The Social Sustainable City - the Role of Strategic Planning for Local Housing Markets Heterogeneity

STRATEGIC HOUSING: THE SOCIAL SUSTAINABLE CITY ? THE ROLE OF STRATEGIC PLANNING FOR LOCAL HOUSING MARKET HETEROGENEITY (StrategicHousing): Cities are increasingly an arena for socio-economic inequality, and there is a need for an increased understanding of the role that housing policy plays in urban socio-economic development. In their plans, municipalities often aim for a housing market with a social profile, which accommodates offers for a wide range of households. How to secure inclusive local housing markets that provide access to low-income groups, that provide socially and economically heterogeneous housing areas? and which in total provides diverse urban areas and neighborhoods? The project will study how the municipalities can: - Ensure that every local area has a sufficiently wide offer - Ensure socio-economic heterogonous local housing markets, also in new development areas - Ensure that low-income groups have access to the local housing market - Use strategic planning to ensure heterogeneous neighborhoods and avoid segregation. More specifically, StrategicHousing will: - DEVELOP A HETEROGENEITY INDEX: To strengthen the knowledgebasis when formulating municipal land-use- and housing policy, to ensure a stronger geographical perspective when deciding on what should be built where, and in their use of other steering instruments. - STUDY BEST-CASE MUNICIPALITIES: To analyse how cities use the mix of planning tools, strategies, and housing policy measures strategically. In addition, we will study how market actors (developers/landowners) respond. - ESTABLISH LEARNING AND COLLABORATIVE ARENAES: a) Further develop KS municipal network for inclusive housing policy, b) Establish a collaborative arena for housing diversity in Hovinbyen, with Pådriv / SoCentral as facilitator. The arena brings together various agencies in the Oslo municipality, developers, landowners, boroughs, civil society and research. StrategicHousing is a collaborative project with user involvement, with NIBR-OsloMet, NMBU, UiT, KTH, Asplan Viak, SoCentral, and the municipalities of Oslo, Bergen and Lørenskog. It is funded by the Norwegian Research Council (2020-2023).

The project StrategicHousing departs from earlier findings (EVAPLAN) that housing policy objectives of accommodating households at all income levels in all areas in the city is mostly reflected at the higher tier of planning, if at all, and seldom in the local plans. The project StrategicHousing will gain new insight in the relationship between policy instruments and the housing market and contribute to social sustainable urban development through broaden the understanding of how the planning system can realize political aims of more inclusive housing markets. The excellence of the work relates to the invention of new housing market measuring instruments, the analyses of local markets dynamics and the systematic linking of market characteristics to cities planning practice and use of policy means. By combining empirical analysis of housing market statistics and empirical studies of the housing policies and use of instruments in seven cities, the project will: - develop innovations to identify and measure local market characteristics (index/indicator development); - investigate local market dynamics and robustness; - investigate the relationship between planning practices and local market supply elasticity - investigate the relationship between spatial-sensitive use of policy instruments and housing markets; - analyse how cities use the mix of planning tools, strategies, and housing policy measures strategically; - establish learning- and co-creational arenas for this purpose, in cooperation with users partners (cities) and R&D suppliers, that enable cross-sector dialogue about how to reduce inequality and increase local market inclusiveness through planning measures and use of targeted housing policies. In sum, this will give new insights in how municipalities can use planning instruments more strategically, in combination with other tools, to ensure housing market supply elasticity and housing market heterogeneity.