionnaires, interviews, observations and field pictures. The study revealed that housing transformation in public estates are a strategy to address shortfalls' associated with the physical design, structure and construction paucities, especially in living space, lifestyle and size, and for addressing pecuniary and livelihood challenges through home-based enterprises. Household needs and household assets were the significant factors affecting transformations. This study is important for policy making in developing countries because it provides a basis for policy implementation for urban and regional planners. Housing and building policies must be swotted to reflect the effort of local performance in housing supply and livelihoods. Housing design and construction must also be realistic to the current needs, lifestyle and resource availability of low-income households instead of relying on passé colonial regulations which are inappropriate for current living conditions.     

Regeneration of Dutch post-war urban districts: the role of housing associations

In the Netherlands the regeneration of post-war urban districts is closely intertwined with the role of housing associations. This is hardly surprising, given that the housing associations have such a large share of the market (usually over 50%; sometimes nearly 100%) in many early post-war urban districts. This has caused a growing concentration of low-income households in those urban areas and a selective migration by middle- and high-income households from the city to the suburb. Official government policy on housing and urban renewal is directed at a redifferentiation of the urban housing stock. Specifically, the policy promotes more owner-occupation, larger and higher-quality homes, and a greater percentage of homes with a garden. This implies the demolition of social housing estates and selling social housing. The position of housing associations in the regeneration of Dutch post-war urban districts is somewhat enigmatic. On the one hand, national government is expecting them to take initiative and invest in urban renewal; on the other, government is urging them to cut down their market share. How are housing associations coping with this paradoxical challenge? And what are the current national policies about the position of housing associations? Aedes (the umbrella organisation of Dutch housing associations) and the Dutch Ministry of Housing have agreed upon the so-called great transition of housing associations. Here we explain and critique this great transition, which will hamper the current regeneration of Dutch urban districts. As an alternative we present the new transition.