Responding to ‘Low Demand and Unpopular Housing’: The English and French Experience

In recent years, in many parts of England and France a mismatch between housing supply and demand has resulted in an increasing number of neighbourhoods experiencing problems of empty properties, depressed house-prices and high stock turnover. This paper looks at the response of policy makers and social housing landlords in the two countries to this phenomenon, which in England has been referred to as ‘low demand.’ It does so with reference to four key themes: partnership working; community involvement; neighbourhood management and demolition. The paper draws on a range of data sources including an in-depth case study of Vaulxen-Velin, a low demand neighbourhood located in the north of the Greater Lyon Conurbation. The principal differences between policy and practice in the two countries are highlighted and related to their specific national contexts.