GOVERNMENT HOUSING POLICY
Housing policies in any society are the outcome of interplay between different interest groups. Some indication of government attitudes to low-income housing supply in Third World cities, and different policy responses to the problem, is provided in Table 25.6. It should be noted that although this portrays a progression of stages from non-action to
more enlightened responses, this should not be taken to represent a uni-directional model of
development. Government policies may move in either direction depending upon local circumstances that include the pattern of urban land ownership (which can influence attitudes towards squatting), the rate of economic growth (which can induce pressure for central-area redevelopment schemes) and political ideology (which reflects the balance of power in society). To understand this complexity it is useful to group government responses to the provision of low-income housing into four broad categories: indifference, reactionary responses, Westernised responses and innovative responses.