Abstract

Abstract: After half a decade of strong ‘top down’ policy and planning to promote housing supply and affordability in England, we have from 2010 an abrupt change of policy. Decisions are to be devolved to local level, with no more government targets and the dismantling of regional planning. A financial bonus is intended to incentivize local authorities to agree to additional house-building. It is quite unclear a priori how this system will work, so it may be regarded as a large-scale social-economic (and environmental) experiment. This paper will utilise a new subregional economic market model to explore the affordability implications of different patterns of local decision-making on housing land supply. It will also feed in a predicted pattern of local decisions based on new opinion survey evidence and political voting patterns.

Biography: Glen Bramley is Professor of Urban Studies at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, where he leads a substantial research programme in housing and urban studies. Recent work is focused particularly on planning for new housing, housing need, home ownership, neighbourhood change, urban form, quality of life, poverty and the funding and outcomes of local services. His publications include Key Issues in Housing (Palgrave 2005), and Planning, the Market and Private Housebuilding (UCL Press 1995).