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In 2006, responsibility for implementing the Dutch housing allowance system was transferred from the Ministry of Housing to the Tax Authority. It has since been renamed, and is now known as the ‘rent rebate system’. A number of dilemmas have become evident since the 2006 changes. Attention has shifted to how to implement the system effectively: how to limit the overconsumption of housing services, how to avoid moral hazard, how to reduce outright fraud, how to reduce the poverty trap, and how to prevent the escalation of public spending. These new dilemmas have led to the central research question in this article: how to redesign a system of rent rebates? The discussion of these dilemmas points to further changes. Proposals for a redesign of the rent rebate system in the Netherlands are presented. These proposals could also be relevant for other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

According to the recent Housing Memorandum ( MVROM, 2000 ), Dutch housing associations are expected to actively improve the control of tenants over their dwellings and their living environment and offer them more possibilities to choose their own type of tenure. Before the publication of the Memorandum, associations had already developed various innovative types of tenure, for example fixed rent contracts, tenant maintenance programmes and different forms of sale with discounts and risk-reducing conditions. With the introduction of these tenures, associations aim to contribute to their social objectives by improving tenants' satisfaction with their dwellings and to improve the market position of their stock as well. Our paper discusses innovative types of tenure that have been developed by the Dutch housing associations and their benefits and risks for tenant and landlord. We focus on the 'Client's Choice' programme that has been developed by the association WoonbronMaasoevers, which is recognised as a front-runner in offering households a wide range of choice in tenure and which is also illustrative of many of the benefits and risks of the innovative tenures. We conclude that many of the innovative tenures, including the Client's Choice programme, can contribute to tenant empowerment and freedom of choice. However, low-income households will mostly have to keep relying on (social) rented housing and other forms of empowerment. For the landlord, the Client's Choice programme has the benefit of increasing cash flow, which can be used for (social) housing investments. However, there are also substantial financial risks, concerning the rate of sales, the development of market values and the potential costs of having to buy back all the dwellings at the end of their economic lifespan. Thus, the implementation of the Client's Choice programme on a large scale should be accompanied by measures to control or provide for these risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In various countries we observe governments aiming to produce mixed income areas to reduce or prevent spatial segregation. This almost always implies a redifferentiation, or restructuring of the housing stock of low-income areas. This strategy has its advantages and disadvantages. Redifferentiation and restructuring are based on the idea that solutions to the problems of spatial segregation and concentration can be found in the housing stock. This is also the case in the Netherlands. Since 1997, the Dutch Government has advocated a housing policy promoting a restructuring of urban neighbourhoods by building more expensive dwellings in traditionally low-income areas in order to influence the income mix in these neighbourhoods, thereby implying that this is a positive and feasible development. This paper will focus on the goals of the undivided cities formulated by the Dutch Government and the arguments concerning the relation between segregation and restructuring of the urban housing stock. The paper will also examine the income mix and income segregation in Dutch urban areas itself. Is there any reason to aim at a larger spatial differentiation of income? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explains the stagnation of social rented housing in Western European countries. Changes within the sector; Advocation of sale in social rented dwellings; Suggested solution for tenure problems in social rented housing.

This article investigates how housing and housing policy in the Netherlands developed in a period of economic and demographic stagnation (1974–1984). It is argued that there have been some policy adjustments, but that the housing sector has been able to hold its own reasonably well in the political arena. Public spending on housing as a percentage of the national budget since 1978 has risen. This is the result of the strong position of the interest groups in the non‐profit rent sector and — above all ‐of reasons situated outside housing itself: unemployment in the building trade, the relation between rent policy and incomes policy and the economic importance of urban restructuring processes. Housing held its own for non‐housing reasons. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]