Putting financialisation in its financial context: Transformations in local government‐led urban development in post‐financial crisis England

Abstract

The burgeoning geographical literature on the financialisation of urban development has focused predominantly on the growing importance within this sphere of financial markets, motives, and institutions. This article starts from the observation that in examining such financialisation, scholars have paid insufficient attention to the details of the financial contexts within which it takes place. Through a consideration of certain high‐profile ongoing transformations in the property strategies of English local authorities, the article argues that we need to put urban financialisation – in this case, state‐led variants thereof – in its financial context: it needs to be understood as a response, at least in part, to specific financial conjunctures. After several decades of effective withdrawal, many local authorities have assumed a resurgent role in urban property ownership and development in recent years, and especially since the global financial crisis. This resurgence is apparent, albeit selectively, in regard to both commercial and residential property. On the one hand, local authorities have been rebuilding portfolios of investment (i.e., non‐operational) commercial property; on the other hand, they have been building new homes, typically not for social rent, through arms‐length housing companies. I argue that understanding these trends requires appreciation of local authorities’ particular financial circumstances in the “post‐crisis” era – their operation at the intersection of devolved austerity, reformed housing finance, and unconventional monetary policy – and of the constraints and opportunities that these circumstances shape.