Controlling Public Renting: Structure and Process in Australian Public Housing

Public renting in English-speaking countries has been increasingly under political attack since the early 1970s. This in part no doubt reflects a general trend towards encouraging the private market in what has been identified as a process of ’privatisation’ and ’commodification’ of housing (Harloe, 1980: Forrest and Williams, 1980: Kemeny, 1980), which in turn can be identified as part of a retreat from welfare economic principles, as part of the reaction to the fiscal crisis of the state in late capitalism.