Housing Law and Policy - By David Cowan

Abstract: This new book by David Cowan integrates understanding of law and policy so that reader can see how the subject fits together - both the letter of the law and the way it is used. Readers are guided through the complexities of housing law by a leading academic who has researched the subject for more than twenty years.
It acknowledges the many official and unofficial linkages between law and policy to give a fuller picture of decision-making and regulation in housing.
David Cowan is Professor of Law and Policy at the University of Bristol, and a barrister at Arden Chambers. He has published widely in the area of housing and related research, and acted as a consultant to the England and Wales Law Commision.
Further details are available from

http://www.cambridge.org/gb/knowledge/isbn/item6472204/?site_locale=en_GB

HSA members who are interested in reviewing this book should contact martin.mcnally@chester.ac.uk

Housing Disadvantaged People? Insiders and Outsiders in French Social Housing

By Jane Ball
Between historic French revolutions and the modern riots, negotiated solutions to social dilemmas emerged. Despite progress in constitutional principles, complex local negotiations still ultimately determine who is housed. Local social landlords, mayors and employee and tenant representatives use their privileges to house their insiders: existing tenants, locals and employees, with rent insufficiently subsidized. ‘Insider Outsider’ theory is used for an economic analysis of exclusion in social housing allocation: its processes, institutional context, and stigmatizing effects. This highlights the spatial effects of nimbyism, excluding disadvantaged outsiders, and concentrating them in deprived areas. Simultaneously, urban regeneration reduced affordable housing stock and ‘social mix’ became a reason to refuse a social home.
History, comparative law, economic theory and local interviews with housing actors give a detailed picture of what happens in and around French social housing allocation for an interdisciplinary housing policy audience. Constitutional principles appear in an unfamiliar guise as negotiating positions, with the "right to property" supporting landlords and the "right to housing" supporting tenants. French debates about the function of social landlords are echoed across Europe and reflected in European policies concerning rights, and the exclusion of disadvantaged minorities.
Contents
1. Social Landlords and Insider Outsider Theory 2. Exploring the Function of Social Housing 3. The Historical Context: from Revolution to Rights 4. The Right to Housing in Context 5. Complex Institutions in the Grip of Change 6. Social Landlords and their Financing Problems 7. The Social Housing Allocation Process 8. Insiderness and Local Actors 9. Stigmatization and Outsiders 10. Housing Some of the Disadvantaged
Social housing appears to offer a solution for the housing of poor and disadvantaged people. The French "right to housing" offers poor and disadvantaged citizens priority in social housing allocation, and even a legal action against the State to obtain a social home. Despite this, France is suffering a long-lasting housing crisis with disadvantaged people having particular difficulties of access, often despite the efforts of local housing actors. This situation is affected by the European Court of Human Rights and EU decisions limiting diverse national housing and rental policies.
About the Author
Jane Ball is a senior lecturer at Sheffield University where she teaches several law courses concerning the organization of people on land. After 14 years in English legal practice she spent another 14 years researching the French housing scene, using an applied mix of public and private law, economic theory and empirical study.
Publishing September 2011 / Paperback: 978-0-415-55445-9 / £34.99

A copy of Jane's book is available for review. For further details please contact martin.mcnally@chester.ac.uk

New Understanding Welfare textbooks from The Policy Press

The Policy Press has recently published two new textbooks in the highly regarded Understanding Welfare series:
Understanding community by Peter Somerville
Understanding the environment and social policy edited by Tony Fitzpatrick

Both textbooks are intended for people teaching courses in these areas and are available on inspection for those leading courses of at least 12 students*. Information on each book is detailed below and if you would like to order an inspection copy please follow this link:
http://www.policypress.co.uk/inspection_copy.asp Alternatively they can be ordered at 20% discount on the website http://www.policypress.co.uk/

Understanding community is a highly topical text offering a clear understanding of policy and theory in relation to community. By examining areas of government policy, such as economic development, education, health, housing, and community safety, this book explores the difficulties that communities face and discusses new concepts such as community cohesion, social capital and community capacity building. Somerville challenges our understanding of community, both social and conceptual, and assesses the strengths and limitations of this understanding. This book is recommended for students studying social policy, social work and sociology, and as a resource for policymakers in community development, urban regeneration and allied fields.

Understanding the environment and social policy explores the key social, political, economic and moral challenges that environmental problems pose for social policy in a global context. Combining theory and practice with an interdisciplinary approach, the book reviews the current strategies and policies and provides a critique of proposed future developments in the field. Bringing together leading experts, it guides the reader through the subject in an accessible way using chapter summaries, further reading, recommended webpages, a glossary and questions for discussion.
Providing a comprehensive overview, the book is aimed at students, teachers, activists, practitioners and policymakers.

*Inspection copies are available to lecturers who wish to consider adopting them for a course of 12 or more students. If the title is recommended for purchase on a course, it may be kept. If not, it should be paid for or returned to the distributor in resaleable condition within 28 days. A maximum of three titles can be requested at any one time.

'Transforming Private Landlords' by Tony Crook & Peter A Kemp was published
in November by Wiley Blackwell: ISBN 978-1-4051-8415-1

Recent years have seen a sea change in attitudes to investment in private rental housing. Although private letting was one of the most important investment outlets in the nineteenth century, for much of the twentieth century private landlordism was in decline. Indeed, the privately rented sector witnessed net disinvestment by landlords for seven decades prior to the late 1980s.
Since then, however, there has been a significant revival of investment in private rental housing and growth in its market share. Meanwhile the image of private landlordism has greatly improved and the highly polarised attitudes of the past have been replaced by political consensus on the important role that landlords can play in housing provision.

An extensive array of government initiatives was introduced in order to attract new investment back into the private lettings market. This included rent deregulation, the Business Expansion Scheme, Housing Investment Trusts, and Real Estate Investment Trusts. Many of these initiatives were particularly aimed at enticing property companies and financial institutions into the residential lettings market. Yet the revival of letting has come from private individuals investing in so called ‘buy to let’ housing rather than from the corporate sector.

Transforming private landlords: housing, markets and public policy explores the origins, nature and extent of this revival in the fortunes of private landlordism. It present an in depth analysis of private landlords, the rationales for, and ways in which governments have sought to revitalise investment in residential lettings and their success in doing so. It assesses the extent to which landlordism has been transformed in recent years and the lessons for policy that can be learned from this experience.

The book addresses a major gap in the literature about an important actor in housing provision and the built environment. It draws on findings from the authors' research and interviews conducted with thousand of landlords in Britain.

Tony Crook is Professor Emeritus of Town & Regional Planning at the University of Sheffield and Peter Kemp is Barnett Professor of Social Policy at the University of Oxford

BOOK REVIEW

Brian Lund
Understanding Housing Policy
Bristol: The Policy Press
2006
£18.99 pbk pp.262

Lund’s Understanding Housing Policy is a volume within the Bristol Policy Press's practical 'Understanding Welfare' series, which present topical and innovative approaches to understanding social issues, policies and welfare delivery by leading experts. The book's main purpose is to provide a digest and explanation of the issues, problems and policies that have fashioned housing policy from the recent past to the present day. This it certainly achieves in a very clear and helpful manner.

The book's primary objective is housing in modern Britain and, as Lund writes in the Preface, is "…about why the state has intervened in the housing market, the forms this intervention has taken and the impact it has made". Thus social and economic developments and the policy reaction to them which have fashioned contemporary housing policy and practice are the essence of the book. Other topics such as theoretical perspectives, politics and comparative studies are also included.

Understanding Housing Policy is an introductory textbook aimed primarily at students new to housing studies. But it would also be of use to students studying subjects such as social and public policy, town planning, sociology, economics and politics and to anyone who wishes to know more about housing policy over the last decade or so. In my opinion it would also be of interest to researchers and housing practitioners and those in associated fields such as planning or other public services who want or need a useful summary and source about recent housing policy.

The format of each chapter seems ideal for such a book and particularly for those new(ish) to a topic. Each chapter begins with a summary of its contents and includes clear themed sections, which are necessarily abbreviated. Each chapter ends with an overview, questions for discussion and suggested further reading. Little or no prior knowledge of social or housing policy is assumed and important concepts, ideas and terms are carefully explained. A great deal of effort is made to counteract the alarm felt by many people when new to a subject – of being crushed by gobbledegook and jargon Throughout clear and simple language is used. Throughout too are helpful figures and tables together with useful little boxes emphasising or explaining key points.

In Chapter 1, Lund examines five theoretical approaches to understanding housing policy: laissez-faire economics, social reformism; Marxist political economy; behavioural and social constructionism. This is extremely helpful when attempting to understand the origins of housing policy although I suspect there may be other perspectives that Lund does not include. Certainly social science theory about the welfare state has traditionally included approaches such as convergence theory or technological determinism and functionalist perspectives. But perhaps Lund's choices are more appropriate and relevant today. Chapter 2 gives an account of housing policy from the mid-19th century when it began to be widely recognised that poor housing was a social problem that had to be addressed to the marketisation of housing supply and distribution by the Conservatives during the 1980s and 1990s. New Labour's approach to housing from 1997 is dealt with in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 introduces a comparative dimension by using five case studies chosen to illustrate housing policy in different country settings characterised by Esping-Andersen's 1990s classifications.

The rest of the book (Chapters 5 to 10) covers most of the important concerns impacting on housing and consequently on housing policy choices in the recent past, now and into the future. These are affordable housing, homelessness, decent homes, overcrowding/houses in multiple occupation, low demand and the relationship between housing and social justice. Each topic is covered succinctly, revealingly and intelligently, with regard to the main issues, problems and connections around and between them.

I have one minor quibble about the choice of topics. There is little about housing finance and might well have deserved a chapter of its own. New Labour has made several significant and far-reaching changes to public sector finance rules and practice, especially to those affecting local government including to capital finance, housing revenue accounts and rent restructuring/influencing. This could have replaced the chapter on comparative housing which has been better covered elsewhere and is of only marginal interest to most students on housing courses, especially since little is said about housing in Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales.

Lund’s conclusions (Chapter 11) about the future draw together the main themes of the book. He uses a ‘social constructionist’ perspective to explain New Labour’s interpretation of housing problems within ‘Third Way’ thinking. He suggests that New Labour’s emphasis on building strong communities and promoting choice can generate conflicting messages for those remaining in deprived areas.

Although up-to-date at the time of publication, inevitably the time elapsed since then has meant that in some cases the situation has changed – for example statutory homelessness is no longer rising and annual acceptances are now below the level experienced when New Labour came into office. Inevitably too some of the subject matter of the book has been overtaken by recent developments such as the replacement of the Housing Corporation with the Homes and Communities Agency and the Tenant Services Authority, the decision to allow local authorities to build again and, of course, the impact of the 'credit crunch' and economic recession on housing.

Understanding Housing Policy compares extremely well with alternative books covering similar or the same territory such as Mullins and Muries’ Housing Policy in the UK (2006) and Harriott and Matthews' Introducing Affordable Housing (2009).

Frankly I am unable to find serious fault with this book. Lund certainly fits the publisher's claim that this series is written by experts with his extensive experience and knowledge of housing affairs. Every student of housing should have a copy and keep it on their shelves. It does everything it says it will do and does it all extremely ably. It does, however, need updating. With a General Election imminent as I write, I hope the publisher is planning to ask the author to start thinking about and preparing for a new edition.

Paul Walentowicz
Senior Lecturer in Housing
Anglia Ruskin University

BOOK REVIEW

Understanding the Policy Process
John Hudson and Stuart Lowe
Bristol, Policy Press, 2009, 336 pp., £21.99.
ISBN 978 1 84742 267 5


Hudson and Lowe's review of the policy-making process is an engaging text that seeks to provide readers with the conceptual tools to understand how social policy is conceived, developed and delivered. Whilst its primary function is to introduce students of social policy to the key themes of policy analysis, the book has a clear authorial voice in making the case for how and why the policy process needs to be adequately theorised. It is a textbook with a mandate.

Three core ideas underpin the book. The first is that social policy is traditionally an under-theorised subject that relies too heavily on 'well-worn pathways of empirical, policy-related research' (p296). The book is presented, therefore, as a corrective that injects the theoretical insights of political science into social policy analysis so as to enable the latter to reach its full potential as a multi-disciplinary field of inquiry. Secondly, the book emphasises the importance of the concept of 'path-dependency' in terms of the need to ground policy analysis in socio-historical context. The trajectory of welfare policies in any particular country can, the authors argue, only be understood by considering how social and cultural formations that have developed over time influence the policy process. The third idea is that theoretical analysis of social policy can be best approached using a three-tiered conceptual map of the scale at which policy-making is shaped and implemented: the macro, meso and micro levels (see below). Within this typology, the meso-level at which institutions and networks operate is identified as the most neglected element of social policy analysis. Accordingly, the book makes the case for a new emphasis on applying concepts from political science given its innate disciplinary capacity to explore the policy process at this level.

The book is divided into three parts that correspond to these three layers of the policy process. Part One concentrates on macro-level analysis with chapters on globalisation, political economy, the post-industrial economy, technological change and structures of power. Part Two introduces concepts relating to meso-level analysis with chapters on the changing nature of governance, policy networks, institutions and policy transfer. Part Three centres on the micro-level analysis of the policy process with chapters exploring decision-making and personality, implementation and delivery, and evaluation and evidence. Each chapter is topped with an overview and key concepts and tailed with a well-written summary as well as questions for discussion and suggestions for further reading.

The explicitly eclectic and theoretical approach to policy analysis taken by the authors is both comprehensive and convincing. The three-tiered structure of analysis largely works well and will undoubtedly help students appreciate the plurality of the spaces, actors and institutions that shape policy-making. As befits a text written by two political scientists, the meso-level analysis of the institutions is particularly well-constructed. For example, Hudson and Lowe argue convincingly that meso-level networks (e.g. the policy community or producer networks) and institutions (e.g. voting systems or welfare state agencies) filter broader macro-level factors in a way that encourages incremental rather sweeping change. As the authors note, this provides a compelling reminder of the need to avoid overemphasising the transformatory potential of macro-level phenomena such as globalisation and the 'Information Revolution'. The ability of well-organised groups with the medical and social care professions to resist the imposition of new Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) systems by the British government is a case in point.

There are some ambiguities, however, within this tripartite conceptual framework. In the macro-level section, for example, globalisation is presented as an almost unstoppable force that 'undoubtedly compelled significant reappraisal of the post-1945 Beveridge welfare state’ (p25, my emphasis). Such a claim overlooks the possibility that the economic dimensions of globalisation have themselves emerged from within the same 'ideational paradigms' (43) that supported the rollback of the welfare state. As Harvey's (2005) account of neoliberalism emphasises, economic change is, at least in part, the consequence of a carefully orchestrated political and ideological project that successfully supplanted Keynesianism with neoliberalism as economic orthodoxy. In other words, globalisation is not some external, implacable force driving social policy change but shaped itself by the same political processes that have reconfigured the welfare state. At times, the model deployed by the book oversimplifies this relationship by implying that macro-level forces like globalisation are catalysts for policy change, when perhaps the two should be seen as mutually constitutive.

Such contradictions do not detract however from this thoughtful, engaging book that has much to offer to both undergraduate students new to the policy process and those looking for a detailed review of the conceptual tools that can be used to aid analysis of any policy domain. Whilst it does not focus on any particular policy area, it uses well-chosen examples form a range of policy fields including housing, health and employment to support theoretical points. Moreover, the book is written in a lively and readable style that avoids the pedestrian tone characteristic of all too many textbooks. It is also unafraid to use popular, cultural examples such as The Matrix film or Alice in Wonderland to illustrate complex, theoretical points about the nature and distribution of power. Such examples are used sparingly but effectively and would certainly assist in teaching those new to the subject.

On the whole, the book delivers on its promise to demonstrate the value of infusing social policy analysis with conceptual insights from political science. Perhaps the only discordant note is the claim that this is important because of the 'overexposure' (p296) of social policy to the disciplinary influence of sociology. Given the authors' assertion of the importance of a multi-disciplinary approach to policy analysis, it may be more productive to emphasise the complimentary strengths that each discipline offers. If sociology undoubtedly suffers from neglecting the role of political institutions and processes that pattern social change, then political science is perhaps equally inattentive to how those processes shape stratification. Hudson and Lowe's own account, for example, pays little heed to the way in which policy reforms can reinforce inequalities or create new divisions along race, class or gender lines.

Moreover, the book does not discuss how the capacity to construct welfare recipients as deserving or undeserving also plays an important role in shaping the parameters for policymakers to act (see for example Levitas, 2005). It is much easier to impose to impose workfare-style programmes, for example, if those targeted are deemed to lack motivation rather than to be the victims of a shortage of jobs. This is not to argue that such ideas should have been included in what is already a dense and comprehensive account, but to suggest that sociology has important insights to offer social policy, including insights that help us understand how policy is formed. These are minor criticisms, however, of a book that brings together an impressive range of theoretical insights to provide an innovative and refreshing perspective on understanding the policy process.

Richard Crisp
Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research (CRESR)
Sheffield Hallam University, UK.


References

Harvey, D. (2005) A brief history of neoliberalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Lister, R. (2005) The inclusive society? Social exclusion and New Labour. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

BOOK REVIEWERS NEEDED FOR HOUSING STUDIES JOURNAL

The journal of Housing Studies is seeking to expand its database of potential reviewers. If you would be interested in reviewing publications for the journal, please get in touch with the Reviews Editors, and provide your contact details and areas of interest. The journal is especially keen to hear from early-career researchers, both postgrads and postdocs.

For further information contact the incoming Reviews Editors:

John Flint (J.F.Flint@shu.ac.uk)
and
Kim McKee (km410@st-andrews.ac.uk)

BOOK REVIEW

Renewing Neighbourhoods: Work, Enterprise and Governance
Stephen Syrett and David North (2008)
The Policy Press; University of Bristol £24.99(pbk)
ISBN 978 1 86134861 6

Syrett and North’s Renewing Neighbourhoods takes the expectations of evidence-based policy making, as outlined in New Labour’s white paper on Modernising Government(Cabinet Office 1999) and adds real substance to the many previous policy evaluations aimed at deprived neighbourhoods. This book thoughtfully presents a wealth of evidence (drawing on research supported by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation) about both macro and micro level problems associated with such neighbourhoods.

New Labour’s New commitment to neighbourhood renewal (2001:7) had already identified weaknesses in government policy including departmentalism and the setting of short term outputs which resulted in a failure to harness local energy and encourage innovation. Syrett and North work through past evaluations which have often presented only short-term benefits and this book brings a broad range of initiatives up to date. It provides significant new analysis of the longer-term impacts and shows that, despite grand announcements or new labels for regeneration initiatives, weaknesses in government policy remain. They present well-grounded evidence with the potential to shift future policy.

At the start they make plain the economic arguments for neighbourhood renewal and go on to define and explain the mapping of multiple deprivation using five case studies (Sunderland, Oldham, Mansfield, Brighton & Hove and the London Borough of Newham). Their research into the differences of these spatial areas draws on human, financial, physical and social capital. Their approach, as the title suggests, is concerned with work, enterprise and governance and each of these topics forms a major chapter. Indeed each chapter stands alone as an excellent topical analysis.

The chapter on work explores demand side and supply side issues and argues that central government influence is too constricting to enable successful outreach, personalisation and individual involvement for long-term benefits. In analysing enterprise they suggest current policy often bypasses those in the most deprived areas and does not stimulate the better quality jobs. Governance arrangements, they argue, militate against effective economic intervention because they are too centralised, complex, fragmented and often unaccountable. Their conclusion brings together these findings in a powerful summary which, although recognising that much has been done to integrate work on renewing neighbourhoods, illustrates that government is still too centralised, complex and driven by a ‘one size fits all’ mentality.

This is an important book for those working in the field of area-based initiatives. Indeed, it should perhaps be recommended reading for those involved in any kind of governance of neighbourhood renewal as an aid to understanding the frequently confusing array of conflicting outputs. It will help clarify the thinking that is necessary to underpin the visions, strategies and tasks that will be required on future initiatives. This book contains considerable insight and is a work of real scholarship from two authors with significant experience in this field. It is well written and readily accessible to those who are not immersed, day to day, in regeneration projects. It clearly sets out the key messages, supported by the use of the local case studies, and it presents complex issues in plain and precise English.

This book does not intend to address the topics of grand visions or place shaping that are fashionably associated with regeneration activity so, important as they might be, you won’t find them here. Other sources are available for such topics. It does not illustrate case studies outside of England but the messages here will readily apply to projects in Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and beyond. For students of neighbourhood renewal this book will distill the topic with clarity and provide grounded illustrations that can readily be transferred to other projects. Moreover it will encourage clear and critical thinking that is often lost behind the targeted promotional literature that dominates the public perception of regeneration activity.

Robert Keats
School of Human Sciences
Southampton Solent University


References
Cabinet Office (1999) Modernising Government. Cm. 4310. London: The Stationery Office.

DTLR (2002) Lessons and Evaluations from ten Single Regeneration Budget case studies. Mid-term report. London: DTLR.

ODPM (2005) Lessons from the past, challenges for the future for housing policy. ODPM.

SEU (2001) A new commitment to neighbourhood renewal: National strategy action plan.
London: Cabinet Office

REVIEW: STUDENT HOUSING AND THE LAW

Student Housing and the Law
Martin Davis and Graham Robson (2009)
Shelter
Hardback ISBN 978-1903595770

With almost 2 million students involved in full time higher education this guide to student housing has a ready audience, many members of which will know precious little about their rights and obligations under the law.

This guide aims to provide a comprehensive overview of student housing for both students, advisers and, although unstated, landlords. It stresses that the relationships it covers are essentially legal but reminds the reader that many of the issues that might arise can be dealt with by good communication between the parties involved.

The book is structured in a straightforward way, using a number of important themes to then illustrate the main legal issues. The coverage it provides is good, ranging as it does from types of accommodation, providers, both educational institutions and other landlords, to matters to do with setting up tenancies, rents, rights and responsibilities, management issues, conditions and ending lettings. There is also a useful section that identifies some prominent issues to do with deposits, co-housing conditions and HMOs, with a brief overview and discussion of each.

The content of each of the sections provides very helpful information whatever the reader’s perspective. For example, there is a section covering the relationship between university disciplinary regulations and students living in halls of residence. Furthermore, reference is made to the voluntary standards to which universities and colleges can conform by signing up to the accreditation schemes run by Universities UK or the Accreditation Network UK.

This is also a handy list of contacts towards the end of the book; a glossary of terms would be useful as would a detailed list of references.

Whilst the content is good I can’t help feeling that the guide would benefit from more of the good illustrative cases to help those coming cold to the topic to understand this complex subject. By relating some of the intricate issues to real life instances would be of immense benefit to lay readers and to university accommodation staff, some of whom I have experience of teaching. One way of doing this might have been to use more of the many references to legal cases and to convert them into accessible illustrative cases.

In spite of my praise for the guide’s utility I find myself wondering about other things that it ought to have covered. Among the issues that have been overlooked is any detailed consideration of equalities, in particular the requirements placed on housing providers by the Disability Discrimination Acts. This strikes me as a significant omission because universities and colleges are obliged to provide support to disabled students, especially opportunities to support their learning. A cursory glance at some university websites confirms support is also provided in terms of living needs. There has been a missed opportunity to set out duties placed on landlords, especially in the private rented sector, by the law and Equality and Human Rights Commission Codes of Practice in this book.

Similarly, it would have been of benefit to have seen some discussion of other forms of discrimination that may occur in student housing, both provided by institutions and private landlords. It needs more guidance about what not to do when allocating and letting properties, or how to be sensitive to different cultural needs, or when housing students from overseas.

Last gripe: it would add to the guide if there were some consideration of what should happen when students are on the receiving end of bullying, harassment or anti-social behaviour as opposed to being assumed perpetrators of the latter. What role does the university have in dealing with these; what are landlord duties; what can other agencies do to help? What happens if a student becomes homeless as result of actions against them of this sort?

All things considered this is a very good guide that I would expect to be an essential tool to be used by university accommodation officers and student union welfare officers alike. From a teaching and learning perspective I also anticipate it being a core text to use when teaching university accommodation officers; in fact it will be the only text other than the now dated Student Rights Guide, also published by Shelter, to which I guess this must be the successor.

In closing, I’d like to refer back to the authors’ observation noted in the opening to this review that everything to do with student housing and the law is essentially relational; it involves interaction between landlord and tenant. Managing those relationships, whether you are a landlord or a tenant is quite a skill, so perhaps some advice about how to do this would have been valuable with again some examples that would help both parties avoid ending up dealing with the complex and expensive world of the law.

Steve McCann
Senior Lecturer in Housing Studies & HE Programme Manager
Centre for Housing and Support

BOOK REVIEW

The Culture of Homelessness
Megan Ravenhill (2008)
Ashgate, Hardback £52.25, ISBN 9780754671909

Becoming homeless is a process and movements into and through homelessness, as Rebecca Tunstall points out in her preface, have been neglected in homelessness studies. The Culture of Homelessness helps to fill the gap. The book’s main themes are set out in the introduction: comparing roofless people with those who experienced similar triggers but who never actually became homeless; examining the influence of the ‘homelessness industry’ on transitions through homelessness; exploring the impact of ‘homeless culture’ and investigating what the author calls the ‘assault course’ of the resettlement process.

Chapters two and three competently explore definitions and explanations of homelessness but, unlike Carol McNaughton’s Transitions Through Homelessness (2008) that adopts a similar methodological approach, these explorations are not well-related to the definitions and explanations used to analyse the research material. Chapter four contains an interesting account of the impact of homelessness legislation on the rough sleeping issue although it is somewhat restricted in its analysis of Blair’s flagship Coming In From the Cold programme (1999).

The research material through which the book’s main themes are interrogated was gathered between October 1997 and July 2001 and May 2004 to November 2006. It consisted of ‘life story interviews’, ‘depth interviews’,’ informal interviews and long conversations’ - plus ‘covert observation on the streets’, participant observation in homelessness organisations and ‘life-story scenarios of homeless people used in promotional literature’ (p.82). All the chosen methods are fully explained and justified in chapter five. The longitudinal and ethnographic methods reveal their insights in chapter six. Here the importance of accumulating triggers into homelessness over time is revealed with the first triggers often starting in childhood and with, on average, nine years between triggers and homelessness. A number of individual route-maps into homelessness are set out that expose the long-term processes involved in becoming homeless with rough sleeping episodes interspersed with squatting, staying with friends, living in unsatisfactory accommodation etc.

Chapter seven contains a vivid description of the ‘homeless culture’ or, more accurately, ‘homeless cultures’ including the ‘street drinking culture’ and the ‘drug-addicted’ culture – ignored in the literature according to the author because ‘people in the homeless industry fear that such an analysis could create a discourse by which homeless people would be judged, and this is felt to be unhelpful’ (p.145). Not all culture participants were rough sleepers - they were joined by the ‘homeless at heart’ (lonely and isolated in their accommodation and seeking camaraderie at day centres) and ‘homeless advocates and activists’ (ex-homeless people who had formed organizations aimed at helping or fighting on behalf of roofless people). The cultures had their hierarchies and pecking orders with the homeless person with the most problems ranking the highest. Culture membership was a source of identity, friendship and support and becoming homeless meant ‘learning to be homeless’ by absorption into the culture. The learning process was short with those remaining marginal to the homeless culture being more likely to exit homelessness.

Chapter eight explores ‘the long struggle faced by those attempting to resettle’ (p 183). Four dominant catalysts triggered the exit process: the bottom had been reached and the only way was up; the lifestyle was getting too much; a sudden shock or trauma and the realisation that someone cared. However the resettlement process was difficult to access at all stages and Ravenhill’s accounts of the barriers to escaping rooflessness are important contributions to the homelessness literature.

Chapter nine sets out conclusions and recommendations including a useful section on roofless people’s views on what would prevent rooflessness and some robust recommendations on changes to existing system such as ‘keeping people within the hostel system while they wait for some form of social housing or supported housing to become available is counterproductive and in some cases damaging, Rather than calls for more hostels there needs to be a faster movement of people to independent living training or “probationary” accommodation (p 229).

The Culture of Homelessness - a strange title given that only chapter seven is devoted to culture - has all the strengths and weaknesses associated with the qualitative, ethnographic approach. It is valuable in capturing the experiences of people ‘without a settled way of living’ - to use the Poor Law terminology - and the reader can taste and smell the issue. Following Jencks’ The Homeless (1994), it has some perceptive comments on the impact of the ‘homeless industry’ that ‘whilst attempting to alleviate homelessness’ has an interest ‘to ensure that there is always a next phase that needs to be looked into and addressed’ (p.15) and by providing services draws ‘some people out of precarious housing (or difficult living situations) and into homelessness…’ (p 15).

However, at times, the data presentation is not systematic so that, for example, the important comparison of roofless people with those who experienced similar triggers but never actually became homeless becomes somewhat lost in the case study detail. In addition the representativeness of the research findings cannot be assessed. As examples, the seven route-maps into homelessness on offer consist of five women and two men whereas according to the Social Exclusion Unit’s report Rough Sleeping (1998) nine out of ten rough sleepers are men. Moreover we do not know how many homeless people are absorbed into the homeless culture and how many remained aloof, part of the ‘hidden’ homelessness. Thus, although The Culture of Homelessness is insightful, robust and interesting, its policy recommendations need to be treated with caution.

Brian Lund, Department of Sociology, Manchester Metropolitan University

References
Department for the Environment, Transport and the Regions (1999) Coming in from the Cold: The Government's Strategy on Rough Sleeping, London: DETR

Jencks, C. (1994) The Homeless, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

McNaughton, C. (2008) Transitions Through Homelessness: Lives on the Edge, London: PalgraveMacmillan.

Social Exclusion Unit (1998) Rough Sleeping, Cm 4008, London: The Stationery Office.

BOOK REVIEW

The Ideology of Home Ownership: Homeowner Societies and the Role of Housing
Richard Ronald (2008)
Palgrave Macmillan, Hardback £55.00, ISBN 9781403989451

This book was published a few months ago, and due to lead times in printing, not to mention the time it takes to write a book of this size, the majority of the material must have been written some time ago. However, in a year that has seen such enormous change in the housing world, the subject of the book has only become more pertinent. The author takes a long view, as is essential in a work of this nature, so changing context does little to diminish its value. Ronald’s aim for the book is to consider how and why home ownership has become so significant in a range of international contexts, and to develop understanding of the role of housing systems, ideologies and practices in social structures.

Ronald’s work here is, to narrowly avoid a football analogy, a book of two halves. The opening half of the book is described by the author as theoretical, while the second half is called empirical and comparative. Beyond the subject matter, though, the whole writing style differs quite noticeably between the two halves, as is evident from a quick skim of the contents: the first four chapters’ subheadings include lots of “isms” and “izations” and even a “discourses” for good measure; the latter chapters’ include “a British nation of homeowners”, “an American home ownership dream” and “home ownership in Hong Kong”. The language adopted in the theoretical section of the book is probably such that most outside of academic housing studies will find it hard-going; this is a shame as it is a topic that certainly warrants plenty of attention from those involved in housing policy, and could also be of interest to some working in housing practice, as they consider clients’ aspirations (and particularly in relation to the array of shared ownership and shared equity options on the market).

One of the strengths of the publication is Ronald’s inclusion of two different types of homeowner societies – Anglo-Saxon and East Asian, and several different nations in each of these categories. The book illustrates differences (and similarities) between these different societies in a way that provides greater understanding of each. While the three East Asian case studies, for example, seem fundamentally distinct and different (a fact which Ronald does not avoid), the author has been able to identify key similarities in the ideological conception of homeownership, and its use as a means to pursue economic and social outcomes. Readers will find they gain insight from this drawing together of common features.

Whilst the book is strong on different examples of homeowner societies, I found it to be less so on the subject of societies with lower rates of homeownership. Of course, those are not the subject that the author chose for the book, so I do not suggest that they should be given equal standing, but I feel that more use could have been made of them as counter-examples. Towards the close of the book, Ronald briefly discusses changes in Western European societies with low rates of home ownership; this provides an interesting glimpse of the comparisons that could have been made, and is certainly something I would have liked to read more of.

As described above, there is a strong delineation between the two sections of the book, but the strong structuring goes deeper than that and is very beneficial. The chapters (particularly in the second half) form logical discrete blocks. Throughout the book each chapter is topped and tailed with a well-written introduction and conclusion that does a good job of bringing together the content of the chapter. Within chapters, the author uses plenty of subheadings; they are mostly well-selected to give you a sense of where you are in the flow of the book, although there are several variations on the same themes (within 18 pages we find one “housing and ideology” and two “home ownership ideologies”, with the subsequent chapter called “homeowner ideologies”. References to “home ownership” and “ideology(ies)” are inevitable as the subject of the book but as section heading do not provide as much differentiation as some of the other headings used.

In conclusion, whilst the distinction between the two sections of the book is somewhat jarring, and the first half of the book may put off readers who could make considerable use of the second half, the strong structuring does work to mitigate that. Readers not wishing to take on the whole book should find it relatively easy to pick out those sections that are of most use and interest to them.

Jim Vine,
Head of Programme (UK Housing Policy and Practice) BSHF

BOOK REVIEW

Transitions through Homelessness: Lives on the Edge
Carol McNaughton (2008)
Palgrave Macmillan, Hardback £50.00 ISBN 9780230201620

‘Transitions through Homelessness’ brings together longitudinal qualitative data that emphasises the voices and experiences of homeless people, with a convincing theoretical framework which considers ‘edgework’ in a risk society. The book is both comprehensive in its coverage, whilst remaining accessible to the non-specialist. An easy and engaging read, it represents a useful addition to the homelessness and housing policy literature, and forges important connections with the related disciplines of social policy and sociology.

Drawing on rich empirical data, the book centres on the personal narratives of individual service users and their transitions into homelessness. Key to this argument is the micro-level interactions service users have with welfare professionals and case managers, as well as the way in which they negotiate their own identity as ‘homeless people’. The detailed and ethically sensitive accounts presented highlight both the complexity of homelessness, and the unintended consequences and failures of the welfare state. Importantly, by adopting a critical realist perspective and uniting structural and agency explanations McNaughton avoids a ‘blame the victim’ approach and encourages empathy with the individuals featured in the study, whilst at the same time illuminating the irrational and risk-taking behaviour that often contributes to their homelessness. In addition, by emphasising the contested nature of homelessness as a concept, McNaughton also makes points of connection with the social constructionist literature which has been popular in housing studies in recent years.

By drawing on the work of Mitchell Dean (1999), the author makes important theoretical links with the literature on reflexive governance and neo-liberal governmentality, which has been gaining ascendency in policy studies over the last decade. In doing so, she illuminates the key role of front-line workers in managing risky behaviour through promoting active, responsible citizenship amongst service-users. However, the lack of reference to the original work of Foucault is a disappointing omission, as is the failure to engage with other post-Foucauldian scholars prominent within the housing studies and social policy tradition who have posited similar theoretical arguments (see for example, Flint 2003; Flint and Rowlands 2003; Clarke 2005; Marston and McDonald 2006; McDonald and Marston 2005). Some reflection on the strengths and weaknesses of the ‘reflexive governance’ literature would also have been a welcome addition, and by doing so would have enabled the author to situate their work in wider debates. This theoretical issue aside, there is however little to find fault with in this publication.

In conclusion, this is a theoretically informed and empirically rich research monograph which is likely to be a key purchase for students and researchers engaged in the study of homelessness. I would highly recommend it to HSA members.

Kim McKee,
Urban Studies Postdoctoral Fellow,
Geographical & Earth Sciences, University of Glasgow


References
Clarke, J. (2005) “New Labour's Citizens: activated, empowered, responsiblized, abandoned?” Critical Social Policy 25 (4): 447-463.

Dean, M. (1999) “Governmentality: power and rule in modern society”. London: Sage.


Flint, J. (2003) “Housing and Ethopolitics: constructing identities of active consumption and responsible community”, Economy and Society 32 (3): 611-629.

Flint, J. and Rowlands, R. (2003) “Commodification, Normalisation and Intervention: cultural, social and symbolic capital in housing consumption and governance”, Journal of Housing and the Built Environment 18 (3): 213-232.

Marston, G. a. McDonald, C. (2006) “Analysing Social Policy: a governmental approach”. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.

McDonald, C. and. Marston, C. (2005) “Workfare as Welfare: governing unemployment in the advanced liberal state”, Critical Social Policy 25 (3): 374-401.

Securing an urban renaissance: crime, community and British urban policy

Rowland Atkinson and Gesa Helms (2007)
The Policy Press
Paperback £22.99 ISBN 9781861348142Hardback £60.00 ISBN 9781861348159

Sometimes it’s good to stand back and, as Craig Raine would have it, see things as a Martian visitor. My postcard home recently would have been about the 83,000 adults currently locked up in UK jails – plus another 2,500 children. Yet another ‘record high’ was announced in May. According to the Howard League for Penal Reform (2008), fifteen years ago the number of adults in prison was 42,000.

Is this what New Labour meant when it said it would be ‘tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime’ (Labour Party, 1997)? Over much the same period of this unwanted aspect of growth, recorded crime has been falling (Jansson, 2006). Yet new punitive measures are always on the agenda for governments keen to show they are taking decisive action on behalf of ‘communities’. For some pointers to how and why we have come to this, ‘Securing an urban renaissance’ gives excellent food for thought. It’s not about prisons, but about the urban settings, ordinary lives and high politics that condition us, and that shape all our futures whether with liberty or its opposite.

This multi-authored book came out of a conference held in 2005. Its claim is to bring together academics from the previously separate disciplines of urban studies, criminology and community studies. In truth, as the contributions show, there are close links across them.

In the early chapters first Kevin Stenson and then Mike Raco outline the ways that urban policy and ideas about urban renaissance have developed. Under New Labour there’s been a new impetus for city renewal, starting first with the city core and then extending to tackling other neighbourhoods. But as Stenson shows, the agenda has become strongly interwoven with government initiatives to reduce crime and disorder. The drive for sanitised, orderly urban places to replace the vivacious, chaotic life of cities has resulted in a situation where, he concludes, ‘the most powerful visions of order come from the corporate world, from the supermarkets and other massive retail chains’.

Governments’ use of urban renewal to pursue a crime and disorder agenda will be a familiar theme to social housing practitioners, who in England at least are obliged to fulfil a range of commitments from signing up to the Respect standard for housing management to helping shut down crack houses. Johnston and Mooney’s chapter in this book concentrates on council estates and the way that term has become synonymous with ‘problem’. In a paper that nicely situates current mores within a longer historical timespan, they outline how the idea of overcoming social exclusion has cloaked the reappearance of a much older moral framework that seeks to clamp down on the sites of disorder and disorganisation – and of course the disreputable poor who live there. They comment: ‘In relation to identifying the “worst” estates or neighbourhoods, definition comes a poor second to the stereotyping language that prevails.’

As several writers in this book point out though, New Labour’s social inclusion agenda relies on those same people, now recast as the backbone of their local community, to become active, ‘engaged’ citizens. The activities they are engaged in ensure order and socially acceptable forms of behaviour, while those who fail to engage remain stigmatised: they stay poor and disadvantaged not simply because their income is low, but ‘because they have not networked enough and have insufficient social capital’.

Other chapters deal with a refreshingly wide range of subjects, including prostitution, community-police relations, begging, and youth disorder. Wood et al’s study of the security for Labour’s 2005 conference in Gateshead, complete with ‘ring of steel’ (a wire fence) uses participant observation to apply the boltcutters with a certain flair.

Perhaps the most challenging piece is Lynn Hancock’s exploration titled ‘Is urban regeneration criminogenic?’. The editors say she is asking the question provocatively but that does not mean this is a polemic. Instead, Hancock builds her evidence carefully, beginning with why people suffering poverty and disadvantage become clustered geographically, and how New Labour promised joined-up government to tackle multiple urban issues. The problem was that the wrong bits got joined up. The new focus on ‘community safety’ became equated with crime reduction; increasingly draconian measures on anti-social behaviour were coupled with inclusion strategies that relied on eradicating undesirable behaviour and lifestyles.

Hancock points to the market-driven, consumption based nature of modern urban regeneration. That in turn leads to gentrification and a tendency to reinforce the values of consumption rather than citizenship. She adds that for some of the most disadvantaged and politically powerless, the right to occupy public space has been effectively suspended. ‘Property-led gentrification is reshaping the social mix of inner city communities in ways that not only undermine rhetorical communitarian ideals, but promote intolerance.’

As always with collections, this book lacks a clear single narrative. Nevertheless it builds a powerful impression in patchwork form of a control agenda seated within government renewal policies. Much of the book offers a gloomy prognosis of what the editors call ‘a new kind of vengeful urbanism’ where those communities that have the chance will withdraw, and then call for ‘the remote control and punishment of those that make them feel afraid’. To spur ourselves into doing better in future, we might perhaps first cast a glance to those crime and prison figures – oddly absent from this book but surely relevant to any discussion of trends in UK society. If the British Crime Survey is right in its assessment that crime has fallen at least in part because of the economic boom of the last decade, then in these harder times we may see yet more urban fracturing. On this book’s evidence of authoritarian control and redemption only for the deserving we should all be worried.


References

Howard League for Penal Reform, Weekly prison watch, web accessed June 2008 at http://www.howardleague.org/
Jansson, K (2006), British Crime Survey, Home Office
Labour Party (1997), New Labour because Britain deserves better, Labour Party


Janis Bright CRESR, Sheffield Hallam University

Managing Geographic Information Systems 2nd Edition

Nancy J. Obermeyer and Jeffrey K. Pinto (2007)
Guilford Publications
Hardback £41.00 ISBN 9781593856350

This book addresses a fundamental challenge that faces researchers that want to design solutions and techniques that are replicable and can be rolled out in other settings. It refers to a “twin pronged problem”: how to make analytical technologies work for a particular problem, and how to manage the effective use of those technologies within organisational or institutional contexts. The technology in question here is GIS: Geographic Information Systems, or crudely put, using computers to deal with information about places.

Those with a background in GIS will recognise the classic status of the original 1996 edition. This edition offers a collection of updates to original chapters together with additional material to reflect the significant diffusion of GIS and development of experience that has occurred in the last decade.

The book essentially begins with a general and relatively simplified exploration of the key contextual challenges of management and the use of the information to inform decision making. Chapters two and three are particularly valuable in this regard because they offer a condensed and extremely accessible account of why information matters and why it is of such important to a range of management and governance tasks. The basic principle here is that ‘information’ is an organisation’s lifeblood, but that simply throwing money at computer systems doesn’t necessarily help to clear the clots. There needs to be careful consideration of what an organisation’s objectives are; what the appropriate levels for decision making are; and what data are required to generate appropriate and useful information. Although the book is light on housing examples per se, it doesn’t stretch the imagination overly to see how its insights apply to housing organisations and to those that are involved in researching or advising on housing issues. The book goes on to develop a simple and cogent argument for how geography matters in most of these activities (it particularly singles out the public sector here) and hence why strategies for information need to explicitly cater for geographic information from the bottom up.

Following this contextual scene-setting, the book goes on to explore some specific issues related to geography. There is a basic plea for transparency and sensitivity on part of those who create and use geographic information. Most GIS books abound with examples of the sorts of things that can go wrong when spatial data are misused – and this volume is no exception – but the clear message that the reader is left with is that everything has its limits, including information itself and our capacity to know how to use it. Again, the value of thinking carefully about these limits within the organisational context is stressed. Inevitably this means investing in staff time (not just more software) and keeping meticulous ‘metadata’ (data about data), which in turn facilitates the sharing of information. Metadata is something that most GIS books predictably get rather evangelical over (much to the boredom of this reviewer) but at least Obermeyer and Pinto develop some pretty strong arguments for it.

One of the limitations of the book is that it does not offer a specific account of how the widespread diffusion of the Internet has impacted the way GIS can be used. The authors are aware of this limitation from the outset, and it is true that they raise the relevance of the Internet at appropriate places when considering other aspects of GIS. But, given its focus on the management of GIS within organisations, this seems a surprising omission, particularly given the increasing centrality of web-tools in nearly all aspects of research and policy making. Indeed, such has been the proliferation of GIS-enabled web-based information in the public domain that Burrows et al (2005) were prompted to remind us of its potentially dangerous impacts on local neighbourhoods and housing markets. Having said this, Obermeyer and Pinto do recognise the ‘social obligations’ that GIS professionals have (in a rather full discussion of GIS ethics). Even if one is left with the overwhelming sense that the solution is seen as democratising access to GIS and spatial data (e.g. so-called ‘public participation GIS’) rather than questioning the limits of our spatial conceptualisations of problems, these are pertinent and well argued insights.

One genuine concern that strongly features in the book is that of information privacy. There are plenty of sobering examples of how unfettered access to, and uncontrolled use of, postcoded data on individuals can disadvantage people or jeopardise public policy programmes. The hypothetical example of life insurance companies exploiting Philip Morris’ database of respondents to tobacco promotions is clearly not far fetched. The comparative value of such a database both to cigarette manufacturers and to smoking cessation services raises interesting questions.

Despite its lack of immediate relevance to the housing researcher, this is a valuable book. This is not because it is a current and comprehensive collection of chapters on the spatial technologies that underpin GIS. Rather, its value can be found in the way it conceptualises GIS as an important tool that can be used in the world of public policy and other spheres. From this it follows that a deep engagement is needed with how GIS can be used effectively within organisations and to help plan to meet strategic objectives. This implies a focus less on ‘technology’ and instead on more ‘mundane’ aspects such as staffing, data, ontology, skills and professionalism.

Housing scholars might baulk at the notion of a ‘GIS professional’ such as this book advances. But this is perhaps the logical outcome of drawing a wide definition of GIS that includes its management as well as the technology. For GIS to be truly effective, it needs to be embedded within other pursuits. Just as housing scholars benefit from the applied knowledge of statisticians, economists, historians, lawyers, and other professions, so too they can benefit from those that specialise in geographic information. It is the application of these specialisms to a substantive problem that is key.

It is fair to say that GIS (and quantitative approaches to problem solving) often attract unfavourable press, particularly among housing researchers. This may partly be because we’re now at the stage that producing thematic maps has become the norm (if not passé) and because over the last 40 years or so, the ‘first law of geography’ attributed to Waldo Tobler and the quantitative geography revolution he participated in has left us no closer to answering some of the more intractable public policy questions. But the way we use geographic information – in a more intelligent, embedded and above all honest way; to stimulate debate – still holds much promise. This book imparts much needed insight and plenty of salient reminders to help us to achieve this.


Reference:

Burrows, R., Ellison, N. And Woods, B. (2005) Neighbourhood on the Net: the nature and impact of internet-based neighbourhood information systems. Bristol: Policy Press.

Ed Ferrari
Town and Regional Planning, University of Sheffield

Jigsaw Cities: Big Places, Small Spaces

Anne Power and John Houghton (2007)
Policy Press, Bristol
Paperback £23.99 ISBN 9781861346582
Hardback £65.00 ISBN 9781861346599


The decline and subsequent renewal of British cities is a key theme in contemporary urban policy. In this timely and insightful book, Power and Houghton use the metaphor of a ‘jigsaw’ to illuminate both the complexity and interconnectedness of cities as they respond to a plethora of social, economic and environmental forces. Crucial to their analysis is the role of neighbourhoods as building blocks for urban renewal. The need for cities to remodel themselves in response to ever changing conditions, and the role of state interventions are also emphasised.

Drawing on decades of direct involvement in a range of urban programmes and communities, the authors offer a comprehensive coverage of the issues facing Britain’s cities, both past and present. Importantly, the book is written in an accessible style, making it a key text for students, policymakers and practitioners in the field, as well as academics.

The book is divided into three substantive sections. Part I explores Britain’s urban history, ranging from 19th century urbanisation to contemporary developments such as housing stock transfer and gentrification. In doing so it outlines landmark legislative change, and emphasises the pivotal role of philanthropic reformers such as Octavia Hill. Part II offers a “progress report” (p105) on Britain’s cities today, engaging head-on with policy initiatives concerned with averting urban decline and promoting the growth and sustainability of cities. It explicitly addresses key policy agendas of the New Labour administration, such as the National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal (2000) and the Sustainable Communities Plan (2003). Finally, Part III moves on to consider the future evolution of our cities. In particular it emphasises the need for “smart growth”, by creating a “fixed urban growth boundary” (p165), and related to this the need for local neighbourhood management and sustainable communities. All of these are topical issues in contemporary urban policy debates.

A key strength of this book is that is highlights how a consideration of our past is relevant to understanding our present. The historical detail of this book is therefore to be welcomed, and indeed, by bringing together such a comprehensive review of Britain’s urban history in one publication, it makes an important contribution to the literature. However, it does not have the same depth of analysis and critical insight offered by other historical accounts of urban Britain, such as Alison Ravetz’s (2001) excellent book Council Housing and Culture: the history of social experiment, and more recently Mike Raco’s (2007) Building Sustainable Communities: spatial policy and labour mobility in post-war Britain. Power and Houghton’s book may therefore be too descriptive, and also found wanting in terms of critical interrogation of contemporary policy agendas, for some readers. Furthermore, although this publication is primarily aimed at a policy audience, a brief acknowledgement of wider theoretical debates would have been beneficial.

Whilst the introduction to the book frames it as an analysis of ‘British’ cities, discussion is nonetheless dominated by developments and policy agendas that are occurring in England. Given the divergence of urban and housing policy post-devolution this is a disappointing omission. Whilst some of the debates touched on by the authors are applicable to other regions of the UK, a more detailed consideration of developments in Scotland, Wales, and indeed Northern Ireland, would have been useful. The case of stock transfer is pertinent here. The authors focus considerably on the 2001 stock transfer ballot in Birmingham, yet offer no detailed exploration of the 2003 Glasgow ballot, which had a very similar set of problems (Daly et al 2005). Much more could have been made of this potentially useful comparator, in order to explore policy divergence across the UK.

In conclusion, Jigsaw Cities: Big Places, Small Spaces is a valuable textbook for students, researchers, policymakers and practitioners in the broad, multi-disciplinary field of urban studies. Drawing on a wide range of contemporary policy debates combined with historical analysis, it is a key reference point for understanding the challenges and solutions facing urban Britain.

References
Daly, M et al (2005) “Housing Stock Transfer in Birmingham and Glasgow: the contrasting experiences of two UK cities”, European Journal of Housing Policy 5(3): 327-341.

Raco, M. (2007) “Building Sustainable Communities: spatial policy and labour mobility in post-war Britain”. Bristol, Policy Press.

Ravetz, A. (2001) “Council Housing and Culture: the history of social experiment”. London, Routledge.

Kim McKee
Dpt. Geographical & Earth Sciences, University of Glasgow

Book Review

Heino, J., Czischke, D. and Nikolova, M. (2007) Managing Social Rental Housing in the European Union: Experiences and Innovative Approaches. CECODHAS European Social Housing Observatory, VVO-PLC, Finland.

Billing itself as the first pan-European study to explore social housing company strategies within their rapidly changing economic social and political context, this report is based on a survey of 42 such companies in 12 EU member states and case studies of six companies in six different states. Instead of the usual financial and housing policy focus found in most comparative studies of social housing (Boelhouwer, 1997, Whitehead and Scanlon, 2007) here we have an account that gets closer to the reality of decision making and priority setting by a powerful set of institutions who touch the lives of around 25 million households across Europe and sit between state and market influences.

Unusually within the literature in this field the study draws mainly on strategic management concepts such as mission and values, core activities and diversification, comparative advantage and strategy formation rather than concepts drawn from social policy or economics. Nevertheless we also find some analysis of housing systems and institutional frameworks, welfare states, privatisation and residualisation more common is such studies. Empirically the study has the benefit of a grounding in the work of CECODHAS European Social Housing Observatory in outlining the different national contexts for social housing (informing Annex II) and in mapping the extent and nature of social housing provision (CECODHAS, 2007).

The most striking empirical findings of the survey and case study are that despite sticking to a core task of meeting housing needs of low income households there has been a general tendency across Europe for company activities to widen in scope to include urban regeneration and neighbourhood management and other ‘non-landlord activities’ to fill gaps in a retreating welfare state. A scenario with analogies to the role played by the third sector in earlier liberal welfare settlements before social democratic welfare states expanded. At the same time we have seen a change in the business models of these companies to include more commercial activities and to adopt more strategic management approaches. It is argued that these changes are partly a response to a rapidly changing environment in which there is less public funding and more intense pockets of social need as a result of the retreating state. This chimes with other recent work on drivers for diversification by European social landlords (Brandsen et al 2006).

Because of their long term local anchorage housing organisations have been strongly drawn into strategies to turn around declining areas, both through their asset management and investment activities and though their emerging wider role in promoting local economic revival, and improving local social and community services. While such involvement has led to legitimacy challenges, many housing companies believe that they are uniquely placed and have the organisational capacity and resources to take on this role. However, we might question the extent to which the ability of housing companies to plug gaps in wider welfare provision is contingent on the ways in which the state has withdrawn from housing itself. The huge assets inherited by Dutch housing associations from decades of earlier investment and ten years of house price inflation cannot be compared to the position of housing associations in countries like Ireland where rental policies prevent organisations from accumulating sufficient surpluses to keep their own homes maintained let alone subsidise wider social welfare. Similarly the ability and willingness of housing organisations to take on social tasks is a reflection of internal goals and missions.

Another added value of this study is in clarifying the active agency played by the companies themselves, with mission statements and core tasks being defined in generally social terms rather than market terms (with the exception of the growing emphasis on customer satisfaction). This mirrors earlier work in England (Mullins and Riseborough, 1997,2000) which found that housing association executives valued both social purposes and business efficiency but when forced to choose consistently saw social purposes as more important than business efficiency. Similarly recent Dutch research has found the hybrid model to be central to organisational identities, with social and commercial purposes much poorer differentiators than a division between entrepreneurial prospectors and defenders (Gruis, forthcoming). With the Robin Hood principle deployed to reinvest commercial returns into social purposes these hybrid organisations can always present their commercial activities as a means to an end, funding social investments.

Inevitably the six case studies that illustrate the company profiles generally focus on socially driven activities that embody these organisations’ missions: energy saving in Finland, eco-building in Brescia, historic quarter rehabilitation in Metz, 24 hour drug centre in Wilhelminasingel, a call centre in Bromley and resident artists to refresh declining neighbourhood in Hamburg. However, while private companies might have selected similar examples to illustrate their sense of corporate social responsibility, it still seems reasonable from the evidence presented in this report to believe that there remains a significant distance in terms of mission, activities and outcomes between these social entrepreneurial organisations and private companies that operate in the same field.

In their conclusion the authors call for further work to explore the tension between social and commercial objectives but this will demand new methodologies and perspectives. Earlier writers (e.g. Walker, 2000) had suggested that the adoption of private finance models and new public management would cause housing associations to shift from a people to a property focus. It has also been suggested that commercial drivers could see harder nosed approaches to social housing management itself (for example in relation to access policies and eviction procedures). But as we have seen the Robin Hood principle makes it hard to unmask these tensions, since commercial behaviour can always be justified by social investment of surpluses. Perhaps new evidence will begin to emerge from situations where there is direct competition between social landlords and the private sector and where we may begin to see which business models are adopted and adapted by whom (Mullins and Walker, 2007, Elsinga et al 2007). Social housing remains an intriguing field where further research is required, however Heino, Czischke and Nikolova have done a great service by opening up a strategic management perspective and an organisational level focus to these questions in a variety of European housing market contexts.

David Mullins, Centre for Urban & Regional Studies, University of Birmingham

References
Boelhouwer, P (1997) Financing the social rented sector I Western Europe. Housing and Urban Policy Studies 13, Delft University Press.
Brandsen T, Farnell R and Cardoso Ribeiro T (2006) Housing Association Diversification in Europe: Profiles, Portfolios and Strategies. Coventry, Rex Group.
CECODHAS, (2007) Housing Europe 2007 Review of Social Co-operative and Public Housing in the 27 EU Member States. Brussels, European Social Housing Observatory.
Elsinga M, Haffner, M, van der Heijden, H and Oxley, M (2007) How competitive is social rental housing in England and the Netherlands. ENHR Conference, Rotterdam.
Gruis, V (2008, forthcoming) Organisational Archetypes for Dutch Housing Associations. Environment and Planning C
Mullins D and Riseborough, M (1997) Changing with the Times. Critical interpretations of the repositioning of housing associations. School of Public Policy Occasional Paper 12. University of Birmingham
Mullins D and Riseborough M (2000) What are housing associations becoming? Final report of Changing with the Times project. Housing Research at CURS Number 7. 102 pp.
Mullins D and Walker JB (2007) Mixed Motives? The impact of direct public funding for private developers on not-for-profit housing networks in England. ENHR Conference, Rotterdam.
Walker R.M (2000) The Changing Management of Social Housing: the Impact of Externalisation and Managerialisation Housing Studies 15.2 281-299
Whitehead, C and Scanlon, K (2007) Social Housing in Europe.

Newsletter - September 2007

NEWS

THE HSA AND CIH JOINT BOOKS SERIES

Several recent and forthcoming publications in the joint series will be of interest to HSA members – especially those teaching housing and related subject areas. Prices given here are for HSA or CIH members only and include a 20% discount on the cover price.

And of course new proposals for books are welcomed by the editorial panel.

Most recent titles

Supporting Safer Communities – Housing, Crime and Neighbourhoods
Alan Dearling, Tim Newburn and Peter Somerville

This book is about the key issues which practitioners now face in trying to meet the challenge of creating safer communities. It argues for a balanced and proportionate response to anti-social behaviour and crime - one that offers strategies for prevention, intervention, support and enforcement. Fifteen thought-provoking chapters address themes of ‘disorder and regeneration’, the ‘policing of crime and disorder’, ‘service provider approaches to safe communities’ and ‘social inclusion and community safety.’ The authors explore the importance of working with residents in community safety responses and examine how staff in housing, social work, police and education can overcome barriers by working in partnership.

Order no: 125 ISBN: 978-1-905018-30-7 Price: £20 plus postage.
Available (as are the books below) from CIH publications (www.cih.org/publications or pubs@cih.org or phone 02476 851 700)

Housing, ‘Race’ and Community Cohesion
Malcolm Harrison, Deborah Phillips, Kusminder Chahal, Lisa Hunt and John Perry

This book looks critically at government policies on ‘race’, ‘equality’ and community cohesion, from the perspective of both housing providers and of the ‘housed’. It argues that there is a gap between what government says should be done, and the realities and practicalities that apply at community level. The authors argue that practical initiatives are needed to support deprived communities and promote contact and understanding (often in modest ways). And indeed in many places they are already happening. Government often fails to recognise this or – worse – makes policies that run counter to it.

Issues covered include: the housing market and how it works for ethnic minorities; developing law and practice; the government’s community cohesion agenda; policy and attitudes towards asylum seekers and refugees;
changing housing needs, and racist harassment and how it is being tackled.

Order no: 114 ISBN: 1-903208-21-X Price: £20 plus postage.

Housing Finance
David Garnett and John Perry

The revised edition of this standard text has just been reprinted to meet expected demand in the new academic year.

Order no: 121 ISBN: 978-1-903208-53-3 Price: £21.60 plus postage.


Also still available

Introducing Social Housing by Stephen Harriot

Matthews and Private Renting in Transition by Peter Kemp.


Forthcoming titles

New titles planned or possible in 2008 include:

Rebuilding Housing Markets by Ed Ferrari and Peter Lee

Looking into Housing by Douglas Robertson

Housing and the Environment – an edited book covering the climate change issue, taking forward ideas from the last HSA conference.

Homelessness - a new book by Suzanne Fitzpatrick and colleagues at York.

Housing and Social Justice – by Isobel Anderson and Duncan Sim.


Ideas for titles should be sent to Peter Williams (consultpwilliams@btinternet.com) or to any of the other members of the editorial panel - Peter Malpass (representing HSA), John Perry (CIH) or Alan Dearling.


NEWS FROM RESEARCH CENTRES

Centre for Comparative Housing Research (CCHR), De Montfort University, Leicester

New Research

Rapid Evidence Assessment of the research literature on the purchase and use of second homes

The Centre for Comparative Housing Research (CCHR) at De Montfort University has been awarded a contract by The National Housing and Planning Advice Unit (NHPAU). This is a new independent body that has been set up to advise national and local government and other bodies on the affordability of market housing in England. Its creation follows Kate Barker’s Review of Housing Supply in 2004 and her recommendation for the creation of a body to provide expert advice on housing matters, particularly affordability.

NHPAU have commissioned CCHR to take an independent view of the existing evidence base on the impact of second homes on house prices and the affordability of housing by first time buyers. The research will also consider:

- What specific factors attract people to buy second homes and what types of property do they buy, and where?
- What is the geographical distribution of second homes across England, and what are the characteristics of places with a high concentration of second homes?
- What are the social and demographic characteristics of those buying second homes?
- Do households own more than one second home, and what is the distribution?
- Has there been any improvement in the supply and quality of the housing stock as a result of second home purchases?
- What are the social and economic impacts of households owning second homes?

The research project is led by Professor Michael Oxley (moxley@dmu.ac.uk). The research team includes Dr Tim Brown, Director of CCHR, Ros Lishman, Lecturer at CCHR and Dr Richard Turkington, Honorary Research Associate at CCHR and Director of Housing Vision.

The research is being carried out from August to October 2007.

Housing & Community Cohesion

The Centre is involved in a number of projects linked to this important and topical theme. The Commission on Integration and Cohesion published its final report, ‘Our Shared Future’, in June 2007 and highlighted a number of significant issues for the housing sector including:

- Affordable housing providers and funders should include an assessment of how schemes promote integration and cohesion;
- Development of community lettings plans; and
- Effective action to tackle unscrupulous landlords in the private rented sector.

CCHR’s work centres on:

- ‘Mixed Communities’: This is a joint study with the University of Warwick funded through the Institute of Community Cohesion. The first stage has involved a review of the policy and research on this topic.

- Housing and Community Cohesion in Rural Areas: CCHR ran a seminar on this issue in July 2007 with a wide range of policy makers and practitioners to identify and debate key issues. These included the ability of councils and local communities to respond positively to the sudden and rapid changes brought about by A8 / A2 migration and the need to take action to address problems in the private rented sector.

- Developing a potential research project with OTB at Delft Technical University, in The Netherlands, on housing allocations and social segregation/community cohesion.

Choice Based Lettings

Dr Tim Brown and Nicola Yates have produced a briefing paper for the Housing Quality Network on the future of choice-based lettings (CBL), ‘Whither Choice’ (available online at http://www.strategynetwork.org.uk/briefings.php#Access_and_Choice). It argues that the debate needs to move onto the bigger picture rather than concentrating on detailed procedures and processes. There are opportunities to align CBL with sub-regional housing market studies, the Department of Health initiatives on personalised budgets and self-directed support, and the Government’s ‘better public services’ agenda.

Tim Brown is also advising Ashford Borough Council and Salford Borough Council on CBL.

Community Asset Trusts

Dr Tim Brown is advising North Shropshire District Council on the policy framework for establishing a district-wide community asset trust to help to maximise the provision of affordable housing following the successful completion of a large scale voluntary stock transfer.


For more information about the work of the Centre contact Ros Lishman, phone 0116 257 7434 or email rlishman@dmu.ac.uk, or visit http://www.cchr.net/ and http://www.dmu.ac.uk/.


Centre for Housing Policy, University of York

Appointments

Peter Williams joined CHP as an Honorary Professor in February 2007. Peter was Deputy Director General of Council of Mortgage Lenders for a period of 12 years to late 2006. He is now an independent consultant working in the areas of housing and mortgage markets, financial services and government relations. He holds a number of executive and non-executive positions. He will contribute to both research collaboration and strategic development within the Centre.

Suzanne Fitzpatrick, Director of CHP, has joined the European Observatory on Homelessness as one of ten European members. The Observatory was set up ten years ago, funded by FEANTSA (European Federation of National Organisations working with the Homeless).

Mark Stephens, CHP’s Assistant Director, has been appointed Lead Member of the Housing and Communities Analysis Panel, one of three expert panels newly convened by CLG.

New Projects

Developing the Sustainable Home Ownership Partnership (funder: Joseph Rowntree Foundation)

A CHP team is developing the proposal for a Sustainable Home Ownership Partnership (SHOP) between mortgage lenders, home-owners and the government. SHOP is intended to provide a better safety net for home-owners than the current mix of ISMI and private insurance.

Evaluation of the Shelter London Prisons Project (Shelter)

CHP are conducting a three year evaluation of the Shelter London Prisons Project, a pilot initiative providing housing support to resettle women on release from HMP Holloway. The research involves a detailed monitoring exercise including tracking of former users, as well as focus groups with service users and staff and prison representatives.

The Influence of Neighbourhood on Health (Glasgow Centre for Population Health)

This literature review, adopts some of the methods of systematic reviewing, and considers how the evidence regarding the impact of the built environment at neighbourhood level of levels of health and well-being, physical activity and obesity.

Links between green spaces and health: a literature review (Greenspace Scotland)

This literature review will consider the impact of different aspects of urban greenspaces on health and well-being, including physical, mental, and social health.

Youth Homelessness in the UK (Joseph Rowntree Foundation/Centrepoint)

CHP, in collaboration with Centrepoint, is undertaking a review of youth homelessness across the UK. The research aims to assess the progress being made with alleviating homelessness in the four nations. It involves a desk-based review of statistical and other evidence on the scale, nature and trends in youth homelessness as well as six detailed local authority case studies and a consultation exercise with young people and key experts.

Private Rented Sector: solving or causing homelessness (Shelter)

On average, around 14 per cent of homeless households present as such with the PRS as their immediate past tenure. Research has been underway in collaboration with Shelter to review ‘crisis’ terminations of tenancies in the PRS and consider appropriate preventive measures.

Achieving mobility in the intermediate housing market (Joseph Rowntree Foundation)

The expansion of low cost homeownership (LCHO) is a key policy ambition and this research, will examine what facilitates or constrains the ability of people to move on from their initial subsidised purchases once their aspirations or circumstances change. The project will use survey, interview and focus group methods in six case study housing market areas across the UK.

Choice and constraint in non-permanent housing: attitudes towards mobile homes and residential boats (ESRC)

This research will explore the role that mobile homes and residential boats can play in terms of widening diversity and choice within housing markets. The project will last for 15 months and will examine residents' views and experiences, as well as the attitudes of public and private sector agencies towards these forms of accommodation.

Telling the story: a new retirement village (Joseph Rowntree Foundation)

This longitudinal project will “tell the story” of the early development of a new retirement village operated by the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust and Hartlepool Borough Council. It will examine the initial thinking and expectations around the development of the scheme from the perspective of key stakeholders and prospective residents, and consider how these expectations are met over time.

The impact of demographic change on housing (CLG)

This project will consider how the coming demographic changes will impact on housing. The outcomes of the project inform the forthcoming Housing Strategy for an Ageing Society currently being developed by CLG.

UK Housing Review

The UK Housing Review 2006/7 was published in December. As in previous years, a proportion of the contents is available online at http://www.ukhousingreview.org.uk/
Members are reminded that they are eligible for a 25% discount on this publication, if purchased via the HSA secretariat at CHP.

More information is available on the CHP website.


NEW PUBLICATIONS

Fitzpatrick, S. and Pawson, H. (2007) 'Welfare Safety Net or Tenure of Choice? The Dilemma Facing Social Housing Policy in England', Housing Studies, vol. 22, issue 2, pp163-182.

Holmans, A., Stephens, M. and Fitzpatrick, S. (2007) 'Housing Policy in England since 1975: An Introduction to the Special Issue ', Housing Studies, vol. 22, issue 2, pp147-162.

Jones, A., Elsinga, M., Quilgars, D. and Toussaint, J. (2007) 'Home owners' perceptions of and responses to risk', European Journal of Housing Policy, vol. 7, issue 2, pp129-150.

Quilgars, D. and Jones, A. (2007) 'Safe as houses? Perceptions of home ownership in the UK', in M. Elsinga, N. Teller, and J. Toussaint (eds) OSIS Qualitative Book (Descriptive Title Only), Delft: Delft University Press.

Stephens, M. (2007) 'Mortgage Market Deregulation and its Consequences', Housing Studies, vol. 22, issue 2, pp201-220.

Wilcox, S. (2007) Housing Market Affordability in Northern Ireland, Belfast: Northern Ireland Housing Executive.