The Enabling Index

Abstract

Abstract Most governments, both at the central and metropolitan level, do notyet approach housing policy in an integral fashion, nor do they coordinate housing policy with macroeconomic policies, social welfare policies, or urban development policies. They can be said to have some housing policies, but not a housing policy. Several European countries have adopted more comprehensive housing policies, moving toward managing the housing sector as a whole. This move has been gradual, and it has been easier in some countries than in others. Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Germany, countries that had “less social divisiveness, and more coherence in managing the economy as a whole” stand out as having made more progress on this front [Pugh,1980, 191], but on the whole the policy environment of the housing sector is still largely fragmented. Interestingly, in a number of countries, important elements of housing policy are already in place, but they are still not recognized as critical components of a comprehensive housing policy regime.