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The economic social status of residents within the residential community area in direct relation to the quality of interpersonal relationships among them is presented.

Ronald van Kempen is with the Urban Research Centre Utrecht, Faculty of Geographical Sciences, Utrecht University, PO Box 80.115, 3508 TC Utrecht, The Netherlands. Hugo Priemus is with the OTB Research Institute for Housing, Urban and Mobility Studies, Delft University of Technology, PO Box 5030, 2600 GA Delft, The Netherlands. The authors are grateful to Jan van der Schaar, Jon van Weesep and an anonymous referee for their very valuable comments on an earlier version of this article. Summary. The social rented sector in the Netherlands has always had a very special status. Unlike many other countries, in the Netherlands this sector has never been regarded as a segment exclusively for low-income households. Consequently, neighbourhoods with large numbers of social rented dwellings have never been areas for low-income households only. Since about 1990, however, the proportion of low-income households in social rented housing has increased, while high-income households can be found more and more in the owner-occupied sector. At least for the 1990s, housing policies can be seen as partially responsible for this change. In this contribution, we argue that new housing policies in the Netherlands will probably have the effect of increasing the share of low-income households in social housing even more. This holds for the policy of urban restructuring, initiated in 1997, as well as for the newest plans of the State Secretary of Housing that were launched in his Housing Memorandum at the end of th e year 2000. If the proposed housing policy is implemented in the near future, we doubt whether the status of social housing in the Netherlands will continue to be so different from that of other EU countries.

Hugo Priemus is in the OTB Research Institute for Housing, Urban and Mobility Studies, Delft University of Technology, Thijsseweg 11, 2629 JA Delft, The Netherlands. Frans Dieleman is in the Faculty of Geographical Sciences, University of Utrecht, PO Box 80.115, 3508 TC Utrecht, The Netherlands.

This article offers a comparative analysis of housing policies between the United States and the Netherlands. The author maintains the United States' housing vouchers and certificates offers low-income households more options than the Netherlands' housing allowances. However, the Netherlands are more generous, offering more affordability for housing. Also, the United States has long waiting lists for vouchers, whereas the Netherlands' policy is more open to fraud.

Introduction In several respects, the Netherlands represents a special case in housing tenure and housing policy. The proportion of owner-occupier dwellings is relatively low (of all OECD-countries only Germany, Sweden and Switzerland have lower shares), whereas the proportion of social rented dwellings is extremely high. This profile is illustrated by the figures in Table 1, which presents housing tenure data in a number of countries. The housing stock in the Netherlands consists of exactly 50% owner-occupied dwellings in 1998. This share is increasing rapidly. Within the rented sector the share of the commercial rented sector Is only about 12%, owned by professional institutional investors and private landlords with small properties. The dominant landlord type in the rented sector, with a 38% share of the total housing stock, is the social landlord. Until recently, municipalities owned 6% and (private) housing associations 32%. Privatization, stimulated by national government, has resulted in a transformation of most municipal companies into housing associations. Nowadays, less than 1% of the housing stock is owned by municipalities; about 37% is in the hands of housing associations. Government outlays on housing subsidies in the Netherlands were consistently high throughout the 1980s -- very high in comparison to other West European countries. Since 1985, the government has imposed systematic reductions in budgets for housing. The effect of the austerity measures is demonstrated in Table 2. In 1995, the measure known as grossing and balancing was introduced (Priemus, 1995; 1996). Under that agreement, all outstanding public loans were repaid in one lump sum to the central government, while the housing associations received (as of 1 January 1995) the present value oil' all subsidies that had been committed for future years. This operation explains why the government had extremely high housing expenses in 1995, followed by a structurally lower level of housing expenses. Throughout western Europe, governments have gradually been shifting away from property subsidies and towards housing allowances (Kemp, 1997), a trend which started in the 1970s. Over the past two decades, that trend has also been observed in the Netherlands (Priemus, 1984). Initially, the housing allowance was a supplementary measure. Later, in 1975, it became an entitlement program. And in 1984, the instrument was codified in the Housing Allowance Act (Van der Schaar and Zandstra, 1994: 51)., The Housing Allowance Act increases the chance for outlays in rent subsidies to expand beyond reasonable limits. New control mechanisms are challenging housing authorities, municipalities and landlords. Rent subsidy has been successful in the past and will continue to be if regulation is moved from the Housing Ministry to the Ministry of Social Affairs.

The Netherlands' 1995 Big City Policy addresses social problems such as unemployment and crime in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht, but in 1997 it is not certain whether the policy will succeed. The policy creates a partnership between the national cabinet and city councils, and outlines promising programs. Funding needs to be increased for projects, progress should be monitored, and the policy should be revised if needed.

The adoption of a market-oriented housing policy may contradict the goals of the government in the fields of physical planning, transportation and environment. The limitations of a market-oriented policy are revealed in a study involving the planning of a housing community in the Netherlands called Randstad Holland. These may be minimized through timely government intervention and assistance .

The Netherlands has a large and differentiated stock of social rented dwellings, forming more than 40 per cent of the total housing stock. Housing associations are by far the largest providers of housing services in this sector. Traditionally, these associations were subsidised heavily but since 1995 Dutch government has no longer directly subsidised these associations. This paper deals with changes in Dutch housing associations in a period (1988-95) characterised by government austerity, deregulation, market conformity, privatisation and promotion of home-ownership. It is explained how the housing associations were able to survive and even maintain prospects for a promising future in a political climate that threatened the social rented sector. It is clear that housing associations can now operate more independently than in the past. This is seen as a positive development, but the government is now discovering the drawbacks of complete privatisation. A firmer embedding in a public framework is considered desirable now. Recently the cabinet introduced a strengthening of public supervision. The housing associations' umbrella organisations presented their own National Housing Programme and published a business code for housing associations. A crucial issue has not been discussed so far: who will subsidise the housing investments for low-income households in periods of economic stagnation?, 1. Introduction The social rented sector is a marginal phenomenon in many countries particularly in the US, where it carries a certain stigma. In contrast, most western European countries have [...]

Privatization and market orientation have reduced the importance of the central government in matters concerning housing, putting pressure on social dwellings. The central government in the Netherlands is not going to retract from its housing policy, which forms the backbone of the Dutch social rental sector, but has agreed to provide subsidies such as nominal rent and proper supervision of the houses.

Summary. The possibilities and limitations in internationalising the economy of the Randstad are considered, taking into account criteria of sustainability. The Randstad has a central position in the West European urban core region. National physical planning policies are strongly focused on the Randstad. A number of strategic projects are being developed to promote the attractiveness of the Randstad. At the same time, initiatives have been taken to strengthen the administrative cohesion within the Randstad. We show that the coordination between different strategic projects is weak and that priorities are unclear. A strategic plan for the Randstad is presented, aimed at a strengthening of its international position and its environmental qualities., 1. Introduction According to Hall (1966) the Randstad, along with London, Paris, the Ruhr area, New York, Tokyo, Sao Paulo and Moscow, is one of the 30 world cities. In [...]

M. BODDY, C. LAMBERT and D. SNAPE, 1997 Bristol: The Policy Press 352 pp., £16.95 paperback ISBN 1 86134 0486 Before going into the content of this book, let us [...]

For some years the small housing research group at the De Montfort University in Leicester, headed by Michael Oxley, has devoted itself to international comparative research, especially between the countries [...]

This article deals with the vulnerability of the Dutch housing allowance scheme. This scheme can be compared with the British housing benefit. The vulnerability of the scheme has been augmented by the current less favourable economic conditions (stagnating household incomes, increasing unemployment) and the Dutch government's announcement that it plans to reduce housing allowance expenditure. Two scenarios are outlined, which may serve to resolve the danger of exploding housing allowances expenditure in the coming years. If a market-led scenario is chosen, whereby housing associations strive to achieve market rents, the housing allowance will be transformed into a form of housing voucher, the value of which is not directly related to the actual rental price of the property. In this American-style model, the value of the vouchers would be linked to a 'virtual' rent, say 40% of the average rental price in the region. The housing associations would then lose their special semi-public status. Under the social housing model, the housing associations would retain their special status provided they aimed to achieve rents somewhat lower than the market level. The housing allowance would remain directly linked to the actual rental price. However, some marked changes would be required to render this system sustainable. The Netherlands cannot avoid having to make this choice.

Summary. The central topic of this contribution is the financing of the social rented sector in seven countries in western Europe: the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Great Britain, France and [...]

1. Introduction As Marcuse (1995) explains, public housing in the US has consisted of quite different programmes at different times, all under the rubric of 'public housing'. He identifies seven [...]