Hal Pawson
Biographic Data
| ID | 346642 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Hal Pawson |
| GIVEN NAMES | Hal |
| FAMILY NAME | Pawson |
| SIGNATURE | PAWSON H |
| AFFILIATIONS | Heriot-Watt University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9197-5780 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 45 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 301 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 45 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1988 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 11 |
Public housing transfers
Public housing (PH) transfers continue to feature as a prominent government strategy for growing Australia’s community housing sector. By 2024, there were 129,940 dwellings under community housing management, comprising 29 per cent of all social housing in Australia (444,141 dwellings). Most community housing providers (CHPs) taking on ex-PH stock experienced significantly impaired financial viability, generally resulting from larger-than-anticip…
Allocating Housing Assistance After the Decentring of Social Housing
Anglophone countries are diversifying their responses to housing insecurity, decentring social housing and expanding use of market-oriented assistance that aims to promote "housing independence" . Drawing on fieldwork in three Australian jurisdictions, this paper examines the impact of this shift for how housing assistance is allocated. We argue that allocations practices can no longer be understood as centred on the rationing of a single product…
Covid-19 as a disruption to China’s ‘tenure neutrality’ initiative? State-accentuated tenure inequality and rental sector precarity during the pandemic
Evaluating the impact of public housing after prison for a sex offence
This article evaluates the impact of housing assistance on the post-release pathways of people convicted of sex offences, in terms of a range of criminal justice outcomes and associated costs. Using linked administrative data from New South Wales government agencies, it compares outcomes and costs for two groups of formerly incarcerated sex offenders – one group who received public housing tenancies at some stage after their release, the other wh…
Covid-19 and the meaning of home
Private rental investment and socio-spatial disadvantage in Sydney, Australia
This article unpacks the connection between a growing cohort of small-scale but purposive property investors and urban socio-spatial restructuring. We analyse private rental housing as a tenure share to demonstrate its spatial correlation with the suburbanisation of socio-economic disadvantage in Sydney, Australia, between 1991 and 2016. Then, we show how investors drive this emerging pattern by reference to the geography of property owners' stat…
How can spatial planning influence housing market dynamics in a pro-growth planning regime? A case study of Shanghai
Rental property investment in disadvantaged areas
For more than two decades, Australia’s private rental sector (PRS) has seen rapid growth, as latterly replicated in most other anglophone nations. Commentary and scholarly attention have generally focused on the population occupying this growing sector – so-called ‘generation rent’. The corollary, ‘generation landlord’, has meanwhile remained largely obscure. This article argues that the emerging literature on the ‘financialization of housing’ of…
The end of ‘toleration’? Policy ambiguity and converted-housing occupancy in China
An uncommon ‘homeowner’ protest in Shanghai in 2017 manifested public anger towards a government crackdown on commercial property converted apartments (CPCAs). Spotlighting this previously hidden but significant Chinese housing submarket, the episode highlighted ‘homeowner’ concerns over insecure property rights. Internationally, commercial-to-residential conversion is nothing new. Indeed, it has been championed as a contributor to addressing hou…
The limits of localism
The rhetoric and practice of localism has attracted significant support within both political and academic circles in the UK in recent years. However, it is the contention of this article that there are, or should be, limits to localism as applied to the basic citizenship rights of vulnerable people. Drawing on a ten-year, mixed-methods study, we use the example of sharply rising homelessness in England to illustrate our argument that localist po…
Private Renting in a Home-owning Society
The rise in private renting in home ownership societies has been variously interpreted as increasing risk and insecurity and providing more flexible housing options for an increasingly diverse resident cohort. Drawing on an original survey and in-depth interviews with private renters in two cities in a classic home ownership society (Australia), there is clear support for the “disaster” interpretation in respect of low-income households renting i…
Interpreting the rise of long-term private renting in a liberal welfare regime context
In liberal market Anglophone nations, where private rental housing is typically lightly regulated, little is known about the household-level drivers of recent private rental sector growth. In Australia, where long-term private renting (10 years plus) has doubled since the 1990s, growing numbers are thus exposed to risks of landlord-initiated moves and unpredictable rent rises for lengthy periods. Our research suggests that although long-term rent…
Long-term private renters
Many developed economies, especially in 'liberal welfare regimes', have experienced a substantial growth in private rental housing. Bound up with this dynamic is the rising incidence of long-term private renting (private renting for ten years or more). Regulation of the private rental sector in liberal welfare regimes is light and post the written agreement residents are subject to constant de jure insecurity. Drawing on a questionnaire survey an…
Introduction to the Special Edition
Back in 2013, we invited authors to submit papers for a themed edition of housing studies titled ‘the politics of housing policy’. At the time, our view was that much of the academic scholarship, w
The Tenants Movement
How far can the concept of tenant activism be situated within ideas of class conflict? Has the post-1990 UK government's attempt to consumerise social housing sounded the death knell for tenants' c
Dissecting and tracking socio-spatial disadvantage in urban Australia
Why do tenants leave social housing? Exploring residential and social mobility at the lowest rungs of Australia's socioeconomic ladder
Historically, social housing in Australia operated as a springboard for social mobility. For many working families, public housing tenancy was an opportunity to save for a house purchase deposit. Latterly, tenant exits from public to private housing have declined to very low levels. This has raised concerns about systemic barriers to residential and social mobility for social renters, and about the consequent longer waiting times for applicants i…
Ending Security of Tenure for Social Renters
Drawing on international comparative research, this paper examines recent policy moves to withdraw security of tenure in social housing in England and Australia. We contend that there are theoretical and empirical grounds for believing that tenure security is crucial both to social housing tenants themselves and to conceptualisations of the sector. Starting from this premise we analyse the underlying rationale(s) for phasing out open-ended social…
Accommodating Australians
The Politics of Urban Governance
Jon Pierre, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2011, 170 pp., £20.99 (pbk), ISBN 9780333732687 This book aims, ambitiously, to present a theoretical analysis of urban governance relevant across the w
The Supply-Side Modernisation of Social Housing in England
The past 30 years have seen England's housing associations (HAs) transformed from marginal players in the wider housing market to a point where, in 2008, they overtook local authorities as majority social housing providers. This paper reviews theoretical perspectives on the evolution of the UK social housing and the rise of HAs since the 1970s, with a particular focus on the ‘modernisation’ thesis advanced by Malpass & Victory (2010). Against thi…
Estate regeneration and its discontents
Understanding affordability
In Understanding Affordability, Geoffrey Meen and Christine Whitehead present a fundamental analysis of housing markets, policy challenges and possible solutions. They combine a supremely authorita
Social housing and urban renewal
Public housing estate redevelopment is a key site of conflict and contestation in the broader socio-economic and physical restructuring of cities worldwide. While acknowledging that the subject has
Beyond bricks and mortar
Ending Security of Tenure for Social Renters
Drawing on international comparative research, this paper examines recent policy moves to withdraw security of tenure in social housing in England and Australia. We contend that there are theoretical and empirical grounds for believing that tenure security is crucial both to social housing tenants themselves and to conceptualisations of the sector. Starting from this premise we analyse the underlying rationale(s) for phasing out open-ended social…
Private Renting in a Home-owning Society
The rise in private renting in home ownership societies has been variously interpreted as increasing risk and insecurity and providing more flexible housing options for an increasingly diverse resident cohort. Drawing on an original survey and in-depth interviews with private renters in two cities in a classic home ownership society (Australia), there is clear support for the “disaster” interpretation in respect of low-income households renting i…
The limits of localism
The rhetoric and practice of localism has attracted significant support within both political and academic circles in the UK in recent years. However, it is the contention of this article that there are, or should be, limits to localism as applied to the basic citizenship rights of vulnerable people. Drawing on a ten-year, mixed-methods study, we use the example of sharply rising homelessness in England to illustrate our argument that localist po…
Part of the Problem or Part of the Solution? Social Housing Allocation Policies and Social Exclusion in Britain
This article examines claims that social housing allocations policies can, on the one hand, contribute to and on the other, counter, social exclusion. In setting the scene, the paper investigates connections between housing processes and social exclusion and describes the development of social housing allocations systems over the past few decades. Drawing on evidence from two recently completed national studies in England and Scotland it shows th…
Local Authority Homelessness Prevention in England
High profile commitments to stemming homelessness have been integral to New Labour's emphasis on promoting social inclusion since 1997. During this period official policy has favoured an increasingly assertive approach in this area as exemplified by the successful post-1998 programmes to reduce street homelessness. The period since 2002 has seen a broader ministerial drive to reduce homelessness, mainly through encouraging local authorities (LAs)…
Welfare Safety Net or Tenure of Choice? The Dilemma Facing Social Housing Policy in England
This paper considers the future role of social rented housing in England. It is based on an analysis of policy trends over the past 30 years, and a critical examination of current policy dilemmas. The central contention is that there are fundamental tensions underlying the present government's policy objectives to maintain the ‘safety net’ role of social housing but at the same time widen access to the sector so that it becomes a more mixed ‘tenu…
Interpreting the rise of long-term private renting in a liberal welfare regime context
In liberal market Anglophone nations, where private rental housing is typically lightly regulated, little is known about the household-level drivers of recent private rental sector growth. In Australia, where long-term private renting (10 years plus) has doubled since the 1990s, growing numbers are thus exposed to risks of landlord-initiated moves and unpredictable rent rises for lengthy periods. Our research suggests that although long-term rent…
Restructuring England's Social Housing Sector Since 1989
Twenty-five years ago, social housing accounted for almost one-third of England's entire housing stock. Since then, mainly because the sales to sitting tenants and demolitions have exceeded new construction, the sector has contracted substantially. However, at the same time, and particularly in the period since 1989, the sector has been undergoing far-reaching restructuring. This paper charts this process focusing, in particular, on developments …
Long-term private renters
Many developed economies, especially in 'liberal welfare regimes', have experienced a substantial growth in private rental housing. Bound up with this dynamic is the rising incidence of long-term private renting (private renting for ten years or more). Regulation of the private rental sector in liberal welfare regimes is light and post the written agreement residents are subject to constant de jure insecurity. Drawing on a questionnaire survey an…
Rental property investment in disadvantaged areas
For more than two decades, Australia’s private rental sector (PRS) has seen rapid growth, as latterly replicated in most other anglophone nations. Commentary and scholarly attention have generally focused on the population occupying this growing sector – so-called ‘generation rent’. The corollary, ‘generation landlord’, has meanwhile remained largely obscure. This article argues that the emerging literature on the ‘financialization of housing’ of…
Low Demand for Housing
Low and falling demand for housing has come to be recognised as a fairly widespread phenomenon in late 1990s Britain. Whilst research has tended to focus on the negative consequences of this for social rented housing, the weakness of the private housing market has led to increasingly grave problems in some inner cities and former coalfields, particularly in the North of England. The main purpose of the paper is to review and evaluate the actual a…
Understanding Recent Trends in Residential Mobility in Council Housing in England
Variations in stock turnover in social housing are important for a number of reasons. First, they influence the supply of properties available to meet housing need; secondly, they have implications for housing management costs and performance; and, thirdly, they are a barometer of neighbourhood stability and cohesion. The paper examines national, regional and local trends in council housing turnover rates over the past 20 years, focusing on chang…
Introduction to the Special Edition
Back in 2013, we invited authors to submit papers for a themed edition of housing studies titled ‘the politics of housing policy’. At the time, our view was that much of the academic scholarship, w
Explaining Tenancy Sustainment Rates in British Social Rented Housing
High rates of tenancy turnover in social rented housing have increasingly been identified as problematic both in the UK and elsewhere. High turnover has been variously associated with management failings, individual vulnerability or (absence of) tenant choice. Drawing on original research into ‘prematurely terminated’ tenancies in Glasgow, we investigate explanatory factors associated with tenancy sustainment rates. In doing so, we interrogate th…
The land that time forgot
English Despite a long period of public management reform in social housing, including shifts from state to non-profit providers and exit opportunities for tenants, access to new tenancies has until very recently continued to be mediated by bureaucratic rationing approaches. This article explores the reasons for the long dominance of rationing, and the factors that are now leading to its replacement with more consumerist approaches known as ‘choi…
How can spatial planning influence housing market dynamics in a pro-growth planning regime? A case study of Shanghai
Covid-19 and the meaning of home
The end of ‘toleration’? Policy ambiguity and converted-housing occupancy in China
An uncommon ‘homeowner’ protest in Shanghai in 2017 manifested public anger towards a government crackdown on commercial property converted apartments (CPCAs). Spotlighting this previously hidden but significant Chinese housing submarket, the episode highlighted ‘homeowner’ concerns over insecure property rights. Internationally, commercial-to-residential conversion is nothing new. Indeed, it has been championed as a contributor to addressing hou…
Dissecting and tracking socio-spatial disadvantage in urban Australia
Why do tenants leave social housing? Exploring residential and social mobility at the lowest rungs of Australia's socioeconomic ladder
Historically, social housing in Australia operated as a springboard for social mobility. For many working families, public housing tenancy was an opportunity to save for a house purchase deposit. Latterly, tenant exits from public to private housing have declined to very low levels. This has raised concerns about systemic barriers to residential and social mobility for social renters, and about the consequent longer waiting times for applicants i…
Quasi-marketising access to social housing in Britain
Race and the allocation of public housing
Housing on Trial. By Elizabeth Burney. Oxford University Press (for Institute of Race Relations). 1967. What Price Equality? Deborah Phillips, Greater London Council 1986. Race, Class and the Allocation of State Housing. By Jeff Henderson and Valerie Kam. Aldershot: Gower. 1987. Race and Housing: New Perspectives. edited by Susan Smith and John Mercer, University of Glasgow, Centre for Housing Research. 1987
Social housing and urban renewal
Public housing estate redevelopment is a key site of conflict and contestation in the broader socio-economic and physical restructuring of cities worldwide. While acknowledging that the subject has
Private rental investment and socio-spatial disadvantage in Sydney, Australia
This article unpacks the connection between a growing cohort of small-scale but purposive property investors and urban socio-spatial restructuring. We analyse private rental housing as a tenure share to demonstrate its spatial correlation with the suburbanisation of socio-economic disadvantage in Sydney, Australia, between 1991 and 2016. Then, we show how investors drive this emerging pattern by reference to the geography of property owners' stat…
The Supply-Side Modernisation of Social Housing in England
The past 30 years have seen England's housing associations (HAs) transformed from marginal players in the wider housing market to a point where, in 2008, they overtook local authorities as majority social housing providers. This paper reviews theoretical perspectives on the evolution of the UK social housing and the rise of HAs since the 1970s, with a particular focus on the ‘modernisation’ thesis advanced by Malpass & Victory (2010). Against thi…
Race and the allocation of public housing
Housing on Trial. By Elizabeth Burney. Oxford University Press (for Institute of Race Relations). 1967. What Price Equality? Deborah Phillips, Greater London Council 1986. Race, Class and the Allocation of State Housing. By Jeff Henderson and Valerie Kam. Aldershot: Gower. 1987. Race and Housing: New Perspectives. edited by Susan Smith and John Mercer, University of Glasgow, Centre for Housing Research. 1987
The Position and Role of Former Public Sector Homes in the Owner-occupied Sector
By 1995, around one-third of Scotland's public sector housing stock (as at 1980) had been sold to sitting tenants under the 'Right to Buy'. An estimated 67 000 of these 300 000 dwellings have subsequently been resold on the open market. At the peak of the resale activity, in 1992, the volume of resales reached just under 14 000 transactions, accounting for 14 per cent of all 'second-hand' market activity in that year. There appears to be a substa…
Examining Spatial Patterns in the Pace of Housing Commodification
The varying spatial and socio‐economic impact of large‐scale privatisation of the British housing system since 1980 is well documented. However, the effects of this policy extend beyond the initial privatisation of ownership. By 1995 over a fifth of the 300,000 public sector homes sold to sitting tenants in Scotland had been resold on the open market. In this paper, we show that the pace of commodification varies significantly between areas, and …
Understanding Recent Trends in Residential Mobility in Council Housing in England
Variations in stock turnover in social housing are important for a number of reasons. First, they influence the supply of properties available to meet housing need; secondly, they have implications for housing management costs and performance; and, thirdly, they are a barometer of neighbourhood stability and cohesion. The paper examines national, regional and local trends in council housing turnover rates over the past 20 years, focusing on chang…
Low Demand for Housing
Low and falling demand for housing has come to be recognised as a fairly widespread phenomenon in late 1990s Britain. Whilst research has tended to focus on the negative consequences of this for social rented housing, the weakness of the private housing market has led to increasingly grave problems in some inner cities and former coalfields, particularly in the North of England. The main purpose of the paper is to review and evaluate the actual a…
Part of the Problem or Part of the Solution? Social Housing Allocation Policies and Social Exclusion in Britain
This article examines claims that social housing allocations policies can, on the one hand, contribute to and on the other, counter, social exclusion. In setting the scene, the paper investigates connections between housing processes and social exclusion and describes the development of social housing allocations systems over the past few decades. Drawing on evidence from two recently completed national studies in England and Scotland it shows th…
Devolution and Housing Associations in Great Britain
This paper evaluates, through a fourfold framework, the extent to which devolution in Great Britain has enhanced the organisational accountability of housing associations three years after the creation of the Scottish Parliament and National Assembly for Wales. The evaluation framework examines the goals set for social housing organisations, the processes by which they are set, and the ways in which goals are monitored and enforced. The assessmen…
The land that time forgot
English Despite a long period of public management reform in social housing, including shifts from state to non-profit providers and exit opportunities for tenants, access to new tenancies has until very recently continued to be mediated by bureaucratic rationing approaches. This article explores the reasons for the long dominance of rationing, and the factors that are now leading to its replacement with more consumerist approaches known as ‘choi…
Restructuring England's Social Housing Sector Since 1989
Twenty-five years ago, social housing accounted for almost one-third of England's entire housing stock. Since then, mainly because the sales to sitting tenants and demolitions have exceeded new construction, the sector has contracted substantially. However, at the same time, and particularly in the period since 1989, the sector has been undergoing far-reaching restructuring. This paper charts this process focusing, in particular, on developments …
Quasi-marketising access to social housing in Britain
Local Authority Homelessness Prevention in England
High profile commitments to stemming homelessness have been integral to New Labour's emphasis on promoting social inclusion since 1997. During this period official policy has favoured an increasingly assertive approach in this area as exemplified by the successful post-1998 programmes to reduce street homelessness. The period since 2002 has seen a broader ministerial drive to reduce homelessness, mainly through encouraging local authorities (LAs)…
Welfare Safety Net or Tenure of Choice? The Dilemma Facing Social Housing Policy in England
This paper considers the future role of social rented housing in England. It is based on an analysis of policy trends over the past 30 years, and a critical examination of current policy dilemmas. The central contention is that there are fundamental tensions underlying the present government's policy objectives to maintain the ‘safety net’ role of social housing but at the same time widen access to the sector so that it becomes a more mixed ‘tenu…
Social landlords and the regulation of conduct in urban spaces in the United Kingdom
Social landlords in the United Kingdom are embedded in governance regimes that regulate citizens’ conduct, including addressing antisocial behaviour. This article seeks to contribute to the literature on the geography of regulating conduct through examining the spatial dimensions of social landlords’ attempts to influence behaviour, and to map the range of technologies and measures utilized by social landlords on to particular urban spaces. Two s…
Policy Intervention and its Impact
This paper discusses recent experience of public service reform in the UK, in terms of its theoretical underpinning, the mechanisms developed to effect change, and the impacts of change. Crucial aspects of the regime that have evolved under New Labour here include the roles of external inspection and quasi‐markets. Our key claim is that a close study of the enactment of public service reform provides important insights about the conduct of govern…
Preventing Homelessness due to Domestic Violence
Domestic violence has been recognized as a major contributory factor to homelessness in the UK and elsewhere, with women more likely to be affected. In the UK and other countries undergoing welfare reform, moves toward ‘active citizenship’ increase the complexity of the relationship between states and citizens and open up new strategies for both. However, analysts have noted some strategies can create new forms of inequality, including gender‐bas…
Best value, cost-effectiveness and local housing policies
This article illustrates and evaluates the use of the cost-effectiveness concept in local housing policy. It addresses this task by examining its application to two contemporary housing policy innovations in England – choice-based lettings (CBL) and homelessness prevention. The research assesses the costs and benefits to local public agencies of these policies through the use of the case-study method. It demonstrates that increased public expendi…
Rolling Out Anti-social Behaviour Families Projects in England and Scotland
In both Scotland and England, reducing anti-social behaviour (ASB) and building a culture of respect are key central government priorities. Accordingly, since 1997 both jurisdictions have seen the introduction of a raft of punitive legislation. Over recent years, however, there have been signs that the official ASB agenda has shifted away from a reliance on ‘enforcement measures’ towards a more balanced approach incorporating measures to address …
Explaining Tenancy Sustainment Rates in British Social Rented Housing
High rates of tenancy turnover in social rented housing have increasingly been identified as problematic both in the UK and elsewhere. High turnover has been variously associated with management failings, individual vulnerability or (absence of) tenant choice. Drawing on original research into ‘prematurely terminated’ tenancies in Glasgow, we investigate explanatory factors associated with tenancy sustainment rates. In doing so, we interrogate th…
Governing Independence and Expertise
Morag McDermont, Oxford, Hart Publishing, 2010, 189 pp., £30.00 (pbk), ISBN 978 1 84113 0 989 0 With UK housing associations poised to assume the role of majority social rental provider, Morag McDe
The Supply-Side Modernisation of Social Housing in England
The past 30 years have seen England's housing associations (HAs) transformed from marginal players in the wider housing market to a point where, in 2008, they overtook local authorities as majority social housing providers. This paper reviews theoretical perspectives on the evolution of the UK social housing and the rise of HAs since the 1970s, with a particular focus on the ‘modernisation’ thesis advanced by Malpass & Victory (2010). Against thi…
Jurisdiction and Scale
This article draws on the recent work of Mariana Valverde on jurisdiction and scale to frame a study of the interaction between mandatory possession proceedings brought by one particular type of social housing provider – housing associations – and national as well as human rights law. It was the explicit political choice to focus social housing provision on housing associations, as opposed to local authorities, which opened up the mandatory posse…
The Politics of Urban Governance
Jon Pierre, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2011, 170 pp., £20.99 (pbk), ISBN 9780333732687 This book aims, ambitiously, to present a theoretical analysis of urban governance relevant across the w
Ending Security of Tenure for Social Renters
Drawing on international comparative research, this paper examines recent policy moves to withdraw security of tenure in social housing in England and Australia. We contend that there are theoretical and empirical grounds for believing that tenure security is crucial both to social housing tenants themselves and to conceptualisations of the sector. Starting from this premise we analyse the underlying rationale(s) for phasing out open-ended social…
Accommodating Australians
Introduction to the Special Edition
Back in 2013, we invited authors to submit papers for a themed edition of housing studies titled ‘the politics of housing policy’. At the time, our view was that much of the academic scholarship, w
Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism (38 works) · Economics (35 works) · Political science (33 works) · Sociology (27 works) · Law (23 works) · Law (23 works) · Business (20 works) · Economic growth (17 works) · Public housing (14 works) · Housing Market and Economics (13 works)