Housing Policy

Using a unique archive spanning the lifetime of twenty council estates in the UK, this book examines what we can learn from council housing’s failings and successes for building sustainable communities in the future.

Providing an in-depth exploration of the experiences of Ireland, Denmark and Finland in their various initiatives designed to end homelessness, this book presents an authoritative comparative account of policies and strategies that have worked, along with an exposition of those that have not.

The complex and self-serving nexus behind the UK’s housing crisis is laid bare in this passionate book from Bob Colenutt. Investigating the network of landowners, house-builders, financial backers and politicians, he reveals how we have been forced to accept the cycle of low supply and high prices, and proposes solutions to the housing emergency.

Available open access under CC-BY-NC license. This book brings together the insights and experiences of a diverse group of government leaders, academics and third sector practitioners to set out new evidence-based strategies and solutions to end homelessness for good.

Written by two distinguished housing economists, this ambitious book tackles one of the most important socio-economic issues facing households today. Drawing from theoretical and empirical frameworks, the authors challenge conventional wisdoms in housing economics and policy and offer innovative recommendations to improve housing affordability.

This book provides crucial insight into the fight back against austerity by local authorities through emerging forms of municipal entrepreneurialism in housing delivery, examines what this means for the changing relationship between local and central government and provides new ways of thinking about meeting housing need within and beyond the UK.

Using original interviews with estate residents in London, Watt provides a vivid account of estate regeneration and its impacts on marginalised communities in London, showing their experiences and perspectives. He demonstrates the dramatic impacts that regeneration and gentrification can have on socio-spatial inequality.

In this book, Chris Pierson argues that we will need to think quite differently about the British welfare state after COVID-19. He looks back to the welfare state’s origins and development as well as forwards, unearthing some surprising solutions in unexpected places.

Bridging housing studies and social policy, this book analyses competing interpretations of the role and value of social housing in the UK.

The author provides new research on the relationship between housing and wellbeing, and challenges the pervasive policy and social consensus that owner-occupation is the ‘natural’ choice of aspiring people.

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically exposed weaknesses in UK housing, with housing inequality contributing to the unequal impact of the disease. Becky Tunstall assesses the position of housing in public policy and health, and the most immediate responses to the pandemic in one convenient resource for students, scholars and practitioners.

Rejecting the assumption that housing and cities are separate from nature, David Clapham advances a new research framework that integrates housing with the rest of the natural world. Demonstrating the impact of housing on the non-human environment, the book considers the future direction of inhabitation policies on climate change and biodiversity.

Often portrayed as an apolitical space, this book demonstrates that home is in fact a highly political concept. This book explores the legislative changes dismantling vulnerable groups’ rights to decent and affordable housing.