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The paper explores the dynamics of the Europeanization of spatial planning and territorial development in Greece following the introduction of the integrated territorial investment (ITI) mechanism. These dynamics evolve in the context of so-called ‘development programming’ and ‘regulatory planning’ systems which mostly operate in parallel to each other – a case of institutional dualism. Based on the analysis of interviews with experts and institutional actors, and of relevant documentation (policies, strategies, laws, etc.), the paper argues that the introduction of the EU’s new territorial delivery mechanisms strengthen local capacity to implement territorial development plans and may potentially weaken institutional dualism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the Programming Period 2014–2020, dozens of Greek cities drafted Integrated Territorial Investment programmes, based on Integrated Sustainable Urban Development Strategies (ITI SUDs). The Strategies justified the selection of intervention and activity areas using socio-economic analysis. The parameters of that analysis, as specified by the National Coordination Authority, reflected the socio-economic and functional parameters highlighted in the relevant EU regulations. This paper uses a recently published methodology in order to estimate and map deprivation in Greek cities with over 100,000 inhabitants, and compares the results with the activity areas identified in the ITI SUDs of those cities. The paper also makes an estimation of the potential for micro-segregation in deprived areas, in an effort to uncover the links between deprivation, built form and social composition at the micro-scale. The analysis shows that deprivation is comparatively more pronounced in Athens and Thessaloniki, and that the use of a common methodology to measuring deprivation, but with customized measurement scales, could support a more targeted allocation of urban policy resources. On the other hand, micro-segregation seems to be a factor worth exploring only in Athens and Thessaloniki, and not in Patra, Larissa, Volos and Heraklion, where the building stock in areas of deprivation is mostly low-rise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2008 Global Financial Crisis was an extreme shock to the UK housing market. Frozen international capital markets resulted in highly restrictive mortgage lending by UK retail banks, and the collapse in homebuying threatened the heavily indebted housebuilding industry. To counteract the threat, between 2008 and 2013, the UK Government issued shared equity loans requiring matching loans from housebuilders alongside retail bank mortgages and deposits from homebuyers. In 2013, it introduced a new shared equity scheme, Help to Buy (HtB), which no longer required matching loans from housebuilders. This article explores the distribution of the benefits of the UK Government's issuance of shared equity loans for homebuyers to buoy demand through its effects on the UK's three largest publicly listed housebuilders. The article found that the housebuilders increased their output by 29,000 homes and generated an additional £1.4 billion in cash between 2013 and 2017 as a direct result of HtB. Over the same period, the housebuilders paid shareholders £3.5 billion in dividends and their share prices rose by an average of 140 per cent, suggesting a clear transfer of income and wealth from taxpayers to housebuilders to shareholders and the emergence of a new mode of housing provision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foreign immigration from low-income countries to the Athens Functional Urban Area (FUA), started in earnest in the early 1990s. However, the first integrated territorial development instrument which covers immigrant integration (the Integrated Territorial Investments-ITI), was introduced in the mid-2010s as a result of adopting relevant EU Regulations. In the Programming Period 2014-2020 there were 4 ITIs approved for funding in Athens FUA. They focus on innovation, economic growth and social cohesion but rarely mention immigrants and refugees per se. The paper argues that this approach, followed by all four Strategies, is a rather generic feature of the country's governance modalities, in an ongoing process of Europeanization. The paper explores the rationale behind the way ITIs were implemented in Athens' FUA, and offers insights as to how immigrant issues could be further mainstreamed in Sustainable Urban Development strategies in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vertical social differentiation is presented in the recent literature as an important element of reduced segregation in South European cities, and the supporting evidence originates mainly from Athens. The authors of this article question the claim about the common form and function of vertical social differentiation across South Europe, as well as its opposition to community segregation, and try to reveal the specificity of the processes leading to its formation in Athens. Since the mid-1970s, the dominant process of urban growth in Athens has been middle-class suburbanization. This process has reinforced community segregation and, at the same time, has triggered a filtering-down process in wide areas around the CBD, formerly occupied by upper and mainly intermediate professional categories. Interclass vertical segregation has subsequently appeared in these areas, where intermediate professional categories and lower middle-class households are now predominant. The fact that these areas do not represent a real choice for any of their resident groups shows that this vertical cohabitation has been the unintended consequence of changing segregation patterns, and hardly the outcome or the corollary of a growing process of sociospatial homogenization. Dans les textes recents, la differenciation sociale verticale est presentee comme un facteur important dans la reduction de la segregation urbaine en Europe du Sud, les elements probants provenant essentiellement d'Athenes. Cet article conteste l'idee que la differenciation sociale verticale ait une forme ou une fonction commune en Europe meridionale, et qu'elle entrave la segregation horizontale; de plus, il tente d'exposer la specificite des processus qui conduisent a sa formation a Athenes. Depuis le milieu des annees 1970, l'expansion urbaine de la capitale grecque se caracterise par l'implantation en banlieue des classes superieurs et moyennes. Ce processus a renforce la segregation dans les quartiers et, parallelement, a declenche un processus de filtrage vers le bas dans de vastes zones entourant l'hypercentre, precedemment occupees par des categories de professionnels liberaux superieures et surtout moyennes. Une segregation verticale interclasse est ensuite apparue dans ces quartiers, des categories de liberaux moyennes et des menages de la petite bourgeoisie y predominant desormais. Or, quel que soit le groupe de residents, ces zones ne representent pas un choix reel; cette cohabitation verticale est done bien la consequence imprevue de la modification des schemas de segregation, plutot que le resultat ou le corollaire d'une homogeneisation socio-spatiale accentuee.

This paper explores the role that land plays in the process of large-scale urban development, with a particular focus on England. In doing so, it looks at the role that both strategic and non-strategic land can play in the process. It considers the current context and identifies the need for new development models to come forward. The paper proposes one means by which public-sector land, a 'common estate' to the extent that assets are held indivisibly by various public-sector organisations for the provision of goods and services, could be better deployed to help address the housing delivery challenges faced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including open spaces, sociable cities and garden cities.