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Quantity, quality and location

发布时间:2018-02-23
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Introduction

The demand for housing is based around social and economic factors, such as salaries and increases in single person households, therefore it is very difficult to predict at what scale future need is going to be. As a result of this housing policy has to be responsive to the current socio-economic climate and take into account lots of different factors and problems. These complexities are due to the fact that housing has a number of qualities that make it different to other commodities due not only to resilience, flexibility as a product, but how it also has to be situated in fixed locations and finally its high value within society (Mullins & Murie 2006).

A more simplistic way of viewing these factors, in relation to housing supply, is that of the quantity, quality and location of development (Carmona et al. 2003). Each of these criteria has to be considered in equal weight, if one is overlooked it can result in housing which is inadequate and undesirable. If this is the case then it is not meeting housing need as it is likely to remain unoccupied and fall into a state of disrepair where it is no longer habitable.

Each of these different criteria can be simply defined in the case of housing supply. Quantity is that of the level of supply required to meet the demands of the population. It is a factor that should be responsive to changes in social and economic situation, which are the basis for the determination of supply, so as to prevent under or oversupply (Carmona et al. 2003). Quality is focused upon the standard to which new housing is constructed to, and looks at such considerations as building materials, layout and the surrounding environment. The final factor, location, is simply where housing would be best placed where it is appropriate and where it will be desirable.

When studying housing policy from 1945 to the present day it becomes clear that each of these criteria has not always been considered in equal weight and that housing policy has dealt to deal with more specific issues. Therefore over the years the emphasis on each of these criteria has shifted in accordance with the current social and economic problems, and maybe most importantly as a result of political problems. As will become apparent the government that is in charge at the time has had a major impact upon the type of housing policy implemented.

Housing Policy from 1945 to 1979

When addressing housing needs back in 1945 the most important factor which had to be reviewed was the effect that the war had had on the nation, which had a very large impact on housing needs not only as a result of the loss of housing through bombing and the blitz, but also the economic situation that Britain was left in as a result. Therefore as a result the focus of housing policy between 1945 and 1951 was that of increasing housing supply to meet the needs of those returning from the war and for those who had lost their houses, similar to the earlier ideas of slum clearance.

During this period of time the Labour government was in power, and the major decision which they made was that of maintaining wartime controls on private house builders and to appoint this task to local authorities. Up until 1949 there was a dramatic increase in the number of house being provided with the figure rising from 3,364 completions in 1945 to 190,653 in 1948 (Mullins & Murie 2006, pg. 29), however the economic crisis reduced these figures substantially and the quality of housing dropped as it was sacrificed in place of trying to reach housing need. To try and improve this situation ‘Improvement grants' were introduced in 1949 to subsides the cost of bringing houses up to and acquired standard although this was not a complete solution to the issues.

In 1951 Labour was replaced by the Conservative party, who continued to the provide subsides, however these were used to promote the construction of apartment blocks, with higher incentives being offered to councils that built high rise developments. Looking back, these developments have now been highly criticised, firstly for their poor quality, which can be gauged from the collapse of a block of flats in Ronan Point in East London in 1968, but also for their establishment in peripheral locations which were not adequately serviced by community facilities and places of employment (Mullins & Murie 2006). Therefore these housing policy directives resulted in the construction of housing that was both of poor quality and inadequately located.

This period of mass construction ended in 1968 with the publication of the ‘Old Houses into New Homes' white paper which look to provide more grants and aid for the improvement of existing housing stock, rather than investment of new development (Mullins & Murie 2006). The aim of housing policy in the period of 1945 up until 1979 was that of increasing housing supply and improving housing quality. This idea of quality was one that was not apparent to the poorest groups in society, as the issues that arose from the construction of apartment blocks show, however a great deal of high quality market housing was provided which is still in use today.

Housing Policy from 1979 to 1997

Between 1979-97 major changes were seen in housing policy, with the introduction of Thatcher's Conservatives. These included the promotion of home ownership, privatisation, deregulation and a generally antimunicipal approach (Mullins & Murie 2006). By the end of this period the construction of new housing had fallen from a major capital program to a minor capital program, with the emphasis being placed upon privatisation and homeownership, this was due to the fact that the Conservatives considered that home owners were more likely to voted conservative and therefore secure their place in government. Therefore in this era, the construction of new housing dropped and the emphasis was on that of the transferral of public and social housing into private ownership.

In terms of quantity, quality and location this period had little effect on quantity and location as it was mostly centred on those housing already built. However you could say that this had an affect on housing quality as has handed over the responsibility of maintaining dwellings into the hands of private owners, who are more likely to be inclined to invest their own money into a property if they own it and it may have an impact in the resale value of the house. This has resulted in the gentrification of many ex-council estates across the country which previously would have been seen as undesirable places to live.

Housing Policy from 1997 to Present

From 1997 Labour were once again in power and again brought in some new changes to housing policies. The most significant of these was the introduction of the Housing Green Paper, in 2000, which brought in major reforms in respect to how housing was supplied. This brought about the introduction of stricter Central Government housing policy with the introduction of ‘Planning Policy Guidance 3: Housing' (2000) also known as PPG3, rather than the circulars and other mechanisms previously used, which were seen more as suggestions than actual policy. This was all focused around the idea of ‘Decent Homes for All' by which housing policy sought to ‘predict and provide' (DETR 2000c). This was however, seen as rather a blunt approach that focused simply on housing supply as a simple numbers game and focused mainly on quantity and location, with little regard to housing quality (Carmon et al. 2003).

In 2004 the Deputy Prime Minister commissioned a review of the mechanisms controlling housing supply in the hope of addressing these issues with the current system, the document produced as a result of this is known as ‘Review of Housing Supply' (Barker 2004). This report is said to have led the ‘sudden rediscovery' (Barker 2004) of Housing Supply after 25 years of neglect. In response to this Central government made some changes to government policy, this new approach know as ‘plan, monitor and manage' (DCLG 2006); the aim of this was to give equal weight to all three of these areas and also was perceived to be a more local and responsive approach to dealing with housing needs. These changes also included the updating of PPG3 and replacing it with Planning Policy Statement 3: Housing (DCLG 2006), also known as PPS3.

This new ‘management' approach to planning was largely the due to the government wanting to have a pre-emptive strategy in place to counter the accusations that it merely reacts to housing pressures (Gallent and Tewdwr-Jones 2007).

Conclusion

From studying housing across the last 65 years it becomes apparent that Quantity has been the most prominent focus for housing supply throughout the successive governments. This focus on quantity was due to the fact that it was seen as more important to provide housing to everyone, seen in both the idea of ‘Slum Clearance' and ‘Decent Homes for All'.

Up until more recently ‘Quality' has taken more of a back seat in the idea of housing supply, with more emphasis being placed upon quantity and the location of housing. It is however a very important factor as poor quality housing does little to enhance the quality of life and will not meet the aspirations of a constantly changing population (Carmon et al. 2003). In terms of the location, this has always been a consideration of housing policy which has been controlled by the development control policies implemented at a local level.

Working through the years systematically, it shows how great an impact the political climate has upon housing supply, with most major reforms coming in as a result in the change of the governments in power. This is likely to continue, and if the Conservatives are elected at the next elections then they have promised to implement major reforms across the whole of the planning system, including the scrapping of Regional Spatial Strategies (RSSs) and Local Development Frameworks (LDFs), which contribute to housing policy.

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