Having it All? Housing Reform Under Devolution

This paper aims to make an assessment of housing reform in Scotland since devolution in 1999. It is not concerned with a detailed analysis of any one particular policy but instead looks at whether housing reform is likely to contribute successfully to its own high level goals, which are identified as social justice, social cohesion, economic competitiveness and the empowerment of citizens and communities. It proceeds by examining those goals and the context for their development, and examining how they have been pursued, mainly through legislative change but also by administrative reform and financial inducement. The paper contends that in respect of some goals, especially achieving greater social justice, the reforms are likely to make considerable inroads. However, it also notes that the goals open up areas of conflict that are not fully acknowledged and are not resolved by the reforms.     

Book reviews

The State of Welfare. The Welfare State in Britain since 1974. John Hills (ed). Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1990. ppxvi + 395.£40.00 hardback.

Housing and Health. Stella Lowry. London: British Medical Journal, 1991, pp109. £7.95 UK and EC. £9.50 abroad including airmail.

Safe as Houses: Housing Inheritance in Britain. Chris Hamnett, Michael Harmer and Peter Williams. London: Paul Chapman, 1991. ppl75. £14.95.

Landlord and Tenant: Housing the Poor in Urban Mexico. Alan Gilbert and Ann Varley, London and New York: Routledge, 1991, pp240.

Demands and Constraints: Ethnic Minorities and Social Services in Scotland. Alison Bowes and Duncan Sim(eds). Edinburgh: Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, 1991. pp 200. £9.95.     

Policies and Programmes for Disadvantaged Neighbourhoods: Recent English Experience

This paper sets out to review to what extent policies aimed at improving the quality of ‘council-built’ neighbourhoods achieved their objectives in the period 1975–2000, and the relevance of the experience for current policy. It discusses the main approaches to and diagnoses of problem estates, including the failure of the welfare state, the absence of enterprise, the failure of housing management, ‘housing is not enough’ and ‘effort fragmentation’, and provides an evaluation of the impacts of the main programmes, based mainly on the results of official evaluations. The paper notes the difficulties in making assessments of impacts in this area due to data shortcomings, but concludes that over 20 years of policies and programmes did not resolve the complex problems of these estates, nor reposition council-built estates from the bottom of the residential hierarchy. It suggests the reason for this failure was partly that the macro-economic climate and other government policies were countervailing, but also that policy lacked both clear goals and a good understanding of the problems to be faced. It also notes that housing improvements were often compromised by the failure to deal with wider problems. The paper argues that recent policy shows more promise, and seeks to better integrate mainstream spending programmes with area initiatives, although there is little evidence yet on how this is really working.     

Community-based Housing Organisations and the Local Governance Debate

This paper examines criticisms of the accountability of housing organisations in Britain and assesses whether community-based housing organisations can provide answers. A particular focus is placed on the Committee on Standards in Public Life, which has emphasised the desirability of 'downwards' accountability to communities while at the same time limiting the central controls of autonomous local bodies. The Committee on Standards in Public Life was established in 1994 by the former Prime Minister, John Major. It was a response to concern about standards of conduct among public office holders, including Members of Parliament, but also all other office holders in central and local government, and in other bodies discharging public functions. Its remit is to investigate current arrangements and make recommendations about changes required to ensure "the highest standards of propriety in public life". The paper reports on the governance of community-based housing organisations (CBHOs) in Glasgow, which was investigated by means of housing surveys and interviews with key actors. It finds that in many respects the criticisms of extra-governmental housing organisations do not apply: they are regarded as legitimate and trustworthy by local people to a much greater extent than the local authority and other institutions. They attract active local participation and there are effective mechanisms to ensure that their 'governors' are accountable. What is more, they have maintained their position over a period of more than 10 years. However, the CBHOs have been much less successful in shaping their own destinies, in contrast to extra-governmental housing organisations in England. They are, in reality, dependent rather than autonomous and their power is very limited in comparison to the government agency and local authority with whom they interact. The paper concludes that the CBHOs have been a successful policy innovation which offers real gains for communities and also allows local authorities and central government agencies to pursue their objectives. However, their small scale, which is important in their success as locally-accountable bodies, in turn makes them vulnerable to centralised control.     

Territoriality and disadvantage among young people: an exploratory study of six British neighbourhoods

This paper aims to explore the sources, the characteristics and the impacts of territoriality among young people in disadvantaged neighbourhoods, and to consider to what extent territoriality is a distinctive source of disadvantage. The essence of territoriality is that control is claimed by one group over a defined space and defended against others. The paper is intended as a contribution to the debate about the social dynamics that underlie neighbourhood effects, that is the question of whether there are independent effects on individuals’ life chances that arise from living in a particular neighbourhood. The evidence presented comes from semi-structured interviews and from focus groups with young people in six British cities. The findings are that territoriality is a part of everyday life for young people in the research sites. It is a cultural expectation, passed down to young people from older generations, often with deep historical roots. It emerges from young people’s close identification with small home neighbourhoods, and is often expressed in violent conflict with territorial groups from other areas. The impacts of territoriality behaviour include restricting young people to their home neighbourhood, cutting them off from opportunities in the wider city, and criminalisation. They fall most heavily on boys and young men who have a core involvement in territorial conflict. However, other young people, including those who had no active involvement in territorial groups also experience restrictions on their freedom to travel. There is also evidence in some areas that low level, routine territoriality could be a foundation for the formation of criminal gangs involved in drugs distribution and violent crime. In bringing to the surface this previously poorly documented form of social behaviour the paper adds to the argument that place matters to people’s life chances in poor areas.     

Housing aspirations and obsolescence: understanding the relationship

This paper aims to consider whether there is an incipient problem of housing obsolescence in the UK, and if so, what its main dimensions are. It first examines how obsolescence in housing might be understood, and identifies four relevant factors: the nature of the housing stock; the expectations of households and how they are changing; locational and housing market factors; and the role of housing and urban policy. Using this broad structure, obsolescence and the changing aspirations of households are examined in two ways: first by drawing on an eclectic literature about housing, policy and household behaviour; and second by using evidence from interviews with housing professionals in the north of England. The paper concludes that there are good grounds for thinking that the relationship between what the housing stock offers and aspirations is under increasing strain. There seems to be a significant gap opening up between the qualities provided by new and by older housing, challenging longstanding preferences. There is an important set of relationships between tenure and obsolescence, with home ownership defining what is considered normal throughout the housing system. The findings also challenge the prevalent view that neighbourhood conditions are the key to obsolescence, as there is evidence of suppressed obsolescence and doubt about the strengths of some local markets where demand is apparently high. There is consensus around the desirability of local housing systems offering a choice of sizes and dwelling types, which many older as well as new housing areas do not.

Whose partnership? Community interests in the regeneration of a Scottish housing scheme

Urban Partnerships are multi‐agency projects led by central government in Scotland intended to regenerate run‐down and deprived housing estates. They are multi‐sectoral projects but a large part of their agenda concerns housing. The Partnerships are explicitly based on the principle of resident involvement, taking lessons from previous projects. This paper examines one Partnership area, Ferguslie Park in Paisley where there had been a long tradition of resident involvement. It finds that in the early years of the Partnership the community was largely set aside while more powerful members of the Partnership pursued their own agendas. The reason for this is not simply that community interests were ignored, but that the political objectives of government, the complexity of the project and its timescale prevented meaningful local involvement.