Beyond Bricks and Mortar : Building Homes, Communities, and Neighbourhoods.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Power, Anne.

Series:

CASE Studies on Poverty, Place and Policy Series

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (253 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Bristol : Policy Press, 2025.

Summary:

Social housing continues to decline as existing tenanted homes are sold to their occupiers and run-down council estates are demolished. Demonstrating the value of the ‘Housing Plus’ approach –investment beyond “bricks and mortar” – this book outlines the role social landlords can play in tackling community problems. By investing in estate renewal, helping to house the vulnerable, offering a wide range of tenures and encouraging community housing, this approach builds links between housing design and a wider social value agenda. With the voices of tenants and frontline staff at the forefront, Anne Power demonstrates how policy and practice can shift the bias against social housing in favour of its re-expansion.

Contents:

Front Cover

Beyond Bricks and Mortar: Building Homes, Communities, and Neighbourhoods

Copyright Page

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Preface

1 Introduction: Community, people, and place

2 The meaning of shelter

What makes shelter a basic need?

What does even the most rudimentary shelter provide?

Part I Our (UK) Housing History

3 Early reform

Robert Owen and the birth of cooperatives

Voluntary efforts at reform

Octavia Hill: housing reformer and inventor of housing management

Women's role in housing

Five per cent philanthropy

Slum demolition as a consequence of building new homes

The role of local government

Public infrastructure displaces slum housing

The Boundary Estate: an example of early council rebuilding

Quaker villages and garden cities as models of new communities

Quaker villages: Rowntree and Cadbury

Garden cities: Letchworth and Welwyn Garden City

Wider action follows reform

4 Homes fit for heroes: playing the numbers game

Slum clearance

Problems on new estates

Slums persist alongside growing council landlord problems

The spread of 'suburban semis'

Disastrous consequences of World War II

Modest responses to major challenges

The mass housing vision

New Towns

Part II The Dream Unravels: New Ways to Tackle Old Problems

5 Rebuilding communities: putting people first

A bad turn

Old slums revived

Tenants matter

Renovations take off

The power of community

The threat of gentrification and the re-.emergence of housing associations

Tenant-.led management organisations

'Hard-to-let' and experiments in estate rescue: the Priority Estates Project

Decentralisation: bureaucracy or delivery?

Glasgow's unique housing experiment

Conclusion

6 Race and housing

Policing disorder.

The impact of housing management on race

A misguided policy goes wrong

Why social landlords must do more

The importance of residents and representing the whole community

Targeted initiatives help integrate minority ethnic households

Race and Housing Plus

7 Breaking up council control: the regrowth of smaller, more community-based landlords

Transformative change

Beyond bricks and mortar, and the spread of 'breakaways'

Reshaping communities

Area-.based housing initiatives

Right to Manage

Favouring owner occupation

Urban abandonment

Gentrification can transform semi-.abandoned areas

Applying upgrading lessons more widely

The transfer of council housing to housing associations

Part III Targeting the Poorest Areas

8 New Labour

Facing major welfare problems

Unforeseen problems with the Right to Buy

Social exclusion and inclusion

A national strategy for neighbourhood renewal

Sure Start: targeted support for families with small children

Decent Homes programme

Neighbourhood management

Defining neighbourhood management

Implementing neighbourhood management

9 Wider challenges threaten communities

The decline of British cities

Early roots of New Labour's Urban Task Force

'You can't build Barcelona in Britain'

Towards an urban renaissance

Design and management

Five leading imperatives that drive urban decline and recovery

Land

Economic and social integration

Transport

Urban governance

The urban environment

Reinvesting in cities

Sustainable development

Site visits

Special contributions

The Sustainable Communities Plan: neither sustainable nor deliverable

The three-.legged stool

Costing the earth: between the environment, the economy, and society

How housing fits in.

Part IV Changing the Basis of Welfare

10 Austerity kicks in

Anti-poverty and anti-inequality commitments collide with a banking crisis

Shift from protection to cuts

Housing cuts lead to radical changes

Rent setting

Shrinking the welfare safety net

'Big Society': galvanising communities instead of the state

Universal Credit

The Coalition government's record: why 'Big Society' failed

How social landlords stepped up to help poor communities

Shift from Coalition to Conservative government

Bad news for vulnerable groups

The Conservative government's record, 2015-20

11 Major changes to housing policy and practice

Mixed communities

The value of infill sites

Rebuilding while retaining the existing community

Developing new social homes

Council housebuilding starts up again

Building 'up North' or 'down South'

Chain lettings

The boom in private renting

Government reforms and social landlords: a more even playing field?

The growing threat of homelessness

Triggers for rough sleeping

Housing First

The Homelessness Reduction Act

12 Social landlords plug the gaps

Plugging the gaps created by funding cuts

Do economies of scale work?

Repairs

Management culture and professionalism

The urgency of reform

The Grenfell fire tragedy and neighbourhood management

The COVID-19 pandemic

A return to 'patch management'

Damaging publicity

The climate crisis

The Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund

Lessons for a new crisis

Alternative ways forward

13 Investing in communities: social landlords to the fore

A shift to existing stock

The case for retrofit

Complex chains of management

The social purpose of social landlords

Conclusions: An overview

Glossary

Notes

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3.

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

1-4473-5757-4

1-4473-5754-X

1-4473-5756-6

OCLC:

1509442997