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.     

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.     

Private sector housing in urban China since 1949: The case of Xian

Research on urban housing policies in socialist China and Eastern European countries has concentrated on understanding the production and distribution of state housing. More recently researchers have shifted their attention to the commodification of urban housing and establishment of private housing markets. A very important aspect of socialist housing ‐ the process of nationalisation of privately owned urban housing in the early period of socialist development ‐ has been relatively neglected. Ignoring this aspect of the historical background of socialist urban housing policy may create difficulties in understanding the nature of the public sector and recent privatisation experience.

This paper intends to fill this gap in relation to China by examining both the nationalisation of urban privately owned housing in the early years of socialism and the more recent privatisation and commercialisation of the urban housing sector. This highlights shifting approaches to the urban housing market in different periods of socialist development and helps in understanding recent developments in housing reform. It examines the development of policy and the resultant impacts on the private housing market in Xian, one of the major cities in central China. The pattern of private ownership, the state policy of nationalisation and the more recent commercialisation of urban public sector housing are the main issues examined.     

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.     

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.     

Towards the comparative exploration of public housing segregation in England and the United States

This paper is an exploration of the treatment of racial minorities by public sector housing agencies in Britain and the United States over the last several decades, with the objective of describing empirical and policy differences and similarities. Public housing programmes in each country have been, at differing points in time, important cornerstone's of the welfare state but each has become a residualised sector of the housing delivery system. In the context of such residualisation, the key issue to consider is whether British council housing is likely to reproduce the patterns of racial segregation, impoverishment, and discrimination which are endemic in the American public housing system.

A variety of administrative agency reports and data, court cases, as well as case studies of race and public housing policies in the US and England have been used in this paper (Smith and Whalley, 1975; Commission for Racial Equality seriatim; Hirsch, 1983; Bauman, 1987; Department of the Environment; Smith, 1989). Unpublished tables for the English Housing Trailer for the 1988 Labour Force Survey were provided by the Department of the Environment.

Despite the presence of such information, there are a number of resource and data gathering concerns that affect the understanding of the interrelationships between race, class, and public housing policy on a comparative basis including: constrained research resources; unreliable data collection procedures; unavailability of time series data; and chronically limited research on civil rights/organisational effectiveness (Liebert, 1981). Despite these shortcomings, there are a significant number of both academic and applied studies in the area which suggest basic themes, issues and hypotheses for future examination.     

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     

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.     

Defining housing reality: Ideological hegemony and power in housing research

An understanding of the dynamics of the research process and an awareness of the power structure of research can contribute towards heightened awareness of researchers in developing new ways of thinking and breaking down hegemonic perspectives. The task of this discussion is to begin a process of internal dialogue among housing researchers based on moving towards a more explicated awareness of the implicit paradigms and opaque power structures which determine what become and what do not become accepted wisdoms.

When a constructivist perspective taken from the sociology of science is applied to housing studies it is argued that dominant paradigms can be discerned. These can be understood in relation to the organisation of housing research both institutionally and in disciplinary terms, while sustenance of existing paradigms, or the development of new ones, are achieved through pervasive interpersonal micro processes.     

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     

Achieving Regional Housing Planning Objectives: Directing Affordable Housing to Jobs-Rich Neighborhoods in the San Francisco Bay Area

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Low-income households face affordability issues and are often forced to live in areas with limited job access and inadequate transportation. Local communities exacerbate these problems through exclusionary zoning. We study the impact of the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) change in allocation formula under California’s affordable housing mandate. The old policy followed a fair share strategy, whereas the new policy requires local jurisdictions to locate mandated affordable housing units in jobs-rich areas. We compare affordable housing produced in the region before and after ABAG adopted the jobs-housing policy; we also compare the new patterns to the location of market-rate housing and to the experiences of San Diego (CA) and Los Angeles (CA), both of which retain fair share allocation. We do not control for variables that may have affected affordable housing location. ABAG’s policy shift is associated with a 104% improvement in the balance of housing and jobs at the local level; affordable housing units are more likely than market-rate housing to locate in jobs-rich areas, which may indicate that localities prioritize affordable housing. We also find that more affordable housing locates in such areas in the San Francisco Bay Area (CA) than in San Diego or Los Angeles.

Takeaway for practice: A voluntary regional government in a state with mandatory affordable housing requirements can affect the production and distribution of affordable housing. A total of 25 U.S. states require localities to include affordable housing elements in their comprehensive plans; we suggest that regional and local planners use these opportunities to meet multiple policy goals by directing affordable housing to jobs-rich neighborhoods.     

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.)     

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.     

The responsiveness of the private rental sector in Australia to changes in commonwealth taxation policy

The introduction of a series of tax reforms by the Hawke government midway through the 1980s generated widespread disagreement about their liable impact upon the production, availability and cost of rental accommodation in Australia. In this paper we examine the validity of the claims made for and against the tax reforms (ie the ‘quarantining’ of negative gearing, the imposition of a capital gains tax, and provision for a 4 per cent depreciation allowance on new rental housing) by setting them against trends in the private housing sector, and other housing and investment markets.

Although the real estate industry was prepared to attribute the adjustments occurring within the private rental sector almost entirely to the changes in taxation policy, we present evidence of other ‘exogenous’ effects that helped amplify the trends and ‘panic’ the Hawke government into an ill‐considered reversal in September 1987 (viz, the reinstatement of full negative gearing on residential rental property). We conclude that this indirect approach to the provision of private rental accommodation via taxation policy is too indiscriminate to achieve national housing goals.     

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

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).