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When landlords always win and renters pay the price, what can be done?Housing means prosperity and security for some; poverty, precarity and sickness for others. More people live in private rented accommodation than ever before, and rents rise without apparent reason. Homes are smaller every year, and nearly 20 per cent of tenants live in hazardous conditions. Homelessness is at a new high. Yet the government's only solution is to promote homeownership.Against Landlords shows that this crisis is not the product of happenstance or political incompetence. Government policy has intentionally split British citizens into homeowners and renters, two classes set on very different financial paths. In the UK, one out of every twenty-one adults is a landlord, and it is this group, and those who aspire to join it, represented by the political class.In his radical new interpretation of the housing crisis, lawyer Nick Bano explains how this environment set the conditions for the Grenfell Tower fire and how it means a life of anxiety for the nation's renters. It is a problem that stretches far beyond London and one inherently racist in nature.Building more housing is not the solution. It is firstly a problem of the law, Bano argues, and reforms must sweep away the landlordism at the heart of the housing crisis and British political life.

‘I tore through the pages. A book I'll read over and over again'CANDICE CARTY-WILLIAMS, author of Queenie ____________________________________________We've all had our share of dodgy landlords, mould and awkward house shares. But journalist Kieran Yates has had more than most: by the age of twenty-five she'd lived in twenty different houses across the country, from council estates in London to car showrooms in rural Wales. In prose that sparkles with humour and warmth, Yates charts the heartbreaks and joys of a life spent navigating the chaos of the housing system. Drawing on interviews with marginalised tenants across the country and the stories behind our interiors, she explores the unexpected ways we can fight back – finding beauty in the wreckage of a broken system, friendships in cramped housing conditions, and home even in the most fragile circumstances.All the Houses I've Ever Lived In is at once a rallying cry for change, a gorgeous coming-of-age story and a love letter to home in all its forms. ____________________________________________‘Illuminating, thoughtfully written, damning'OBSERVER‘I read this in two sittings... so incisive it's hard to put down'PANDORA SYKES‘A beautiful exposition of home and what it means. Stunning'BOLU BABALOLA, author of Honey & Spice‘So relatable... injects a glorious dose of love and joy and hope'BIG ISSUE ‘Yates manages the unthinkable: she makes the housing crisis funny'i

Charmain Bynoe, a council housing officer for the London borough of Southwark, inspired the nation when she appeared on the TV series Council House Britain. Now, in The Estate, she shines a light on the challenges faced by so many of our citizens and provides heartwarming and inspirational stories of how they have been helped to help themselves. The role of our council housing officers is often overlooked and forgotten about. But their work is vital and, for some, the officers are their best hope for a better quality of life. Sometimes, Charmain works with those who are struggling to cope, finding it hard to keep a roof over their heads or to deal with day-to-day challenges. All they may need is some hope, and she is there to suggest a way forward. In Charmain's powerful new book, she looks back at some of the people she's worked with, from the old man who lives in squalor because he can no longer keep his flat tidy and needs support, to the young Ghanaian woman in a coercive relationship who fears that if she speaks out she will be deported. Britain's housing crisis remains an enormous issue for the country, which was only further highlighted by the Grenfell Tower disaster. But, as Charmain shows, with humanity and consideration for others, we can make things better in ways that don't have to cost a fortune but can deliver results that are truly priceless.

For investors from across the world, UK residential property is seen as one of the best investments available. This is for good reason. It has a track record of delivering strong, stable returns in a way that is relatively easy to understand and implement. The trouble is, the market has changed. The investors of the future value sustainability more than ever before. There is unprecedented and growing demand for Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) investing, now worth $30 trillion in Assets Under Management each year, around a quarter of all professionally managed assets.The traditional goal of profit maximisation is being replaced. Investments must increasingly be profitable as well as sustainable: economically resilient with positive ESG metrics. Yet the UK residential property market – worth over £7.5 trillion – is lagging behind. There is very little clear, easily usable guidance for those responsible for a huge proportion of the market: private investors. The positive impacts of sustainable property investing – for profit-motivated investors, people and the planet – could be huge. The financial, environmental and social costs of getting it wrong could be catastrophic.To get this right and to avoid the risks of getting it wrong, it is vital to understand:• What sustainable residential property investing is• What needs to change and• How, on a practical level, you can invest in a way that is both profitable and sustainable.This book draws on expertise from within and beyond real estate, provides a simple framework for updating your approach. It highlights common mistakes and shares advice so that you can avoid them. Ultimately, it's about answering the question of the decade: ‘How can I invest profitably with positive impacts?'

The growing demand for social housing is one of the most pressing public issues in the UK today, and this book analyses its role and impact. Anchored in a discussion of different approaches to the meaning and measurement of wellbeing, the author explores how these perspectives influence our views of the meaning, value and purpose of social housing in today's welfare state. The closing arguments of the book suggest a more universalist approach to social housing, designed to meet the common needs of a wide range of households, with diverse socioeconomic characteristics, but all sharing the same equality of social status.

Evictions in the UK examines the relationships between tenants, landlords, housing providers and government agencies and the tensions and conflicts that characterise these relations. The book shows how power dynamics are being reconfigured in the post-welfare context of the first quarter of the 21st century, as evictions for rent arrears are becoming one of the most significant threats to both the wellbeing of the social housing sector and the welfare of its tenants. Embracing both practical and critical approaches, this book offers a comprehensive understanding of the contradictory and thus controversial issue of evictions. It explores the range of perspectives involved in the practice – landlords carrying out evictions, those agencies providing legal assistance to evictees, as well as academics and institutions charged with researching and regulating the process. Drawing on three case studies relating to evictions across Scotland and England, this book provides a comprehensive look at the punitive consequences of poverty (evictions for rent arrears) and status (evictions under immigration law) that are applicable to social housing systems worldwide. Based on original, primary-source data, this book will be a key resource for academics and students as well as policy makers and practitioners in the fields of housing studies, planning, social welfare, and political sociology.

Since publication of the first edition nearly 40 years ago, Homelessness and Allocations has established itself as the definitive guide to the rights of the homeless. It combines an unrivalled historical overview with a clear, concise and user-friendly approach to this complex area of law. Homelessness and Allocations was first published after the Housing (Homeless Persons) Act 1977 brought new duties towards the homeless into force, since when it has recorded and analysed development of this area of the law, while the authors have contributed to, and helped to shape, its development acting between them in cases up to and including the highest courts from the earliest days of the new law to the present time. The twelfth edition has been updated to cover: •the extensive changes to the law on eligibility made by Brexit; covering both the pre- and post-Brexit position, the transitional scheme applicable for those with (or entitled to) settled status and the extensive new statutory guidance. •the forthcoming changes made by the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 (priority need for survivors of domestic abuse), introducing duties on local authorities to develop a ‘domestic abuse strategy', which will likely include provision of refuge accommodation. •developments arising out of the pandemic, including R (Ncube) v Brighton & Hove City Council on the use of alternative powers where claimants are excluded from Part 7, which will continue to be relevant once the pandemic has passed. •the changes to both the English and Welsh Codes of Guidance necessitated by the pandemic. Homelessness and Allocations is essential reading for housing lawyers and advisers, local authority housing and homelessness officers and housing associations seeking authoritative, accurate and accessible guidance on local authority duties and the rights of the homeless.

Housing and Domestic Abuse provides an analysis of how housing policy has been historically utilised in responding to domestic abuse. The authors trace the history of policy from the feminist roots of the refuge movement, to the use of ‘anti-social behaviour'legislation to address abuse, and the current proposals being considered. The UK government and devolved governments in Scotland and Wales are currently making significant changes to the ways they address domestic abuse, including involving housing policy in their responses. This book provide details of the differential approaches of the Scottish and Welsh governments and proposes a ‘whole housing approach'to addressing abuse. Readers will gain a detailed knowledge of historic, and current policy and practice in this area. They will also benefit from insights from two of the leading scholars in their respective fields of housing and domestic abuse policy and practice.This book will be of interest to academics, policy makers and practitioners across the fields of housing and domestic abuse policy and practice, as well as students studying social policy more broadly.

In response to social housing fraud, the Government introduced the Prevention of Social Housing Fraud Act 2013, which made sub-letting and parting with possession of social lets a specific criminal offence and granted local authorities the power to prosecute those who had acted in such a manner. Not only can offenders be jailed, but they can also be fined and ordered to pay an unlawful profit order, thus opening up a revenue opportunity to cash-strapped social landlords.Social housing fraud is an important and high profile issue. This title provides a thorough overview of this regime and how local authorities can maximise their chances of recovering possession of properties affected by fraud, obtaining'compensation'and securing a conviction, including techniques for effective evidence gathering. Topics covered, include: - Possession action in the county court- Sub-letting/parting with possession- Investigation powers- Criminal offences and procedure- Civil remedies- GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018For ease of reference, relevant primary and secondary legislation has been included within the appendices, which also includes templates for: Particulars of Claim (county court), Complaint (magistrates'court) Notice to Quit and Notice Seeking Possession. There is also a useful landlord checklist, to ensure nothing has been overlooked during what can be a complex process.This title is included in Bloomsbury Professional's Local Government Law and Property and Land Law online services.

One hundred years ago, the Addison Act created the circumstances for the large scale construction of municipal housing in the UK. This would lead to the most prolific phases of housing estate building the country has ever seen. The legacy of this historic period has been tackled for the last twenty-five years as these estates began to suffer from misguided allocation policies, systemic building and fabric failure and financial austerity. A series of estate regeneration programmes sought to rectify the mistakes of the past. Estate Regeneration describes 24 of these regeneration schemes from across the UK and the design philosophy and resident engagement which formed each new community. A number of essays from a wide range of industry experts amplify the learning experience from some key estate regeneration initiatives and provide observations on the broader issues of this sector of the housing market. Regeneration is inevitable; it is a matter of the form which regeneration should take. The information presented here is a guide to an intuitive approach to estate regeneration which commences with the derivation of strong urban design principles and is guided by real community engagement. The experience presented seeks to learn from the mistakes of the past to create the best possible platform for regeneration of the housing estates of the future.

In this accessible and passionately argued book, Bob Colenutt goes to the roots of the long-term crisis in housing and planning in the UK. Providing a much needed, in depth critique of the nexus of power of landowners, house builders, financial backers and politicians that makes up the property lobby, this radical book reveals how this complex, self-serving and intimidating network perpetuates a cycle of low supply, high prices and poor building which has resulted in one of the biggest social and economic challenges of our time. With radical ideas for solutions, this is essential reading for anyone with an interest in housing, planning and social justice.

This book provides crucial insight into the fight back against austerity by local authorities through emerging forms of municipal entrepreneurialism in housing delivery. Capturing this moment within its live context, the authors examine the ways that local authorities are moving towards increased financial independence based on their own activities to implement new forms and means of housebuilding activity. They assess these changes in the context of the long-term relationship between local and central government and argue that contemporary local authority housing initiatives represent a critical turning point, whilst also providing new ways of thinking about meting housing need.

Philosophy is not usually seen as a guidance for modern housing policy, but in this new book, Dr Helen Taylor argues that there is something innovative, unusual, and worth discussing about the application of philosophy to housing. The philosophical framework used within this book is John Rawls'conception of justice as fairness. The UK has gone through several shifts in housing policy over the past decade, most recently by introducing the controversial ‘Bedroom Tax', in an effort to make more cuts to benefits and social welfare. Social Justice in Contemporary Housing: Applying Rawls'Difference Principle suggests that by using ideas of agency we can understand the impact that social policy has on individuals and wider society. The work outlines the liberal principle of legitimacy and argues that Rawls'concept of reasonableness can, and should, be used to justify the intervention of policy in individuals'lives. This book will be of interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students of housing as well as philosophy and social policy, and also those working around the creation and implementation of social housing in the UK.

The ‘Bedroom Tax'has been one of the most contentious aspects of the UK government's austerity politics. In this book, Kelly Bogue provides an authoritative assessment of its social impacts. The Divisive State of Social Policy traces the links between housing resources and societal tensions by looking closely at one housing estate. The book explores issues related to Housing Benefit reform, including housing precarity, poverty and damage to social networks. This is a vivid picture of the sharp end of austerity politics and welfare reform, and it gets to the heart of the meanings of home and community in the UK today.

This book covers the history of supported housing provision in the context of the broader political and theoretical considerations of the time in which the respective policies were being implemented. The book takes an historical perspective using path dependency as an analytical framework. Particular attention is paid to the critical junctures in the path of supported housing provision and how these limited and continue to limit the policy choices available. The book concludes with a look at the current state of supported housing policy with a view to making recommendations for how policy in this area could be carried forward. The hope is that readers of this book learn the lessons of previous policy initiatives in this area and, by looking at the philosophical underpinning for supported housing can make recommendations for how it can be funded and provided in the future.This book provides a valuable resource for scholars and practitioners seeking to both provide and influence policy in this area. It is also a useful source for students studying housing and urban policy.

Home and care are central aspects of everyday, personal lives, yet they are also shaped by political and economic change. Within a context of austerity, economic restructuring, worsening inequality and resource rationing, the policies and experiences around these key areas are shifting. Taking an interdisciplinary and feminist perspective, this book illustrates how economic and political changes affect everyday lives for many families and households in the UK. Setting out both new empirical material and new conceptual terrain, the authors draw on approaches from human geography, social policy, and feminist and political theory to explore issues of home and care in times of crisis.

At the root of the housing crisis is the problematic relationship that individuals and economies share with residential property. Housing's social purpose, as home, is too often relegated behind its economic function, as asset, able to offer a hedge against weakening pensions or source of investment and equity release for individuals, or guarantee rising public revenues, sustain consumer confidence and provide evidence of ‘growth'for economies. The refunctioning of housing in the twentieth century is a cause of great social inequality, as housing becomes a place to park and extract wealth and as governments do all they can to keep house prices on an upward track.

As the tragedy of the Grenfell tower fire has slowly revealed a shadowy background of outsourcing, private finance initiatives and a council turning a blind eye to health and safety concerns, many questions need answers.Stuart Hodkinson has those answers. He has worked for the last decade with residents groups in council regeneration projects across London. As residents have been shifted out of 60s and 70s social housing to make way for higher rent paying newcomers, they have been promised a higher quality of housing. Councils have passed the responsibility for this housing to private consortia who amazingly have been allowed to self-regulate on quality and safety. Residents have been ignored for years on this and only now are we hearing the truth. Stuart will weave together his research on PFIs, regulation and resident action to tell the whole story of how Grenfell happened and how this could easily have happened in multiple locations across the country.

Written from an ‘in house'perspective in response to the UK Government Housing White Paper released in February 2017, Housing Regeneration: A Plan for Implementation presents sustainable solutions to Britain's housing crisis and will be a useful practical guide for anyone involved in the process of regeneration. Taking as its starting point an idea for a housing regeneration scheme, it provides an overview of each of the issues to be considered and the options for addressing them. In clear and concise language, it explains the issues and work involved in a regeneration scheme, answering questions such as who is involved, how is it paid for, what options are available and, importantly, what are the risks. It will appeal to lawyers, councillors, town planners, surveyors, chief officers, finance officers, procurement officers, project managers and students, amongst others.

England has a housing crisis. We need to build many more new homes to house our growing population, but house building is controversial, particularly when it involves the loss of countryside. Addressing both sides of this critical debate, Shaun Spiers argues that to drive house building on the scale needed, government must strike a contract with civil society: in return for public support and acceptance of the loss of some countryside, it must guarantee high quality, affordable developments, in the right locations. Simply imposing development, as recent governments of all political persuasions have attempted, will not work. Focusing on house building and conservation politics in England, Spiers uses his considerable experience and extensive research to demonstrate why the current model doesn't work, and why there needs to be both planning reform and a more active role for the state, including local government.

This book considers the major forces that have emerged to reshape planning following 2010, including national infrastructure project delivery, the Localism Act (2011) and neighbourhood planning. This period also saw the introduction of the replacement of regional plans by new strategic sub-regional approaches in combined local authorities for functional economic areas. All of this is set within the UN's New Urban Agenda, Brexit, the changing programme for the EU post 2021 and the likely effects that these will have on UK planning practice. There is also a discussion on the evolving planning policies in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and the ways in which the UK nations are beginning to work together more closely and with Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man through the spatial planning group in the British–Irish Council. Although primarily focused on the UK, the text sets some of the policy discussions in a wider international context including agreements on the environment and the emerging alignment of governance and economies in newly recognised sub-regional spaces. It follows Effective Practice in Spatial Planning (2011), which addressed the developments in planning in the UK between 2004 and 2010, and discusses the major changes in all aspects of planning policy in the following period.

This title was first published in 2000: Improved communication links between urban and rural areas and an increase in property prices in urban regions have made commuting an attractive option for European town and city dwellers eager to'escape'urban living. This has lead to a proliferation of second homes in certain remote or deep rural areas, and this trend is compounding problems that are already affecting the indigenous populations in these areas - such as socio-economic decline, agricultural depression, a lack of services, and unaffordable house prices. Consequently, many politicians in European Member States are calling for the introduction of housing and planning laws to control the proliferation of second home ownership. This book addresses the origins of second home growth, the nature of ownership and demand, the economic costs and benefits and the environmental and social impacts of second homes. It also considers policy and practical responses at European, UK and local levels. The book will be invaluable reading for students and policy analysts in the fields of rural geography, planning, politics, housing studies and cultural studies.

Originally published in 1995. A comprehensive survey of housing policy throughout Europe, anchored in a thorough analysis of the UK, this book is a text for students of housing at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The book considers housing tenure types and looks at standards of living, housing stock, housing allowances and subsidies and European funds. There are separate chapters for France, Germany, Spain, The Netherlands and Sweden. The later chapters focus on Britain and look more in depth at population issues and economics and address regional policy.

Focusing on principles and theory and their application in the process of constructing housing policy, with boxed examples and case studies throughout, this fully revised 3rd edition addresses the range of socio-economic factors that have influenced UK housing policy in recent years.

Housing provision is a major dilemma for local authorities. There is currently a huge demand for more housing, while increasing environmental, economic and political pressures must be considered when local authorities develop their policies. This remarkable volume investigates how local authorities formulate their housing strategies. It questions whether the local authority can be seen as a single entity in terms of housing or whether it is fragmented into separate departments. Incorporating in-depth empirical research from England and Wales, the book discusses whether the process of developing housing policy and allocating land needs to be more integrated, and whether key players such as speculative house-builders should be involved in the development of policy. Analyzing which information sources influence the local authority's land allocations and housing strategies, the volume debates whether they provide the most useful data and suggests alternative information sources that may assist in better land allocation policies.

What are the key rationalities that underpin planning policy discourses and how do they'frame'seemingly irreconcilable conflicts around development and environmental protection? Providing a thorough assessment of these important questions, this stimulating book reviews planning policy in the UK and the rationality of'sustainable development'. Supported by a wealth of empirical material collected over the past ten years, the study examines the national, regional and local tiers of planning for housing. It analyzes whether the rationality of planning for'sustainable development'allows a new spatial sensibility to inform planning policy, and whether it still responds to the social demands that were previously incorporated within the developmental method. The overriding concern, which the authors respond to and expand upon, is whether planning for sustainable development can provide a satisfactory basis upon which to re-establish contemporary planning.

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.

Second homes are once again a source of political and social contention in rural areas. The British government's decision to reduce Council Tax discounts on second homes in England in April 2004 has caused wide debate in local communities, local authorities, and the media. The debate has not only focused on the vexed Council Tax issue, but on wider rural housing concerns. Questions have been raised as to whether second homes are a major cause of housing affordability problems in rural areas, and whether they lead to the displacement of local people in rural communities. In the face of anecdotal evidence being presented to answer these questions, Second Homes: European Perspectives and UK Policies, offers a more comprehensive analysis of the second homes question as it now exists. This up-to-date and authoritative analysis of second homes draws on the latest research and offers a critical insight into current housing problems in rural communities. Those interested in rural and housing studies will find the book valuable.

New Labour would like to portray 1997 as a new beginning for public policy, but Peter King argues that we now have, in housing and in other areas of public policy, a consensus based on Thatcherite reforms. He explores the particularly conservative understanding of housing that transformed public attitudes in the 1980s and 1990s, and the impact it still has on policy. This book is written with non-housing specialists in mind, and will be of interest to students of housing, urban studies, public policy and politics, at both undergraduate and higher levels.

Affordable and Social Housing - Policy and Practice is a candid and critical appraisal of current big-ticket issues affecting the planning, development and management of affordable and social housing in the United Kingdom. The successor to the second edition of the established textbook An Introduction to Social Housing, the book includes new chapters, reflecting the focal importance of customer involvement and empowerment, regeneration and the Localism agenda which will have radical impacts on housing provision and tenure, as well as the town and country planning system which enables its development. There is also a new chapter on Housing Law in response to demand for a clear and signposting exposition of this often complex area. Reeves indicates how each theme affects the other, and suggests policy directions on the basis of past successes and failures.Paul Reeves takes a people-centred approach to the subject, describing the themes that have run through provision of social housing from the first philanthropic industrialists in the 19th Century though to the increasingly complex mixture of ownerships and tenures in the present day. The book is ideal for students of housing and social policy, and for housing professionals aiming to obtain qualifications and wanting a broad understanding of the social housing sector.

Housing is a fundamental necessity, and yet it is generally acknowledged that we have a ‘housing crisis'in the UK. The housing market has worked well for many people (who have enjoyed the steeply rising values of their homes), which is why change, especially new building, is resisted. But for increasing numbers it now works less well, as home ownership is out of reach. Government finds it easier to introduce short-term policies that are not really effective, meaning that the long-term issues are never really resolved. Reforms are urgently needed. There are many national policy aims, including decent homes for all, protection of the green belt, better design of buildings and places, avoidance of price volatility, and intergenerational fairness. We also have an existing housing stock that is wrongly located, and some of the housing we do have is of poor quality. With so many conflicting views, strong local feelings and a balance to be struck between growth and conservation, what housing market outcomes might be regarded as a success for policymakers? This book dispels some common myths, and provides answers in the form of policy recommendations.

After World War II, hundreds of thousands of Italians emigrated to Toronto. This book describes their labour, business, social and cultural history as they settled in their new home. It addresses fundamental issues that impacted both them and the city, including ethnic economic niching, unionization, urban proletarianization and migrants'entrepreneurship. In addressing these issues the book focuses on the role played by a specific economic sector in enabling immigrants to find their place in their new host society. More specifically, this study looks at the residential sector of the construction industry that, between the 1950s and the 1970s, represented a typical economic ethnic niche for newly arrived Italians. In fact, tens of thousands of Italian men found work in this sector as labourers, bricklayers, carpenters, plasterers and cement finishers, while hundreds of others became contractors, subcontractors or small employers in the same industry. This book is about these real people. It gives voice to a community formed both by entrepreneurial subcontractors who created companies out of nothing and a large group of exploited workers who fought successfully for their rights. In this book you will find stories of inventiveness and hope as well as of oppression and despair. The purpose is to offer an original approach to issues arising from the economic and social history of twentieth-century mass migrations.

Named one of the Top 10 books about council housing - the Guardian onlineFaced with acute housing shortages, the idea of new garden cities and suburbs is on the UK planning agenda once again, but what of the garden suburbs that already exist? Over the first six decades of the twentieth century, councils across Britain created a new and optimistic form of housing – the cottage estates of ‘corporation suburbia'. By the early 1960s these estates provided homes with gardens for some 3 million mainly working-class households. It was a mammoth achievement. But, because of what then happened to council housing over the later years of the century, this is not very often appreciated.In Garden Suburbs of Tomorrow, Martin Crookston suggests that making the most of the assets which this housing offers is a positive story – it can be positive for housing policy; for councils and their ‘place-making'endeavours; and for the residents of the estates. This is especially important when all housing market and development options are so constrained, and likely to remain so for the next decade or more.Following an examination of what the estates of ‘corporation suburbia'are and what they are like, there follow chapters on specific examples from different parts of the country, on how they are affected by the workings of the housing market, and then – not unconnectedly – on how attitudes to this socially-built stock have evolved. Then the final chapters try to draw out the potentials, and to suggest what future we might look for in corporation suburbia in the twenty-first century.

The physical upgrading of the existing domestic and industrial building stock to improve energy performance is an essential part of a transition to a low carbon society. Successfully retrofitting buildings to improve energy performance is not simply a technological challenge, it is a complex socio-technical problem that needs to be addressed in a co-ordinated way, utilising skills and knowledge from a range of industrial and academic backgrounds. Within both the academic and practitioner communities there is a growing understanding of the scale and nature of the problem, one which encompasses issues such as policy and regulation, people and behaviour, supply chain and process, as well as issues of technology. Retrofitting the Built Environment discusses the factors that impact on the retrofit problem, providing a clear analysis of the main issues that the academic and industrial communities must engage with to resolve the problems of domestic energy and retrofit. The book is divided into four broad sections: Understanding the Problem Policy and Regulation Implementing and Evaluating Retrofit People and Communities Academic and industrial researchers, policy makers and industry practitioners will find each section covers a mix of policy, technical and social science issues, presented by both academic and industry authors, giving a wide and detailed perspective of the issue. The Editors Will Swan is a Senior Lecturer in Buildings Retrofit in the School of the Built Environment at the University of Salford. He leads a number of projects in the field of sustainable retrofit, covering a number of topics including monitoring, behaviour and retrofit project delivery, as part of Salford's Applied Energy and Buildings Research Group. He sits on the Greater Manchester Buildings Group and also is Chair of the Retrofit Innovation Group. Philip Brown is Director and Senior Research Fellow at the Salford Housing & Urban Studies Unit (SHUSU) at the University of Salford. He is the lead academic on end-use energy demand within the Applied Energy and Buildings Research Group, and sits on Greater Manchester's Low Carbon Economic Area group for Customer Engagement.

This book provides an important new contribution to debates around housing policy and its impact on community cohesion. There has never been a more prescient time to discuss these concepts: the book provides an interpretation of housing, race and community cohesion in a highly politicized and fluid policy context. It is designed to initiate discussion and debate but this should not be esoteric and limited to a group of academics. Rather the objective is to bridge academic and policy audiences in the hope that this fusion provides a basis for a new agenda to discuss these topics. Race and community have been key features of social housing policy over the last 20 years with many high-profile interventions, from the proactive approach by the Housing Corporation to support black and minority ethnic housing associations, to the influential Cantle Report documenting segregation in towns and cities following riots, and the National Housing Federation led Race & Housing Inquiry leading to sector wide recommendations to achieve equality. However, volume of policy interventions and reports has not been matched by academic outputs that co-ordinate, integrate and critically analyse'race', housing and community. Housing, Race & Community Cohesion is the first systematic overview of'race', housing and community during this tumultuous period. The material presented is robust and research based but also directly engages with issues around policy and delivery. It is designed to reflect the interests both of the academic research community and policy makers on both sides of the Atlantic. It is not rooted to specific policy interventions that could quickly date but instead focuses on developing new ways to analyse difficult issues that will help both students and practitioners now and in the future.

The emergence of Britain as a fully fledged home-owning society at the end of the 20th century has major implications for how houses are used not just as a home but as an asset. The key debate in this important and timely book is whether social policy and people's homes should be so closely connected, especially when housing markets are so volatile. It will be essential reading for all students and practitioners of housing and those concerned with how social and public policy is being shaped in the 21st century.

The housing we live in shapes individual access to jobs, health, well being and communities. There are also substantial differences between generations regarding the type of housing they aspire to live in, their attitudes to housing costs, the nature of their households and their attitudes to different tenures. This important contribution to the literature draws upon research from the UK, Australia and the USA to show how lifetime attitudes to housing have changed, with new population dynamics driving the market and a greater emphasis on consumption. It also considers how the global financial crisis has differentially affected housing markets across the globe, with variable impacts on the long term housing transitions of different populations.

Few single policies have had a more profound impact on the modern British housing system than the wholesale transfer of public housing to'new social landlords'- primarily Housing Associations. This important new text provides a comprehensive account of the causes, processes and consequences of stock transfer.

Shortlisted for the SLSA-Hart Socio-Legal Book Prize 2011Governing, Independence and Expertise tells the story of the not-for-profit housing sector in England, focusing on its representative body, the National Housing Federation. The story tells of how the Federation and associations influenced their own space of governing through deploying discourses of independence and expertise; how being governed, and governing, become, at times, one and the same.The National Federation of Housing Societies was born in 1935 out of the apparent failure of housing societies, associations and charitable trusts to tackle the'problem of the slums'. Its story was a familiar one - organisations have often set up collective structures to facilitate intervention in government. Viewed historically the success of the project is, nevertheless, remarkable, given that the housing association sector is now a major force in social housing provision. Moreover housing associations have pioneered many programmes which are central to our'modernised'welfare state – such as private finance, independence and entrepreneurialism. Through the story of the Federation, the book examines the role of non-governmental actors in mechanisms of governing, engaging contemporary debates about public services and the nature of the'social'- the limits of the role of the not-for-profit sector; the impact of private funders; and the disappearance of the notion of'public'.

Housing systems in many countries are now more market-oriented than ever before. This is particularly true of the UK, where there is heightened interest in the ability of the market to deliver new housing, as well as considerable debate among housing academics and policy makers over the extent to which policy instruments can be used to steer market processes. This increased market orientation means a greater understanding of market economics is needed. The challenges of providing affordable housing, while simultaneously addressing the problems of low demand housing in some areas, together with the revitalisation of neighbourhoods in need of renewal, also underline the need for a better understanding of the structure and operation of housing markets at local and neighbourhood level. This timely contribution to the field addresses the main housing and planning policy challenges in the UK today. It does so by examining the structure and operation of the urban housing system and then exploring both conceptual and empirical analyses of the workings of the market. The authors then consider the lessons for policy makers, discussing the limitations of the policy framework and considering the strategies for integrating market information into the analysis undertaken in practice. Housing Markets & Planning Policy is an invaluable advanced text for students of land economy, land management, urban planning, housing and urban studies. The authors provide a uniquely detailed analysis of an important policy area that builds on a strong theoretical basis drawn from housing economics. With the challenges posed by the instability of the housing market, it will be of particular interest to academic researchers, policy-makers and housing and planning practitioners.

One of the biggest challenges for students of housing is understanding the financial principles which underpin the place of housing in the wider economy. By taking a political economy approach, Peter King's Understanding Housing Finance makes the basic principles of the subject accessible, without requiring detailed prior knowledge of economics or financial systems. The book explains housing finance by exploring the way in which markets and governments react together. It takes a conceptual approach to consider the advantages and limits of housing markets and why governments intervene. The consequences of intervention are explored in detail using examples of housing subsidy systems and policy mechanisms such as rent control, housing allowances and subsidies to owner occupation. This is a key reference for students on housing and planning courses at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. The book's approach means that its relevance is not confined to one particular housing system, but is useful for those studying housing finance in most developed and developing countries.

Are you concerned about the state of current housing provision? Worried about further decline in the years ahead? Decent Homes for All addresses fundamental questions about the current housing crisis; examining its history and evolution.The first text on the housing-planning interface, it explores the relationship between planning and housing supply, focusing on housing supply, the quality and form of residential development, affordability and sustainability and the changing nature of planning itself. The questions covered include: Why have we moved away from state housing provision? How might the current crisis in housing affordability be addressed through planning policy? Why has recent debate broadened to encompass the idea of ‘sustainable communities'? How will we deliver quality, affordable housing in the future? What role should the planning system play in delivering decent homes in the years ahead? This comprehensive narrative provides students, planners and researchers with a valuable account of the evolving relationship between planning and housing to aid contextual understanding and suggest how current issues might evolve in the future.

The privately rented housing market has largely catered for young, mobile people and students since it was deregulated in the UK. In this volume, key writers provide timely insights into this rapidly evolving market. This volume is based on new, original research which brings together specialists in housing policy and legal studies, with their common and increasingly interdependent knowledge base about the privately rented sector and its future direction. The collection opens with an overview of the historical context and recent changes to the sector, such as the rapid and continued expansion of the buy-to-let market, followed by a discussion of the factors shaping the contemporary market. The contributors show how the new regulatory environment is opening a series of issues with significant potential to affect (and potentially damage) the market. The volume will interest academics and students in social and public policy, law and housing studies, as well as law practices and housing authorities.

The academic and policy interest in the development of cities, the renewal of residential and older industrial neighbourhoods in cities, and issues to do with race, polarisation and inequality in cities has remained at the forefront of policy and academic debate across Europe and North America. This book provides an important new contribution to these debates and highlights specific issues and developments which are crucial to an understanding of debates about residence, renewal and community empowerment. engages with the urban regeneration, development and housing aspects of real estate places debates on polarisation, inequality and race in a city-based structure provides up-to-date account of policy developments

Housing Policy in the UK is a major new textbook that traces the emergence of a'new comprehensive housing policy'in the wake of the Communities Plan and regionalisation. Grounded in cutting-edge research and analysis, it provides a clear account of the evolution and current dimensions and tensions at the heart of this policy.

This book sets out to investigate the relationship between crime and the design and planning of housing, and to produce practical recommendations to help architects and planners to reduce crime. It builds upon and updates research originally published in Crime Free Housing (1991), providing an easily accessible, high quality and well presented account of crime and housing layout. The recommendations of this book focus on ways of reducing four different types of crime through better design: burglary - a strategy to discourage people trying to break into houses car crime - a strategy for providing a safe place to park cars theft around the home - a strategy for protecting the front of house, items in gardens, sheds and garages safe criminal damage - a strategy to minimize malicious damage to property.

This book is the first comprehensive volume exploring an issue of growing importance to policy makers, academics, housing practitioners and students. It brings together contributions from the most prominent scholars in the field to provide a range of theoretical perspectives, critical analysis and empirical research findings about the role of housing and urban governance in addressing anti-social behaviour. Contributors assess constructions of anti-social behaviour in policy discourse, identify how housing is increasingly central to the governance of anti-social behaviour and critically evaluate a wide range of measures used by housing and other agencies to tackle what is perceived to be a growing social problem. Although the book focuses on the UK, comparative international perspectives are provided from France, Australia and the United States. The book covers definitions of anti-social behaviour and policy responses including key new legislation and the legal role of social landlords in governing anti-social behaviour. There is comprehensive coverage of key measures including eviction, probationary tenancies, Anti-social Behaviour Orders, mediation and Acceptable Behaviour Contracts, and of innovative developments such as gated communities, intensive support services and the use of private security. Housing, urban governance and anti-social behaviour will be of interest to academics, policy-makers, practitioners and students in the fields of housing, urban studies, social policy, legal studies and criminology.

Drawing upon Foucauldian analyzes of governmentality, the authors contend that social housing must be understood according to a range of political rationalities that saturate current practice and policy. They critically address the practice of dividing social from private tenure; situating subjects such as the purpose and financing of social housing, the regulation of its providers and occupiers and its relationship to changing perceptions of private renting and owner-occupation, within the context of an argument that all housing tenures form part of an understanding of social housing. They also take up the ways in which social housing is regulated through the invocation and manipulation of obscure notions of housing ‘need'and ‘affordability', and finally, they consider how social housing has provided a focus for debates about sustainable communities and for concerns about anti-social behaviour. Regulating Social Housing provides a rich and insightful analysis that will be of value to legal scholars, criminologists and other social scientists with interests in housing, urban studies and contemporary forms of regulation.

An evaluation of the most enduring privatisation of the Thatcher era … Written in an accessible style, this is a key reference for students and researchers in housing and planning; geography; and social policy. The book analyses the operation and impact of the right to buy policy (RTB). It includes a critique of the Housing Act and the 2001 Housing (Scotland) Act. The enactment of these changes under a Labour government affirms the continuance of the RTB. The authors take stock of its profound effect on housing policy, reversing the growth in social housing developed over the twentieth century, transforming the nation's tenure structure and revolutionising the UK housing system. The Right to Buy: analysis and evaluation of a housing policy begins with an examination of the policy background to the establishment of the RTB and the main features of the legislation. This is followed by chapters that review its take-up and the pattern of sales and their impact on social housing; a chapter examining the financial aspects of the RTB from the viewpoints of tenants, local authorities and central government; one looking at the impact of the RTB via subsequent re-sales on the open market and on the private rented sector; and a chapter drawing on the information already reviewed to consider the potential of the RTB to create sustainable and diverse communities. In the final chapters the international experience of parallel policies are considered and the future take-up of the RTB is assessed in the light of recent reforms together with alternatives.

Drawing together a wide range of literature, this original book combines social theory with elements from the built environment disciplines to provide insight into how and why we build places and dwell in spaces that are at once contradictory, confining, liberating and illuminating.This groundbreaking book deals with topical issues, which are helpfully divided into two parts. The first presents a conceptual framework examining how the built environment derives from a variety of influences: structural, institutional, textual, and action-orientated.Using illustrated case study examples, the second part covers new build schemes, including urban villages, gated communities, foyers, retirement homes and televillages, as well as refurbishment projects, such as mental hospitals and tower blocks.Multidisciplinary in its focus, Housing Transformations will appeal to academics, students and professionals in the fields of housing, planning, architecture and urban design, as well as to social scientists with an interest in housing.