ABSTRACT
Much of the discussion in the published work on housing since the late 1970s was about the relegation of housing policy from the key political and electoral issue that it was in the early postwar period to a low-priority policy area. But in the years since 2000 government and the electorate have rediscovered housing policy. This chapter discusses some of the key dimensions of this shift in status and the discourses around it. Initially it considers the changing importance of the policy area and then goes on to refer in more detail to key elements in the recent discussion of policy and to the future direction of policy, especially towards rented housing.
