Housing Politics in the United Kingdom : Power, Planning and Protest

Housing has been labelled a ‘wicked’ problem: complex, territorial, open-ended and intractable. This book underscores the role of politics in generating this ‘wickedness’, highlighting the ‘actors’ engaged in the process within their political institutions and the entrenched territorial electoral politics involved in the ‘housing question’. It concentrates on the preparing, disputing and implementing policy rather than on policy outcomes and the social and economic determinants ― industrialisation, capitalism, globalisation ― of continuity and change. The major theoretical approaches framing its content are the ‘new institutionalism’, social constructionism and public choice theory. The sub-title reflects the book’s themes. __Power__ is acquired formally through the electoral system but is exercised through a variety of mechanisms including ‘governmentality’ ― the techniques that regulate and order behaviour. __Planning__ draws attention to attempts to modify the role of markets in housing outcomes and includes land use planning and the influence of alleged ‘rational’ solutions applied to ‘the housing problem’ manifest in housing design and specific interventions aimed at mitigating housing problems. __Protest__ concerns the ‘outsiders’ in the political system and their attempts to secure a voice often outside the normal institutional channels approved by authorities and perhaps eventually become the power holders. HOUSING POLITICS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM Contents Acknowledgements Preface 1. Housing and politics Housing the people The political dimension Industrialisation Globalisation Capitalism The ‘new institutionalism’ Social constructionism Public choice theory Promotional interest groups Economic interest groups Consumer groups ‘Think tanks’ Political parties The ‘media’ Local government Devolved government The voters The UK Parliament The European Union Quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisations Government departments Policy networks and policy communities The ‘core executive’ Conclusion 2. Land politics Land taxation Lloyd George and land politics Labour and land The Conservatives and land The Land Commission The Community Land Act 1975 The Community Infrastructure Levy Planning Planning and the Second World War Post-war planning Green belts Planning and New Labour The Coalition government Planning and economic growth Land release: the developer’s role Mansion Tax The 2015 general election Conclusion 3. Urban renewal:fencing the cities Nineteenth-century public health politics The rookery and the slum Dispersal, regulation, ventilation and improvement The ‘Residuum’ A ‘sewage’ policy Overcrowding Rehabilitation ‘Sewage’ again Improving property Area selectivity ‘It took a riot’ Property before people Private sector improvement Challenging cities New Labour The Coalition government The 2015 Conservative government Conclusion 4. Private landlords: ‘Rachmans’ or ‘Residential property-owners’? Slum landlords The rates issue Rent control The Rent Act 1957 ‘Fair’ rents Withering on the vine A market in rented accommodation? Buy-to-Let (BTL) New Labour The Right to Buy and private landlordism The Coalition government and ‘generation rent’? Institutional investment in private landlordism Regulation Rent control Housing Benefit expenditure Private landlordism versus homeownership Conclusion 5. A property-owning democracy? Suburban politics ‘Homeownership ideology’ Tax relief on mortgage interest Labour and homeownership Selling council houses Lending competition Ending tax relief on mortgage interest Boom Bust The Coalition government Green housing Homeownership and the 2015 Conservative government Conclusion 6. Eclipsing council housing Pauperising the working class and undermining private enterprise? The Housing and Town Planning etc Act 1919 Subsidies and standards Local governance The war years Universal Residual high-rise The strategic housing authority Goodbye council housing 1: Conservative policy Goodbye council housing 2: New Labour Exit, Voice and Loyalty Welcome home? The Coalition government: ‘welfare’ housing The 2015 Conservative government Conclusion 7. Bending the ‘Third Arm’: politicians and housing associations Hybrids Housing the poor? Housing association politics between the wars Cost-rent and co-ownership societies ‘Genuine’ cooperatives Consensus politics? Market politics Stock transfer The diversity and equality agenda New Labour and ‘social entrepreneurs’ The changing nature of housing associations Social cohesion The Coalition government The 2015 Conservative government Conclusion 8. Homelessness politics The ‘deserving’ poor ‘Masterless’ men Paternalism versus ‘rational’ economics The ‘new’ Poor Law Casual wards Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress (1909) ‘Hidden from history’: homelessness between the wars The welfare state and homelessness The Housing (Homeless Persons) Act 1977 ‘Structure’ or ‘agency’? Perverse incentives The Conservatives and rough sleeping New Labour and homelessness The Coalition government and homelessness The 2015 Conservative government Conclusion 9. Devolution: where is the difference? Scotland The Scottish government Wales Northern Ireland Conclusion 10. Conclusion: power, planning and protest Power Planning Protest The ‘wicked’ politics of housing References Index With rapid population growth, a long-term dearth in new housing construction, the emergence of ‘generation rent’ and rising homelessness, the issue of housing in the UK is considered complex, open-ended and intractable. Using insights from public choice theory, the new institutionalism and social constructionism Housing Politics in the United Kingdom locates the contemporary ‘housing question’ in historically entrenched power relationships involving markets, planning, and territorial electoral politics. Written to complement the 3rd edition of the author’s bestselling Understanding housing policy (forthcoming, 2017), this book will be essential reading for students of Housing, Social Policy, Social History, Urban Studies, Planning and Political Science. Affordable housing in the United Kingdom has become an ever more potent issue in recent years, as rapid population growth and a long-term lag in new housing construction have combined to making finding secure, affordable housing difficult for a broad range of people. This book uses insights from public choice theory, the new institutionalism, and social constructionism to lay bare the historically entrenched power relationships among markets, planners, and electoral politics that have made this problem seem so intractable. -- Brian Lund. Includes bibliographical references (pages 289-346) and index. Affordable housing in the United Kingdom has become an ever more potent issue in recent years, as rapid population growth and a long-term lag in new housing construction have combined to making finding secure, affordable housing difficult for a broad range of people. This book uses insights from public choice theory, the new institutionalism, and social constructionism to lay bare the historically entrenched power relationships among markets, planners, and electoral politics that have made this problem seem so intractable. -- Provided by publisher As housing moves up the UK political agenda, Brian Lund uses insights from public choice theory, the new institutionalism and social constructionism to explore the political processes involved in constructing and implementing housing policy and its political consequences