<p>Background: In newspaper articles, we can nowadays read headlines as"Stop the robbing!"and"They pay extra tax through rent". A column in Göteborgsposten describes enormous amounts of money, pouring between municipal companies. Numerous of local newspapers have started to pay attention to their municipal companies and the transfer of profits from municipal housing enterprises and electric power companies. What are upsetting these journalists then? Both Hyresgästföreningen (The Swedish tenants’ association) and Boverket (The Swedish National Housing Board) indicate that the fiscal purpose of transactions within the group no longer is primary for municipalities. They allege that the transactions are improperly exploited by transferring inappropriate amounts of money from municipal housing enterprises. </p><p>Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to map transactions between municipal group companies and also evaluate if they are consistent with the accounting regulation in the domain. Delimitation: The case study will have a geographical delimitation by only including the group of Linköpings Stadshus. The study will only include the years during 1997-2003. The transactions that will be examined are group contributions, shareholders’ contribution and dividend. The case study will also process the interest expense of the parent company because of the promissory note loan that was raised from the municipality of Linköping in connection with the formation of the group. </p><p>Realisation: In the form of a case study, the thesis was realised through the collection of annual reports, obtained from the companies concerned. These data was complemented through qualitative interviews with representatives from the parent company and the municipality. The complementation was made to increase the comprehension of the problems. </p><p>Results: The municipality is primarily using competition and focus in result as important factors when trying to imitate private companies. This does not harmonize with the purpose of the municipal transactions. It is also clear that municipal groups may be composing strategies dealing with empty the subsidiary companies out on capital. This applies particularly to electric power companies. In the case study, compared to a payment of tax, Tekniska Verken has not recovered enough shareholders’ contribution. With that, these companies financial position is clearly deteriorating compared to if they would pay tax. Regulations of housing enterprises were not created until 1999. That means that violations of the regulations were not possible before that either. Obviously, the groups were using this opportunity, and the dividend that has been discussed in the case study, is a clear example of the municipality not giving priority to the clients of the housing enterprise. Though, it is important to point out the legality of a dividend of that kind.</p>

Background: In newspaper articles, we can nowadays read headlines as"Stop the robbing!"and"They pay extra tax through rent". A column in Göteborgsposten describes enormous amounts of money, pouring between municipal companies. Numerous of local newspapers have started to pay attention to their municipal companies and the transfer of profits from municipal housing enterprises and electric power companies. What are upsetting these journalists then? Both Hyresgästföreningen (The Swedish tenants’ association) and Boverket (The Swedish National Housing Board) indicate that the fiscal purpose of transactions within the group no longer is primary for municipalities. They allege that the transactions are improperly exploited by transferring inappropriate amounts of money from municipal housing enterprises. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to map transactions between municipal group companies and also evaluate if they are consistent with the accounting regulation in the domain. Delimitation: The case study will have a geographical delimitation by only including the group of Linköpings Stadshus. The study will only include the years during 1997-2003. The transactions that will be examined are group contributions, shareholders’ contribution and dividend. The case study will also process the interest expense of the parent company because of the promissory note loan that was raised from the municipality of Linköping in connection with the formation of the group. Realisation: In the form of a case study, the thesis was realised through the collection of annual reports, obtained from the companies concerned. These data was complemented through qualitative interviews with representatives from the parent company and the municipality. The complementation was made to increase the comprehension of the problems. Results: The municipality is primarily using competition and focus in result as important factors when trying to imitate private companies. This does not harmonize with the purpose of the municipal transactions. It is also clear that municipal groups may be composing strategies dealing with empty the subsidiary companies out on capital. This applies particularly to electric power companies. In the case study, compared to a payment of tax, Tekniska Verken has not recovered enough shareholders’ contribution. With that, these companies financial position is clearly deteriorating compared to if they would pay tax. Regulations of housing enterprises were not created until 1999. That means that violations of the regulations were not possible before that either. Obviously, the groups were using this opportunity, and the dividend that has been discussed in the case study, is a clear example of the municipality not giving priority to the clients of the housing enterprise. Though, it is important to point out the legality of a dividend of that kind.

Le tiers secteur du logement, segment hybride entre le logement social et le logement privé, héritier des coopératives d'habitat de la fin du XIXème siècle, est redécouvert en sa qualité d'alternative potentielle : il renverrait à une offre de logement abordable, qui viserait à loger décemment l'ensemble de la population, dans des contextes spatiaux très divers, mais majoritairement dans des métropoles toujours plus sous pression démographique, foncière et socio-spatiale . Le périmètre métropolitain est novateur pour analyser les effets spatiaux de ce segment qui paraît indissociable du cadre national. La région métropolitaine Vienne-Bratislava est souvent étudiée sous l'angle de la coopération transfrontalière, « par le haut », où le poids des divergences nationales, en termes socio-économiques et de politiques publiques, demeure important, questionnant alors l'intégration de la reg1on métropolitaine. Cependant, la partie autrichienne, tout comme la partie slovaque de cette région transfrontalière font face à des défis similaires, qu'il s'agisse de périurbanisation (y compris un phénomène de périurbanisation transfrontalière), d'attractivité métropolitaine ou encore de maintien de la cohésion socio-spatiale. Une entrée par le tiers secteur du logement, segment du logement présent dans les deux contextes nationaux sous des formes et avec une part dans le stock et la construction très variées, permet de questionner l'intégration silencieuse de la région métropolitaine, par l'évolution du tissu métropolitain (à travers la production au concret du tiers secteur), les stratégies des acteurs et l'évolution des politiques publiques, à l'interface entre viabilité économique et mission d'intérêt général. / The third housing sector, as a hybrid segment linking social housing and private-driven housing, is being rediscovered as an alternative form of housing, due to the legacy of housing cooperatives from the end of the 19th century: it could lead to an affordable housing supply so as to offer decent accommodation to a broader part of the population, in various spatial contexts but mainly in metropolitan areas which face ever-increasing demographie, land and socio-spatial pressure. The choice of a metropolitan perimeter provides an added dimension to this housing segment which seems to inextricably echo the national scale. The metropolitan region Vienna-Bratislava is often analyzed with a focus on cross-border cooperation, with a top-down approach . However national divergences in terms of socio-economic development and public policy orientations remain significant, and thus question the true extent of the integration of this metropolitan cross-border region. Nevertheless both Austrian and Slovak part of this region face similar issues such as suburbanization (including a rising cross-border suburbanization process), attractiveness of metropolises, and socio-spatial cohesion. Through the scope of the third housing sector which exists in both contexts under various forms (in terms of both housing stock and construction) I will question the silent integration of this metropolitan region by monitoring the evolution of the metropolitan fabric (through the concrete housing production in the third housing sector), strategies of stakeholders and the evolution of housing policies, caught between economie viability and general interest tasks.