Housing Policy and the Housing System

In the 1970s it was widely recognised that our planners and administrators were dealing not with a homogenous housing market but with a complex of housing sectors and sub-markets - with different locations, physical and social characteristics, tenures and costs. But although factual information was widely available from the Census and other official sources, our understanding of the true nature of the British housing system - and the relationships at work within it - had remained inadequate. Originally published in 1976, this book sets out, by careful examination of the complexities of the system, to improve that understanding and to discuss the implications for policy in the differing roles played by central and local government, developers, builders, the building societies and the voluntary housing movement.
The book is divided into three parts. The first describes and classifies the different household types (identifying their various characteristics, such as income, social class and stage in the family cycle) and their dwellings. It examines the process of household movement and discusses various explanatory approaches to housing.
Part Two describes in detail the three main tenure sectors in Britain and emphasizes the opportunities and constraints on access to housing. Not only is tenure of profound institutional, political and legal importance; it is also of great significance in the lives of individual households. Part Three analyses the objectives of housing policy and considers the nature of housing policy in Britain at the time. Factors that would lead to a more humane and effective policy are assessed and discussed.
The authors, from the Centre for Urban and Regional Studies at the University of Birmingham, worked for three years on the SSRC Housing Systems Research Programme. They brought to this study a wealth of experience in applied social and policy-orientated research and were uniquely qualified to examine housing policy and practice in Britain. An important book which would have been of vital interest to all those concerned with contemporary urban and social problems at the time.

Alan Murie is Emeritus Professor of Urban and Regional Studies at the University of Birmingham, UK. He has been involved in a wide range of research on urban and housing issues for more than 50 years: initially at the then University of Ulster and later at the Centre for Urban and Regional Studies at Birmingham University, the School for Advanced Urban Studies, Bristol University, the Department of Planning and Housing, Herriot-Watt University, Edinburgh and again at Birmingham University where he was Director of the Centre for Urban and Regional Studies and then head of the School of Public Policy.
Pat Niner worked for many years at the Centre for Urban and Regional Studies at the University of Birmingham, UK. She carried out a number of policy-related research studies of different aspects of the British housing system.
Christopher J. Watson (1940-2019) graduated from University of Bristol in 1962 where he gained a BA Hons degree in Geography. After leaving Bristol, he was employed as a Geography Tutor at a Field Study Centre in Northumberland for three years. He left to become an Administrative Assistant at the University of Sussex 1966- 68 and later joined the Scottish Office in Edinburgh where he worked in the Government Housing Research Unit. In 1972 he moved to the University of Birmingham where he became a Senior Lecturer in Urban and Regional Studies and undertook various aspects of Housing Research and contributed to a number of publications including Housing Policy and the Housing System (1976). He retired from the University of Birmingham in 2005, but retained his interest in housing policy and development in the UK and other European countries, also South Korea and Japan where he travelled extensively.