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The Housing Market Renewal (HMR) Pathfinder programme was the most ambitious and controversial area-based housing initiative launched by the UK government over the past 30 years. It was introduced as a means of supporting radical intervention in 'weaker' housing markets, based predominantly in the North of England. The programme, launched in 2003, was assailed by criticisms from the outset. An unlikely alliance of heritage lobbyists and critical urban theorists condemned HMR plans to 'modernize' local housing markets as an exercise in state-sponsored gentrification, displacing working-class households in the search for more attractive 'new urbanists'. HMR programme included demolition of existing homes, partly to modify the structure of local housing supply. Elsewhere many fairly conventional housing improvement schemes were implemented, sustained by an additional £2 billion of government investment. Tire HMR programme was curtailed peremptorily in 2010 by the Coalition government, partly justified by reference to the earlier critiques. This paper considers the criticisms made of HMR, and suggests that overall the programme made modest improvements to the housing stock in the Pathfinder areas but inevitably fell short in reviving local housing markets, especially since the 2008 recession. The prospects for any future housing-based area regeneration programme in England being developed along the lines of HMR now seem bleak indeed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a brief historical analysis of the housebuilding industry in the UK, focusing on the impact of the 2008-09 recession on its activity and structure. It explores the process whereby the industry has been increasingly dominated by the biggest housebuilders. The paper draws lessons from postwar housebuilding programmes in the UK, and the priority given in that period to using plannable supply mechanisms. It describes how the shape of the industry has changed since then and focuses on the impact of the most recent recession. The authors show how the market share of the largest five housebuilders has increased during this period of austerity. The article discusses recent policy initiatives over housing supply, and concludes that they will fail to deliver the number of homes the UK is estimated to need. Future policy, the authors suggest, should seek to stimulate housebuilding by local authorities and other non-profit providers, whilst also boosting an emerging community-led sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper suggests that more attention needs to be given to the historical formation and development of neighbourhood attachment in working-class areas. Notions of belonging and identity may be contingent, complex or contradictory and are shaped by the characteristics of place. The pattern of population change over time through the impact of migration is especially important in shaping notions of neighbourhood identity and perceptions of change. The sustainability of the local public realm and sites for local social interaction also figure strongly in narratives of change. The paper considers whether it is valuable to analyse these processes of change and continuity through the concept of path dependence. The paper suggests path dependence is of limited heuristic value, as it is difficult for this frame work to capture self-reinforcing, reactive, punctuated or incremental patterns of change – all of which were evident in the six research neighbourhoods. The paper suggests that a less deterministic “pathways” approach to neighbourhood change may be a more productive way forward [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines the use and abuse of historical method in the field of housing studies, with specific reference to predictions about the future shape of social housing in Britain. It reflects on the debates about council housing in the early 1990s and sets these against subsequent policy developments. The paper suggests that this exercise reveals some shortcomings in dominant paradigms within housing studies, such as the misreading and misrepresentation of tenants' responses and reactions; the over-emphasis on consumption in assessing processes of housing sector change; the neglect of increasing spatial differentiation in housing markets across Britain; and the failure to appreciate the causes behind increasing volatility in some local housing markets. The paper argues for a more nuanced historical sensibility and a more adventurous methodology when forecasting the future direction of housing policies and the future characteristics of housing systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the growing interest in social balance following management difficulties in social housing in Great Britain. Correlation of social exclusion with social balance; Various levels of social reality; Increasing attempts of social housing agencies to control the characteristics of tenants.

This paper assesses recent policies and initiatives to promote neighbourhood renewal in the context of housing market change in two different policy environments – those of Denmark and England. The authors suggest that surface similarities in the recent urban policy discourses of the two countries tend to conceal deeper differences in the capacity of community-led neighbourhood-based initiatives to improve housing opportunities for local residents. The paper also suggests that comparative analysis of neighbourhood renewal policy has often been too firmly lodged at the national level, neglecting the complexities of ‘multi-level’ governance and uneven spatial development which are increasingly important in urban policy formation and delivery. The authors examine the diverse motivations for the recent policy focus on the ‘neighbourhood’ as an arena for intervention. They suggest that in England the impact of ever starker regional and sub-regional inequalities, problems associated with uneven economic growth, patterns of household migration and mobility, empty housing and cultural segregation extend well beyond the reach of the New Labour government's original urban policy agenda, in its concerns with ‘capacity building’, ‘partnership working’ and ‘joined up governance’. There are now signs of a realignment in approach to impose a more strategic emphasis at a regional level of governance, although this remains underdeveloped in England. While Danish urban policy also has contradictory elements, there is a smaller gap between national government rhetoric and the strategy to improve specific localities, and the central role accorded to local government, which stands in contrast to recent English policy, has been a key aspect underpinning this process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comments on Chris Allen's article about welfare professionalism in housing projects. Importance of joined up working in welfare systems; Structure of the inter-personal relationship between welfare professionals.