{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.021230266739248774, 'fraction_numerical': 0.007621121393576484, 'mean_word_length': 5.026229508196721, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Changing Contexts in Urban Regeneration: 30 Years of Modernisation in Rotterdam

possible. Two crucial opportunities were missed—when the Conservative’s public expenditure plans were adhered to in the first two years following the 1997 election: a tactical move to sanitise Labour prior to the general election that rapidly turned into a millstone when they formed a government with a massive majority. Then in the ‘bank bail out’ of 2008–09 when some of the possibilities to exert more sustained pay back from the financial sector were not exploited. However, whatever the underlying purpose, approximately £25 billion, for example, was invested in the Decent Homes programme to improve dwelling conditions in the social sector after decades of neglect. It was not all terrible, and one might look on such initiatives more wistfully two or three years down the line. However, the pamphlet is perhaps most disappointing in terms of refusing to look to the future, other than to stare into the abyss that is coalition government housing policy. Do some of the contradictions in the British housing system resulting from casino capitalism offer new opportunities for socialist informed policies to be developed? The authors do not say. What about the growing size of the ‘waiting room’ sector for those caught between unaffordable rents and homeownership, the long-term impact of the current economic conditions on property values, the extent to which mutual and co-operative forms of organisation might offer new opportunities, the development of a post-ALMO sector, and so on? I would have liked Davis & Wigfield to have turned their considerable experience to at least a few new ideas, and to counterbalance a little of the bleakness with a smidgeon of the ‘optimism of the will’. Maybe some winter sunshine is in order next time round?