In seeking to understand society sociologists in the Public Policy, Welfare and Scoial Work set of the International Library of Sociology consider the policy and planning implications of attempts to respond to and meet social needs by the Church, Civil Service, Industry and Voluntary Organizations.

In recent years many nations have asked why not enough housing is being built or, when it is built, why it isn't of the highest quality or in the best, most sustainable, locations. Politics, Planning and Housing Supply in Australia, England and Hong Kong examines the politics and planning of new homes in three very different settings, but with shared political traditions: in Australia, in England and in Hong Kong. It investigates the power-relationships and politics that underpin the allocation of land for large-scale residential schemes and the processes and politics that lead to particular development outcomes. Using a comparative framework, it asks: how different systems of urban governance and planning mediate the supply of land for housing; whether and how these system differences influence the location, quantity and price of residential land and the implications for housing outcomes; what can be learned from these different systems for allocating land, building consensus between different stakeholders, and delivering a steady supply of high quality and well located homes accessible to, and appropriate for, diverse housing needs. This book frames each case study in a comprehensive examination of national and territorial frameworks before dissecting key local cases. These local cases – urban renewal and greenfield growth centres in Australia, new towns and strategic sites in England, and major development schemes in Hong Kong – explore how broader urban planning and housing policy goals play out at the local level. While the book highlights a number of potential strategies for improving planning and housing delivery processes, the real challenge is to give voice to a broader array of interests, reconstituting the political process surrounding planning and housing development to prioritise homes in well-planned places for the many, rather than simply facilitating investment opportunities for the few.

Today, there is a tremendous mismatch between the available housing stock in the US and the housing options that people want and need. The post-WWII, auto-centric, single-family-development model no longer meets the needs of residents. Urban areas in the US are experiencing dramatically shifting household and cultural demographics and a growing demand for walkable urban living. Missing Middle Housing, a term coined by Daniel Parolek, describes the walkable, desirable, yet attainable housing that many people across the country are struggling to find. Missing Middle Housing types—such as duplexes, fourplexes, and bungalow courts—can provide options along a spectrum of affordability. In Missing Middle Housing, Parolek, an architect and urban designer, illustrates the power of these housing types to meet today’s diverse housing needs. With the benefit of beautiful full-color graphics, Parolek goes into depth about the benefits and qualities of Missing Middle Housing. The book demonstrates why more developers should be building Missing Middle Housing and defines the barriers cities need to remove to enable it to be built. Case studies of built projects show what is possible, from the Prairie Queen Neighborhood in Omaha, Nebraska to the Sonoma Wildfire Cottages, in California. A chapter from urban scholar Arthur C. Nelson uses data analysis to highlight the urgency to deliver Missing Middle Housing. Parolek proves that density is too blunt of an instrument to effectively regulate for twenty-first-century housing needs. Complete industries and systems will have to be rethought to help deliver the broad range of Missing Middle Housing needed to meet the demand, as this book shows. Whether you are a planner, architect, builder, or city leader, Missing Middle Housing will help you think differently about how to address housing needs for today’s communities.

Housing Policy in the UK is a major new textbook that traces the emergence of a 'new comprehensive housing policy' in the wake of the Communities Plan and regionalisation. Grounded in cutting-edge research and analysis, it provides a clear account of the evolution and current dimensions and tensions at the heart of this policy.

The focus of this book is on how public policy - and especially the planning system - both shapes and reflects the essential characteristics of land and property markets. It challenges the common misconceptions that property markets operate in isolation from public policy and that planning permission is the only significant form of state intervention in the market. Planning, Public Policy & Property Markets contends that effective state-market relations in land and property are critical to a prosperous economy and a robust democracy, especially at a time when development aims to be sustainable and environmental protection needs to be matched by urban and rural regeneration. The book thus reflects an increased realisation among academics and practitioners of the importance of theoretical integration and ‘joined-up’ policy-making. Its rounded perspective addresses a significant weakness in the academic literature and will encourage broader debate and a more pluralist agenda for property research. Prominent contributors present important new research on different market sectors and policy arenas, including regeneration and renewal, housing growth, housing planning, transport and economic competitiveness, while the editors specifically draw out more general lessons on the dynamic nature of the state/property market relationship in a modern economy. This book will encourage all those involved in property research who strive for theoretical and practical connectivity to demonstrate that, just as property market operations cannot be analysed without understanding state processes, policy decisions cannot be taken without an appreciation of how the market operates.

First published in 1998, this book addresses a central issue in housing: that of ‘need’ and how to meet it. Need refers either to individual household circumstances or to the aggregate requirement for new (social and market) housing. The book develops a new policy mechanism to address the present fragmented policy situation. The mechanism now used to allocate finance and new social housing numbers is complex and ineffective in terms of meeting needs. The book’s proposals are rooted in clear definitions of the key terms, especially that of housing need, which suffers from lack of any clear definition. The analysis is developed using a large database of survey information covering England and Wales. The proposed policy mechanism should be of great interest at a time when radical change to local government are being considered. The proposed mechanism would greatly increase value for money of public time and expenditure on (planning for) social housing.

This report recommends that a default answer of 'yes' to development should be removed from the National Planning Policy Framework (NPFF). The phrase 'significantly and demonstrably' must also be removed from the presumption that all planning applications should be approved unless the adverse effects 'significantly and demonstrably' outweigh the benefits, because it adds a further barrier to the achievement of truly sustainable development. The definition of 'sustainable development' is inadequate and often conflated with 'sustainable economic growth'. The framework gives the impression that greater emphasis should be given in planning decisions to economic growth, undermining the equally important environmental and social elements of the planning system. The NPPF should require local planning decisions to be taken in accordance with the presumption in favour of sustainable development consistent with Local Plans. It is unacceptable that so many parts of England have yet to develop and adopt a new Local Plan. Clarity within the NPPF has suffered in the pursuit of brevity. Inconsistent drafting could create gaps in planning policy or guidance that could lead to a huge expansion in the size of Local Plans - as local authorities attempt to plug those gaps. The test for 'viability', as currently worded, risks allowing unsustainable developments to go ahead if measures to make them sustainable are deemed to make them unviable for the developer. MPs also call for a sensible transition period to give local authorities time to put Local Plans in place where they have not already done so.