This book is about the ‘traditional’ housing problems of shortage and affordability, plus ‘newer concerns’ such as sustainability and social exclusion. It comprises a collection of ‘specially commissioned essays by distinguished specialists’ addressing ‘the big issues in housing and housing policy in the UK’. Its purpose is to provide students, researchers, practitioners and policy makers with ‘a deeper understanding of the present housing system and its problems’ and therefore establish a basis for developing ‘better solutions to those problems into the twenty-first century’. The book is unique in the sense that it is the first I have come across to include its own ‘review’ (Chapter 13 by Chris Paris).

The book starts with the editors’ claim that, in the aftermath of the post-2007 global financial crisis, the credit crunch has ‘changed the political and economic landscape, undermining the hegemonic position of the theory that deregulated markets produce the best outcomes, and challenging policy-makers to rein in the excesses of the free market’ (p. 1). The roots of the crisis are seen to lie in the profound transformations to the housing system caused when the ‘era of welfare capitalism . . . came to an end in the global economic crisis of the mid-1970s’ (p. 3). Whatever replaced it – call it ‘post-industrial capitalism’, ‘post-Fordism’ or the ‘post-welfare state’ – ‘market forces were given freer reign generally and the state welfare provisions developed in the previous era were cut back or modified’ (p. 3). State housing was to be at the forefront of this change through privatisation measures (the right-to-buy, stock transfers and prioritising larger housing associations as new providers) and deregulation (loss of security of tenure and rent subsidies). Home ownership and private renting were to be promoted. The book addresses concerns that arise from these changes.

The editors unashamedly admit that the scope of the book omits questions of ‘race’ and ‘gender’, and, by excluding the question of ‘antisocial behaviour’ (a central plank of New Labour's housing policy), they effectively also omit questions of ‘youth’ (those most victimised by ‘antisocial behaviour’ strategies). But I had guessed this might be the case from the photograph of authors included near the front of the book – one white woman and thirteen white (mainly older) men like me. Given that women, young people and certain ‘ethnic minority’ groups (particularly Pakistanis and Bangladeshis – a root cause of social unrest at the start of the 2000s) have been disproportionately harmed by the economic and social policy changes over the last forty years, these omissions are shameful.

The issues that are addressed include a chapter on the housing system and housing policy in the 1970s to provide ‘a baseline position for understanding the subsequent transformation’ (p. 13). Then four chapters address the ‘ongoing restructuring of the social rented sector’ (p. 13) since the 1970s: changes to the role and image of council housing; the ramifications of the right to buy for wealth accrual and the housing system; and stock transfer and the rise to prominence of housing associations within the housing system. The next three chapters address developments in housing market activity in relation to the private rented sector, home ownership and housing supply. Then we have two chapters on ‘a highly topical set of issues around regeneration and the sustainability of communities’ (p. 15).

Then there is what feels to me to be the final substantive chapter of the book – one written by Alan Murie for whom ‘this book was prompted by a wish among colleagues and friends . . . to mark his retirement’ (p. ix). Murie argues that whilst housing policy diminished from the late 1970s, it has, since 2000, been rediscovered. What Murie describes as the rediscovery of housing policy includes: the Decent Homes programme to raise standards in the social housing stock (to be attained in council housing via accessing private finance through stock transfer); the sustainable communities plan (a policy response aimed at addressing the impact of the lack of affordable housing on economic development by deregulating the planning system and freeing up opportunities for private-sector housing development and S106 planning agreements – regardless of the dubious quality of much of the social housing built under the latter); the restructuring of the Housing Corporation (HC), English Partnerships and parts of Communities and Local Government into the Homes and Communities Agency, and the establishment of the Tenants Services Authority (measures aimed at separating the investment and regulation responsibilities of the HC); the ‘nationalisations’ of Northern Rock and other banks – described by Murie as signalling ‘an unprecedented new phase of state intervention related to the operation of the housing market’ (p. 235) (as opposed to signalling an unprecedented phase of state intervention related to the operation of a corrupt and reckless banking system whose profligacy created the debt crisis). If these measures are to truly represent the ‘rediscovery’ of housing policy – as Murie claims – we have moved some distance I feel from Malpass and Murie's (Reference Malpass and Murie1982) definition of housing policy as state action to influence not only the quality of housing but also the quantity, price and ownership of dwellings (in an attempt to address the ‘traditional’ housing problems of shortage and affordability). Contemporary housing policy goes little beyond an effort to address nuisances caused by substandard homes and their ‘antisocial’ residents – a return to the ‘pre-housing policy’ days of the nineteenth century.

Finally, Chris Paris’ ‘review’. His main criticisms of the book include ‘no reference to Northern Ireland’ (p. 248) nor any exploration of ‘demographic changes since the 1970s as drivers of the changing housing system’ (p. 250), including the ‘recent migrant surge into the UK’ (p. 251). This latter statement would sit better in the Daily Mail.

Overall, as a description of transformations in the history of housing policy since World War Two up to the New Labour years, this book provides a useful overview. However, the analysis of the period is highly selective and undifferentiated – particularly, as I have suggested, in relation to ‘race’ and ‘gender’. Additionally, writing this with hindsight of the 2010 General Election, much of the optimism about a changed political and economic landscape now looks even more naïve. Under the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition we are witnessing the most savage assault on the welfare system since the Second World War with the consolidation of neo-liberal ideological hegemony and free market excess. Whilst the bankers prepare to pay themselves huge bonuses again, we are seeing unprecedented cuts in social housing development and housing benefit entitlement (in the case of the latter, a ceiling of £250 a week for a two-bed home with allowances pegged to the bottom third of rents in an area). These cuts will lead, according to one commentator from the political ‘right’, to ‘Kosovo-style social cleansing’ (Boris Johnson); and to one from the political ‘left’, the ‘final solution of the poor’ (Polly Toynbee). The poor – disproportionately women, young people and ethnic minorities – will be forced out of their homes, away from where the jobs are. The education of the children of the poor will suffer. This is hardly a rediscovery of housing policy, but more a rediscovery of Tory indifference to the suffering and needs of the poor.