An analysis of UK policies for domestic energy reduction using an agent based tool

This paper introduces a new agent-based model, which incorporates the actions of individual homeowners in a long-term domestic stock model, and details how it was applied in energy policy analysis. The results indicate that current policies are likely to fall significantly short of the 80% target and suggest that current subsidy levels need re-examining. In the model, current subsidy levels appear to offer too much support to some technologies, which in turn leads to the suppression of other technologies that have a greater energy saving potential. The model can be used by policy makers to develop further scenarios to find alternative, more effective, sets of policy measures. The model is currently limited to the owner-occupied stock in England, although it can be expanded, subject to the availability of data

Life after Regions? The Evolution of City-regionalism in England

This item was accepted for publication in the journal, Regional Studies [© Regional Studies Association]. The definitive version is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2010.521148].This paper examines the evolving pattern of city-regional governance in England. Following the demise of English regional policy in 2004, city-regions have come to represent the in vogue spatial scale amongst policy elites. The result has been a proliferation of actual and proposed policies and institutions designed to operate at a, variously defined, city-regional scale in England. Nevertheless, attempts to build a city-regional tier of governance have been tentative and lacking coherence. Alongside this city-regions are to be found emerging alongside existing tiers of economic governance and spatial planning. Arguing that what we are witnessing is not ‘life after regions’ but life with (or alongside) regions, the analysis presented argues that to understand why contemporary state reorganisation results in a multiplication of the scales economic governance and spatial planning we must recognise how the state shapes policies in such a way as to protect its legitimacy for maintain regulatory control and management of the economy. The final section relates these findings to wider debates on state rescaling and speculates on the future role of transition models in sociospatial theory

Housing options for older people in a reimagined housing system: a case study from England

The housing options of older people now extend far beyond the traditional choice between staying put and making do, or moving to specialist housing or residential care. A flexible suite of options has emerged, centred on promoting independence and wellbeing. Valuable insights have been provided into the development, delivery, costs and benefits of these options. Light has also been cast on the experiences and preferences of older people. However, little is know about who gets what housing, where and why. This reflects a tendency within analysis to consider these different housing options in isolation. This study responds by situating the housing options of older people within wider debates about the reimagining of the housing system driven by the neoliberal transformation in housing politics. Taking a case study approach, it explores the gap between the ambitions of policy and realities of provision at the local level, relates this to the particular intersection of state practices and market mechanisms manifest in the case study and, in doing so, rises to the challenge of extending analysis of the impacts of the neoliberal approach on the right to housing to new groups and different settings

Interoperability optimisation for shared equity housing model development and FTB homeownership in the UK

Purpose – This paper assessed financial interoperability implications associated with First Time Buyers (FTB) in housing development and the role of the Community Land Trust Shared Equity Housing Model (CLT SEHM). Design/Methodology/Approach – The Interoperability optimisation process adopted by this study involved triangulated findings from literature, semi-structured interviews and questionnaire surveys. The text analysis of interview responses was actualised with Nvivo 9.0. This process informed the validation of themes through a questionnaire survey (purposive sampling), of which findings were subsequently analysed with statistical methods including binary logistic regression to validate interoperability rational and implications. Findings – The study identified positive financial interoperability outcomes for a successful synergy between the CLT SEHM and FTBs. From the analysis, there were sustainable results for average income multiple and property transfer/resale value for the CLT SEHM compared to conventional models. However, for the most at risk FTB groups, recommendations included increased concessions for CLT SEHM developments to incentivise bespoke rent purchase hybrid schemes. Originality/value – This research provided a good starting point for achieving improved level of efficiency necessary for the introduction of emerging/renewed alternative housing models into mainstream operational capabilities in housing and local development policies. Keywords – UK Housing Development, First Time Buyers (FTB), Interoperability, Community Land Trust, Shared Equity Housing Model, Binary Logistic Regression mode

“The best flood I ever had”: Contingent resilience and the (relative) success of adaptive technologies

The practical operationalisation of resilience within cities is strongly linked to technology, such as better construction materials or redesigning urban form. Institutional and private sector actors often focus on issues relating to the technological innovation journey, such as‘pathways’to implementation or‘barriers’to market uptake, rather than whether adaptive technologies are the most appropriate resilience solution. These discourses frame urban resilience from the perspective of an innovation journey where technologies are perceived to succeed if there is high uptake. However, given the multi-perspective and multi-scale nature of urban resilience,the idea of‘success’inevitably has complex spatial, temporal and scalar dimensions. The paper uses the case of property level flood resilience (PFR) technologies in the United Kingdom to introduce the notion of ‘contingent resilience ’as a means to understand the trade-offs that are part of assessing and evaluating climate resilient technologies. We reveal that there are fundamental contradictions in what is deemed as a‘success’depending on who is framing the problem,when the judgement is made, or where the scale of analysis lies. Above all, the paper highlights the importance of illuminating the struggles that do not just define success, but that spatially and temporally redistribute climate resilience in a hidden manner

Is the grass always greener? Making sense of convergence and divergence in regeneration policies in England and Scotland

This paper is concerned with the trajectories of regeneration policy discourse and practice in a devolved UK context. Over recent years the asymmetrical nature of devolved governance has intensified, exemplified by a policy of political containment in Scotland and a reconfiguration of sub-national institutional architecture in England. Against a backdrop of the transfusion of Holyrood’s devolution agenda and Westminster’s localism programme, an empirical analysis of contemporary English and Scottish regeneration policy is provided. We investigate the extent to which perceived divergences in government policy resonate with those at the sharp end of regeneration practice, informed by concepts derived from the policy convergence/divergence literature. The key finding is the coexistence of ideological divergence, replete in political discourse and policy documentation, but growing convergence in actual existing practice, evidenced in the nature, extent and scale of initiatives. The enveloping fiscal context and austere politics, producing what is anticipated to be a protracted period of financial retrenchment, appears to be a defining factor in contemporary urban regeneration policy convergence