The Formulation of Local Housing Strategies: A Critical Evaluation

This study comprehensively examines the housing market as it existed in the 1990s, with a particular focus upon the manner in which local authorities both formulated housing strategies and monitored housing needs and demands. The 1990s provide an interesting period for such an examination: not only were housing pressures becoming more complex with uncertain demographic projections and changes in household formulation, but there was also a return to integrated housing strategies, a policy that had first developed in the 1970s. The objectives of the study are based on three simple research questions: to what degree do local authorities operate in a fashion that allows policies to be integrated and co-ordinated?; to what extent are private house-building companies, as the main implementers of housing policy, involved in the development of housing strategies; and to what extent do local authorities employ relevant data as a means of monitoring the housing market?