The aim of the thesis is to fill a gap in knowledge about collaboration and the possibilities that exist for the achievement of collaborative advantage by examining in detail the way that institutional pressure and power impacts on tenants and residents association (TARA) and council collaboration. Three levels of analysis are used to examine relations between institutional forces and power at the macro-level (including legislation, traditions and customs) and their affect on the political environment within which organizations are located and collaborate at the meso-level and individuals in organizations act at the micro-level. The thesis uses ideas and concepts that are part of institutional theory and theory on power to show what affect the national political environment has had on mandated TARA and council collaboration. The focus is on how effectively existing theory on collaboration and collaborative advantage deals with institutions, the ways in which they can impact on relations between collaborating organizations and the role of mandated collaboration when there are large inequalities of power between collaborating organizations with very different cultures and values. The research design comprised a longitudinal single case study to examine and analyse TARA and council collaboration. I adopted an ethnographic and grounded research approach to obtain people’s views and perspectives on collaboration for later coding and categorization that led to the emergence of various ideas, concepts and relations. My new concept that helps to explain how organizations can be involved in a process where they are disadvantaged in collaboration is introduced and developed.

Abstract This thesis makes a critical assessment of the Liverpool Corporation's inter-war development of multi-storey housing schemes in the central core of the city. It sets these buildings in the wider context of their political and architectural rationale - locally, nationally and in relation to comparable European examples. In particular, it addresses the multiple aspects of the intellectual heritage that underpinned the conception and design of municipal multi-storey housing schemes in a period when, in England at least, they were notable by their rarity. The rationale for building flatted blocks with public money had its roots in the nineteenth century as a pragmatic response to Liverpool's problems of overcrowding and disease, the need for proximity to the casualised dockside economy, and high central land values. This multi-storey tradition was re-energised by the housing crisis after the First World War when the same pragmatic economic reasoning was reinforced by cross-party support for a self-consciously modern programme of flats. The political momentum was underscored by the presence of progressive council officers and the appointment of Lancelot Keay as Assistant Director of Housing in 1925, whose sympathies were with large-scale and rationally-conceived re-planning, to meet housing (and economic) need whilst creating a quality and scale of architecture which befitted Liverpool's ambitions of civic-minded building in a more welfare-inflected era. Also significant was the cultural capital bound up in connections with the Liverpool School of Architecture, which from the 1930s supplied the Housing Department with innovative young architects, as interns and junior staff mem bers. The architecture of the multi-storey schemes in Liverpool reflected significant trends in contemporary British and European architectural practice. In planning terms Lancelot Keay was a committed follower of Beaux Arts principles of grand, axial planning on a truly urban scale - a method also taught enthusiastically at the Liverpool School of Architecture under Charles Reilly. In the 1930s, the shift in style from Neo-Georgian to an expressionistic form of modernism under the creative input of graduates from the school such as John Hughes immensely influenced the Housing Department's practice, and examples of European municipal and trade union housing schemes were used to communicate the Corporation's ambitions for a truly modern conception of how the city's re-housing should be planned. With flats at the centre of Liverpool's inter-war re-housing programme, both the city and Lancelot Keay rose to some degree of national prominence in the 1930s, as part of the ongoing professional and political debate on municipal housing in general and flats versus houses in particular. Keay was invited to sit on Ministry of Health committees that helped shape policy on the issue and numerous foreign delegations visited Liverpool's schemes. The legislative context and governmental systems of subsidy were never able to fully support Liverpool's ambitions for comprehensive multi-storey redevelopment, but it is clear from the scope of the city's proposals that it was like no other nationally in its promotion of flats as a desirable solution to the problem of the housing crisis; no comparable English cities of the period engaged to the same extent with a programmatic development of multi-storey schemes. Liverpool's flats attempted to create environments that were more than superficially modern, drawing inspiration from the communal social and recreational facilities of some European schemes. The Housing Department's work was characterised by implicit and explicit desires for modernity in multi-storey public housing, in design and ideological conception, and as such represented a highly significant early example of large-scale municipal modernism in public housing practice.

The existing housing stock in the UK is the oldest stock in the whole of Western Europe, leading to poor housing conditions. The Scottish Government is committed to improving the performance of the existing housing stock and one of its goals is the 2050 low carbon target. Through this initiative, the Scottish Government aims to reduce 80% of the carbon consumption of the dwellings to 1990 levels by the year 2050. To achieve this target, social housing providers have adopted different refurbishment approaches for transforming existing dwellings. To aid with the transformation of existing dwellings, this research explores the performance of existing no-fines concrete dwellings. No-fines concrete dwellings were chosen for this research, as in the 1970s this system of construction was seen as a system that saved energy. However, now, in the 21 st century, these dwellings are classified by the Scottish Government as hard-to-treat homes. • The performance of no-fines concrete dwellings before and after refurbishment is evaluated using a mixed design methodology and an exploratory approach to data collection. The main findings of this research include that the performance of no- fines concrete construction is dependent on the quality of workmanship. The thermal performance of a no-fines concrete wall is influenced by the geographic location of the wall and the quality of workmanship. The refurbishment approaches adopted on no-fines concrete dwellings are not holistic and are influenced by the funding available and the ownership of the properties. Finally, as an un-holistic refurbishment approach is adopted when heating and ventilation regimes within properties fail, mould and dampness often occur within these properties. Refurbishment approaches fail as a result of the quality of workmanship, the choice of refurbishment approach and the lifestyles of the occupants. This research provides a framework to the social housing providers and occupants to adopt during the refurbishment of existing NFC dwellings. This research suggests future work on monitoring the indoor environment within dwellings after adopting the recommendations from this research.

This thesis examines the development by local authorities of alternative models of ownership of public housing, focusing on large scale voluntary transfers (LSVTs) to specially created housing associations. I attempt to place stock transfer within the wider policy context of changes in the State’s role in the provision of services; and changes in organisational development, reflected in transfer structures; and the wider shift in responsibility for the delivery of public services to the private sector. I examine theories that explain the development of the State’s role in housing and discuss their relationship to LSVT. As discussions involving ‘the State’ must recognise the different interests and motivations of Central and local government, I examine action taken to promote and achieve stock transfer by local authorities and central government. The research method adopted to achieve my aims includes both analysis of existing data and the collection of new data through a sample survey of twenty LSVT associations. I approached the research in five stages: background research – including reviewing literature and examining the legal and regulatory framework for LSVT; identifying the characteristics of early LSVT associations; selecting a sample of twenty selected associations for in-depth survey; conducting in-depth interviews with the twenty associations; analysing and tabulating the data collected and drawing conclusions. The survey focuses on staff perceptions of the reasons for transfer and why politicians and tenants accepted the change; organisational and management change brought about by the new landlords; and the changes brought about by private sector involvement, including new personnel brought in to help run the organisations and the influence of private funders. I attempt to draw key conclusions about LSVT associations from the evidence presented. Finally, I examine how early LSVTs paved the way for a wider stock transfer programme, including transfers by inner-urban authorities and large city councils. I argue that while LSVT may have been developed in response to the financial pressure upon local authorities from the early 1980s onwards, the process has created a new style of business orientated social landlord.

Im Jahre 1912 erfolgte die Gründung der 'Sächsischen Zentralstelle für Wohnungsfürsorge'. 1917 lautete bereits der neue Firmenname: Siedelungs- und Wohnungsfürsorge Gesellschaft 'Sächsisches Heim'. Nach dem ersten Weltkrieg kam es zu Bauversuchen u.a. in der Lehmbauweise. Im Jahre 1921 errichtete sie als Siedelungsgesellschaft 'Dresden Stadt und Land' G.m.b.H. die ersten 12 'Reichsheimstätten' Deutschlands in der Gemeinde Weißig/Deuben (heute Stadt Freital-Weißig). Nach Überwindung der schweren Jahre der Inflation entstanden mit Unterstützung der Siedelungsgesellschaft 'Dresden Stadt und Land' im Stadtgebiet Dresdens bis zum Jahre 1934 die im Folgenden beschriebenen 21 Wohnanlagen. Die Wohnanlagen waren zum Teil von geringer Größe. Eine Ausnahme bildet die Wohnkolonie Laubegast mit 292 Wohneinheiten.

This thesis explores the barriers to effective tenant involvement at an organisational level in housing associations by tracking, over a long period of time, the experience of tenants who get involved in the forums, panels and boards of housing associations. The focus of the research is the relationship between the tenants and the professional staff, in corporate environments where delivery of a user-focused service is purported to be the shared goal. The aim has been to explore with tenants and staff their experiences of trying to make tenant involvement work at a strategic level within the organisation. My research seeks (a) to unravel the methods used by the different actors to influence activities and outcomes, and (b) to examine their effects on the power balance in and between the groups of people in question. Clegg’s 1989 ‘Circuits of power’ theory is used to plot and analyse the processes involved in the transformation (or not) of power within the culture and practice of tenant involvement and the empowerment (or not) of the tenants who work with staff at the heart of these corporate cultures. In addition I use Somerville’s 1998 typology of empowerment to illustrate the potential for organisational change. I gather a wide range of material, using a detailed questionnaire, 17 case studies plus a further three of national level involvement initiatives, and an analysis of 112 Housing Corporation and Audit Commission inspection reports (from 2003 and 2008). To this I add my own experience as a participant observer in a range of settings over the period. This thesis is intended to shed some light on why the same barriers continue to exist and why so many involved tenants and their housing associations are still struggling to make involvement really make a difference at this level, despite a decade of intensive regulations and inspection of involvement activities.