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Housing Policy

Cathy Davis and Alan Wigfield's Housing: Did it have to be like this? and Let's Build the Houses - Quick! provides a socialist critique of New Labour's performance in this field.

Dexter Whitfield's new title, In Place of Austerity, uncovers the realities of commissioning, localism, 'big society' empowerment fraud, and the systematic undermining of public services and the welfare state.

<span style='font-size: 14px;'>Housing: Did it have to be like this?</span>

Housing: Did it have to be like this?
A socialist critique of New Labour's performance
By Cathy Davis & Alan Wigfield

'This pamphlet will identify the best of what was achieved by Labour governments in the past, by Labour ministers struggling against considerable opposition to achieve progressive legislation and large building programmes. This will be compared with what New Labour, with a massive electoral majority, has achieved in relation to council housebuilding and maintenance, anti-social behaviour and creating mixed communities. What have been the effects of the twin restrictions on local authorities - in relation to new building and funding to achieve the Decent Homes Standard? Should council or housing association landlords have substantial powers over tenants' personal behaviour, and has New Labour emphasis on dealing with anti-social behaviour changed the way that social housing is regarded?'

Dr Cathy Davis, University of Salford
Alan Wigfield, Sheffield Hallam University, Chair, Sheffield City Council Housing Committee 1986-92

Reviews:
Joe Crawford (2011): Housing: Did it Have to be Like This? A Socialist Critique of New Labour's Performance, Housing Studies, 26:5, 793-794

Ian Cole (2011): Housing: Did it Have to Be Like This?, Housing Studies, 26:5, 795-796

Price: £6.00

33 pages | ISBN: 978 0 85124 7823

8th Series Number 3 (No. 53)

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<span style='font-size: 14px;'>In Place of Austerity</span>

In Place of Austerity
Reconstructing the economy,
state and public services
By Dexter Whitfield

In Place of Austerity uncovers the realities of commissioning, localism, 'big society' empowerment fraud, and the systematic undermining of public services and the welfare state. It perceptively exposes the scale of disempowerment, dispossession and disinvestment, and analyses the dominant rationale, which continues to underpin the financialisation and personalisation of public services, accelerating marketisation and privatisation on an unprecedented scale.

This is a vitally important book for trade unions as well as for civil and community organisations. It provides a critical understanding of the issues and will aid their intervention in transformation and procurement of public services by forging strong alliances, taking industrial and community action, and advancing alternative policies.

In Place of Austerity sets out a framework for policies that reconstruct the economy, invest in local economies, create jobs and rebuild public infrastructure. In doing so, it charts a new role for the state and offers a radical new public service management strategy. It is an equally important resource for all public sector employees. Incisive, timely and detailed, it is original in its research and analysis.

A paper by Dexter:
A paper written for Studies in Social Services, Li Bing, Vice Professor, Department of Sociology, Beijing Administrative College, China. Social services are at the forefront of the continued neoliberal transformation of public services and the welfare state in the UK. The paper applies the In Place of Austerity framework to examine the changes in social services. Paper in English and Chinese.

Reviews:
Bryan Evans in Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation Volume 7, Number 1, Summer 2013

Colin Burgess in Campaign for Labour Party Democracy

Dave Putson, TUSC (Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition)

An article by New Left Project on G4S makes positive reference to In Place of Austerity, August 2012

William Podmore - Amazon

Andy Morton for Chartist, March/April 2012

Clive Singer for Open Democracy, Jan 2012

Nick Grant for Socialist Review, Jan 2012

A short review from IIndependent Action

Price: £18.00

264 pages | Paperback

ISBN: 978 085124 7939

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<span style='font-size: 14px;'>Right to a Home</span>

Right to a Home
Labour Housing Group

Published in 1984, Right to a Home offered a radical blueprint for housing policies. Written by socialists active in the Labour Housing Group, it argued that the Labour Party must effectively challenge the Tories' appalling record on housing by advancing an imaginative alternative system.

Starting from the principle of the right to a home for all members of the community, the Labour Housing Group spelt out an approach to a collection of tangled problems: funding for council and owner occupied housing; discrimination against women; housing and race; private landlords; design and standards and housing renewal. Encouragement for housing co-ops and the roles for housing associations also came under the spotlight.

Price: £15.00

198 pages | Hardback

ISBN: 978 0 85124 3993

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Spokesman Books | Housing Policy

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