Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
management initiatives, tenure diversification and
employment projects. In Britain, resources for this
type of intervention are provided by the
government through the Department of the
Environment, Transport and the Regions Single
Regeneration Budget programme.
However, whether the housing renewal
strategies now being undertaken in Hackney and
in many other areas of the UK will successfully
regenerate these localities is another question. In the
UK, along with other countries in the developed
world, social housing is widely seen as an inferior
tenure to owner-occupied housing, and as such
many better-off residents continue to move out of
council property as soon as their personal economic
circumstances permit. This process known as
residualisation in effect undermines efforts to tackle
the social and economic problems that exist on
many council estates. In addition, it seems unlikely
that enough resources have been set aside by the
government to enable many other estates to benefit
from increased investment. In fact, public
expenditure on Single Regeneration Budget
programmes will contract by 29 per cent in real
terms between 1994/5 and 1998/9 (Centre for
Urban and Regional Studies 1995: p. 20).
For these reasons, it can be argued that the
interventions taking place are insufficient to
prevent this process of residualisation. Indeed
the tenants who will be living on estates such
as Holly Street are, according to Page (1993:
p. 30),
Even more economically disadvantaged than
those housed previously—although younger
and more likely to be economically active, their
incomes are lower and they are less likely to
have a job, more likely to be unemployed and
more likely to be wholly dependent on state
benefits or pensions.
The policy intervention taking place on the Holly
Street Estate provides an example of the holistic
approach to housing renewal. In contrast to earlier
periods, the objective is to target resources on a
specific area and to integrate housing policies with
economic and social measures. Although the quality
of individual council tenants lives will improve as a
result of the physical renewal, the overall status of
public sector housing will continue to deteriorate
because of the residualisation process. Until steps
are taken to restore its status as a form of tenure
attractive to those who are able to exercise choice
and not just those in greatest need, the economic
outlook of localities like Holly Street will remain
forlorn (Plate 28.2).
Tackling street homelessness in New York
The second example of a contemporary housing
problem concerns the rise of homelessness in the
Plate 28.2
The Holly Street
Estate, Hackney, London,
before the current £200 million
redevelopment programme, as
many as 80 per cent of the
tenants had requested a move
off the estate.
