ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how the specific tensions that have emerged over the last few years; and assesses how actors have been affected by structural constraints and evaluates the power that actors are able to exert in the circumstances. It explores the practices and values of estate managers participating in the policy process and looks at the political status of housing management and attempts by its practitioners to enhance its professional status. The chapter examines the evolution of practices to show how contemporary arguments about the role of housing management are shaped by past debates. Despite having little influence in the decisions that led to the design of housing estates, it was housing estate managers who were entrusted to manage the new system-built housing which permeated the landscape of Britain’s inner cities. Like their counterparts in local government, senior housing managers were heavily influenced by the prevailing fashions sweeping central and local government.
