Actually existing racial capitalism: Financialisation and bordering in UK housing associations

References

Partnering for climate change adaptations by Dutch housing associations

Introduction Climate change can no longer be ignored. It is globally recognised that the evidence for climate change is unequivocal and that action needs to be taken in order to address its negative effects. These effects, such as warmer and drier summers and more extreme rainfall, may threaten the quality of life of those living in urban environments. To limit these threats, a number of climate change adaptation measures can be taken to pre-empt the negative effects of climate change. The challenge of increasing the implementation of climate change adaptation measures is addressed in this thesis by engaging the construction sector while focusing on the housing stock that is owned and maintained by Dutch housing associations. By implementing climate change adaptation measures, dwellings will become more resilient to some of the effects of climate change, becoming less vulnerable for damage and ensuring the comfort, safety and quality of life of their occupants. Because housing associations are regarded as societal entrepreneurs, these are expected to use resources and commercial profits to achieve societal aims that are in the common interest, such as making timely adaptations, so that changing climatic conditions cannot threaten the quality of their dwellings. Moreover, there are relatively few housing associations compared to the number of houses they own and maintain. In 2012, there were 381 housing associations that owned and maintained a stock of 2.4 million dwellings, representing 32% of the total Dutch housing stock. This means that approaching the Dutch social rented sector was seen as an effective way of generating a greater societal impact. In the past decade, external influences such as the recent economic crisis and political pressure, have led housing associations to become more cost effective and to make changes in their organisational strategies, which has resulted in the adoption of more integrated project delivery methods, such as partnering. These integrated methods aim to involve the construction sector early in the development of plans so that they can contribute their expertise. This creates a more efficient construction and maintenance process and delivers dwellings of higher quality. The housing associations cannot pre-empt all the effects of climate change alone. For adaptation measures at the neighbourhood level, they are dependent on collaboration with other stakeholders such as municipalities, but there are measures that can be applied at the building level, which falls within their range of influence. An example is the application of lighter colours on building façades in order to reflect radiation and reduce the air temperature close to the façades. The hazards of overflowing sewage systems caused by extreme precipitation can be reduced by applying measures to retain water temporarily, such as ‘green roofs’ or to ensure effective drainage such as open pavements. These measures reduce the peak load on the sewage system. Another effective measure is the use of materials that are not negatively affected by water so that if, despite all the precautionary measures, flooding does occur, the consequences would be less severe. Problem formulation This research assesses the potential of adopting a partnering approach as a governance tool with which to increase the implementation of climate change adaptation measures like those described above. The housing stock owned by Dutch housing associations is taken as a case study. Involving the construction sector through a partnering approach is promising, since construction companies are the ones who carry out the works. Their early commitment reduces the risks of miscommunication or failure and enhances opportunities for innovative solutions. By doing this, not only do housing associations take responsibility for their actions, but the construction sector as a whole gains more responsibility for solving societal challenges and is enabled to co-create solutions that can then be disseminated more easily. The main research question is: How can partnering in construction increase the implementation of climate change adaptation measures in dwellings owned by Dutch housing associations? Research approach and results To formulate an answer to this research question, several separate studies were conducted. First, the characteristics of three types of governance were studied in a literature review, these being hierarchic, market and network governance. Based on these types of governance, many tools have been developed over time, but to increase the implementation of climate change adaptation measures in social housing, not all tools are equally successful, at least not from a theoretical point of view. To improve the implementation of measures, tools could be combined to create a more solid basis for action, and there is room for extra governance tools in the current palette. Based on the literature review on partnering, it was concluded that this could be classified as a combined ‘market’ and ‘network’ type of tool. The market aspect refers to the knowledge of climate change adaptation that is gained by the participating construction companies, which can imply a competitive advantage for them. The network aspect is closely linked to collaboration within a partnering approach. In other contexts, the partnering approach has been shown to remove the barriers of fragmentation in the construction sector; to provide for a more efficient and integral construction process, and to allow for the easier flow of knowledge on climate change adaptation. Next, the current state of knowledge among housing associations was studied with regard to climate change adaptation measures for the housing stock. A content analysis was conducted on the annual reports and policy plans of the 25 largest Dutch housing associations and revealed that they display no awareness of climate change adaptation in their policy documents. As such, they were categorised as ‘unaware’. However, this does not mean that the building stock is not being adapted to climate change, because in the annual reports they state that they have applied climate change adaptation measures, although they do not name these as such. This means that applying adaptation measures is neither impossible nor unrealistic, as long as they are not implemented solely for climate change adaptation purposes, but for other reasons as well, such as energy-efficiency. In contrast to the corporate policy documents, interviews with individual policy-makers showed that housing associations are aware of climate change at a global scale. However, in relation to climate change adaptation measures in their daily work, such as the impact of flooded streets and overheating interiors of dwellings, awareness is low. They could not name many threats or adaptation measures. However, once they had been made aware of the need for such measures, the employees were fairly well capable of assessing them, even though the implementation of measures was evaluated as unfeasible in most cases. The main reason provided was that the housing associations did not have policy guidelines in place for such adaptation measures. Moreover, in many cases there were financial and/or technical barriers that would have to be addressed first. There was a consensus among employees that all the measures would have a positive effect on the comfort of the dwellings. Partnering in construction can help to increase the implementation of adaptation measures because it can overcome many of these challenges. For this reason, the way that housing associations and construction companies carry out refurbishment projects in a partnering approach was also studied. The researcher participated in a knowledge exchange project in which housing associations and construction and maintenance companies had formed dyads and carried out a refurbishment project. They exchanged their experiences on a regular basis through interviews and plenary sessions. In the interviews, employees of housing associations and construction and maintenance companies were asked how they dealt with the success factors for partnering, which were derived from literature. These success factors were trust, leadership, partner capabilities, commitment, conflict resolution, coordination and communication. Although they did not address all these success factors equally well, the study showed that Dutch housing associations and construction and maintenance companies are indeed capable of carrying out housing refurbishment projects in a partnering approach. This allows for the selection of the construction process as a governance tool with which to implement climate change adaptation measures. These measures are considered new products that can be installed with the aim of improving the technical and functional quality of dwellings. In that sense, they are perceived as product innovations, with the dwellings being the ‘products’ and/or assets of the housing associations. This perspective corresponds with the definition1: “[An innovation is] a new idea that is implemented in a construction project with the intention of deriving additional benefits although there might have been associated risks and uncertainties. The new idea may refer to new design, technology, material component or construction method deployed in a project”. Subsequently, the employees of the housing associations and construction and maintenance companies were asked how they dealt with the implementation of innovations using surveys. Although several studies indicate that innovation can benefit when projects are based on an integrated construction process such as partnering, the current study concludes that partnering does not automatically lead to product innovation. Most of the respondents saw partnering itself as the innovative aspect of their projects – i.e. a process innovation. That process innovation required so much attention that there was less emphasis on opportunities for product innovations. This should be taken into account when developing governance tools to encourage the implementation of product innovations in dwellings such as climate change adaptation measures. Moreover, the choice of partnering as a project delivery method as a governance tool is less likely to resolve issues regarding policy, which remain a barrier for the implementation of measures. In addition, other parties can also become involved, to generate resources for the implementation of measures by housing associations. The adoption of partnering as a project delivery method is therefore not the only possible governance tool. To increase the implementation of climate change adaptation measures, two more conceptual approaches were developed by the researcher in addition to the initially hypothesised partnering approach. These additional conceptual approaches involved policy development by housing associations vis-à-vis climate change adaptation measures and collaboration with external actors who face the same challenges in order to enhance efficiency in solving these issues together. The feasibility of the three conceptual approaches was verified by means of a SWOT analysis performed with practitioners from housing associations and construction companies as well as external players such as water authorities, insurance companies and municipalities. The results of the SWOT analysis made it clear that single-pronged conceptual approaches are unlikely to be successful because they involve serious weaknesses or threats. A combination of conceptual approaches is much more likely to remove the barriers that obstruct the implementation of climate change adaptation measures. The conceptual approaches were therefore combined and renamed as implementation strategies. In on-line questionnaires carried out among all Dutch housing associations, it was assessed if the housing associations found it likely that these strategies would indeed lead to the implementation of climate change adaptation measures. In general, the respondents assessed the feasibility of all strategies as unlikely to neutral. There was no strategy that clearly stood out as more feasible for the implementation of climate change adaptation measures. However, a considerable number of housing associations assessed one or more implementation strategies positively and saw opportunities for the implementation of measures, albeit framed differently, such as measures to increase energy-efficiency or enhance comfort. Conclusion Based on the findings outlined above, the answer to the main research question is: Partnering in construction can increase the implementation of climate change adaptation measures in dwellings owned by housing associations, when it is understood as a catalyst for information-sharing and increased efficiency in the construction process. By looking for shared interests between housing associations and the construction sector, the chances of implementing adaptation measures increase. However, if other stakeholders are involved as well, and if housing associations embed climate change adaptation in their policy guidelines, the likelihood of implementation would increase even more. Although none of the implementation strategies stood out clearly as the strategy most likely to result in the implementation of climate change adaptation measures, a considerable number of housing associations assessed various implementation strategies positively. If the construction process becomes more network-based, which is the case when a partnering approach is adopted, many more parties can become involved and contribute to the implementation of climate change adaptation measures. In such a situation, it no longer matters who introduces the subject during the plan development and construction process, as long as it ends up there and action is taken. To implement these measures more easily, the framing is very important. Climate change adaptation is not enough reason in its own right to begin implementing measures. Insulation to prevent overheating in the summer is considered an ‘extra’ measure - the necessity of which is still questioned by policymakers, for example. However, if the same measure is framed as an energy-saving measure, it is also a cost-cutting measure, which increases the likelihood that policymakers will start making plans to implement it! Scientific implications of the results This thesis has contributed to the development of governance tools to increase the implementation of climate change adaptation measures in dwellings, while current adaptation strategies predominantly target the national or local levels of the built environment. Moreover, this thesis has examined the adoption of partnering as a project delivery method and a governance tool with which to bridge the theoretical fields of network governance and integrated construction and maintenance processes. It extends the palette of governance tools that traditionally consists of information tools, tools relating to the division of property rights, incentives and regulatory tools. It has proven that housing associations can successfully adopt partnering approaches. As such, partnering is a feasible approach by which to increase the implementation of innovative measures such as climate change adaptations. Practical implications The assessment of the five implementation strategies showed that adapting housing for climate change has a low priority as a separate policy field. It is a relatively new area for policymakers, so they may be reluctant to believe that measures are likely to be implemented. Moreover, many other topics may take a higher priority for them, such as improving energy-efficiency and thereby also the affordability of dwellings, and/or preparing the dwellings for an ageing population. In the literature on climate change adaptation, it is suggested that mainstreaming climate change adaptation is the best course, which implies attaching the adaptation policy to existing policy frameworks. This would make policymakers aware of the topic of climate change adaptation and they could look for synergies between measures that were already planned and measures related to climate change adaptations. The refurbishment and maintenance process of housing associations provides opportunities for the mainstreaming of adaptation measures. Housing associations are facing an ageing stock that needs to be improved if it is to continue to meet the ever increasing basic requirements of tenants in terms of quality and comfort and increasingly strict energy-efficiency standards. Since climate change is occurring gradually, there is still time to adapt the building stock gradually, in step with the renovation and maintenance cycles of the housing associations. Bringing in external players, especially municipalities and water authorities, would appear to be a highly feasible approach, given their shared interest in the quality of life in local areas. Bringing together the construction partners requires governance tools that inform them of the benefits of partnering. Particularly if construction companies are to be responsible for the renovation and the maintenance for the rest of the service life of the dwellings, they could focus on improved design solutions that aim to create resilient dwellings, and/or using materials that would be less affected by the effects of climate change. The role of tenants in the implementation of climate change adaptations is primarily that they might exert ‘bottom-up’ pressure by requesting action from housing associations. But for this to happen, they would likely need to be informed about the effects of climate change on their dwellings and/or neighbourhoods, in order for them to be motivated to ensure that their homes are climate change resilient.

Community housing is increasingly seen as an alternative to public housing by government. However, little is known about the demand for community housing, the relationship with public housing waiting lists and the flow of people between different housing tenures, such as public housing and private rental. In this article we analyse the demand for community housing in Tasmania. We examine who applies for community housing, why they apply and how their needs may differ from or overlap with demand for public housing. This research is based on 499 applications for community housing in southern Tasmania. Applications were made to a medium sized, non-government housing association—Red Shield Housing Association (RSHA)—between December 1998 and December 2001. Our research suggests that the majority of people applying for community housing were already on public housing waiting lists. Those seeking community housing differ little from applicants for public housing. However, women and sole parents were more likely to apply for both community and public housing while men and single applicants were more likely to apply only for community housing. This could be connected to who is likely or not to get into public housing and perhaps men and singles see less chance of getting into public housing. The implication is that low income earners are primarily concerned with access to affordable housing, which is in short supply, and the majority of applicants will apply for both public and community housing if given the opportunity. We note that the transfer of public housing stock to the community sector does not increase the supply of affordable housing stock or provide a greater choice of affordable properties to low income and disadvantaged households, although it could provide greater choice for some groups who do not perceive public housing to be an option.

Klantgestuurd voorraadbeleid en empowerment. Over Te Woon en andere initiatieven van woningcorporaties

Klantgestuurd voorraadbeleid en empowerment. Over Te Woon en andere initiatieven van woningcorporaties

Klantgestuurd voorraadbeleid en empowerment. Over Te Woon en andere initiatieven van woningcorporaties

Klantgestuurd voorraadbeleid en empowerment. Over Te Woon en andere initiatieven van woningcorporaties

Klantgestuurd voorraadbeleid en empowerment. Over Te Woon en andere initiatieven van woningcorporaties

Klantgestuurd voorraadbeleid en empowerment. Over Te Woon en andere initiatieven van woningcorporaties

Central to this dissertation are client driven housing management from housing associations in The Netherlands and the empowerment effects this management has on its tenants. The central issue includes what client driven housing management is (definition), in which ways this can be devised, what the envisioned effects are and which effects this management successfully accomplishes. These are answered using seven sub-questions. The focal point of this research shifts from an exploration of all the initiatives that can be found in client-driven housing management, to the empowerment effect for its tenants of ‘Te Woon’ as one of these initiatives. In this summary, the answers to the seven sub-questions are briefly given. What is client driven housing management (1) is answered by means of a literature study. In this dissertation client driven housing management is defined as “the management which actively involves the tenants in policy formulation and policy implementation concerning the housing quality, price and/or property rights of dwellings”. This definition includes initiatives ranging from kitchen improvement programmes offering a choice of designs, to programme formulation to improve neighbourhood quality. ‘Te Woon’ (also known as ‘the clients’ choice programme’) is included in this definition since it gives the tenants the opportunity to own a home and have control over the home. This has effect on the composition and quality of the (social) housing stock. Contrary to normal sales programmes, Te Woon offers the tenants to purchase a dwelling with a discount and offers them a shared risk (by splitting profit or loss at the moment of re-sale between housing association and owner). Moreover, the housing association is obliged to re-buy the home at the moment the tenant offers it. In this way the dwelling always re-enters the housing associations’ portfolio and doesn’t get lost from the social housing stock. How can client driven housing management initiatives be ordered and valuated (2) is answered by using different approaches to management and tenant influence devised from literature. Housing associations in the Netherlands are limited in their actions and operations by law (amongst others the BBSH). The law prescribes certain main tasks to housing associations and several policy domains have been used to determine the policy subjects that can be addressed. The influence the tenants can have on these subjects can be valuated by using the ladder of citizen participation. The ladder illustrates the grade to which the tenant has actually a say in matters and thus shares control with the housing association. In the most extreme case the tenant gets the full control over the dwelling by obtaining the property rights. Limitations are to be found in the legal system which prescribes the basic division of property rights between owners and users and in the laws concerning the rental housing market. Based on a theoretical exploration of the opportunities for the transfer of control from the housing association to the tenants by comparing the grades of citizen control with the policy domains, one domain proves to be promising. The policy domain of ‘dwelling purchase and sale’ offers the most opportunities to transfer control since in the extreme case the tenant could own its own dwelling, the tenant gets full property rights and thus transcends the ladder of citizen participation. The policy domain purchase and sale of dwellings thus offers the most opportunities to provide tenants with freedom, autonomy and personal development (empowerment). Which initiatives in client-driven housing management can be found in the Dutch housing associations’ practice (3) is answered based on a survey amongst associations. The housing associations that participated reckoned every initiative that gave the tenant more than a single option to client-driven housing management. The analysis of the initiatives mentioned by the housing associations showed that a few types of client-driven housing management were numerous. Moreover, the analysis showed that the initiatives are rather limited to the housing policy domains concerning housing maintenance and improvement and purchase and sale of dwellings. The opportunities offered to the tenants have been analysed using participation grades. The initiatives aim to offer tenants individual choice, focused on the interior of the dwelling (kitchens etc.) and offer mostly a choice between options: delegated (and limited) choices. Within the domain of purchase and sale of dwellings (including especially Te Woon) individual choice to own is stimulated and provides with different initiatives sharing risk and offering reductions on sales prices. The initiatives aiming on the option to buy offer the best perspective on personal development by offering the opportunity of transferring full control to the tenant. All the other initiatives that were found transfer less control and offer a limited choice and limited control to the tenants. Which effects are envisioned as a result of client-driven housing management (4) is answered through a literature review. The literature revealed a broad spectrum of effects ranging from housing quality and market effects to tenant empowerment and cultivating citizenship. Tenant empowerment in all her different forms is the core of this dissertation. Empowerment can be interpreted in notions of power. Power can point at authority, energy and capacity. Authority empowerment describes the rights and duties and lines up with the property rights. It describes what you are allowed to do with a dwelling. Energy empowerment describes the motivation to act, the willingness. Energy empowerment can be devised in meaningfulness (caring), choice (freedom of choice and availability of choice options), impact (the expected cause-effect relation, knowledge of results) and competence (feeling and being capable to act). Capacity empowerment describes the ability to act and can be measured in scales for control (influence on own life and circumstances), self image (self esteem) and security (feeling safe at home). Economic empowerment can be mentioned as a fourth form of empowerment. It is defined as the opportunity to profit. For example this can be by offering a reduction on the price thereby making the home affordable and providing the opportunity to save by means of the mortgage and to profit by means of selling at a higher price. The different forms of empowerment are interrelated. Within energy empowerment, capacity empowerment aspects are enclosed. Without the authority or the right to act, the opportunity to profit can be denied. But willing and feeling able to act and having the right to do so, are related as well: when someone thinks (s)he isn’t able to do something, this (negatively) influences the will to act. The choice option to own a dwelling is, theoretically speaking, again the most promising initiative within client driven housing management since it possibly touches upon the willingness, the abilities, the rights (to be allowed) and the possibility of profiting. What are the effects that housing associations aim for with Te Woon (5) is answered by means of interviewing housing associations’ staff. The motivation for the Te Woon initiative can be traced back to the ideals of the paternalistic housing associations: to educate people in housing. Nowadays this paternalistic view on housing of the housing associations shares importance with a (internal) financial motive. Housing associations (since they have been privatised) are in need of cash flow to keep their maintenance and redevelopment tasks going. The housing associations expect as an effect of Te Woon both financial revenues and tenant empowerment at the same time. The option to buy gives tenants the opportunity to control their dwelling and gain (some) control over their living environment. It should thereby lead to an improvement in the living quality in the neighbourhood and improve the independence of the tenants. However, the need to sell dwellings to generate cash flow for reinvestment, conflicts with the freedom of choice of the tenants. Housing associations are tempted to improve the amount of sold homes by putting pressure upon tenants to buy. Besides, the housing associations’ staff expects different short and long-term effects from Te Woon. Tenant empowerment can be found in different forms as an envisioned effect (ranging from improving independence to improving participation and engagement and from personal development to improving their financial position). Other envisioned effects include a positive effect on the living quality in the neighbourhood, alongside with housing quality differentiation (both in homes as in tenants). Long-term effects that are mentioned include an improvement in the general functioning of the housing market. What are the empowerment effects that tenants expect from Te Woon (6) is answered by means of explorative in-depth interviews with tenants. Although tenants do expect effects of Te Woon, they do express hesitations and reservations in their expectations. Tenants do believe that owner occupiers take better care of their home and that sales will improve the living quality in the neighbourhood. However, they do not expect a swift change. In addition, they ask for a more active attitude from the housing association in the approach of problems in the living and neighbourhood quality and ask the association to speak up (in their name) towards the municipality. From the interviews it becomes clear that the tenants experience only little effect on energy empowerment aspects. The experiences of impact and choice are limited by the experience of competence and lack of meaningfulness of the option to buy. As the tenants state “this (rental) house is my own home already” and thus buying the property doesn’t add that much. Unless there can be a financial benefit from owning by reducing the regular (monthly) costs. Only the tenants who actually became homeowners and the tenants who are considering the option to buy in the future, possibly experienced energy empowerment. The owner-occupiers indeed experienced both authority and economical empowerment. What are the actual experienced empowerment effects of Te Woon (7) is evaluated based on a telephone survey among tenants. The effects of sale and the influence of the choice option within Te Woon are approached by means of energy and capacity empowerment. Making use of the capacity empowerment scales for control, self image and security, the experiences of tenants have been evaluated. The results illustrate that owner-occupiers already experienced more capacity empowerment than the rental tenants. Owner occupiers experience higher levels of control and this is related to the higher education and incomes they already had. The rental tenants derive more security from the home and even more when they experience less control. The actual tenancy (owner-occupied or rental) and the authority empowerment (property rights position) seem to be inversely related to capacity empowerment. The rental home is a safe haven for the tenants while owner-occupiers the experience more freedom to act with their home (as a result of the property rights they have gained). The owner-occupiers who decided to buy for the reduced price seem to have experienced empowerment in all the forms. This groups’ characteristics are similar to the rental tenants when it comes to income, education and general trust. The fact that they decided to buy (with a reduction) and feel like normal homeowners points at an empowerment effect in all four forms. All the homeowners experience authority empowerment, and all owner-occupiers are likely to benefit financially (economic empowerment). The empowerment effect among rental tenants, however limited, could be present. Small indicators point at an empowerment effect through competence (energy empowerment) by means of improving their knowledge about tenancies and the financial schemes involved in owning a home. This indication is mostly found among tenants who consider buying in the future. Among the owner-occupiers indicators for a disempowerment effect have been discovered as well. Their self image is relatively less positive compared to the rental tenants. This might be explained by a shift of reference group: from rental tenants to owner-occupiers. It can be concluded that Te Woon enables the empowered to buy their rental dwelling rather than that Te Woon empowers its tenants. Income and experience of control along with meaningfulness and the expected impact, seem to be predictors for the choice to buy. Rather than that these are influenced by Te Woon. Considering client driven housing management it can be concluded that the most promising initiative, Te Woon, offers the tenants the option to actively be a part of housing policy. The transfer of (property) rights and duties from the housing association to the tenant offers the opportunity to be in control over the dwelling. The provisions in the contracts, such as reduced price and shared risks, cater for more differentiated homes in the housing stock. The owner-occupiers profit both directly considering authority and economic empowerment. However, the contribution of Te Woon to energy and capacity empowerment remains diffuse. As a result, it is safe to conclude that the expectations are overexaggerated. The effects of Te Woon on, for example, the living quality in neighbourhoods are not tangible yet. Moreover, the tenants themselves have less high expectations. In relation to other initiatives in client driven housing management, some tentative conclusions can be drawn. Offering individual choices have proven to be limited to choices from a limited set of options. As a result and within the boundaries of regulations, there is no transfer of rights and duties and thus cannot be spoken of authority empowerment. At most there is a delegated (limited) choice that can be made by the tenants. The development of initiatives delegating control could be further explored. Just as experiments with collective control. The question remains what the goals of initiatives like these should be and whether these are realistic expectations of the initiatives.

Networks and Fault Lines: Understanding the role of housing associations in neighbourhood regeneration: a network governance perspective

The changing role of housing associations in neighbourhood regeneration This study aims to increase our understanding of the role of social housing organisations in neighbourhood regeneration governance networks, in order to enhance the performance and outcomes of these networks. Our understanding of how governance networks work is still limited, especially concerning the role of non-state actors like housing associations. Hierarchical government steering is increasingly mixed with market mechanisms and networked forms of decision-making. These shifts in governance often result in more complex decision-making that can easily lead to deadlocks, low-quality outcomes and ambiguous anchorage of democratic principles. Neighbourhood regeneration takes place in rather exceptional governance networks. The organisations involved, and the problems at hand, are place-based. Actors, like housing associations, local authorities and community organisations, are more or less ‘locked’ into the regeneration network and need to collaborate in order to solve the problems. The complexity of neighbourhood renewal processes is often very high, due to the large number of actors involved, and the combination of insufficient housing quality, lack of affordability and supply, along with social and economic problems that need to be addressed. Housing associations focus on the delivery of affordable decent quality housing; but, in many countries—like the Netherlands and England—these organisations also have an important role in neighbourhood regeneration. Housing associations are non-profit organisations that provide housing for low and moderate-income households. They operate largely autonomously from the government, although they are often strongly regulated and dependent on government subsidies. Housing associations in England and the Netherlands share many organisational characteristics and hybrid third-sector values emerging from the need to balance social and economic objectives. They have largely similar tasks and responsibilities, but work in very divergent contexts. This study devotes careful attention to the contingencies of time and place of decisionmaking in order to regenerate insights that are also relevant outside the case-study areas. Therefore, this study places Dutch and English housing associations in their respective political economies, welfare regimes and rental housing systems. The study also highlights the ambiguous position—between state, market, and society—of housing associations. Neighbourhood regeneration evolved from slum clearance and complete area redevelopment in the 1950s and 1960s, towards more integral place-based approaches—in the 1970s and 1980s—with a stronger emphasis on improving the existing housing stock and involving local communities. The nature of the involvement of housing associations in neighbourhood regeneration has changed over time in response to government policies, public opinion, their own strategies, and the strategies of their umbrella organisations. In both England and the Netherlands, their increasingly prominent role —especially after the start of the new millennium—was driven by pressures on housing associations to take a leading role in neighbourhood regeneration. A governance network perspective on neighbourhood regeneration The emergence of the ‘network society’ has led to a fragmentation of power and resources. This fragmentation has led to increased interdependence of actors; public, private and community actors need to collaborate to solve problems. This study uses a governance network approach to explore the complexity and uncertainties involved in neighbourhood regeneration decision-making. The study explores five interrelated questions [see Chapter 1, §1.2], each related to a component of a theoretical framework on decision-making in a network setting. These questions involve context, networks, actors, processes and outcomes. In order to answer the research questions, a qualitative, comparative, longitudinal exploration based on a case study methodology, was conducted. To ensure that comparable cases were explored, similar ‘focal actors’ were chosen (i.e. housing associations), as well as similar ‘policy outputs’ as starting points for the study (i.e. the drafting of neighbourhood regeneration plans). Based on these criteria, housing association Midland Heart, and the neighbourhood Lozells in North/West Birmingham, was selected as the English case study. In the Netherlands, housing association De Huismeesters, and De Hoogte, a neighbourhood in Groningen, were selected. Personal accounts have been an important data source for this study; 70 interviews with 45 different individuals were conducted between 2007 and 2014 in Groningen, and Birmingham. In addition, for the case study in The Hague (Chapter 5), around 25 interviews were conducted in 2004. That chapter was a first introduction to the explanatory capabilities of the network governance perspective. Research results The introductory chapter explores contextual factors—such as economic, social and political developments—that affect the role of housing associations in neighbourhood regeneration. Chapters 3 through 7 contain sections which describe the context relevant to that specific chapter. Chapter 8 is more reflective in nature and discusses the impact of post-crisis ‘Big Society’ (UK), and Participation Society (NL) government policies, as contingency factors for the role of housing associations in relation to local communities. Finally, Chapter 9 brings all the components of the theoretical framework together and especially reflects on the significant impact of contextual developments on the role played by housing associations in neighbourhood regeneration decision-making, and delivery. This research also highlighted the strong network relationships between housing associations and local authorities, but also revealed the often troublesome interactions between housing associations and residents. The title of this thesis: “Networks and Fault lines” is intended to reflect this. This research took place in a period of unexpectedly dynamic economic, social and political developments, i.e. the global financial crisis, the housing-market downturn, government austerity, and a more restricted interpretation of the state’s role in delivering welfare services. The impacts of these developments varied across the two cases. The Dutch housing association proved more resilient to contextual developments than its English counterpart; especially its ability to continue the neighbourhood investment programme. National government funding was less important to the Dutch housing association: the organisation already had access to neighbourhood regeneration investment resources. Other contextual factors, such as the characteristics of the national political economies, welfare and housing systems, indirectly affected the role played by housing associations. These factors mainly influenced the characteristics of the governance networks and the decision-making processes within these networks. Explored through the networks component are the characteristics of the governance networks that housing associations participate in: interdependencies, strength of network relations, and the nature of the coordination mechanisms that underline decision-making. The key concepts to exploring networks are introduced in Chapter 2, and further developed in Chapters 3, 5 and 7. We found high levels of uncertainty, generated by the variety of, and the interdependencies between, actors, the closed-mindedness of actors to the arguments of other parties, and the changes in composition of the governance network. For example, the research found substantial cross-national differences, and indications that network characteristics change and fluctuate over time. In contrast to the situation in Groningen, the dependency of the Birmingham network on external government funding negatively affected the stability and the performance of that network. In Groningen, top-down government intervention also negatively affected the stability of the network, but for other reasons. The, short-lived, abundance of resources for regeneration led to such a high number of new actors, issues, goals and decision-making arenas that the governance network was unable to function properly for some time. The network actors increased the complexity of policy games of their own volition. Sometimes, this was induced by the national government, when local network actors responded to steering instruments such as government subsidies. This led to more network complexity and dynamics in the form of new goals, network actors and decision-making arenas. The third research component—the actors— explored the perceptions and objectives of housing associations, and other key network actors concerning neighbourhood regeneration investments and activities. Housing associations in both case-study areas took a prominent role in neighbourhood regeneration activities, and collaborated closely with local authority departments in drafting regeneration plans. The housing associations regarded improving the quality and variety of the local housing stock as an important element in creating a more mixed community, and retaining and attracting more affluent households. The local authorities supported this predominantly longterm ambition. Residents were more concerned with tackling short-term liveability issues, such as anti-social behaviour, crime and litter. The role of housing associations changed during the 2007-2014 fieldwork period. From occupying a leading role in the regeneration process—in partnership with the local authority—at the start of the exploration in 2007, this role transformed into a more facilitating and supporting role. This appears to have been brought about by two related factors: a serious decline in available regeneration resources, and an increased emphasis on the responsibilities of individual residents and local communities under the influence of the Participation Society agenda, in the Netherlands, and the Localism agenda in England. Residents and private-sector organisations were rarely directly involved in regeneration decision-making. With a little hindsight, one could formulate the contention that these actors were not fully represented in the governance network because the incumbent network actors (i.e. the housing associations and local authorities) chose the devil they knew. They opted for state involvement to acquire investment resources, rather than facing the uncertainties that would have resulted from expanding the network to include residents and private-sector organisations as full and mature network actors. Decision-making processes constitute the fourth component of this study. It explored the decision-making interactions inside the neighbourhood regeneration networks, with a special focus on the interaction strategies used by housing associations. This study found that housing associations in the Groningen and Birmingham cases had a prominent and often leading role in the policy arenas where regeneration policies were developed. National governments in both countries had a strong impact on how these processes evolved, leveraged by the alluring investment resources offered by national regeneration programmes, and the preconditions accompanying these resources. Decision-making took place in arenas that almost exclusively consisted of housing association and local authority professionals. Residents were largely given a consumerist role in the process: their views on neighbourhood needs were collected through various instruments to involve residents, such as surveys and street interviews. Their views were, implicitly, taken into account in the decision-making. Residents were most often not part of these processes and not involved in the development of regeneration investments plans. Not all decision-making arenas were closed to residents. The housing associations in both case-study areas did involve residents as co-decision-makers in more ‘hands-on’ neighbourhood issues such as improving playareas, tackling garbage and litter problems. Decision-making conflicts and deadlocks were rather limited in the investigated governance networks. There was a strong impetus for the housing associations and the local authorities to reach agreements: no consensus would very likely mean no national government funding. Housing associations and local authorities used rather traditional instruments to facilitate decision-making, such as limiting the number of actors involved, and enforcing strict time constraints on decision-making processes. Outcomes are the fifth and last component of this study. In this component we explored how the network—and housing associations in particular—contributed to decision-making and neighbourhood regeneration outcomes. It is evident that the housing associations in the case-study areas contributed significantly to neighbourhood regeneration activities, not only because they channelled considerable investments into the areas, but also due to their strong network relations and frequent interactions with government agencies and local communities. The actions of network actors have improved the quality of some parts of the housing stock. Joint projects have been delivered to improve the public realm and contribute to neighbourhood safety. The research found that actors used very divergent process, input, output and outcome yardsticks to measure success, ranging from the number of projects and activities started, to the amount of money spent, the increase in resident satisfaction, the number of decision-making conflicts overcome, and the improvement achieved in quality-of-life indicators. These yardsticks changed over time and varied from actor to actor. This demonstrated how fluid the assessment of regeneration outcomes can be. New rounds of decision-making, as well as new network actors, led to a review of old decisions, sometimes with a different assessment of the outcomes achieved. Challenges for governance network approaches The governance network perspective has supported the exploration of the role played by housing associations in neighbourhood regeneration decision-making. It has increased our understanding of the complexity and the uncertainties involved in networked forms of decision-making. Governance network theory helped us identify instruments and strategies used by housing associations and local authorities to support regeneration decision-making. The governance network perspective is a rather new academic discipline that can be further developed. This study contributed to this development by addressing some issues and challenges; firstly, the role of residents in decision-making arenas, and secondly, the assessment of governance network outcomes. The theoretical and methodological implications of residents as neighbourhood regeneration co-producers Policy-makers expect a more active role of residents and local communities in the co-production of neighbourhood regeneration. This more inclusive approach may contribute to the quality and legitimacy of decisions made in governance networks, but the efficiency of decision-making will most probably not benefit. The trade-off between efficiency and legitimacy that arises from increased resident involvement is a challenge that calls for the further development of the governance network theory. This research suggests several avenues that could be followed to address this challenge. Firstly, a more extensive use of Habermas’s Theory of Communicative Action, as explored in Chapter 8, might be undertaken to supplement the governance network theory. Secondly, more use could be made of the body of knowledge and theories developed in England during the New Labour government (1997-2010), which was often explicitly concerned with networks that linked governments with citizens and local communities [see Chapter 9]. The assessment of governance network outcomes Co-production of neighbourhood regeneration can lead to more democratic and inclusive approaches to decision-making. This is likely to result in better outcomes, but not necessarily in greater consensus among the actors involved. Within network governance approaches, there is a tendency to define satisfactory outcomes as those that enjoy the greatest joint support of the actors involved in the process. More inclusive approaches, which engage a wider range of actors, might appear to be less successful as the benchmark of satisfaction is raised to include a wider range of preferences and experiences. Therefore, we need a more refined assessment of outcomes produced by increasingly heterogeneous networks. Governance network approaches could develop methods – or develop connections with other theories and methodologies – that help evaluate the success of governance networks by combining substantive regeneration outcomes, actor and stakeholder satisfaction, and network learning. Preventing ‘cherry picking’ in the use of assessment yardsticks is essential, given the disinclination of actors to closely scrutinise the outcomes produced by governance networks (as found in this research). Further development of network governance approaches may increase our understanding of how actors construct the yardsticks to evaluate success, and provide tools to facilitate a more comprehensive assessment of network outcomes [See chapter 9]. Housing associations as champions of networks in vulnerable neighbourhoods This research demonstrated that housing associations can play an important stabilising and cohesion-enhancing role in neighbourhood regeneration networks. Their interests are vested in the value of the local housing stock, and this financial incentive secures some level of commitment to vulnerable neighbourhoods. Their hybrid characteristics enable housing associations to collaborate with community, market and government organisations. Moreover, their professional capabilities and their relatively-easy access to resources allow them to champion neighbourhood needs, in cases where communities lack the capacity or cohesiveness to champion their own. Using the leeway that housing associations have, as a hybrid organisation, is an extremely delicate exercise. They should seek a balance between the very different and variable expectations of the outside world. This balancing act is only attainable when housing associations can combine proficiency in network management, with increased accountability. Each neighbourhood is different, and housing associations should take a role that is appropriate to each neighbourhood. To do this, they should increase their knowledge of the neighbourhood challenges and assess the capabilities of residents and the local community to address these problems. Housing associations can support the development of governance networks to address these problems by helping craft networks in such a way that they include all relevant parties, and by providing small but stable funding to support network development and by improving accountability in decision-making processes. There are strong arguments for housing associations to take a central role in neighbourhood regeneration. Housing associations are among the most prominent frontline agencies supporting vulnerable people and places. Through their housing stock, they are literally ‘anchored’ in the most deprived communities. Housing associations should not become the ‘jack-of-all-trades’ in neighbourhood regeneration, but can help develop, nurture and maintain well-functioning and stable regeneration networks which vulnerable neighbourhoods need. Housing associations can be the long-haul champion that neighbourhoods and local communities need.

Networks and Fault Lines: Understanding the role of housing associations in neighbourhood regeneration: a network governance perspective

To explore the roles of proportion of social rented housing in the neighbourhood ('neighbourhood social housing'), own housing being socially rented, and their interaction in early trajectories of emotional, conduct and hyperactivity symptoms. We tested three pathways of effects: family stress and maternal psychological distress, low quality parenting practices, and peer problems. We used data from 9,850 Millennium Cohort Study families who lived in England when the cohort children were aged 3. Children's emotional, conduct and hyperactivity problems were measured at ages 3, 5 and 7. Even after accounting for own social housing, neighbourhood social housing was related to all problems and their trajectories. Its association with conduct problems and hyperactivity was explained by selection. Selection also explained the effect of the interaction between neighbourhood and own social housing on hyperactivity, but not why children of social renter families living in neighbourhoods with lower concentrations of social housing followed a rising trajectory of emotional problems. The effects of own social housing, neighbourhood social housing and their interaction on emotional problems were robust. Peer problems explained the association of own social housing with hyperactivity. Neither selection nor the pathways we tested explained the association of own social housing with conduct problems, the association of neighbourhood social housing with their growth, or the association of neighbourhood social housing, own social housing and their interaction with emotional problems. Children of social renter families in neighbourhoods with a low concentration of social renters are particularly vulnerable to emotional problems.