Will We Realize the Decentralization of Affordable Housing Provision? Critical Reflections on English and Chinese Land Governance for Housing Contexts

ABSTRACT

This cross-cultural study provides important insight into the decentralization of affordable housing in the community/family sector in England and China regardless of the different land ownership. It particularly highlights the land element in housing and welfare systems across the Global North and South that are ignored in the literature. Although England and China have different land and housing contexts (such as ownership), the existing literature highlights how they have been undermined by the Right to Buy policy and processes of financialization and argues that new forms of social organizations are needed to resist these pressures. One of the crucial findings was the similar pathway of land governance for housing in England and China since the 1970s. Meanwhile, decentralization of power for housing development was sufficient for stakeholders (from the state to the market, the third sector, and the community/family sector) to engage in affordable housing provision and development, but not a necessary condition for collaborative housing to respond to in these two countries.

KEYWORDS:

• decentralization
• housing policy
• land
• England and China

Acknowledgments

I thank all of the editors and reviewers for their kind help and useful suggestions on the article. I also express my appreciation to all information providers around the world who contributed valuable resources and materials. This research was not externally funded.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Bingzi He

Bingzi He has been working as a research associate at the Institute of Latin American Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences since 2021. He is interested in cross-cultural/regional studies and explores how we provide services toward the improvement of human wellbeing and global sustainability.