The effects of rent restructuring on social housing in English rural areas

This paper discusses the impact of central government's rent restructuring policy on social housing in rural areas in England. It examines the effect that restructuring will have on the rents set by social landlords in a set of case study areas then considers some of the likely impacts on affordability and on new investment in rural social housing. One of the primary aims of rent restructuring policy is to reduce unjustifiable differences between the rents of similar dwellings in the local authority and Registered Social Landlord sectors locally. This aim seems likely to be achieved. In doing so, it is likely that affordability will be reduced in the local authority sector but enhanced for tenants of some RSLs. However, the reduction in real RSL rents that improve affordability may further constrain RSLs’ ability to invest in new social housing in rural areas. The paper concludes that rent restructuring by itself will not materially improve the housing prospects of the less well off in rural areas.     

Crisis of Natural Building Materials and Institutionalised Self-Help Housing: The Case of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh

Traditional rural housing is largely based on the use of locally available natural resources as prime building materials, usually in a process of self-help building undertaken by the community. Such housing is well adapted to a natural environment with widely available resources, and supports people's direct involvement in the construction of their dwellings. However, the advent of a cash economy and current scarcity of natural resources has greatly affected the self-help building process. In rural Bangladesh, affluent households are shifting to manufactured materials and skilled builders, and the quality of housing of low-income households is declining. For the latter, self-help is the only option, and recognition of this fact and of the increasing decline in the quality of their housing has prompted institutional intervention. This paper discusses the Grameen Bank's rural housing programme in Bangladesh which provides loans for manufactured building components for low-income rural households to build houses on a self-help basis. A review of this programme indicates some of its strengths and shortcomings in the context of scarcity of natural building materials and widespread poverty.     

Excluding exceptions: Housing non-affordability and the oppression of environmental sustainability?

This paper explores the provision of homes for less wealthy households in rural England. By allowing ‘exceptions’ to UK planning law to provide low-income housing for local residents, the national government seeks to secure dwellings for the less wealthy and so sustain socially mixed rural villages. This paper explores how the production of homes through the exception policy is not conducive to the construction of many new houses. The particular emphasis in the paper is on how responsible agents are discouraged from being more active in erecting new village homes for low-income households. Empirically, the paper draws on documents, interviews and a social survey in the counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk to investigate the process of delivering rural exception homes. It is concluded that, despite Government assertions that a socially mixed countryside is desirable, the decision-making criteria that dominate the worldviews of agents in social housing provision work against this outcome.     

Counterurbanisation and rural depopulation revisited: landowners,planners and the rural development process

"This paper reopens the debate between Weekley (1988) and Rowsell (1989) over why pockets of depopulation have persisted within parts of rural Britain which have experienced net growth through counterurbanisation. It argues that Weekley has not fully appreciated the context for local population losses, namely the emergence of a new structural relationship between people, households, and dwellings, and the growing tension between production and consumption interests in rural locales. Moreover, the paper disputes claims that depopulation is triggered by the actions of either the landowner or the planner. Drawing on case study material informed by critical realism, it argues that planners and landowners have been drawn into an asymmetrical power relationship. This has tended to buttress landed interests and, in so doing, reproduce mechanisms which protect the less populous communities from growth and change."     

Local perspectives on rural housing affordability and implications for the localism agenda in England

Drawing on consultation meetings with eight community groups across rural England, this paper examines local perspectives on housing affordability, and the consequences of low levels of ‘within area’ housing access for rural economies and communities, contrasting the reflective understanding of residents with normative and established perspectives on the same issues. Because it now seems likely that rural planning policy in England will, in some measure, be reconstructed from the bottom-up, prioritising local control, an analysis of residents' perspectives gives some insight into the shape of future policy intervention. The research reveals a highly nuanced understanding of affordability and the development needs of villages. Sometimes local views – particularly those of commuting or retired households – are dismissed as being motivated by NIMBYism. But this is a partial truth, with rural residents displaying reflective dissatisfaction with official perspectives on rural housing problems.     

Once an outsider,always an outsider? The accessibility of the Dutch rural housing market among locals and non-locals

One of the most pressing questions in the rural gentrification literature is whether rural residents face difficulties in finding a home within their locality due to the influx of more wealthy newcomers. In this paper, we investigate the extent to which intended local movers and intended non-local movers have realised their rural residential preferences in their preferred municipality. We perform multilevel multinomial logistic regression analysis on data from two housing surveys for the Netherlands that are enriched with register data from the longitudinal Social Statistical Database (SSD). Our results show that, despite of their lower income, intended local movers are more likely to find homes within their preferred rural location than are intended non-local movers. Intended non-local movers move more often to a location other than that initially preferred, with urbanites facing a higher likelihood to move to an urban area. The findings suggest that ties to the residential environment are more important in successfully finding housing in one's preferred rural location than are financial resources.     

Towards a theory of the American rural residential land market

Since the late 1960s there has been a notable acceleration in America in the demand for rural residential land within commuting range of urban and suburban employment and service opportunities. American rural residential households do not seem to purchase acreage tracts primarily for their ‘productive’, or resource value, however. Instead, they purchase rural land for its ‘consumptive’ or residential value, as its value is primarily derived from the bundle of residential attributes associated with it. Over time, rural land within commuting range of metropolitan areas becomes underproductive and idled — a situation which precedes urban sprawl. Rural residential development has thus become a focus of debate on the effects and inefficiencies associated with urban sprawl. Yet, not enough is known about the nature of the rural residential land market. It is argued that American rural residential households are different from their suburban and urban counterparts for at least three reasons. First, they are distinguishable for their pursuit of self-sufficiency, self-expression, and the cultural status that a rural residential lifestyle offers. Second, they seek low cost rural jurisdictions in order to afford more housing and land than they could afford in higher cost urban and suburban locations. Third, they value distance from the city center colinearly with externalities such as pollution, crime, overcrowding, and noise associated with central city areas. In the latter sense, American rural residential households value land more highly the farther away it is from the city center, but discount land value the farther away it is from the boundary of urban development. In light of these considerations, this paper (a) reviews the literature describing the motivations of American rural residential households, (b) poses a theory of the American rural residential land market, (c) applies the theory to a case study, and (d) offers implications of the theory to planning efforts aimed at preserving resource land and containing urban sprawl.     

Evidence of a Housing Decision Chain in Rural Community Vitality*

Abstract The purpose of this research was to explore and explain the role housing plays in rural community vitality. Community vitality refers to economic strength and social well‐being. In spring 2002 we collected primary interview data from informants in 134 small rural communities in nine north‐central states and identified related secondary data from the U.S. census. We developed a structural‐equation‐path model, which supported a “housing decision chain” that influenced community vitality. Based on this research, local housing decisions do play an important role in community vitality. Strong local leaders use housing planning to secure funding to produce a change in the quantity of housing, which in turn positively influences community vitality. Housing inventory also mediated the effects of total population and percentage population change on community vitality, indicating that housing supply is a fundamental ingredient in community growth strategies. These findings support the conclusion that a combination of housing plans and strategies orchestrated by skilled, committed leadership strengthens rural communities. Heretofore the ling between housing and community vitality has not been investigated; evidence‐based data has been missing from the debate on viable rural community‐development strategies.     

Low-income elderly homeowners in very old dwellings: the need for public policy debate

This paper assesses whether the usually favorable depictions of older homeowners in the United States can be generalized to those who have extremely low incomes and occupy the oldest housing stock. Theoretical treatments and past empirical research findings offer a strong rationale for distinguishing this subgroup of older households. Analyzing 1999 American Housing Survey data, this paper finds that poor older homeowners in very old dwellings are more likely to be demographically disadvantaged and to occupy physically deficient dwellings. The paper calls for public debate on the comparative benefits and costs of governmental programs that help these vulnerable older persons to age in place as opposed to offering them alternative affordable housing options.     

The Impact of Housing Instability on Child Maltreatment: A Causal Investigation

More than a half million children are confirmed as victims of maltreatment by the child welfare system each year. Children from unstably housed families are over-represented in child maltreatment reports, and a growing body of evidence links housing problems to maltreatment and Child Protective Services (CPS) investigation. The present study applies two propensity score analysis approaches—greedy matching and propensity score weighting—to data from the Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study to move toward a causal explanation of child maltreatment behaviors among mothers in low-income households. Utilizing two separate methods to correct for overt selection bias, the present study finds that housing instability leads to a small increase in maltreatment behaviors, yet this small positive net impact on child maltreatment does not fully explain the over-representation of unstably housed families in the child welfare system. Families experiencing housing problems likely have a range of needs that require earlier, targeted intervention to mitigate consequences of poverty, domestic violence, and maternal depression. Child welfare services should invest resources in housing assistance programs in-house as well as through partnerships with local public housing authorities to stabilize families, reduce housing-related strain on caregivers, and promote family preservation.     

Fiscal conservatism versus local paternalism: divergent experiences of public housing decline in rural areas of England during the 1980s

This paper examines the differential response of two rural districts of England (Fenland and Waveney) to changes in council house provisioning in the 1980s. It is situated in a decade when major policy shifts in social housing policy were occurring at the national level with local governments devising new social housing strategies in response. Against a fast moving legislative background, the study examines the extent to which Stoker's categorisation of policy-making behaviour helps us to understand the diversity of policy-making influences at work in rural areas. In displaying a resentment of outside influence and a vision grounded in local considerations that offered minimal support for housing association activity, both Fenland and Waveney both exhibited attributes of what Stoker (The Politics of Local Government, second ed., 1991, Macmillan, London) called a ‘traditionalist’, Conservative stance. However, contrasts in the social housing policy of each authority over the decade revealed the limitations of this categorisation. In Fenland, pressures for housing growth led to increasing problems for those on low-incomes. Nevertheless, the District's social housing policy was dominated by fiscal conservatism and a reluctance to maintain financial support for either construction or the maintenance of council housing. By contrast, the social housing policies adopted by Waveney were characterised by a paternalistic desire to maintain a higher level of support for council housing combined with a more overtly critical attitude of central government policy. By identifying different dimensions of ‘traditionalist’ Conservative behaviour, the paper underscores the need for further studies on the role played by local leadership and key actors in policy-making processes.     

Financing low-income housing in South Africa: Borrower experiences and perceptions of banks

South Africa is facing a low-income housing crisis, with the current backlog estimated at over three million units. An obstacle in the provision of low-income housing is the difficulty encountered by commercial banks to extend loans in this market despite supporting initiatives by Government. A lack of knowledge on the borrowing behaviour, preferences and experiences of low-income households in accessing housing finance from the commercial banking sector in South Africa hampers an understanding of the reasons for these problems. This paper's contribution is to provide information on the experiences and perceptions of low-income borrowers in the housing market of South Africa, specifically in their dealings with commercial banks. Results from a survey of 653 households across five provinces of the country are provided. In the survey, a structured questionnaire was used to obtain information on the experiences and perceptions of low-income households about their access to credit and housing finance, their experience of banks, the successes in credit approval, their judgements on the suitability of banks’ home-loan products, as well as preferences with regard to prices and interest rates.     

Lay discourses of the rural and stated and revealed preferences for rural living. Some evidence of the existence of a rural idyll in the Netherlands

Dutch rural areas have changed into a post-modern countryside and have become marketable commodities. The demand for rural space and rural amenities has increased, with concomitant tensions on the rural housing market, tensions which are enhanced by the restrictive spatial policy in Dutch rural areas. The demand for rural residential environments appears to be large. This paper reports the results of our research into the preferences of urban households for living in a rural residential environment. These preferences will be linked with images and representations of the countryside. It is assumed that individual images of the countryside (whether idyllic or not) affect residential preferences and these preferences have, in turn, their effect on migration behaviour. Empirical evidence suggests that perceptions, preferences and behaviour pertaining to rural residential environments are indeed interrelated. The Dutch countryside commands a very positive image and the demand for residential environments with rural characteristics is considerable. Consequently, a rural idyll can be identified in The Netherlands.     

Planning and development control through lease conditions

The Hong Kong government has pledged to deal with the imbalance between supply and demand of housing. Given the innate constraints of limited land resources in Hong Kong and the extensive and expedient control enforced through lease conditions, the Hong Kong government can alleviate the long-recognized problem of housing shortage by modifying specific development conditions. Therefore, the supply of housing units can be changed at a faster pace to satisfy the requirement of private dwellings. Other factors affecting the property market in Hong Kong include land supply, economic issues, population growth, and income growth. Many studies, for example, Hui et al. (Monograph, Department of Building and Real Estate, Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Hong Kong Government (Study of Housing Demand, Hong Kong Government Printer, Hong Kong and Study of Housing Demand Model, Hong Kong Government Printer, Hong Kong), have investigated in detail the impacts of these factors on the property market. However, little or nothing is known about the planning and development control through lease conditions. Therefore, this study particularly attempts to examine how the Hong Kong government exerts its influence in the local private residential market through changing the development conditions. These conditions will be studied separately and distinctively in order to capture their unitary effects upon the local private residential real estate market. Section 1 looks at Hong Kong's tenure system, followed by the deliberation of how planning and development control is done through lease conditions (in Section 2). 3 and 4 set out the analytical framework and report on the findings of how lease conditions affect property supply. The concluding section gives out recommendations.     

Augmented informality: South Africa's backyard dwellings as a by-product of formal housing policies

Insufficient and inadequate housing for the urban poor has a long history in South Africa, as in other African cities. Nearly one-fifth of urban households in South Africa reside in an informal dwelling. While most live in informal settlements, significant proportions have erected informal structures (essentially ‘shacks’) in the backyard of another property, a distinctly South African phenomenon. Backyard dwellings have historically been overlooked by housing policies that focus on upgrading and/or eradicating informal settlements. Previously, backyard dwellers were perceived as marginalised, living in appalling conditions and exploited by cavalier landlords. However, the post-apartheid provision of state-funded housing for the poor has altered the nature of backyard housing, creating a new class of cash-poor homeowners who are dependent on income from backyard dwellers' rent, thus ensuring a more equitable power pendulum between landlord and tenant. This paper uses research conducted in a low-income state-subsidised housing settlement in Cape Town to explore the new dimensions of informal backyard housing, both for landlords and tenants, as a consequence of South Africa's formal housing policies.     

高空置率与高房价悖论在我国商品住宅市场的实证检验——基于全国省际及六大城市的面板数据

本文利用2003-2010年全国省际及六大城市的面板数据,实证检验了我国商品住宅市场是否存在高房价和高空置率并存的"双高悖论"。结果表明,我国商品住宅市场总体而言不存在此悖论,大多数省份和大城市的空置率和房价呈负相关关系,空置率变化率是实际房价变化率的格兰杰因,空置率上涨1%,实际房价下降0.5%。基于自然空置率测算结果,本文提出我国空置率的合理范围为5%-20%。     

The Integration of Immigrants in Northern Sweden: A Case Study of the Municipality of Strömsund

The aim of this study was to examine the integration process with regard to an integration and voluntary re‐settlement project in a rural area in northern Sweden. The project was an attempt to use existing resources in the municipality to attract people with an immigrant background to move from segregated urban environments to a rural municipality. Potential settlers were also recruited abroad. The empirical data were based on eight group interviews with recently arrived immigrant families, and eleven individual interviews with people who played an active role in the project organisation. The results showed that the new families had been integrated into the community to the extent promised by the local authority. The process was facilitated by the resources provided by both parties, but it did not involve significant costs. The immigrants were motivated to move because they wanted a new lifestyle, while the local community was motivated to provide a supportive structure for the new inhabitants because of an awareness of the imminent demographic crisis facing the community due to depopulation. The integration process was strongly influenced by the implicit criteria on which the newcomers were recruited.     

Tenure Preference,Discourse and Housing Debt: Language’s Role in Tenure Stigmatisation

The British housing market has been characterised by a preference for owner-occupation which derives, in part, from the fact that there are many structural (primarily economic) forces that have resulted in tenants being increasingly marginalised. This is particularly true of tenants of local authority housing, which still makes up over 20% of the housing stock of Great Britain. While it may be possible to address these structural forces, and to propose programmes which may reduce the marginalisation, this paper seeks to address whether the stigmatisation of local authority tenants and of their landlords has now also become a problem of discourse itself. The paper seeks to examine this through the language used in relation to arrears of rent and mortgage payments, Drawing on interviews with both tenants and owner-occupiers, the paper suggests that the way in which individuals experience and talk about arrears is in fact relatively tenure neutral. Both owner-occupiers and tenants talked about their arrears in similar ways. This is then contrasted with how housing arrears have been portrayed in the print media. Here the portrayal of the causes and consequences of arrears is not tenure neutral. While owner-occupiers are portrayed as being the victims of forces beyond their control, and the institutional lenders are generally portrayed as seeking to minimise the impact of these forces on the individual borrower, the position for tenants is different. Here the individual is more often portrayed as feckless and a deliberate non-payer. Local authority landlords are similarly portrayed as inefficient at best and corrupt at worst. The paper concludes by suggesting that further marginalisation of those who are not owner-occupiers cannot be fully addressed without understanding that tenure neutrality is not only a question of economics but also one of language.     

Inscribing Gender in Rural Development: Industrial Homework in Two Midwestern Communities1

Abstract A resurgence of informal economic work, such as home-working, occurred in some rural areas during the 1970s and the 1980s. In two midwestern communities, an employer of industrial homeworkers was recruited in an effort to boost the local economy with new jobs. In these communities, ideas about women's roles in households and the labor market are crucial to the states' ability to couple industrial homeworking with rural community development. Industrial homeworking as development in the United States shows how development goals support and maintain the sexual division of labor in households and in the local labor market. Personal interviews and archival documents form the basis of the case study data. These data are content-analyzed for themes about the process of development and the relationship of the local states and industrial firms.     

Strong Ties,Weak Ties,and Human Capital: Latino Immigrant Employment Outside the Enclave*

Abstract This study focuses on the role of social ties and human capital in the integration of Latino immigrants into the local economy. This analysis extends earlier research by focusing on more rural contexts with limited labor‐market opportunities and less access to social resources provided by coethnics. We reconsider conclusions of previous studies by focusing on areas with limited labor‐market opportunities and less access to resources provided by coethnics. Using data from in‐depth interviews, focus‐group discussions, and surveys of former farmworkers in five rural communities in New York, we consider how individuals move from agricultural to other types of employment. Multinomial logit and ordinary least squares regression analyses confirm indications from our qualitative data that strong social ties, weak ties, and human capital all play distinctive parts in the economic integration of immigrants outside the ethnic enclave. These resources have the most positive impact on incomes when they contribute to the immigrants' self‐reliance in finding employment. This finding is consistent with observations from the social‐network literature that those who are less reliant on strong social ties are better able to take advantage of a broader range of labor‐market opportunities.