Housing Policy in Action

The Local Government and Housing Act 1989 introduced a new framework for the revenue side of local authority housing finance, and for local authority capital finance across all services. This book examines the new financial regime, drawing on national data and a series of local case studies. The book is concerned with questions of why the old systems collapsed, the government's objectives for the new regime as well as examining its implementation and impact since April 1990. Key findings of the text include: actual rent levels have increased by 47 per cent, overshooting government guidelines by 12 per cent; resources for the repair and maintenance of the council stock have fallen dramatically, despite attempts by authorities to maintain programmes at the expense of even higher rents; the attempt to target management and maintenance expenditure on areas of greatest need has not so far been particularly successful. "Housing Policy In Action" should appeal to both housing finance specialists and to readers interested in wider aspects of policy implementation in both central and local government. Students of housing, social policy and urban studies should find this text useful.