The development and politics of tenant participation in British council housing

Abstract

Since the late 1960s traditions of paternalistic management in British council housing have been challenged by calls for greater tenant involvement Such calls came first from the tenants’ movement, but during the 1970s and 1980s they have been echoed in different ways by central government. The forms, aims, advocates and development of tenant participation have varied, so that events are not well explained by functionalist theories of the state. While there have been significant economic influences, political and cultural factors (particularly the ideology of consumer expectations) have been very important in putting tenant participation on the agenda of both the tenants’ movement and the state.