Welsh Journals

The Assnmption of Aspatial Hoosing Markets Locally fa Housing Investment Planntng. R.C.PRENTICE Department of Social Policy, University College of Swansea. (Received January 1983) Abstract This paper investigates the extent to which aspatial analysis occurs in Welsh district council Housing Strategies and Investment Pro- grammes. Structural explanations of spatial analysis are investi- gated, but few are substantiated empirically. The findings call into question the adequacy of council housing investment planning in Wales. Introduction Housing investment planning by the public sector in England and Wales is essentially a district council activity. Neither the DOE nor the Welsh Office has sought to determine, rather than influence, local allocations of capital on the basis of need, or any public regional or subregional investment areal plan. With the current emphasis on the use of local capital receipts as a basis for re-investment, central government has departed further from areally planned capital invest- ment. Clearly, by effecting public investment planning locally a spatial dimension is achieved. Investment planned for is disaggregated into housing markets arbitrally defined at district council size. But further areal disaggregation of housing markets is not necessarily achieved, for district councils are not required, nor even requested, by central departments to do so. The logic for district council planning of public housing investment can be found in Cmnd. 6851; as the national numerical shortage of housing has been overcome, at least for the present, a national pol- icy to build new dwellings to reduce this shortage is no longer applic- able. But as local shortages continue, locally new investment to this end may be applicable. Central government have interpreted local in this sense to mean district conncfl locality. Not to further disaggregate housing markets implicitly assumes that housing conditions do not vary significantly within a district council's area. Clearly, this is a false assumption for many, if not