Full Description
Originally published in 1978, this book analyses three main approaches to national housing policy in the 20th Century in Sweden, the UK and USA. It reviews policy developments and considers the impact of policy on the housing conditions and costs of different sections of the community. A major theme is that British and American governments, contrary to their stated objectives, have actually increased housing inequality by allowing homeowners tax concessions which are more generous than the housing welfare programmes available to tenants. The political pressures which produced this outcome in Britain and the USA, but a quite different and more egalitarian outcome in Sweden, are carefully discussed. Throughout the book, policy making is regarded as involving trade-offs between what is politically feasible and what is operationally feasible. This framework enables readers to view policy making from the perspective of politicians and civil servants as they react to diverse demands and pressures and seek to devise housing programmes which embody incentives to which housing financiers builders and consumers will respond.
Contents
1. Housing Policy - What is at Stake? 2. A Framework for Analysing Housing Policy 3. Housing Politics and Housing Conditions in Sweden 4. Swedish Policy: The Development of a Socialist Market 5. Housing Politics and Housing Conditions in the United Kingdom 6. British Policy: The Welfare Approach to Housing 7. Housing Politics and Housing Conditions in the United States 8. American Policy: Stimulating Private Enterprise 9. Sweden, UK, USA: Explaining Differences in Housing Policies and Housing Conditions 10. Housing Equity - Problems and Possibilities of Reform
