Housing and Governance

Why regulatory reform is part of the problem and part of the solution

Working Paper 2011:06

Author: Josef Konvitz (Honorary Professor of Education, School of Education, University of Glasgow)

The “regulatory governance gap” in housing policy has widened glaringly since 2007. This matters all the more because governments are far more reliant on the regulatory lever now that their room for manoeuver to use fiscal and monetary instruments is severely constrained. A wholesale review of housing policies, from credit and banking to building codes and permits was overdue in the run-up to the crisis. But the crisis has made the prospects for serious reform even less likely. Proposals for specific macro- and micro-economic reforms are advanced earnestly by people in government, the private sector and the academy in pursuit of recovery. These however are not backed up by proposals for effective evidence-based regulatory design and implementation. Regulatory reform in housing must address three challenges: risk management, cross-sectoral coordination, and multi-level coherence.