Jobs from Housing - Employment, building materials, and enabling strategies for urban development (Paperback, UK ed.)

Housing is a universal need, like food and clothing. Yet official involvement in improving shelter by direct investment has often been a failure, and has been drastically reduced in most countries, despite the overwhelming need for improved standards of shelter. Based on a recent review of evidence throughout the developing world, "Jobs From Housing" takes a look at the processes and the problems of income generation through housing. It examines the present state of housing, the expected future demand, and the processes by which housing is created. It considers the role of the building industry, the building materials producers and the informal sector in creating wealth through housing activity. The authors also identify some ways in which governments and aid agencies can act to stimulate economic activity, create employment and remove current supply constraints in the availability of materials for building. Due to the increase in the world's urban population, this book focuses on the problems of urban housing as a special concern.;Part One describes the housing process as a whole, in the context of the wider economy. There is a much greater potential for creating wealth and local