An Examination of the Economic and Financial Factors Influencing and Determining the Effectiveness of Housing Renewal Policies with Special Reference to the London Borough of Lambeth

The activities and operation of the producers and consumers of housing have been significantly influenced by government policy. Since the beginning of the twentieth century the government has directly subsidised the construction of housing by local authorities and controlled the rents of the private rented sector. Over the following years the government has extended its influence on the consumption and in the production of housing in many different ways.
One particular aspect of the government's influence on the housing market forms the central theme of this thesis: this is the housing renewal process.
The scale of obsolescence and’ the concentration of housing stress, particularly in all our major conurbations continues to pose economic, social and political problems for the government, in spite of substantial public resources having been devoted to improving and upgrading the quality of the nation's housing stock over the past 60 years.
In this context Part One of the thesis consists of a general discussion of housing renewal policies and explores in some depth at both a national and a local level the impact of these renewal policies.
Part Two analyses, using specific criteria, the effect of these housing renewal policies. It identifies some of the reasons why the present renewal strategies are failing to reduce housing obsolescence, and describes and analyses the allocation of public resources to housing. This specifically involved looking at the efficiency and effectiveness of individual rehabilitation and redevelopment programmes funded by the public sector and stresses the need for an economic evaluation of renewal schemes as an integral part of the decision making process. The problem of selecting specific areas of housing with the aid of housing indicators is examined in detail; suggestions are made and a new and improved index has been constructed to improve the important function of delineating areas for housing renewal policies.
Part Three contains suggestions for changes in the housing renewal policies derived from the analyses undertaken in Part Two.