Housing policy in Britain

This chapter outlines the main developments over time in the state-market mix in Britain and discusses some of the tensions found in current policy. In 1945, the population of Britain was –indeed had been for some decades –heavily concentrated in urban areas, not just in the capital but also in the great Victorian, industrial towns of the Midlands and the North. This urbanisation had been based largely on rental housing provided by private companies and individuals, and even though the importance of this sector had declined, numerically, over the preceding 30 years, it still housed around half of all households. The state-directed decline of the size of the local authority sector and the growth of home ownership have ensured the increasing dominance of markets and consumer choice in housing production and allocation. There is some measure of similarity in the challenges facing housing policy makers in both Malaysia and Britain.