Originally published in 1987, public rented housing in Britain had undergone many changes in the decade before, which had been accelerated by the policies of the Conservative government since 1979. With financial incentives and the ‘right to buy’, owner occupation was being vigorously promoted as the ‘normal’ tenure for the bulk of households, while the public sector was increasingly confined to those on low incomes. At the same time, a severe squeeze on capital and maintenance expenditure was leading to a deterioration in the public stock, and was causing major problems for housing managers. The book surveys the current state of public housing at the time, including a chapter on developments in Europe, and examines how the sector was adapting in terms of new approaches such as decentralisation and co-operatives.
