HOUSING, PLANNING and PETER HALL: UNFINISHED BUSINESS Housing, Planning and Peter Hall: Unfi Nished Business
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HOUSING, PLANNING AND PETER HALL: UNFINISHED BUSINESS Housing, Planning and Peter Hall: Unfi nished Business PETER WILLIAMS There is an acute housing problem in England with constrained housing and land supply and planning at the heart of the issue. Peter Hall typically engaged with housing as part of a wider strategic view and his direct housing contributions have probably been overlooked. In part this refl ects the continuing unhelpful division of labour between housing and planning in both practice and academia. This article refl ects on current issues, Peter’s contributions and my own entry into this world of unfi nished business. Housing and land supply and the role of of Bristol. In Canada, after a period working planning remain critical issues for England for the Provincial Department of Natural today just as they have for the last 50 years. Resources in Saskatchewan, I combined Despite numerous att empts at reform, end- working for a planning consultancy on two less policy initiatives and a never ending suc- Federal and Provincial government research cession of housing and planning ministers, projects, fi rst on the rationalization of the it would probably be fair to say we are no western Canadian railway system and second closer to solving the problems of securing an on the economic base of the Qu’Appelle adequate and appropriate housing supply region in Saskatchewan, along with doing that fully meets demand and need and which a Master’s degree at the University of Sas- properly supports social and economic katchewan. My Master’s thesis was on central objectives. This article seeks to explore some place theory and its application in the prairies. of the current issues. It does so with a refl ec- With this background in the economics of tion on Peter Hall’s own contributions in this land use and a renewed appetite for study specifi c area in the context of his extraordinary and research I then returned to the UK in and outstanding lifetime of work on urban 1972 to start a PhD around transport and and regional planning and much more. My economic growth at Aberystwyth University own work on housing markets and housing under Professor Harold Carter, but after policy began at Reading in 1972 and it is 6 months (and a season of playing rugby appropriate to begin with a refl ection on the for a Welsh speaking hall of residence) I formative role played by that experience. decided that London should be the focus of my research and that the impracticalities of working on London from Aberystwyth Reading Refl ections were too great. Correspondence with Peter I arrived in Reading in late 1972 to begin a Hall indicated that as a self-financed student PhD supervised by Peter Hall or PH as we I was very welcome to move to Reading – all came to know him. I had emigrated to albeit, shortly after he secured me a Reading Canada in 1969 after my degree at Oxford and university scholarship through which I was following a short stint in planning at the City employed as a University Demonstrator (an BUILT ENVIRONMENT VOL 41 NO 1 17 PROFESSOR SIR PETER HALL: ROLE MODEL assistant to the lecturing staff, but a constant butions, and acquired considerable status.1 source of confusion at immigration controls). Reading Geography in the 1970s was really Thus began one of the more academically a very good department and almost a model stimulating experiences of my career (to date!). of what academic departments should be Along with an annual intake of Master’s in terms of the commitment to teaching, students there were around forty PhD students research and publication. Peter was central to split between physical and human geo- this. His unbounded energy and enthusiasm, graphy. On the ‘human side’ this included his probing and challenge, his ability to Mike Hebbert, Ray Wyatt, Ian Twinn, Mark think synoptically and to bring the worlds of Ebery, Des Bonnar, Ron Botham, Peter Clark, academia and policy together, and his vast Louis Alonso and John Grant. Together we network of contacts meant we were constant- covered a spectrum of interests and back- ly being pushed to think outside of the box. grounds though urban planning, theory and Peter was, of course, interested in the policy was a strong thread. We fed off a very starting point for my PhD: the impact of strong staff team led by Peter and including the opening of the Victoria Underground Brian Goodall, Dave Foot, Mike Batty, Sophie line on London’s housing market (it opened Bowlby, Erlet Cater, David Starkie and John in 1972). However as I progressed I found Silk. As Mike Batty has written (Batty, 2014) myself being drawn inexorably into trying to the highlight of our busy week was the understand the workings of the inner London Wednesday seminar at 5pm when a string housing market in which transport was just of distinguished visitors would arrive, make one of the factors at work. I resolved, in presentations and be grilled by the assembled discussion with Sophie Bowlby my primary staff and postgraduates before we then (and outstanding) supervisor and Peter, that retired to the Queens Head for another hour I would shift my focus to a detailed examina- or so of informal discussion. Peter of course tion of change in the Islington housing was master of ceremonies and often then market, an area self evidently undergoing drove the guest back to London. a gentrification process and not unrelated The postgraduate group was very ener- to the Victoria line and the role played by getic, organizing our own seminars to cover key institutions such as estate agents and developments in theory and method as well mortgage lenders. as operating a somewhat clandestine and Thus began an ongoing career around hous- satirical newsletter produced on the Gestet- ing markets, housing finance and housing ner machine and deposited in pigeon holes. policy, blending work in academia (Centre We occupied a separate wooden hut which for Urban and Regional Studies, Birming- provided a great home for both bonding and ham University; Urban Research Unit, Aus- serious study. It was formerly the home of tralian National University; Centre for Housing the Urban Systems Research Unit (USRU) Management and Development in the Depart- which had been integrated back into the ment of Town Planning Cardiff University, department (see Ray Wyatt’s contribution in and where I rejoined Mike Batty and Cam- this issue) and provided part of the strong bridge University; Cambridge Centre for Hous- base in quantitative methods so dominant in ing and Planning Research in the Department geography in that period, albeit that David of Land Economy) with work in the lend- Harvey’s Social Justice and the City was pub- ing industry via the Building Societies Associ- lished in 1973. ation, the Council of Mortgage Lenders and The postgraduates were also active contri- currently the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders butors to and editors of the Reading Geo- Association and government through the graphical Paper series which managed to get National Housing and Planning Advisory some top authors (including Peter) and contri- Unit, the Housing Corporation, Tai Cymru and 18 BUILT ENVIRONMENT VOL 41 NO 1 HOUSING, PLANNING AND PETER HALL: UNFINISHED BUSINESS various Ministerial task forces and advisory and urban planning, covering the demand groups. for housing, housing for whom, development I was personally inspired by Peter’s ability and redevelopment and a housing plan. The to cross these divides and to produce top last was a radical think about housing with quality academic work alongside his more an oddly contemporary feel. He focused on populist commentaries in New Society. There the case for better standards in the private were many in academia who looked down on rented sector (PRS) and the municipalization him because of the latter – I can recall being of run down PRS housing; and he set out a told he was not a serious academic – but proposal for a common rent policy covering history has very clearly proven them wrong both the social and private rented sectors, and not least via his output of more than fifty with subsidy being applied where there books over a career of some 60 years. was demonstrable need. He suggested that local authorities should provide the gateway to lettings in the two sectors and that the Peter Hall and Housing authority should collect all rents. A new Peter was clearly very interested in housing Rent Act was proposed with rents as a fixed and not least via his concern with land percentage of the rateable value of the home. markets, transport and planning. Indeed one Alongside arguments for regional planning, can certainly argue it is these wider inter- new towns and redevelopment, Peter argued connections and concerns rather than the for a capital gains tax on housing and for a detail of housing policy and practice that rethink around tax reliefs with a proposal to have been so poorly developed in policy tax landlords and other wealthy owners to terms over time. In part this is a product of a greater degree. This was without doubt a the continuing unhelpful separation between bold set of proposals reflecting his political housing and planning – in which most of us alignment and was firmly wedded to an in this broad area still fi nd ourselves caught extension of municipal power. up. Despite the early work of the National Housing remained an ever present issue Housing and Town Planning Council2 and in his work whether authored or edited, and the fi rst legislation in the UK in the form of reflected in the title or not.