'Measure twice, cut once' - revisiting the strength and impact of local planning regulation of housing development in England

There has been growing interest in the impact of land-use regulation and planning on housing development and markets, and a consequent search for quantified measures of their extent and efficacy. Nevertheless, despite the UK having a long-established and comprehensive planning system, this kind of quantitative analysis of system performance has been limited. This paper assembles and reports on a set of local-level measures for England for the late 2000s and assesses their effectiveness in predicting the key flow-of-consents measure and actual housing development. The pattern of restrictiveness is assessed against broad sustainability criteria including urban settlement structure, economic growth potential, and housing affordability and need. We also assess recent changes and the potential impact of a major system change towards more localised planning decision making. </jats:p

Getting the smaller picture: small-area analysis of public expenditure incidence and deprivation in three English cities

This paper examines public expenditure incidence at small-area level in cities. The motivations for such research are briefly reviewed. The article reports on an attempt at measuring public expenditure across the majority of programmes down to the level of Census wards and the actual results obtained for three urban local authorities in England. The relationship between spending, income and deprivation is examined overall and for particular spending programmes, using a number of approaches including regression-based expenditure models. The conclusions suggest that spending is indeed targetted on poorer areas but raise questions about both the strength of this relationship and how best to measure deprivation and the need to spend.

Structure rather than behaviour: on the causes of poverty

Whether poverty is caused by behaviour or economic factors is an ongoing debate, with the Right usually supporting the former, and the Left the latter. Drawing on a recent study, Glen Bramley explains why structure, rather than behaviour, is the major factor behind disadvantaged individuals in England. Yet he also writes that many of those included in the research had adverse childhood experiences, and so the Left is also wrong to completely dismiss any suggestions of “transmitted poverty” between generations

Pathways into multiple exclusion homelessness in seven UK cities

This paper interrogates pathways into multiple exclusion homelessness (MEH) in the UK and, informed by a critical realist theoretical framework, explores the potential causal processes underlying these pathways. Drawing on an innovative multistage quantitative survey, it identifies five experiential clusters within the MEH population, based on the extent and complexity of experiences of homelessness, substance misuse, institutional care, street culture activities and adverse life events. It demonstrates that the most complex forms of MEH are associated with childhood trauma. It also reveals that the temporal sequencing of MEH-relevant experiences is remarkably consistent, with substance misuse and mental health problems tending to occur early in individual pathways, and homelessness and a range of adverse life events typically occurring later. The strong inference is that these later-occurring events are largely consequences rather than originating causes of MEH, which has important implications for the conceptualisation of, and policy responses to, deep exclusion. </jats:p

The ruling parties’ record on homelessness and complex needs (May 2015 to pre-COVID 2020)

This paper provides a comparative analysis of homelessness policy goals, expenditure and outcomes across Great Britain in the post-2015 period, setting these developments in their longer-term perspective. In England, a relatively positive legacy on homelessness bequeathed by interventionist Labour administrations was undermined by social security cuts and a hand-off ‘Localism’ policy on the part of post-2010 Coalition and Conservative Governments. Overall spending on homelessness services fell, even though the numbers affected climbed sharply, and local authorities were forced to channel more of their dwindling resources towards supporting temporary accommodation costs as placements spiralled upwards. Wales has taken a more progressive recent policy approach, protecting the main source of revenue funding for single homelessness services, and strengthening its homelessness legislation. The key tenets of this Welsh legislation were then adopted in England via the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017. Meantime Scotland has long forged its own path on homelessness policy, most notably by radically extending entitlements for single homeless people. A key message of the paper is that homelessness is fundamentally driven by poverty across Great Britain, but also that targeted homelessness and rough sleeping policies can have dramatic positive effects, even in a challenging structural context

Open Space Quality in Deprived Urban Areas: User Perspective and Use Pattern

AbstractThis study examines the quality of open spaces in the most deprived areas in Edinburgh from the perspective of end-users; and the influence of the physical and spatial qualities on how open spaces in such areas are used. The study was informed by an extensive review of the literature and a critical analysis of the relevant Scottish policies and guidance. A case study of Clovenstone Gardens in the Wester Hailes district of Edinburgh, was chosen for this study. A four-fold methodological approach was used for data collection and analysis including semi-structured interviews, attitudinal questionnaire, observation study and space syntax analysis. The study showed that both the physical and the spatial qualities of the open space under study did not meet the user's needs and expectations. This includes aspects of cleanliness, maintenance, safety and the open space layout design and quality. On the other hand, accessibility has shown to achieve a satisfactory level