such as the 5th Action Programme on the Environment and Trans-European Networks are not discussed.

Overall this is a rather disappointing book. It gives the impression of having been thrown together from a number of component parts that were previously written for o&her purposes, but nevertheless it must not be forgotten that it contains a lot of interesting and useful material, with a good bibliography but no index.

R.H. Williams

ANNE POWER, Hovels to High Rise: State Housing in Europe Since 1850. Routledge, London, 1993, 434 pp., $15.99 paperback.

Anne Power knows a good story when she sees one. Her best known book, Pruperty Before People, is critical of the design and management of local authority housing in Britain. Hovels tu High Rise is a worthy successor. It examines the growth of social housing systems in five European countries, with an emphasis on the organisational issues in which she speciaiises.

The conceptual framework to the book is established in the introductory chapter. In Western Europe, housing provision is a ‘limited social right’ in contrast to the United States, where it is a ‘consumer good’ and the former Soviet bloc where it was a ‘universal right’. Nevertheless, all countries pass through four main stages of housing development linked to urbanisation, state intervention to provide sufficient units of housing, a shift in emphasis towards quality, followed by attempts by the state to withdraw.

The next five parts of the book each deal with one of the countries selected for study. These are Britain (or, more accurately, England and Wales), Denmark, France, Germany and Ireland. The criterion for country selection is a little inconsistent. Northern European countries were chosen ‘because of their more comparable pattern of economic and urban development, thereby making differences in housing less dependent on factors that could not be compared’. Yet this does not prevent Ireland’s inclusion which is justified because it is ‘both relevant and unique’. Southern European countries are omitted because they ‘developed state-sponsored housing much later’. In fact the Spanish Government swung into action at about the same time as other European countries, although it did so by promoting owner occupation as a mass tenure from the start.

The decision to divide each country section into several chapters has its advantages. What may have appeared to be huge chunks of unfamiliar material (to most readers) are presented as between seven and nine short and accessible chapters. Each country section follows roughly the same structure, starting with brief historical and occasionally entertaining summaries: ‘The storming of the Bastille goaded European governments, through fear of uprisings, to address urban conditions, if in a piecemeal way, well into the twentieth century’.

The descriptions of the development of (mainly) social housing policies, which form the bulk of the book, are well-constructed and interesting. Although they follow the development of housing policy outlined in the introduction, the differences between countries are made dear. One chapter in particular is outstanding for its clarity. The account of the monumental Neue Heimat crisis describes how this housing organisation grew from trade union origins to become Germany’s largest non-profit housing company. It diversified into a range of pro~t-making activities, including a fatal bout of Iand speculation in Brazil and Mexico. Bankruptcy and revelations of corruption brought the whole edifice crashing down and, crucially, provided the Government with sufficient

152 Book Revirw.r

ammunition to discredit the limited dividend companies as providers of social housing and to withdraw from subsidised housing.

The final part of the book summarises the findings from the country sections and draws out general themes. An important conclusion is that after governments reduced their role in the direct provision of housing in the 1970s and 1980s. this role began to increase again from the late 1980s. This is taken to mean that state sponsorship of social housing will continue. The German Government’s response to unification and increased migration following the collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe and the British government’s expansion of the housing association programme after 1989 are cited as evidence for this belief. Perhaps this is right. However. the German Government’s renewed intervention arose from a particufur problem, and the British Government’s expansion of housing association development has already crumbled under the weight of a f.50 billion public sector deficit. The British Government still harbours ambitions of even higher levels of owner occupation, and it seems likely that the next general election will determine the future direction of housing policy.

There are two surprising omissions. Whilst this book does not pretend to be about housing finance, it is unsatisfactory to compare housing policies and management without considering their costs. The table showing per cupit~ expenditure on housing and energy as a proportion of ‘the total’ does not tell us very much. Furthermore, for a book which is partly justified by ‘the advent of the Single Market’, and the countries selected partly because they are members of the European Union, it is astonishing that virtually no consideration is given to what the EU means for housing policy. The author considers the European Commission’s initiatives relating to housing worthy of a separate study. so it is surprising that they are not even summarised in this book.

Mark Stephens University of Glasgow

BUILDING AND SOCIAL HOUSING FOUNDATION, Cities of the Future.

Successful Housing Solutions in Singapore and Surabaya. BSHF, Coalville, Leicestershire, 1993, 86 pp., f10.00.

BSHF aim in this booklet to accentuate the positive by putting forward two examples of housing policy which have apparently succeeded. They showcase the two winners of their “World Habitat Awards” of 1991: Singapore and Surabaya.

Since 1960. the Housing and Development Board of Singapore has constructed over 628,888 dwellings (for a population of 2.7 million) in a disciplined planning framework of new towns. In Surabaya, Indonesia’s second city, intensive programmes of housing area (Kampung) upgrading have been pursued since 1969, with a focus on lower income areas since 1976. These have had a direct impact on the housing environment of 70% of Surabaya’s population.

The programmes are illustrated by an accessible mix of judiciously chosen facts and figures, a succinct text and attractive photography. Readers also benefit from the comments of a group of developing country housing professionals who toured the two cities in May 1993.

Singapore’s housing programme has been very successful. Not only has a massive housing stock been created but this stock has continued to evolve, to provide more room per occupant, more choice and more flexibility in provision. Social facilities have been provided to complement the housing, issues of maintenance and problems with high-rise living have, it appears, been tackled and solved.