Housing Vacancy and the Shrinking City: Trends and Policies in the UK and the City of Liverpool

In the context of the discourse around shrinking cities, the aim of the paper was to try and better understand and differentiate the various types and causes of urban housing vacancy and to ask whether policy responses including planning policies appropriately reflect this variety. The paper briefly discusses the issue of shrinking cities, before considering theoretical explanations for housing vacancy and examining the relationships between population change, housing vacancy and policy responses in the Liverpool conurbation. Conclusions are then drawn about the nature of housing vacancy and the effectiveness of policy responses.