Smith Institute Newsletter

Advancing Opportunity: Routes in and out of criminal justice
Rob Allen, Robert Rhodes QC, Charles Foster, Harriet Bailey, George Hosking, Penelope Gibbs, Sukhvinder Kaur Stubbs, Dan McCurry, Enver Solomon, Clive Martin, Professor Martin Stephenson, Julian Corner, Ed Straw. Edited by Rob Allen.

Price £9.95 (ISBN 1 905370 39 3) Published 2008

Numbers in prison in England and Wales grew from 40,000 to 64,600 in the 20 years to 2000, and are projected to reach perhaps 93,000 by 2010. Figures from 2005 showed that 91% of youngsters who have been through community punishment programmes reoffend. The collateral damage of imprisonment is considerable – a third of prisoners lose their home while in prison, two-thirds lose their job, over a fifth face increased financial problems and more than two-fifths lose contact with their family. This is damaging not only to individual offenders but also to society as whole, which pays the price – in a variety of ways – for not reducing reoffending. If we are serious about reintegrating people into our communities and enabling them to become productive and participative citizens, we have to find more effective ways of rehabilitating offenders. Responding to these problems is not solely or even mainly a matter for the police or the criminal justice system. The impact of home and school environments is key to understanding criminal behaviour among children and young people – as too is the quality of housing and of community and youth services provision. Most offenders have experienced a lifetime of social problems: prisoners are 13 times as likely to have been in care as a child, compared with the general population, and 13 times as likely to be unemployed; and more than 70% of prisoners suffer from at least two mental disorders. An effective approach to criminal justice must also deal with the growing correlation between drugs and crime in the UK. Problem drug users are responsible for around 60% of all crime, 80% of domestic burglaries and 54% of robberies. The essays in this volume look at different examples of interventions that have sought to reduce reoffending and to increase the rehabilitation of offenders. They start from the premise that we cannot expect to develop appropriate interventions to support people in exiting the criminal justice system unless we have a better understanding of the “journey” that has taken them into it, and of the interactions and (lack of) support they have experienced from a range of public services. We need to understand what is influencing people’s behaviour patterns and use that learning to develop proactive solutions to help bring them out of the criminal justice system. These essays examine the factors influencing offending, and offer up alternatives – sometimes radical and innovative alternatives – to reduce the chances of reoffending.

Advancing Opportunity: Health and healthy living
Christopher Exeter, Harry Cayton, Michael Blomfield, Andrew Ramwell, David Walker, Shaun Matisonn, Neil McInroy, Thea Stein, Jane Riley, Sue Proctor. Edited by Christopher Exeter.

Price £9.95 (ISBN 1 905370 38 5) Published 2008

The health of the nation is closely bound up with the country's economic and social wellbeing. A lack of access to good physical or mental health can have a significant impact on an individual's ability to participate actively in society - as both a citizen and as an economically-active individual. For the state, therefore, the cost is not only in the healthcare being provided, but in the opportunity cost of not having a healthy workforce. Government, at all levels, has a responsibility to invest in and support the nation's health. With an ageing population and our current lifestyle trends, healthcare will become prohibitively costly unless we are able to make our health services even more responsive and efficient, and – as addressed in this monograph – unless we can get the public, employers and other partners in the public and private sectors to take greater responsibility for the encouragement and support of healthy living. All the essays in this monograph address themselves to that critical challenge: the need to increase public engagement in personal health issues, influencing lifestyle trends and ultimately demand for health services. Encouraging greater health-awareness could bring significant economic dividends, but there will be heavy economic costs to Britain if people fail to engage with this health agenda. Achieving this is no small task, and will involve partnership and engagement across a number of different sectors and departments. The health service cannot, by itself, achieve the changes necessary to make us a healthier society. Government-backed public health promotion is a critical element but, as David Walker’s essay sets out, we need a “new politics of healthy living”. The challenge for government is to avoid the expansion of a nanny state and instead to stimulate new approaches from a range of other partners and sectors. The essays in this monograph consider the potential roles of different partners – the insurance industry, planners, developers, regional development agencies and others. The essays highlight the complexity of the task of improving public health, and set out a range of ideas that might help in developing new ways of working, in which government needs to be more of a partner and orchestrator.

Perspectives on Aspiration and Ambition
Hannah Brian, John Godber, Julie Kenny CBE DL, Ruth Redfern, Shaun Weatherhead, Selga Speakman-Brown. Edited by Hannah Brian.

Price £9.95 (ISBN 1 905370 38 5) Published 2008

One of the key barriers to young people fulfilling their potential is a lack of ambition and aspiration. Despite improvements in school results over the last decade, much more must be done to encourage the most disadvantaged. As one of the following essays highlights, children’s perception of their chances in the labour market affects their level of attainment at school. While children of professional parents have the importance of education instilled in them, too often the opposite is true of those from manual or non-skilled backgrounds. Apart from the benefits to the individual, improving the aspirations of the disadvantaged is crucial in meeting the challenges that Britain faces in a global age. This challenge also exists at a local level, where the economic performance of certain areas is often held back by a lack of skills. What comes through clearly in these essays is the need for parents, schools and communities to inspire the young to realise their aspirations. The challenge is how to achieve this. Although the essays are from a Yorkshire & Humber perspective, the solutions ring true for every region. Throughout the essays there is an emphasis on role models and mentors as a way of nurturing belief so that young people can unlock their latent talent. In order to encourage aspiration and ambition in the young, we have to communicate their possibilities and empower them to achieve. If we can do this, then more young people can realise their potential and society as a whole can benefit from the economic results that this will bring.

The Future of the Private Rented Sector
Peter Bill, Catherine Glossop, Ricky Taylor, Adam Sampson, Caroline Davey, Ian Potter, Mark Long, Mark Allan, Liz Peace, Lord Richard Best OBE. Edited by Peter Bill, Paul Hackett and Catherine Glossop.

Price £9.95 (ISBN 1 905370 36 9) Published 2008

The government’s house-building targets are being driven by two clear policy ambitions: to increase owner-occupation and provide a larger quantity of affordable housing. The role the private rented sector can play, however, has been largely overlooked. This situation is now starting to change, and the policy spotlight is more firmly on what the private rented sector can offer over the medium to long term. The sector has developed rapidly in recent years, but a lack of professionalism and poor standards of management in some segments of the market have prevented it from reaching its full potential. The government has pledged to improve the sector for both landlords and tenants, and is seeking views on how this might be achieved against the backdrop of the credit crunch and an increasingly fragile market. Independent reviews of the private rented sector (and the management and conditions of people living in houses in multiple occupation) are under way, with the final reports due this autumn. This monograph of essays, authored by key experts in the field, is intended to inform the government-initiated review and policy-making process. The focus is on addressing the major challenges facing both small and large landlords, and on what can be done to bring new, affordable private rented properties onto the market. The authors examine the important underlying market trends and take a critical look at the way the sector is funded, including the prospects for emerging subsectors (such as buy-to-let and student housing). Planning, licensing and regulatory issues are considered, and there are some complex issues here to be addressed – not least balancing the rights and responsibilities of landlords and tenants. Whatever their views on what needs to be done, all authors share a commitment to expanding the private rented sector and raising quality standards across the country. With the Homes & Communities Agency now in set-up mode, and the appointment of Caroline Flint as the new Housing Minister, it is timely to influence this emerging agenda. Recommendations range from the development of investment vehicles to fiscal incentives and tighter regulation. All parties have a role to play – Whitehall, cities, developers and investors. First and foremost, however, a future vision and strategy for the sector must be created. Unless all parties agree on the direction of travel, a stronger private rented sector will be hard to achieve.

Citizenship, Cohesion and Solidarity
Nick Johnson, Professor Ted Cantle, Professor Ed Fieldhouse, Sukhvinder Kaur-Stubbs, Professor John Clarke, Dilwar Hussain, Hetan Shah, Raja Miah, Erin Hoekstra, Meena Bharadwa. Edited by Nick Johnson.

Price £9.95 (ISBN 1 905370 35 0) Published 2008

The challenge of how we build sustainable and cohesive communities at both local and national level is one of the key debates of public policy. We live in a time of rapid change generated by globalisation, demography and technology. Britain, despite its status as one of the world’s richest economies and most diverse societies, is still a place of inequality, exclusion and isolation. Segregation between communities seems to be growing in some parts of the country. Extremism, both political and religious, is on the rise as people become more disillusioned and disconnected. The recent Commission on Integration and Cohesion report, Our Shared Future, argued the need to focus on developing policy solutions that enable people to live together rather than side by side, that promote greater shared identity, that support new migrants in adapting to life in Britain, that define what it means to be a citizen, and that instil a greater sense of civic responsibility and social solidarity into all those in our society. We need to make Britain, in the words of the Chief Rabbi’s new book, “the home we build together”. Building on this recent work, the essays in this monograph seek to articulate more fully where the policy debate has taken us and to identify the implications for delivery at a local level. The authors come from a variety of backgrounds and we aim to bring a combination of the academic, practitioner and policy-maker perspective to these issues. Most importantly, the essays aim to take the issue forward. The time for abstract discussions is over; it is now time to deliver on cohesion.

Fair Tax: Towards a modern tax system
Chris Wales, Robert Chote, Philip Broadley, John Whiting, Professor Francis Chittenden, Hilary Foster, Dr Irwin Stelzer, Professor Paul Ekins, Dr Jonathan Leape, Professor Judith Freedman. Edited by Chris Wales.

Price £9.95 (ISBN 1 905370 34 2) Published 2008

The issue of fairness in the tax system is complex, with many competing voices and interests. For Adam Smith, the central tenant of a fair tax system was that the “subjects … contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state”. This rings true today; those who enjoy wealth do so to some extent only because of what the state offers, be it through providing security and infrastructure, or so that there is a healthy and skilled workforce. Yet the level at which taxation is levied, and the selection of those who are levied, is always going to be a political decision, and hotly contested. In a global age where capital is highly mobile, Britain has to ensure that it attracts inward investment and that its tax system does not act as a disincentive to risk taking and hard work. Balanced against this is the attractiveness of Britain because of the amount of revenue raised and invested in human capital and infrastructure. Alongside this, the complexity of taxation can often mean the system is judged as unfair – hindering efficiency and creating burdensome administrative costs, especially for smaller businesses. But without complexity, there is a danger that a simplified tax structure will be too crude and unfair to many citizens. Beyond the purely economic arguments, taxation also has a social function, defining the kind of community we live in. From One Nation conservatism to the social democratic left, taxation is seen as a way of redistributing wealth to create a fairer, more cohesive society. Thus, a fair tax regime is about both the revenue raised and how this is shared through expenditure. Increasingly, tax is also seen as a way of redressing market failures such as the impact of economic growth on the environment, while arguments about devolution are intimately linked with the tax-raising powers of local and central government. This collection of essays opens up the debate about the strengths and weaknesses of the present British tax system. The authors cover a wide range of issues and seek to solve some of the inherent complexities and tensions that all tax regimes face. Set against the new landscape of globalisation and climate change, the contributors offer their thoughts on how Britain can have a fairer, more modern tax system.

The Public Value Of Social Housing: A longitudinal analysis of the relationship between housing and life chances
Leon Feinstein, Ruth Lupton, Cathie Hammond, Tamjid Mujtaba, Emma Salter and Annik Sorhaindo. With Rebecca Tunstall, Marcus Richards, Diana Kuh, Jon Johnson. With foreword by Steve Douglas, and Introduction by Jim Bennett.

Price £9.95 (ISBN 1 905370 33 4) Published 2008

In recent years we have taken an active interest in the role of social housing in a progressive society. We have published several monographs on developments in the sector and facilitated debates on what the future might hold. It has been striking that while these have been successful events, the discussions have all too often been frustrated by a lack of detailed evidence. This study changes that, and provides for the first time a unique longitudinal analysis of the relationship between housing and people’s life chances. At the seminar we held in October 2007 to discuss the study’s findings, it was generally agreed that the work was not only authoritative and extremely timely but also significant in that it provided a unique insight into the complexities and interconnections of social housing’s relationship to how we live and where we live. By reviewing datasets of UK birth cohorts over half a century, the study casts new light on the links between social housing provision, tenants’ lives and social policy. In particular it highlights the intergenerational aspects which shape the relationships between housing, place, family, community and public policy. The study is of course open to interpretation and makes no claims about providing easy answers to the problems facing the social housing sector. However, the research does show how approaches and attitudes to social housing have changed and how this has affected people’s life chances in terms of health, employment, education, social mobility and welfare dependency. It raises important issues concerning the value of social housing and what might need to be considered in order to tackle deep-rooted problems of multiple disadvantage, poverty and worklessness. In tracking the relationship between housing and people’s circumstances and other life outcomes, the study shows that the link between social housing and deprivation is not inevitable. Social housing was until the mid 1960s the tenure of choice for the many. However, the data shows how socioeconomic and cultural factors have reshaped the housing market and demonstrates how social housing policy has been disconnected from our efforts elsewhere to improve people’s life chances. The depressing conclusion is that social housing has become an indicator of risk for adult life chances, above and beyond what might be expected. The situation can be reversed, but this will demand greater recognition that the way social housing has been provided has not supported the very people it was meant to help.

Moving Up a Gear: New challenges for housing associations
Denise Chevin, Andy Love MP, Peter Marsh, David Orr, David Cowans, Richard Clark OBE, Tony Shoults, Tom Titherington, Professor Martin Cave, Richard Parker, Stephen Trusler, Richard Simmons, Dominic Church. Edited by Denise Chevin.

Price £9.95 (ISBN 1 905370 32 6) Published 2008

Engaging Business in the Community –
Not a quick fix
Geoffrey Bush, David Grayson and Amanda Jordan, Jane Nelson. Edited by Dr Amy Lunt.

Price £9.95 (ISBN 1 905370 30 X) Published 2008

Advancing Opportunity: Older people and
social care
Ivan Lewis MP, Neil Churchill, Melanie Henwood, David Brindle, Alison Macadam, Gordon Lishman, Anne McDonald, Stephen Haddrill, Professor Jill Manthorpe, Professor Richard Berthoud, Professor Ruth Hancock, Stephen Burke, Professor Caroline Glendinning, Lord Bruce-Lockhart, Sir Derek Wanless. Edited by Neil Churchill.

Price £9.95 (ISBN 1 905370 31 8) Published 2008

Real Localism
David Walker, Sir Simon Jenkins, Sir Robin Wales, Heather Hancock, Don Stewart, Lucy de Groot, Dermot Finch, Paul Coen, Paul Raynes, Graham Allen MP. Edited by David Walker.

Price £9.95 (ISBN 1 905370 29 6) Published 2007

Advancing Opportunity: New models of schooling
Matthew Taylor, Martin Yarnit, Andy Powell, Professor Tim Brighouse, Valerie Bayliss CB, Liz Cousins, Michael Peters, Kippy Joseph, Fiona Millar, Samia Meah and Huda Al Bander, Professor Richard Pring. Edited by Martin Yarnit.

Price £9.95 (ISBN 1 905370 28 8) Published 2007

Public and Private: Partners in the public interest
Kevin Beeston, Sir Andrew Foster, Gary Sturgess, Stuart Whitfield, Dr Adrian Bull, David Banks, Stelio Stefanou OBE, Chris Wales, Tim Stone, Patrick Diamond. Edited by Paul Hackett.

Price £9.95 (ISBN 1 905370 27 X) Published 2007

Advancing Opportunity: Children, human rights and social justice
Carolyne Willow, Professor Jonathan Bradshaw, Mary Crowley MBE, Professor Tim Brighouse, Professor Roger Bullock, Mary Riddell, Aida and Ahmed, Tim Gill. Edited by Carolyne Willow.

Price £9.95 (ISBN: 1 905370 26 1) Published 2007

Economic Nationalism
Zaki Cooper, Roland Rudd, David Gow, Michael Snyder, Malcolm Harbour MEP, Roger Carr, Peter Erskine, Stuart Popham, Sir John Sunderland, Bill Thomas, Professor Anthony Venables, Charlie McCreevy. Edited by Zaki Cooper.

Price £9.95 (ISBN: 1 905370 25 3) Published 2007

Working Together: Transformational leadership for city growth
Sir Michael Lyons, Chris Murray, Councillor Mike Whitby, Professor Michael Parkinson, Councillor Helen Holland, John Savage, Councillor Andrew Carter,  Councillor Mark Harris, Richard Mansell, Councillor Warren Bradley, Mark Preston, Sir Richard Leese, Dr Cathy Garner, Councillor John Shipley OBE, Councillor Jon Collins, Councillor Jan Wilson, Sir Robert Kerslake.

Price £9.95 (ISBN: 1 905370 23 7) Published 2007

The Role of Business in Social Change: A review of the Young Offender Programme led by National Grid
The SMART Company

Price £9.95 (ISBN: 1 905370 24 5) Published 2007

Smith Institute Annual Report 2005-6
A report of the Smith Institute's programme of lectures, seminars and publications for the year 2005-6.

Published 2007

Creative Nation: Advancing Britain’s creative industries
Rt. Hon Tessa Jowell MP, Dr Michael Harris, Eric Nicoli, Yvette Cooper MP, Alison Tickell, Emma Pike, Wilf Stevenson, Tony Hall, Cathy Koester. Edited by Cathy Koester.

Price £9.95 (ISBN: 1 905370 12 1) Published 2006

Britain’s creative industries are increasingly seen as a mainstream rather than marginal element of our economy. Design, advertising, music, film and TV, fashion, computer games and publishing produce a higher proportion of our total wealth than anywhere else in the world. UK firms register more trademarks and designs with the EU than any other country. It is clear therefore that our creative industries have a key role in supporting the UK’s future wealth. This collection of essays brings together the views of many leading figures within Britain’s creative industries to offer an important insight into this most dynamic sector of the British economy. The comments, viewpoints and essays collected here cut across a wide range of issues germane to the current success of creative industries. Taken together, they offer a practical account of how Government can better engage with creatives to ensure that this remarkable contribution continues into the future.

Trades Unions and Globalisation
Stephen Cavalier, Rt. Hon. Ian McCartney MP, Brendan Barber, Dave Prentis, Derek Simpson, Professor Jude Howell, John Monks, Dave Ryan, Keith Hailes, Ed Balls MP. Edited by Tony Pilch.

Price £9.95 (ISBN: 1 905370 14 8) Published 2007

A collection of essays considering the role of Trades Unions in the global economy, looking at the role that unions can play in preparing Britain's workers for the effects of globalisation, and how international links between unions can offer an important force for progressive change across the world. Increased competition from abroad has heralded changing industrial patterns in Britain , with consequences for workers in each sector of the UK economy. The rise of off-shoring is just one example. In a global economy, the uncertainties that accompany the free movement of labour, and the fast pace at which a competitive advantage can be created and lost, have led many countries to move in the direction of increased protectionism. However, as the Chancellor has suggested, measures that seek to reverse or halt the free movement of goods and services, capital and labour are likely to impact disproportionately on our prosperity and growth. As this collection shows, a better approach may be to seek to involve workers and employers in meeting the challenges of a rapidly changing and changeable labour market, preparing workers for the jobs of the future and seeking to develop mechanisms for people to learn new skills at every stage of their lives.

The Green Shift: Environmental policies to match a changing public climate
Peter Bill, Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown MP, Rt. Hon David Miliband MP, Professor Sir David King, Dr Dieter Helm, Dr Alan Whitehead MP, Peter Ainsworth MP, Chris Huhne MP, Dr Keith Allott, Paul King, Dr Chris Mottershead, Professor Peter Roberts, Gideon Amos. Edited by Peter Bill.

Price £9.95 (ISBN: 1 905370 13 X) Published 2006

This collection comprises essays by key scientists, economists, politicians, senior civil servants, and experts in the fields of international development, planning and regeneration, and the energy industry. The central thesis running through these contributions is that ‘post industrial’ countries are witnessing a change in public opinion in favour of a ‘green shift’. In harnessing and maintaining this momentum, the challenge for government is to ensure that action to tackle climate change becomes a spur to economic growth and stability, rather than at its expense. The contributors consider the policies and mechanisms that will be necessary if we are to reduce substantially Britain’s own contribution to our changing climate. They offer thoughts on how best the economic opportunities for innovation and new technologies can be capitalised-upon; and address the means by which Britain can adopt a major role on the world stage, both through leading-by-example, and by encouraging and facilitating less-developed economies to engage in low carbon forms of growth and wealth creation. Taken together, this collection offers new thinking about how environmental responsibility can become better integrated into the activities of individuals, civil society, businesses and government, in order that Britain can take the lead and effect serious and long-lasting change at the global, national, local and community levels.

Whose Responsibility? The role of business in delivering social and economic change
Paul Walsh, Amanda Jordan, Amy Lunt, Julia Unwin, Julia Cleverdon, David Grayson, Guy Dehn, David Pitt Watson, Jon Lukomnik, Stephen Davis, Steve Howard, Jane Nelson, Philip Hampton. Edited by Amanda Jordan and Amy Lunt.

Price £9.95 (ISBN: 1 905370 11 3) Published 2006

This collection of essays by key experts in the field offers new thinking about what constitutes ‘good CSR’. Focussing upon the range of ‘responsibilities’ that a company could and should have, from the environment and health, to community impacts and educational concerns, the authors seek to draw out how far a company should be responsible for their impacts across these areas, and offer accounts of how best these duties can be met. The contributors also look at the ways in which the environment in which companies operate – the regulatory and legal framework; and the investment structures – can be calibrated in a manner which encourages responsible activities. Overall the essays offer a consideration of how corporate responsibility can become better integrated and embedded into corporate practice, rather than being seen as a ‘nice thing to do’ or an ‘add on’.

Incentives for Growth
Rt. Hon. Stephen Timms MP, Paul Hackett, Ray Mills, Rosalind Rowe, Chris Leslie, Tom Riordan, Joe Docherty, David A. Smith, Jonathan Bland, Dermot Finch, John Callcutt. Edited by Paul Hackett Price.

Price £9.95 (ISBN: 1 905370 10 5) Published 2006

'Incentives for Growth' is a timely publication which takes forward the discussions the Smith Institute have sponsored in recent years on public-private finance and housing policy. This monograph takes a hard look at what needs to be done to meet the Government's ambitious housing and growth targets. The essays examine the barriers to investment and propose a menu of new incentives to address housing shortages in the South and under-investment in areas of deprivation in the North. It draws on past experience from the UK and the US and debates the use of new, more localised policy tools such as housing tax credits, tax incremental financing and Regeneration Infrastructure Funds. Proposals are also put forward to boost social investment and support the emerging community finance sector.

Productive Partnerships: The role of employment relations in growing the UK economy
Ed Balls MP, Tom Riordan, Dr Christian Ketels, Brendan Barber, Sir Digby Jones, Rita Donaghy, Emily Stover DeRocco, Tony Pilch. Edited by Tony Pilch

Price £9.95 (ISBN: 1 905370 06 7) Published 2006

As part of our ongoing concern with the regional economic agenda, this collection of essays explores the role of employer and employee relations in promoting skills and productivity in the economy. The UK has historically experienced low levels of labour productivity compared with other major economies. In recent years, however, the UK’s performance on the Government’s headline measure of productivity – output per worker – has been improving. At the same time, however, new global challenges are emerging. As the contributors to this booklet acknowledge, meeting these challenges and boosting productivity over the long term will rest on making progress on the drivers of productivity – innovation, skills, investment, competition and enterprise. In turn, this will require employers, employees and key bodies to work together and forge a consensus in the workplace about how these challenges can be met, particularly in raising skills levels. We hope that the contributions within this pamphlet will help to develop the debate around how a progressive consensus in the workplace can help boost UK skills levels and productivity in each and every region of the UK.

Public Service Reform: 2006-2010
Professor Nick Bosanquet, Henry de Zoete, Andrew Haldenby, Helen Rainbow, Nick Herbert MP. Edited by Andrew Haldenby.

Price £9.95 (ISBN: 1905370 07 5) Published 2006

Looking to 2010, the trends of policy in the key public services are already in place. Change programmes in health, education and policing are due to complete in 2008 or shortly after, and the Chancellor has already announced the period’s public spending envelope, including a falling public spending-to-GDP ratio from 2007-08. In these circumstances, reformed, more efficient, methods of delivery will become increasingly central to the Government’s strategy for improving Britain’s public services. In this collection of essays authors from the free-market think tank Reform argue that the current policy outlook will not be sufficient to solve the public sector’s problems of performance and productivity before the next general election. Starting from the premise that successful NHS reform is very far from certain; Department of Education and Skill’s reforms are too limited; and that the proposed changes to the police service raise new problems of their own, the authors make a strong case that a much more extensive rate and range of policy improvement is now needed, and they put forward constructive proposals for how this might be achieved, which they feel would command popular support across the political spectrum.

Rethinking Social Housing
Tim Dwelly, Julie Cowans, Professor Duncan Maclennan, Jon Rouse, Cedric Dennis, Richard Kemp, Perry Lloyd, Rupert Dickinson, Peter Williams, Paddy McIntyre, Colm McCaughley. Edited by Tim Dwelly and Julie Cowans.

Price £9.95 (ISBN: 1 905370 05 9) Published 2006

Trends in economic development, household formation and population movement have meant that, at the start of the 21st century, housing provision has become deeply polarised with many social tenants subject to systematic barriers that restrict geographical mobility and cultivate pockets of concentrated unemployment, social exclusion and multiple deprivation. The essays in this collection seek to address a wide range of issues that stem from the stigma and polarisation that has resulted from the ‘homes for life’ approach to social tenancy over the last few decades. How can investment be married with radical solutions to promote and embed mixed-tenancy communities? Can mobility, rights and responsibilities be fostered in the housing system, while continuing to offer security of tenure? How can these issues be tackled in a manner consistent with the Government’s commitment to equity?

Diversity and the Economy
By Tony Pilch

Price £9.95 (ISBN: 1 905370 04 0) Published 2006

The Smith Institute has worked closely with the RDAs since they were established in 1998, holding national and regional events that have tracked the development of RDAs, as well as helping to share best practice. As part of this agenda, and because of the growing ec