Rethinking Housing Law by ANN Stewart
| Published date | 01 September 1997 |
| Date | 01 September 1997 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6478.1997.tb00008.x |
| Author | DAVID COWAN |
RETHINKING HOUSING
LAW
by ANN STEWART
(London: Sweet
&
Maxwell,
1996,
xix
&
326
pp., no price given)
Despite several generations of academic interest, housing law remains an
underdeveloped subject. This is partly because its roots lie in disparate arenas
such as landlord and tenant or public law. Housing law
is
therefore a subject
which hitherto has lacked conceptual roots. It has also occasionally ignored
political developments within its apparent purview. The classic example of
this has been the development of housing associations which has coincided
with the privatization of the public sector housing. The dearth of available
and succinct material has made it impossible to teach the law of housing
associations within a housing law course.
Ann Stewart’s addition to the housing
law
academic’s library provides
not only a substantial justification for the subject but also a significant
reworking of the available material within three clear organizing aspects of
regulation: ‘individual property relations’ between the occupier of property
and its provider; ‘individual statutory relationships’ which attempt to redress
inequalities of bargaining power; and the ‘sphere of regulatory relations’
which provides the wider context within which that regulation operates.
Stewart then applies each of these to four areas which housing policy
academics regard as tenures: owner-occupation; private landlordism; local
authority housing; the world of housing associations. This concentration
enables Stewart to note that the impact of the recent past has been a move
away from statutory intervention and back towards individual property rela-
tions but with a concomitant reliance on alternative mechanisms of account-
ability (such as the Audit Commission, Ombudsmen, and
a
myriad of other
regulators involved in the housing regulation matrix). These are considered
in the conclusion which also stresses the impact of the movement towards
consumerism within the housing context.
This is an excellent, scholarly book which enables the reader to see the
fluctuations of government interest in each tenure as well as the effects of
the lack of government interest. It represents the vital starting point for the
reconsideration of housing law which is
so
desperately required. Much of
the book is innovative. For example, housing law texts often avoid owner-
occupation and more particularly the regulation of mortgages. Housing
associations, a key vehicle in government’s response to the lack of provision
of ‘social’ housing, can now be taught at undergraduate level within a
housing law course. Nevertheless, the book as a whole does not particularly
suit an undergraduate course run on a tutorial basis over an academic year
because of its lack of in-depth coverage of some issues. It veers from the
introductory to the overwhelming depending on the depth of coverage of
each course.
Housing law teaching has been dominated by black-letter texts, meant
largely for practitioners and lacking in-depth discussion of context, for far
too long reflecting the subject’s lack of conceptual development.’ The first
459
Q
Blackwell
Publishers
Ltd
1997
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