Shrinking the state in housing: challenges, transitions and ambiguities

Public sector housing has had different shares of the market and different roles in advanced economies, but its general decline matches perspectives on shrinking the state. This article, referring to England, confirms public sector decline but also shows a prolonged, incomplete and locally contingent process that has not simply involved a shift from state to market. The retreat of government from direct provision of housing has involved different processes and phases and has consistently been contested and shaped by national and local actors in private, public and third sectors. Discussion of housing also extends the agenda beyond the issues of ownership and financing that have dominated debates about neoliberalisation, to include investment, costs, regulation and impacts on wider economic performance.