A mixed message: the agents and forms of international housing policy, 1945–1973

Researchers have identified three phases in the evolution of international housing policy since 1945: public housing (1945–1960s), sites-and-services (1972–1980s), and market enabling (1980s–present). They often fail to distinguish between the policies that international agencies recommended and the policies that national governments pursued. Their preferred chronology does not accurately describe the recommendations of the main agencies, among whom the UN, the World Bank and, in the early years, the British Colonial Office were the most important. An extensive survey of published and archival sources shows that these agencies never endorsed public housing. Although their purposes differed, they consistently endorsed a mixed strategy of self-help and market supports. Self-help was given priority from the mid-1960s to the 1980s, when the balance shifted to market ‘enabling’. We need to know more about what influence their recommendations had upon national governments in the developing world.