After Council Housing

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

Originally published in 1982, at a time when the UK government was pursuing the policy of council house sales, this book explores the implications of selling council houses, criticises the housing management and policies of the 1970s and 80s and argues forcefully for the retention of the council housing sector.

Council Housing and Culture makes clear the importance of council housing to twentieth-century life and culture. A major thread through the work is the interaction of council housing with evolving working-class patterns and aspirations.

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.

In a groundbreaking longitudinal study, researches studied seven similar social housing neighbourhoods in Ireland to determine what factors affected their liveability. In this collection of essays, the same researchers return to these neighbourhoods ten years later to see what’s changed. Are these neighbourhoods now more liveable or leaveable? Social Housing, Disadvantage and Neighbourhood Liveability examines the major national and local developments that externally affected these neighbourhoods: the Celtic tiger boom, area-based interventions, and reforms in social housing management. Additionally, the book examines changes in the culture of social housing through studies of crime within social housing, changes in public service delivery, and media reporting on social housing. Social Housing, Disadvantage and Neighbourhood Liveability offers a new body of data valuable to researchers in Ireland and abroad on how to create more equitable and liveable social housing.

The provision and management of social housing for those who are unable to access the housing market is essential to the maintenance of the fabric of society. The social housing industry is vast and still growing. There are very few countries in the world where some form of subsidised housing does not exist, and the total number of social homes is likely to grow worldwide, as are the challenges of the sector. Paul Reeves takes a people-centred approach to the subject, describing the themes that have run through provision of social housing from the first philanthropic industrialists in the 19th Century though to the increasingly complex mixture of ownerships and tenures in the present day. The management of housing forms a key part of the book, with an emphasis on the practical aspects of tenant participation and multi-agency working. The book is ideal for students of housing and social policy, and for housing professionals aiming to obtain qualifications and wanting a broad understanding of the social housing sector.

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