A Review of "Renewing Europe's housing", Edited by Richard Turkington and Christopher Watson

Housing renewal (ageing stock brought to current standards) is – more often than
not a ‘neglected policy area’ (p. 3). The editors of Renewing Europe’s Housing
argue that where there is policy activation, it is often only an addendum to further
the aims of other policy and political objectives such as energy efficiency targets.
Taking the example of the recent General Election in the UK, their ‘neglected policy
thesis’ can be seen to hold true. Although housing and social policy were firmly
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at the fore of the election battleground in the form of housing supply and affordability,
with the right offering a re-booted Right to Buy and the left demanding more
subsidy to build affordable housing, there was not an audible whisper relating to
housing renewal! Given that 30 million (6%) of the European Union’s (EU) population
lived in ageing housing in ‘severe housing deprivation’ in 2009 (p. 266), and
with demographic changes such as an ageing population causing further housing
stress across most of the EU, ignoring this policy area carry its own perils.