Glen Bramley

Urban Form and Social Sustainability: The Role of Density and Housing Type

In the United Kingdom planning favours a more compact, high-density, and mixed-use urban form. Many of the claims made for such compact forms in terms of the sustainability benefits are contested, and few have been rigorously researched. Drawing upon policy and academic literature we identify two key dimensions of social sustainability: social equity and sustainability of community. Using data from the Survey of English Housing this paper analyses the relationship between key aspects of urban form, density, and housing type, and selected social sustainability outcomes. Simpler analyses suggest strong relationships between urban form and a range of outcomes, although in opposite directions for the equity and community dimensions. However, the impact of urban form on these outcomes is substantially modified once we control for exogenous and intervening demographic and socioeconomic factors. In addition, outcome patterns relating to access to services and facilities favour denser urban forms at the same time as outcomes relating to sustainability of community remain adverse in denser areas. This suggests trade-offs within the social dimensions of sustainability, as well as between the social, environmental, and economic dimensions.

The Impact of Land Use Planning and Tax Subsidies on the Supply and Price of Housing in Britain

This article presents new empirical estimates of the impact of two types of policy intervention, tax subsidies and land use planning, on the housing market in Britain. The estimates are derived from a set of models representing the demand and supply sides of the market for the new private housebuilding which include an explicit land supply element. The models are fitted to cross-sectional data at the inter-urban (local authority) level, and then employed in medium-period simulations of alternative policies. Modelling at this level enables estimates to be made of the extent of variation between local markets in the elasticity of supply and also in the impacts of policy measures, including the capitalisation of tax subsidies.

An affordability crisis in British housing: Dimensions, causes and policy impact

Abstract This article argues that the British housing system experienced a crisis of affordability in the late 1980s and early 1990s, manifested in several distinct ways, and similar to problems experienced in some other countries. A combination of circumstances produced this crisis, including changes in demography, income distribution, housing supply and tenure, but financial deregulation was particularly important. Housing affordability became a more significant policy issue when the impact on the normal functioning of the owner occupier market became severe and when the macro‐economic feedback effects were perceived as serious. A number of specific policy changes resulted from this crisis, some of which may prove to be enduring.

Land-Use Planning and the Housing Market in Britain: The Impact on Housebuilding and House Prices

The impact of the British style of land-use planning upon the outcomes of private housing development and the housing market is examined. A unique cross-sectional database is constructed, and the medium-term elasticity of new housebuilding supply is estimated as a locally variable function of prices, costs, and land supply, with an explicit planning function. The model developed enables quantified projections to be made of the effect of specified changes in planning policy. The policy changes examined include large-scale increases in the volume of land released, changes in the mix of land released, and the use of planning agreements to pay for infrastructure or social housing.

Pathways into Multiple Exclusion Homelessness in Seven UK Cities

This paper interrogates pathways into multiple exclusion homelessness (MEH) in the UK and, informed by a critical realist theoretical framework, explores the potential causal processes underlying these pathways. Drawing on an innovative multistage quantitative survey, it identifies five experiential clusters within the MEH population, based on the extent and complexity of experiences of homelessness, substance misuse, institutional care, street culture activities and adverse life events. It demonstrates that the most complex forms of MEH are associated with childhood trauma. It also reveals that the temporal sequencing of MEH-relevant experiences is remarkably consistent, with substance misuse and mental health problems tending to occur early in individual pathways, and homelessness and a range of adverse life events typically occurring later. The strong inference is that these later-occurring events are largely consequences rather than originating causes of MEH, which has important implications for the conceptualisation of, and policy responses to, deep exclusion.

Chinese Housing Reform in State-owned Enterprises and Its Impacts on Different Social Groups

Housing change has been a major part of urban social and economic reform in China. Earlier research and literature on housing policy focused largely on changes which affected office workers employed by government departments and professional institutions. Relatively little attention has been given to the examination of housing reform practice in state-owned enterprises. This paper aims to enhance our understanding of the social impacts of housing reform in China. It reports findings from fieldwork carried out in four large cities; highlights the different approaches adopted by state-owned enterprises; and assesses their impacts on different categories of employees.

Low Demand for Housing: Incidence, Causes and UK National Policy Implications

Low and falling demand for housing has come to be recognised as a fairly widespread phenomenon in late 1990s Britain. Whilst research has tended to focus on the negative consequences of this for social rented housing, the weakness of the private housing market has led to increasingly grave problems in some inner cities and former coalfields, particularly in the North of England. The main purpose of the paper is to review and evaluate the actual and potential public policy responses to this complex of issues in relation to both private- and public-sector housing, in the light of new evidence on the extent, incidence and causes of low demand. Whilst central government has displayed a growing recognition of the need to develop counter-measures, particularly in England, the paper questions whether those so far proposed fully address the severity and intractability of the issue.

Measuring Planning: Indicators of Planning Restraint and its Impact on Housing Land Supply

There has been renewed interest in the impact of planning controls on housing land supply and the housing market, and particularly in their effects on supply elasticity and the type of land and housing supplied. But incorporation of planning in econometric models of housing is hampered by the lack of readily available and easily interpretable measures of planning policy restraints. In this paper a range of quantitative and qualitative measures of planning restraint developed in the context of cross-sectional modelling of housing supply in England are examined. These indicators are assessed, first, in a priori terms, second, in terms of their interrelationships, and, third, in terms of their performance in statistical explanation of variations in a number of outcomes relating to the supply of land with planning permission for housing, new housebuilding, the share of urban land, density, and house prices. The geography of restraint in England is described and some features of the planning process affecting the transmission of policies into outcomes are discussed. The paper concludes with some observations on the use of such measures in modelling housing supply.

Homeownership, Poverty and Educational Achievement: School Effects as Neighbourhood Effects

One of the significant characteristics of many poor neighbourhoods is that the schools which serve them are characterised by poor performance in terms of attainment and other measures. This feature is seen as critical in the reinforcement of disadvantage, its transmission between generations, and as a barrier to social integration. Government policies in the UK have increasingly targeted improved school standards and performance, while other policies on urban regeneration and housing may interact with this issue. This paper examines the particular role of homeownership tenure alongside the other factors (notably poverty) which affect school attainment. After reviewing existing literature it presents new analyses of attainment based on linked pupil, school and small area-level datasets for selected areas in both England and Scotland. This provides some evidence to support the contention that homeownership has an additional effect on school attainment, beyond that explained by poverty and other associated variables, although there is some uncertainty about how separable these effects are at school or neighbourhood levels. It also points out the significant role of changing tenure mix in housing regeneration in transforming the overall profile of neighbourhoods and schools.

The Sudden Rediscovery of Housing Supply as a Key Policy Challenge

Housing supply was suddenly rediscovered as a major challenge for English housing policy in the early 2000s, after nearly three decades of neglect. There does appear to be a problem of inadequate and unresponsive housing supply in England, by international or historical standards. Although shortcomings of the house building industry and limited public investment play a part, the most important factor explaining Englands housing supply problem is the operation of the land-use planning system. Policies, procedures and incentives are all implicated. The most important impact is a long-term real rise in the price of housing, differentiated by region, which is damaging both economically and socially, although there are some compensating benefits in terms of the environment. The Barker Inquiry has proposed a radical supply agenda, which has been substantially accepted by the present government. This proposes that planning targets should be geared to affordability, with more land released and market-contingent mechanisms, more social housing and supporting infrastructure investment. There is room for debate about the magnitudes involved, the role for more proactive approaches to development and the best fiscal mechanisms and incentives. However, given the fraught political economy of housing and planning in the pressured regions, there is considerable doubt as to whether these measures will be implemented on the requisite scale.