This book needed to be written. After twenty-two years of government programmes to sell off council housing, half of England's local authorities have transferred their housing stock, along with nine local authorities in Wales and six of Scotland's councils – including Glasgow, the largest and possibly the most controversial of them all. Much has been written about this so-called ‘voluntary transfer’ of public assets to (in the most part) not-for-profit housing associations; this, however, is the first book to provide a comprehensive overview of the whole terrain.

The book looks at all versions of transfer, from the first transfers where the whole stock was sold off, to Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) where the originating council maintains ownership of the stock but transfers management functions. In its detailed accounts of the financial and political implications, this book will prove invaluable to housing students at undergraduate and postgraduate level; in its analysis, it will provide an important contribution to contemporary housing scholarship. Significantly, this whole terrain overview makes crystal clear that this has been an ideologically driven programme, thinly justified in financial terms.

Hal Pawson and David Mullins are well placed to carry out this task. They bring together their own empirical research over the past twenty-plus years with the work of other housing scholars. They address a UK-wide audience, drawing substantially from experience in Scotland as well as England and Wales.

Their core argument is that the transfer of council housing to other providers is not simply a matter of replacing one set of managers with another, ‘but may be one of the most significant shifts in the UK welfare state since the Second World War’ (p. 7). This argument I would accept, whilst pointing out that the shift began long before the first stock transfer in 1988. The shift away from a belief in municipal landlords goes back (at least) to the development in the 1970s of a confident housing association sector claiming expertise in urban renewal, with assurity provided by a sector-wide regulator, the Housing Corporation. The housing association sector led the way for a hegemonic shift in the understanding of the nature of public. The shift to a privatised social housing sector, albeit with the providers as not-for-profit but looking like private, is a shift that we can now see as highly likely for the higher education sector, and the NHS.

The significant point here is that this shift away from the public in housing policy has largely been accepted as a natural progression, normalised from the outset. It has generally avoided the privatisation label − compare this Pollock's NHS plc (Reference Pollock2004) − except from the Defend Council Housing (DCH) campaign. Chapter 4 usefully analyses the political context of stock transfer, in which the DCH argument that ‘voluntary’ transfer equates to privatisation and the erosion of tenants rights is presented as one of a number of arguments.

The authors view the process not as privatisation but rather as the creation of over 250 ‘new social landlords, forming a distinct component in the housing association sector. However, whilst their approach is an even-handed explication of all the arguments, they too do not accept that transfer is a neutral policy, necessary only in value-for-money terms. Politics is never far from the surface, and ‘the extent to which transfers are always justified in purely financial terms remains somewhat uncertain’ (p. 96).

The first chapters set out a ‘framework in which readers can make sense of the process and outcomes of stock transfer’ (p. 27). They are strong on clear explanations of the complicated financial framework erected by successive governments that inexorably lead local authorities to the conclusion that stock transfer is the only option if they are to improve poorly maintained housing stock (itself a product of decades of under-funding by central government) and to meet the Decent Homes Standard. The continuing narrow framing of public sector borrowing contained in the PSBR/PSNB definitions has meant that local authorities, unlike housing associations, were unable to raise loans from private sources. This they ascribe to a resistant Treasury concerned that financial markets would interpret any change as demonstrating weak resolve in controlling public expenditure (p. 72).

The second part of the book uses empirical evidence to demonstrate the significant impact of stock transfer. The extensive discussion (in Chapter 5) of the implications for governance is backed by a considerable body of research. The new governance structures mean increased influence for new stakeholders, senior staff, funders and regulators. However, they also argue that tenants are significantly empowered post-transfer, generally holding a third of board membership. Stock transfer associations ‘are more likely to have institutionalized the logic of local accountability through their governance arrangements’ (p. 169). This may be one of the principal legacies of stock transfer: these associations have established models for tenants as governors new to both local authorities and to most traditional housing associations.

The impact on the quality of housing stock should be positive given that the main stated motivation has been to access private finance to upgrade council housing, and indeed Chapter 7 presents research demonstrating significant and rapid improvement in stock condition. On access to housing, the authors conclude that ‘there is little evidence to show that whole stock transfer has generally resulted in more restrictive “new tenant selection” approaches unsympathetic to vulnerable households’ (p. 212). This is debateable. Cowan, McDermont and Morgan (Reference Cowan, McDermont and Morag2008) found considerable concern amongst councils, the LGA and Shelter that transfer associations operate restrictive practices against potentially risky tenants, often as a mechanism for protecting their stock investment.

The impact on neighbourhood regeneration appears positive, with new landlords in urban areas taking on community regeneration as ‘enlightened self-interest’. However, the jury is out on the long-term impact (p. 240). There is also little evidence to support government claims that the parent local authority, having lost its stock, is able to be a more effective strategic policy-maker for housing-related functions (p. 297).

Their concluding speculations on what the future holds are pertinent, despite the change of government. The future is indeed uncertain. Whilst the coalition government plans to release councils from the restrictions of the Housing Revenue Account, this seems unlikely to release local authorities to once again become major housing providers.