ABSTRACT
The Netherlands is a highly urbanised country with 80 percent of its population living in cities (Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment 2007). However, there has also been an immense and sustained pressure on the provision of housing stock since the Second World War. There are three major factors that have driven this, namely: the massive destruction and damage of housing during the War, the rapid post-War population growth and the lack of available land for housing. The combination of these factors has meant that housing is extremely prominent in Dutch approaches to urban regeneration. The fi rst part of this chapter gives a brief outline of the various strategies the Dutch have utilised in tackling urban regeneration over the past sixty years and the role of housing associations within this. The second part of the chapter then examines some of the implications these policies have had for a large housing estate close to Amsterdam and will argue that the regeneration policies of the past two decades are an incomplete approach to urban regeneration.
