SECURING HOUSING CHOICE - NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE UK PLANNING SYSTEM

This review paper is primarily concerned with the fall and potential r ise of housing tenure choice in the UK. It reviews those policy direct ives, implemented during the 1980s, which were instrumental in eroding social renting opportunities and, more broadly, 'tenure choice'. In t he second part of the paper, reductions in tenure choice are explored at the district level using a Census derived 'choice index'. This desc ription of changing patterns is followed by an examination of policy s hifts in the 1990s. Emphasis is placed on changes to the planning syst em at the local level. It is argued that new mechanisms for bringing f orward affordable rented housing may contribute towards restoring tenu re choice. But this may only be achieved if the new UK government can contain pressures for prioritising sale housing; pressures inherent in the recent household projections and the 'affordable housing threshol ds' found in new planning guidance.