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Extra care housing enables older people to remain in their ‘own home’, while providing appropriate housing and access to health and social care services that are responsive to their needs. This type of provision is very much in line with the government policy of fostering people's sense of control and independence, and is a priority area for expansion. We explored the current levels of development and expansion of extra care housing in terms of the numbers of schemes and places and factors that contributed to and were problematic in its development.

This paper presents the findings of recent research exploring how local authorities are delivering affordable housing through the planning system, focusing on their use of Section 106 (S106) of the Town and Country Planning Act (1990). Policy and practice vary between local authorities. While the amount of affordable housing delivered through S106 has increased, there is pressure on local authorities to improve performance further as affordability has worsened across the country. This paper highlights the issues that local authorities face, and makes some recommendations for good practice.

The main aim of this study is to ascertain the progress in implementing the actions contained within the BME Housing Action Plan for Wales, by the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) and social landlords in Wales.

The research was carried out between December 2004 and May 2005. This paper discusses some of the main findings from the systematic review of BME housing strategies and action plans covering 22 local authorities and 32 housing associations in Wales.

It was clear from all aspects of the research that the WAG's BME Housing Action Plan for Wales is having a positive impact on the profile and awareness of BME housing issues in Wales. However, the degree and extent of progress varied throughout Wales.

BME housing issues have a high profile in the social housing sector in Wales. It is important that this positive profile is maintained and does not lose momentum due to increasing and competing priorities.

Currently, the lack of incentives for compliance (and penalties for non‐compliance) presents a potential disincentive to the long‐term sustainability of the present enthusiasm and momentum on BME housing issues in Wales.

This research is the first to evaluate the progress made by social landlords in implementing the WAG's BME Housing Action Plan for Wales.

The theoretical case for land value capture is well-known, but the effectiveness of affordable housing delivery as a capture mechanism is not so well-documented. Building on the earlier theoretical and empirical work of Whitehead (1991, 2007) and Crook and Whitehead (2002), the purpose of this paper is to consider the provision of affordable housing from a land value capture viewpoint, focusing on the process by which the amount of affordable housing is determined between landowners/developers on the one hand and local planning authorities on the other.

The paper adopts a mixed-mode approach for the data collection. Two surveys of local planning authorities were undertaken, together with a series of case study interviews.

The paper evaluates whether land value capture has been an effective mechanism for delivering affordable housing by focusing on three principal areas: first, the political agenda in relation to land value capture and the supply of affordable housing; second, the nature and motivation of the stakeholders involved in affordable housing decision-making; and third, the use of economic models as decision tools for determining the amount and type of affordable housing are negotiated.

The research provides some insight into the effectiveness of local authority affordable housing targets as a means of capturing the uplift in land value that results from the grant of planning permission.

Property managers in the private domestic sector will be aware of the problems which beset that seemingly inexorably shrinking part of the housing market. The complexities deriving from the Rent Acts, and the facts that (a) owner occupiers paying mortgages receive mortgage interest relief; (b) public sector tenants receive assistance with their housing costs in the form of exchequer subsidies; and (c) private sector tenants can receive a ‘hidden’ subsidy in the form of ‘fair rent’ restrictions, while the private landlord himself receives no such help with his housing costs or tax burden — all these combine to make the lot of the lessor of private rent accommodation a less than happy one.

The lack of a proper register to store, match and display information on the adapted property has led to a waste of resources and prolonged delays in matching the disabled and elderly people with appropriate properties. This paper presents the development of a Housing Adaptations Register with user-matching functionalities for different mobility categories. The developed system accurately captures and documents adapted home information to facilitate the automated matching of disabled/aged applicants needing an adapted home with suitable property using banding, mobility and suitability index.

A theoretical review was conducted to identify parameters and develop adaptations register construct. A survey questionnaire approach to rate the 111 parameters in the register as either moderate, desirable or essential before system development and application. The system development relied on DSS modelling to support data-driven decision-making based on the decision table method to represent property information for implementing the decision process. The system is validated through a workshop, four brainstorming sessions and three focus group exercises.

Development of a choice-based system that enables the housing officers or the Housing Adaptations Register coordinators to know the level of adaptation to properties and match properties quickly with the applicants based on their mobility status. The merits of the automated system include the development of a register to capture in real-time adapted home information to facilitate the automated matching of disabled/aged applicants. A “choice-based” system that can map and suggest a property that can easily be adapted and upgraded from one mobility band to the other.

The development of a housing adaptation register helps social housing landlords to have a real-time register to match, map and upgrade properties for the most vulnerable people in our society. It saves time and money for the housing associations and the local authorities through stable tenancy for adapted homes. Potentially, it will promote the independence of aged and disabled people and can reduce their dependence on social and healthcare services.

This system provides the local authorities with objective and practical tools that may be used to assess, score, prioritise and select qualified people for appropriate accommodation based on their needs and mobility status. It will provide a record of properties adapted with their features and ensure that matching and eligibility decisions are consistent and uniform.

Highlights the increasing emphasis on customers and service quality in the new public sector. Emphasises the bias towards hard, easily quantifiable data and a focus on external customers in the measurement of service quality. Explores relationships through which grants for social housing are bid for and allocated and the programme managed. Reviews measures of quality in relation to understanding such service relationships. Offers the Service Template Process within a process consultancy framework as an alternative. Findings emphasise the importance of partnership between the Housing Corporation, Local Authorities and Registered Social Landlords (Housing Associations) in ensuring quality in the funding of social housing and the need for longer time scales for joint planning activity. The suitability of the process to help highlight issues critical to a service relationship is also discussed.

Property guardianship is increasingly being viewed as an alternative and, in many cases, a last resort to the unaffordable private rental market. This upsurge in the incidence of guardianship necessarily amplifies the existing legal grey areas and the inherent insecurity and precarity in the sector for guardians. Drawing on interviews with property guardians and archival research, the purpose of this study is to explore the background to the guardianship occupation model; highlight the key problems guardianship generates and, building on this, propose recommendations for reform to the regulatory landscape of guardianship. This study argues that a culture change in property guardianship is needed so that guardians can be better protected, and local authorities empowered to be more proactive in overseeing standards of guardian properties in their areas.

This study draws on qualitative semi-structured interviews with 46 property guardians and archival research.

The author argues that property guardians routinely enter the sector largely as a matter of last resort based on financial considerations or following difficult life experiences. Insecure and precarious, guardianship operates under licence agreements which provide less protection for guardians. Coupled with ambiguity around the application of existing housing legislation to guardianship and research showing non-engagement by local authorities with guardianship, this study suggests regulatory reform is urgently needed.

With traditional residential tenancies in the private rental sector increasingly unaffordable for many and guardianship becoming a viable alternative, this study argues for significant regulatory reform to the guardianship sector to ensure guardians are adequately protected under the law. This study presents a series of proposals to deliver a culture change in the sector.

The paper will aim to examine the contemporary origins and development of the planning system and housing regulation in England and Ireland. One objective is to broadly explicate how the regulation of housing in England began, with reference to Ireland, and its relationship with the planning system. The other is to outline the swing in England from a hotchpotch decentralised system to a centralised, and back again sharply to decentralised approach to planning and the provision for housing, a swing unparalleled in Ireland.

The approach is to consider the main influences on the regulation of planning and housing, with reference to historical, social and legal regulatory developments, and to broadly assess the role of centralised and decentralised systems.

The regulation of housing was an incidental product of the regulation of public health. The use of town and country planning principles could have assisted such regulation, but were unpopular until the development of a centralised system of planning in the 20th century. This has led to problems in Ireland for the delivery of local services. The change in England under the Localism Act to decentralized system is unlikely to achieve an effective use of local resources. It is unlikely that unwieldy new systems of decision‐making and funding arrangements will improve the provision of housing for low incomes and the poor. A balance between the use of both systems is required.

This paper assesses the impact of social, historical, administrative and legal changes that have impacted on the progress of the relationship between planning and housing regulation in England and Ireland over the last two centuries until the present day.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the appropriateness of mediation as a homelessness prevention tool for statutorily homeless people who are in need of emergency housing assistance from local authorities in England. It is argued that although mediation is potentially an effective method for facilitating communication as a homelessness prevention tool, caution needs to be exercised in its use in attempting to prevent immediate homelessness.

In‐depth interviews were carried out with five housing law practitioners and six mediators. The paper also draws on observations made by commentators on homelessness legislation as well as ADR. Government papers, including guidance and policy papers and statutes, have been examined.

Mediation could potentially offer effective assistance to homeless people, although it is questionable whether immediate homelessness could genuinely be prevented. In addition, in order to prevent potentially unlawful decisions being made, local authority officers need to take into account their reactive duties under Part VII of the Housing Act 1996 as amended by the Homelessness Act 2002.

Findings from the research address homelessness mediation, an area that requires discussion. More research is needed on the benefits of mediation to homeless people.

The paper contributes to discussions between a range of academics and practitioners interested in the potential benefits of mediation in the context of homelessness work.