The Right to Buy has had a massive impact on Housing in the UK for 35 years and in 2015 there were proposals to extend it. But what is the Right to Buy policy, how has it developed and what has its ...impact been? What evidence is there about the wider and unintended consequences of the policy? How are the proposals to extend the policy in England likely to affect future housing provision and what alternatives are there?
In The Right to Buy, Alan Murie provides an authoritative account of the origins, development and impact of the policy across the UK and proposals for its extension in England (and decisions to end it in Scotland and Wales). Presenting up-to-date statistical material the book engages with debates about transfers to private renting, the impact on public expenditure and on the current housing situation, addresses the proposals for new legislation and details the potential impact of these. It is an essential read for anyone interested in this highly topical issue.
Nearly 40 years after the first wave of Ethiopian immigration to Israel, the country’s Ethiopian population still suffers from significant socioeconomic disadvantage: Many of its members live in ...highly homogeneous poor neighborhoods, which expose them to a variety of negative externalities. This study is the first to examine empirically the impact of Israel’s policy of absorption and spatial distribution on the formation of homogeneous ghettos of Ethiopians, and the contribution of the government’s major housing assistance programs for Ethiopians to solving or exacerbating this problem. The study, structured into four main stages, embraces a mixed-methods research approach drawing on diverse theoretical and methodological frameworks. In the first stage, we use descriptive statistics to introduce the current characteristics of the Ethiopian population in Israel and compare them with those of other marginalized social groups. In the second stage, we analyze the government’s various housingassistance programs for the Ethiopian population, focusing on three flagship programs. The third stage analyzes the spatial outcomes of the primary housing-assistance program, which remains active to date. Lastly, through in-depth interviews with policymakers and Ethiopian leaders, we delve into the underlying considerations that lay behind the policy decisions made. The research findings indicate that Ethiopians experience social and economic disadvantages, yet their spatial situation seems to be better than that of other disadvantaged groups, because a significant part of this population apparently enjoys the advantages of living in the center of the country. The findings further show that while the various government housing-assistance programs have elevated homeownership rates among Ethiopians, they have not prevent the formation and proliferation of spatial concentrations of poverty. Nor have they ever provided both the means and the knowledge needed to enable Ethiopians households to enhance their quality of life by moving out of these neighborhoods. To truly address the problem of homogeneous concentrations of poverty, a holistic but tailor-made housing policy is essential. This policy should not simply mirroring the national housing policy, which focuses almost exclusively on homeownership, but rather incorporate diverse policy measures for different populations. A good and just housing policy must take into account the existing spatial dynamic and the core–periphery relations and ensure an environment that provides quality employment and education opportunities alongside social networks that the residents can leverage to increase their social, economic, and cultural capital. Otherwise, the government housing-assistance programs will continue to be mere lip service and too little, too late.
•Immigrants in diverse places and at different times tend to concentrate geographically.•Spatial poverty concentrations are associated with negative externalities, such as crime and inadequate housing conditions.•We examine the spatial distribution of Ethiopian in Israel, characterized by multigenerational concentrations of poverty.•The study evaluates how Israel’s absorption and housing policies affected the formation and perpetuation of homogeneous slums.•The findings show that these policies increased home ownership rates, but consistently failed to address slum-related problems.
The book provides unique insights into the process of housing reforms in post-socialist Europe during its transition to markets and democracy. It explores the relationships between housing policy and ...housing system performance in nine countries: Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Romania, Republic of Moldova, Serbia and Montenegro. The research captures important housing policy and market dynamics producing tangible outcomes of the transition processes. Using a comparative framework for analysis and evaluation, the book provides an enduring and sound illustration of the post-socialialist experience highlighting patterns of diversity, complexity and institutional transformation in the new path-dependent housing systems in the region. The research is driven by the premise that housing policy matters and that better policies lead to more efficient housing system performance.
A provocative analysis of the roots of Egypt's housing crisis and the ways in which it can be tackled Along with football and religion, housing is a fundamental cornerstone of Egyptian life: it can ...make or break marriage proposals, invigorate or slow down the economy, and popularize or embarrass a ruler. Housing is political. Almost every Egyptian ruler over the last eighty years has directly associated himself with at least one large-scale housing project. It is also big business, with Egypt currently the world leader in per capita housing production, building at almost double China's rate, and creating a housing surplus that counts in the millions of units. Despite this, Egypt has been in the grip of a housing crisis for almost eight decades. From the 1940s onward, officials deployed a number of policies to create adequate housing for the country's growing population. By the 1970s, housing production had outstripped population growth, but today half of Egypt's one hundred million people cannot afford a decent home. Egypt's Housing Crisis takes presidential speeches, parliamentary reports, legislation, and official statistics as the basis with which to investigate the tools that officials have used to 'solve' the housing crisis-rent control, social housing, and amnesties for informal self-building-as well as the inescapable reality of these policies' outcomes. Yahia Shawkat argues that wars, mass displacement, and rural-urban migration played a part in creating the problem early on, but that neoliberal deregulation, crony capitalism and corruption, and neglectful planning have made things steadily worse ever since. In the final analysis he asks, is affordable housing for all really that hard to achieve?
The article presents a synthetic assessment of the diversity of the housing situation in Polish communes in the context of ongoing demographic changes. In addition, it presents an original method of ...typological research combining measures of the housing and demographic situation for all 2,477 communes in Poland as at the end of 2021. The scope of the study covered the years 2011–2021. The article identified that both functional urban areas and coastal municipalities have their own specificity in terms of housing and demographic situation, to a lesser extent this phenomenon affects mountain municipalities. It was also pointed out that the lack of a place-based policy in the National Housing Program makes it difficult to shape the national housing policy in a manner adapted to local and regional conditions.
We synthesize the vast, international scholarly literature related to the growing problem of housing affordability. As a foundation for assessing both the causes of housing affordability problems and ...possible policies for alleviating them, we take a systematic, holistic perspective and specify nine structural relationships for a metropolitan area that comprehensively delineate the determinants of housing affordability. We discuss concepts and measures of housing affordability, evidence on the primary causes and effects of unaffordable housing, alternative policy approaches, potential future trends in affordability, and suggestions for further research. While focusing on the most recent, high-quality empirical evidence, we also rely on previously published reviews and seminal papers in order to provide historical perspective on how the literature has evolved. Our reconnaissance of the international literature since 2008 demonstrates that although evaluation research in the context of western, developed countries' housing policies has dominated, increasingly such research has emerged from other countries.
Highlights
We discuss how to frame housing affordability issues, synthesize evidence from the relevant literature, and propose directions for future research.
We take a holistic perspective to understand causes of housing affordability problems and assess policy responses.
Our review of the international scholarly literature encompasses the evidence from non-western, developing countries.
Despite the extensive literature, there remain unexplored questions and emerging topics.
This research aims to examine the coordination of interests in the trajectory of federal housing policy since the 1940s. In this context, it questions what legacy this trajectory has left for housing ...policy in the Brazilian urban space, that starts with the 'Popular House Foundation', passes through the National Housing Bank in 1964 until arriving at the 'My house, my life' program in 2009. Thus, the work uses historical institutionalism as a theoretical framework, which guides its methodological approach, which examines the behavior of the actors, the institutional trajectory and their legacy. It is a qualitative research, which used bibliographic and documentary research. As a main result, it was found that the political-institutional dynamics of housing policy started a path more directed at stimulating the economy of the civil construction sector--than at serving the most vulnerable social strata--which remained relatively stable within the federative framework, reproducing socio-spatial segregation and unable to enforce the right to the city in favor of all residents of the urban fabric. Keywords: Historical institutionalism. Housing policy. Urban Reform. National Housing Bank. Minha Casa Minha Vida Program. Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo examinar a coordenacao de interesses na trajetoria da politica habitacional federal desde a decada de 1940. Nesse contexto, questiona qual o legado deixado por essa trajetoria para a politica habitacional no espaco urbano brasileiro, que inicia com a Fundacao da Casa Popular, passa pelo Banco Nacional da Habitacao em 1964 ate chegar no programa Minha Casa Minha Vida em 2009. Assim, o trabalho utiliza como arcabouco teorico o institucionalismo historico, que orienta a sua abordagem metodologica, que examina o comportamento dos atores, a trajetoria institucional e o seu legado. Trata-se de pesquisa qualitativa, que se utilizou de pesquisa bibliografica e documental. Como principal resultado, constatou-se que a dinamica politicoinstitucional da politica habitacional iniciou um caminho mais direcionado a estimular a economia do setor da construcao civil, do que atender as camadas sociais mais vulneraveis, setor esse que se manteve relativamente estavel dentro do quadro federativo, reproduzindo segregacao socioespacial e sem condicoes de efetivar o direito a cidade em favor de todos os moradores do tecido urbano. Palavras-chave: Institucionalismo historico. Politica habitacional. Reforma Urbana. Banco Nacional da Habitacao. Programa Minha Casa Minha Vida.
This research aims to examine the coordination of interests in the trajectory of federal housing policy since the 1940s. In this context, it questions what legacy this trajectory has left for housing ...policy in the Brazilian urban space, that starts with the 'Popular House Foundation', passes through the National Housing Bank in 1964 until arriving at the 'My house, my life' program in 2009. Thus, the work uses historical institutionalism as a theoretical framework, which guides its methodological approach, which examines the behavior of the actors, the institutional trajectory and their legacy. It is a qualitative research, which used bibliographic and documentary research. As a main result, it was found that the political-institutional dynamics of housing policy started a path more directed at stimulating the economy of the civil construction sector--than at serving the most vulnerable social strata--which remained relatively stable within the federative framework, reproducing socio-spatial segregation and unable to enforce the right to the city in favor of all residents of the urban fabric.
Current approaches to the provision of shelter, largely driven by national governments and/or the commercial private sector, continue to fall short of what is needed to reduce housing deficits. The ...number of people without access to adequate housing continues to grow, especially in cities of the Global South. Increasing attention is being paid to alternative models for organizing land and housing delivery, such as those led by, or at least including, civil society. In this paper, we consider two national land and housing programs—the 20,000 Plots Project in Tanzania, and Basic Services for the Urban Poor (BSUP) in India—alongside community-led housing initiatives from each country. We explore the extent to which community participation in housing delivery can have social and environmental advantages when compared to ‘business as usual’ methods and find that, given appropriate state support, community-based, and civil society actors (including organizations of the urban poor) have significant potential to contribute to acquiring land, building homes and improving the quality of life of vulnerable segments of the population. This paper echoes calls for community-led housing to become a recognized part of formal housing policy whilst emphasizing the need for theoretical refinement of the process so as to prevent it from being captured by prevailing market-led narratives.
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