Since the 1950s, towns and cities of the Less Developed Countries have been experiencing unprecedentedly high rates of population growth. The limited urban housing stock have not been able to cope with the demand for housing. The limited housing units become overcrowded, slums develop in central area of cities, and squatter settlements grow at the periphery. Many ideas such as slum clearance and public housing have been tried in improving the appalling housing situation, which affects mainly the low-income population in urban centres, but with no significant results. Contemporary housing ideas of sites-and-services and upgrading which became gradually accepted from the early 1970s are yet to have pronounced impact on the urban housing condition in Less Developed Countries. Despite the gradual but steady movement by governments of many Less Developed Countries towards sites-and-services and upgrading, public housing, with its high financial cost to the government and its many inadequacies to the low-income groups, continues to be the national housing approach in Nigeria. This thesis is an attempt to examine urban housing approaches in the Less Developed Countries since about the 1950s and, with reference to Nigeria, identify the current major issues in adequately providing housing for the majority of the urban population. Consideration is then given to posible approaches to tackling issues, particularly under the prevailing economic climate in Nigeria. Chapter one is a general introduction to the thesis and it also gives a brief background to the low-income people in Nigeria. Chapter two discusses the urban housing situation in Nigeria and examines various attempts at improving it, particularly with reference to the low-income people. Chapter three reviews the different housing ideas that have evolved over the years, from the 1950s, in Less Developed Countries in an attempt to find a solution to the urban housing problems. In an attempt to improve the situation of low-income peoples' housing in Less Developed Countries, many governments experiment with contemporary housing ideas of sites-and-services and upgrading. Chapter four examines some of the experiments. The experiments with recent ideas by some countries in chapter four show that despite the inherent advantages of sites-and-services and upgrading over previous housing ideas, such as public housing, some major issues are yet to be adequately addressed. Such issues are examined in chapter five. Chapter six is a general discussion on the current major isues identified in the thesis and consideration is then given to possible approaches to tackling them in Nigeria.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:640270 |
| Date | January 1990 |
| Creators | Akindude, P. O. |
| Publisher | University of Edinburgh |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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