Housing associations, the creation of communities and power relations

Drawing in particular on Nikolas Rose's writings on governmentality, this paper considers how housing associations' objective of creating and maintaining communities has structured both their own practices, and their relationships with local authorities. Using historical materials from the 1930s to the present, it argues that the discourse of community has now become a focus for asserting the independence of the housing association sector from control by the state. It begins by examining the period from the 1930s to 1960, when the marginal role of housing associations left them relatively free to define their own concepts of 'community', though with some contestation around the power of local authorities to nominate tenants. It then examines the 1960s and 70s, when the increasing importance of the association sector in inner city renewal began a shift of emphasis towards providing housing on the basis of need. The paper moves on to consider the impact of rising homelessness in the 1980s, which led to the problematization of housing association activity. The 1993 Page Report focussed associations on their dependence on local authority definitions of housing need. It produced a 'paradigm shift' in the sector. Associations sought independence from local authority perceptions of housing need, moving towards policies of building communities that offered security to associations, lenders and occupiers.