Welfare Reform on the Web (October 2000): Care of the Elderly - UK

HOUSING AND SOCIAL FRAGMENTATION IN THE NETHERLANDS

R. van Kempen, V. A. J. M. Schutjens, and J. van Weesep

Housing Studies, vol. 15, 2000, p. 505-531

In a major policy shift in 1989 the Netherlands government ceased maintaining the compensation for socio-economic disadvantages through housing provision and accepted new inequalities in housing. In fact trends for housing situations to reflect differences in income, age, household structure and ethnicity had emerged strongly in the 1980s before the policy shift. These trends had their roots in a changing system of economic regulation which resulted in social polarisation, opening an expanding gap between the haves and have nots. The policy changes following the publication of the intended reforms merely reinforced existing trends.