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In recent years there have been great changes in the demographic and socio-economic profiles of the sector's tenant stock. Associated with these trends are changes in attitudes, aspirations and demands. Moreover, in today's climate of social housing reduction, stigmatisation, residualisation and rise in low cost home ownership, there are questions as to what role social housing is and should be playing in people's lives. This thesis tackles this increasingly important issue within British society. Hitherto, the debate has been informed very largely by research on households entering and living in social housing. Therefore, the study reported in this thesis gives particular attention to the role that social housing has played in the lives of those who have left the sector. It places the answer within the wider context of demographic and social change and the resultant transforming nature of, and changing demands on, the social housing sector. By adopting a multi-method approach the wider macro-level effects are elucidated as catalysts for change in the way people view social housing's role during their life course. In this manner, the study works towards an understanding of the exit 'process' and not just the exit 'event'. The results indicate that, in general, households exiting social housing have seen their time within the sector as a transitional period not just within their housing career but within their lives, a chance to consolidate household finances and set the foundations for future plans. The work Rifther reveals the difficulties faced by social housing providers in adapting to changes in demand and in tenant profiles in a society where, for the vast majority, the ultimate aspiration is of home ownership.

This thesis studies the development and outcomes of housing and social security policies designed to make rent affordable to tenants in Great Britain. The primary research questions are first. How has policy changed and Why. and, second. How much have these changes cost, and to whom. The period studied is between 1945 and 1986. Policy development is analyzed through historical examination of documentary archives and published sources. Three themes are used to explore the evolution of policy. First, the development of housing policy is approached by examining the changing priorities between the aims of making rent affordable, the constraint of public spending and of tenure preference. Second, social security policy is analyzed to establish the role of rent in selective and universal benefit strategies. Third, the role of central and local government relations is explored to establish whether the role of rents and subsidies has been one characterised by conflicting aims between these two levels of government. The outcomes of policy are analyzed through secondary analysis of published government data, and through computerised secondary analysis of Family Expenditure Survey machine-readable data. The changing household composition and incomes of rented households is analyzed and compared between tenures. Model rented households are compared over time to assess the changing value of means tested rent rebates. FES samples from 1971, 1976, 1981 and 1986 are examined to establish how the affordability of rent has changed according to three criteria. First, a comparison is made of rent as a proportion of net household incomes, both with and without means tested rent subsidies. Second, rent is compared to equivalent household net income, with an examination of those who pay high and low proportions of income on rent in the top and bottom quintiles of tenant income distribution. Third, disposable household income, having paid rent, is examined in relation to equivalent supplementary benefit levels. The last outcomes discussed are those associated with public expenditure. Spending on rent support is examined to establish its changing value in real terms. Explanations are examined for changing trends in spending, and the distribution of spending examined between programmes, between central and local government, and between local authority and private landlords.

This thesis is concerned with how sustainable and low carbon living can be enabled in new housing developments in the UK. The consumption of energy and resources is not just related to the insulating qualities of the fabric of the building and the heating, lighting, appliances and ventilation systems that go into the building, but also to the occupancy patterns and activities of future residents over the long-term. Conventional business models for new housing development, operating under current government regulations, policies and targets have failed to develop housing which encourages the adoption of sustainable lifestyles taking whole life consumption into account. This thesis aims to identify alternative ways in which UK housing development can contribute to achieving 80% carbon savings in the UK by 2050. A tool (the Climate Challenge Tool) has been developed allowing whole-life carbon equivalent emissions and costs of various options for new developments to be calculated. These cover technical and soft measures; energy used within the home, energy embodied in the building materials and emissions from transport, food and waste treatment. Applying the tool to a case study development, it was found that carbon reductions can be achieved at much lower costs through an approach, which enables sustainable lifestyles, rather than one that purely focuses on technical measures such as those covered in the building regulations. Furthermore a wider sustainability analysis showed additional social and economic benefits from many of the lifestyles measures. A specific opportunity to incorporate lifestyles measures into new developments was identified: Eco-self-build housing communities. The feasibility of this opportunity was assessed through a stakeholder survey and was judged to be viable. It is concluded that with additional government support or removal of regulatory barriers, eco-self-build communities has the potential to contribute considerably to an 80% emission reduction target.

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After World War II (WWII) Britain was responsible for much of the early pioneering, multi-storey architecture and British architects designed some of the best social housing in the world. This formed part of an extraordinary drive for modernisation and it was an important instrument in comprehensive architectural reform. Although multi-storey housing accounted for only 20% of all approvals between 1963-7, it has come to epitomise the post-War era and 'modem living’. These buildings are now a paradox. Rather than being at the forefront of a new ideology they now form part of our built legacy. Their consideration as heritage appears highly contentious and has resulted in differing public, professional and political opinion. Despite both the Government and English Heritage recognising that they are facing acute redevelopment pressures, their heritage designation is vastly under-represented and without heritage classification they have no protection against the perceived threats. This thesis proposes that there are underlying factors hindering the heritage protection of Post-WWII social housing and that for the few that have attained heritage classification there is an inconsistent approach to their protection basis. It aims to identify, therefore, the problems associated with its conservation so that action can be recommended to help improve its protection. This will be achieved by examining a series of case studies that will show how Modern post-WWII social housing is being preserved and brought into the conservation arena; it will highlight the perceived threats that are hindering its conservation; it will assess whether it presents different conservation requirements and demands an alternative methodology than that for buildings from earlier periods; it will evaluate how Modernism’s origins and objectives have a bearing on the conservation aims; and it will analyse how these buildings are being conserved to preserve their architectural and historical significance and also ensure they remain economically and socially viable to meet society’s current needs.

The purpose of this thesis is to provide a decision support model for the early diagnosis of housing bubbles in the UK during the phenomenon’s maturity process. The development process of the model is divided into four stages. These stages are driven by the normal distribution theorem coupled with the case study approach. The application of normal distribution theory is allowed through the usage of several parametric tools. An empirical application of the model is conducted using UK housing market data for the period of 1983-2011; and by placing particular emphasis on the last two UK housing bubble case studies, 1986 to 1989 and 2001/2 to 2007. The central hypothesis of the model is that during housing bubbles, all speculative activities of market participants follow an approximate synchronisation. The new algorithmic approach successfully identifies the well-known historical UK bubble episodes over the period of 1983-2011. The proposed algorithm acts like an index or a thermometer to gauge the ‘‘fever’’ of a housing bubble in the UK at any point in time. In this approach, the housing bubble is no longer invisible until the crash, and as such can be monitored over time. The study further determines that for uncovering housing bubbles in the UK, house price changes have the same weight as the debt-burden ratio when their velocity is positive. The application of this model-algorithm has led us to conclude that the model’s outputs fluctuate approximately in line with phases of the UK real estate cycle. Finally, the research has provided a new and more technical definition of housing bubbles. The phenomenon is defined as a situation in which all speculative activities of market participants achieve an approximate synchronisation. Consequently, under such regime, the model expects that (during housing bubbles) an irrational, synchronised and periodic increase in a wide range of relevant variables must occur to anticipate a bubble component. In this definition, the relevant variables are those that exhibit a periodic and irrational acceleration in the rate of change, which, in turn, is synchronised with other relevant variables. Therefore, the model views such variables as symptoms for identifying housing bubbles. This thesis proposes a new measure for studying the presence of irrational housing bubbles. This measure is not simply an ex post detection technique but employs dating algorithms that use data only up to the point of analysis for an on-going bubble assessment, giving an early warning diagnostic that can assist market participants and regulators in market monitoring.

The ambitions and activities of social housing providers in the UK today extend beyond those associated with the traditional landlord role. Providers are now aiming to address a range of complex and cross-cutting social issues to improve individual and community wellbeing. A recent advance in practice to support this broader service delivery has been the development and adoption of tools and approaches to measure the social value generated by such activities. This thesis aims to understand, firstly, the contextual drivers for the recent growth of this practice in the sector; and secondly, the most significant dynamics for successful implementation, from both the operational perspective of the individual organisation and the strategic perspective of the wider social housing sector. This is approached through qualitative interviews with programme architects and leading practitioners, drawing on a conceptual framework that combines a programme theory approach (realist evaluation) with an implementation theory formation (Theory of Change), within the analytic framework provided by the ‘public value’ paradigm. The thesis concludes by specifying a model for the implementation of social impact measurement, which looks beyond the individual methods for impact measurement to assess the wider contextual factors and the specific inner workings of the complete process (including the necessary organisational capabilities) that are required to successfully implement and embed the practice. This then provides a number of insights into the developments needed at an organisational and sector-wide level to fulfil the positive outcomes anticipated from social impact measurement.

The UK speculative housebuilding industry has grown and prospered primarily through the conversion of greenfield land into mass, standardised housing estates. As such, the UK Government’s commitment to restricting the development of housing primarily to brownfield sites presents a significant challenge to the current skills base of many speculative housebuilders. Whilst the housebuilding industry has demonstrated in recent years a commitment to brownfield development through the steady increase in the numbers of dwellings built on previously developed land, concerns exists over whether the industry has developed the requisite core competencies necessary to secure a long-term commitment to brownfield development. In response to such concerns, this research assesses the attitudes, behaviours and corporate strategies of a select number of speculative housebuilders towards brownfield development in the English and Scottish contexts. Through this, the research presents a timely and important evaluation of the strategic decision making of UK speculative housebuilders and explores the concept of institutional capacity through an investigation into the private sectors response to public policy change.

This work contains 18 publications exploring evidence based strategies to enable health promoting housing and communities in the private sector. It examines housing’s contribution to health in the public health agenda; policy priorities and arrangements to deliver healthier housing; partnership working and health outcomes in housing; and measuring evidence of health gain in housing from practitioner interventions and has required a multi-method research programme of theory and practice including case studies, focus groups, comparative studies, telephone and face-to-face interviews/semi-structured discussion in a variety of settings. The work consolidates housing and public health policies, exploring their wider ideological shaping. It particularly focuses on New Labour policies since the launch of the current public health agenda in delivering new evidence-based interventions. These rely on a new relationship between government (as governance) and communities to deliver health improvement and to address health inequalities through partnership working, although barriers remain. Simultaneously, policy developments in private sector housing renewal have emphasised personal responsibility in the sector, and focus more closely on meeting individual and community need. The current situation can present something of a dilemma between seeing housing as a health determinant or as a commercial asset for both owner-occupiers and private sector landlords. The work brings together different sets of literature and fields of research which link housing and health in the private sector, and also different elements of policy as part of the government’s emphasis on joined up government, finding that although the strategic public health frameworks are in place, there remains pressure for organisations to revert to core activities.