Governing Independence and Expertise The Business of Housing Associations

by McDermont, Morag

• ISBN13: 9781841139890
• ISBN10: 1841139890
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-04-09
• Publisher: Hart Publishing

Summary

Governing, Independence and Expertise tells the story of the not-for-profit housing sector in England, focusing on its representative body, the National Housing Federation. The story tells of how the Federation and associations influenced their own space of governing through deploying discourses of independence and expertise; how being governed, and governing, become, at times, one and the same. The National Federation of Housing Societies was born in 1935 out of the apparent failure of housing societies, associations and charitable trusts to tackle the 'problem of the slums'. Its story was a familiar one - organisations have often set up collective structures to facilitate intervention in government. Viewed historically the success of the project is, nevertheless, remarkable, given that the housing association sector is now a major force in social housing provision. Moreover housing associations have pioneered many programmes which are central to our 'modernised' welfare state such as private finance, independence and entrepreneurialism. Through the story of the Federation, the book examines the role of non-governmental sectors in mechanisms of governing, engaging contemporary debates about public services and the nature of the 'social' - the limits of the role of the not-for-profit sector; the impact of private funders; and the disappearance of the notion of 'public'.

Author Biography

Morag McDermont is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Bristol.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. v
Abbreviations	p. xi
Housing, Governing and History	p. 1
Introduction	p. 1
On Housing	p. 3
On Governing	p. 6
On History	p. 14
The Rest of the Book	p. 16
The Story of the National Housing Federation: An Overview	p. 22
Beginnings: The Problem of the Slums	p. 23
'A New Start': The Federation after the Second World War	p. 26
Transformations 1: The 1960s, 1970s and 1980s	p. 33
Transformations 2: Private Finance and Voluntary Transfer	p. 40
Conclusion	p. 43
Unacceptable Boundaries of Charity Regulation	p. 45
Introduction	p. 45
Charity Law and the Housing Association Sector: A Historical Introduction	p. 46
Housing Associations Challenged	p. 52
The Housing Association Model and Third Sector Transformation	p. 61
Conclusion	p. 65
Governing Locally: Housing Associations and Local Government	p. 66
Introduction	p. 66
The Technicalities of Governing Locally	p. 67
Nomination Agreements: Contestation and Partnership	p. 74
Stock Transfer; Coercive Practices and the Recurring Problematic of Nominations	p. 83
Conclusion	p. 85
Territorialising Regulation: Creating a National Regulatory Community	p. 87
Introduction	p. 87
Regulatory Space, Regulatory Territory	p. 88
Making the Housing Act 1974: Defining Territory	p. 91
A New Territory of Regulation	p. 98
Conclusion	p. 104
Money	p. 108
Introduction	p. 108
Structuring Relations through the Language of Finance	p. 110
The Federation Intervenes	p. 113
The Impact of the Housing Act 1988: Reshaping Housing Associations	p. 120
Conclusion: Into the Future?	p. 126
Shelter, the Federation and Social Movements	p. 129
Introduction	p. 129
The Formation of Shelter	p. 130
Challenging Homelessness: Housing Aid and the Homeless Persons Act 1977	p. 138
Shelter and Housing Associations: A 'Movement' Moving Apart?	p. 144
Conclusion: Some Reflections on Being a 'Movement'	p. 145
'Independent Spirit'	p. 149
Introduction	p. 149
Securing Independence	p. 151
States of Dependence	p. 157
Conclusion	p. 164
Appendix: Biographies of Interviewees	p. 166
Bibliography	p. 172
Index	p. 183
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