ORA (Round 5) What is Governed in Cities: Residential Investment Landscapes and the Governance and Regulation of Housing Production

This proposal draws on a precise comparative, inter-disciplinary methodology to examine the inter-relationships between contemporary investment flows into the housing markets of major cities and the governance arrangements and public policy instruments that are designed to regulate them. Our case studies are three of Europe's leading urban centres: the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area; Greater London; and Grand Paris.

The proposal is timely as major cities have been faced with unprecedented development pressures. Their populations and economies have expanded and their envrionments have become highly attractive locations for global and national financial investment. These pressures have been particularly acute in the production and consumption of housing, where the impacts of investments on markets, citizens, and places are generating a widely perceived 'crisis' and set of new challenges for policy-makers and planners. There is a growing urgency to produce affordable housing for a variety of groups in order for cities to maintain their growth and to meet the needs of their citizens. A failure to tackle housing problems will both limit future growth potential and act as a source of social conflict and discontent.

The proposal draws on two streams of analysis. First we examine investment landscapes and the effectiveness of regulations and policy instruments that are designed to control them. We do this systematically and comparatively. Second we analyse the types of investment that are shaping housing markets and their impacts on people and places. We explore its sources, objectives, and designed outcomes.

The research meets an increasingly urgent need to develop better understandings of the complex relationships between markets, planning controls, and the quality of life of citizens in a context of escalating political tensions between different socio-economic groups and major global economic and social changes.

Who will benefit from the research?

Our expected outputs will facilitate the growth of knowledge into the planning and delivery of housing, related social infrastructure, services and regulations in contemporary cities, and the instruments of governance that shape the built environment. The project will benefit professionals and researchers working in the fields of housing, finance, governance, planning, and regulation.

The research will be directly relevant to urban policy-makers and regulators, the investment industry actors and civil society groups. As explained in WP1, a number of deliverables (website, social media) are designed specifically to increase the awareness of the project and to disseminate the results to external stakeholders. Moreover, the establishment of a Local Advisory Group in each city plays a crucial role in our dissemination strategy. These groups consisting of key stakeholders (including Société du Grand Paris, Crédit Foncier, Nexity and Paris City Council; CBRE; Savills; the Greater London Authority; London Councils; and the Corporation of London; Amsterdam Municipality; Meyer Bergman Real Estate) will not only support our team with pragmatic aspects, but allow us to connected to networks outside the academy to disseminate our results. In collaboration with the Local Advisory Groups, we will hold one workshop for practitioners in each city (D16), to increase their understanding of local property market mechanisms and dynamics, as well as regulatory landscapes. It will allow practicing planners, for instance, to develop better coping mechanisms with financialisation and market forces. We will also hold two workshops - in month 18 in Amsterdam and in month 36 in London - which provide opportunities for networking and comparative learning across the cities. The final Workshop will be an international public event in which some of the key regulatory and democratic challenges involved in governing the built environment will be presented and discussed with an audience of researchers, practitioners, and international partners.

How will they benefit from the Research?

The project will specifically focus on the relationships between processes and outcomes and combine different forms of inter-disciplinary analysis to: (i) generate new data sets on the core actors involved in producing the built environment of major cities, where flows of finance originate, and the types of financial and governance arrangements that underpin contemporary urban housing developments; (ii) develop and rework conceptual understandings of how governance and state practices are being transformed in contemporary cities with a particular emphasis on democratic engagement and regulatory structures in relation to large-scale urban development projects; and (iii) analyse policy innovations to provide policy-makers and regulators with insights into how to manage the complex choices involved in supporting competitiveness through housing development whilst ensuring that the growing political demands and social needs of citizens are met. We will follow a clear dissemination strategy to distribute our output to the academy and practice, through WHIG website, which will be updated after each Deliverable.

What will be done to ensure that they have the opportunity to benefit from this activity?

Intranet and Internet facilities will be set up to optimise interaction, distribution and exchange of information for researchers in the project, as well as to a broad range of external stakeholders. A project website (D1) and social media will allow us to communicate and disseminate our results through internet and publications, to involve a large number of stakeholders and stimulate the building of networks. Furthermore, a set of procedures and tools for administrative, contractual and day-to-day coordination is set-up at the project start.