Planning failure? Housing supply bottlenecks in Sweden and England and the pursuit of socially and economically sustainable cities

Why does housing supply lag demand in major European cities, and what can policymakers do about it? Scholarly and policy narratives are polarised between those who attribute this undersupply to regulatory failure, and those who identify it as a problem of market failure. What is currently lacking is an integrated, multi-stakeholder, analysis of housing delivery.

We will address this gap by investigating housing supply bottlenecks through a mixed-methods comparative analysis of housing provision in Sweden and England, with in-depth case studies of two high growth regions (Uppsala and Cambridge). The project will identify and expound implementation and accountability deficits in housing delivery by tracing residential housing projects from the initiation, planning and application stages through to the public consultation, approval and development phases.

The project will comprise an interdisciplinary team based at the Institute of Housing and Urban Research, Uppsala University. The first year will involve mapping out national housing delivery systems through statistical analysis and policy review. In year two we will carry out in-depth case studies of the high growth city regions in our case countries, resulting in three journal articles focusing on the main actors responsible for housing delivery. In year three, we will synthesize the findings into a monograph and run policy workshops to co-produce solutions with stakeholders, feeding into a publicly launched policy report.

Project start

2025

Funding

Formas

Researchers

Timothy Blackwell, Researcher in Political Science, IBF (Project Leader)
Nils Hertting, Professor in Political Science, IBF
Callum Ward, Sheffield University