Tenant experiences of critical junctures in social housing: Policy change in a historical institutionalist framework

Historically, research into housing policy and tenant experiences have largely been kept separate, in part due to the interdisciplinary nature of the field and subsequently fragmented housing literature. This separation, in conjunction with the often-disenfranchised position of tenants, has meant that tenant voices are mainly excluded from the policy process and analysis. By putting tenant voices at its centre, this thesis combines historical institutionalist approaches to policy analysis with tenant experiences. This thesis first introduces the background and context of English housing policy, next explores historical institutionalist theory as a framework to establish commonly accepted critical junctures, and then considers approaches for listening to tenant experiences. It subsequently proposes a qualitative methodology. Twenty qualitative interviews were conducted and integrated within this framework, drawing together the existing literature and the empirical data. There were three key findings, providing an original contribution to knowledge. Firstly, historical institutionalism can be successfully combined with tenant experiences in a multi-layered approach. This enriches policy analysis at all levels and can benefit both the tenants and the institutions. Secondly, social housing tenants have a complex relationship with housing stability. This research finding led to a proposed ‘Elements of Housing Stability’ model, which aims to provide a structure to improve and understand tenants’ housing experiences. Thirdly, participation in housing processes emerged as an underlying, and unexpected, key theme. The impact of participation on those who have no viable alternative housing options yielded some complicated findings on the multifaceted impact of this for tenants, underlining a need for further research. This thesis concludes that tenant experiences can, and should, be effectively included as a crucial part of policy analysis.