Background
In the aftermath of the Second World War, a priority for many governments in Europe was to tackle the problems of housing shortage arising from war-time destruction and the lack of new building during the war years. In most countries, large-scale housing programmes were developed and supported by governments. In the socialist countries of eastern and central Europe, the emphasis on new building continued for more than 40 years. In other countries, especially those of northern and western Europe, the high cost and growing unpopularity of slum clearance and large-scale housing developments, and the sense that the main post-war housing shortages were being overcome, led governments to look for ways to reduce their financial commitment to slum clearance and rehousing. The result was a shift from bricks-and-mortar subsidies to personal subsidies; a focus in some countries on encouraging owner occupation; and a re-think about the future of older housing as public and political support for slum clearance declined. From the 1970s onwards, many countries in northern and western Europe adopted area-based approaches to the improvement of older housing considered suitable for modernisation, and although these approaches were limited in their scale and coverage, physical housing conditions were improved for many occupants.
In northern and western Europe, an ‘area approach’ was applied also to the improvement of large post-war public sector housing estates which, by the 1980s, were showing serious physical, management, social and economic problems. The financial resources, however, were not there to deal fully with these problems and although estate renewal and regeneration have often been highly successful, the need for further action remains substantial. Throughout Europe, and notably in post-socialist countries, the situation has been complicated by the adoption of privatisation policies, especially in the 1980s and 1990s, and in some countries the virtual withdrawal of public funds for older private housing improvement has made it difficult for lower-income households or their landlords to contemplate such work.
In the early twenty-first century, many countries in Europe have a shortage of good quality affordable housing; considerable problems with much of the post-war social housing stock, especially where it has been transferred to individual private ownership; and the long-standing problem of nineteenth and early-twentieth-century housing which still requires modernisation. At the same time, there are growing concerns about the environmental sustainability and poor energy performance of housing of all ages and types.