Concern with Redistribution as an Aspect of Post-War Norwegian Housing Policy *

Abstract

Post-war housing policy in Norway has attempted to equalize access to housing facilities. However, the criteria applied by the administrative agencies have only partially been related to need; the measures have tried to influence the relationship between economic resources and housing facilities in less direct ways. The large number of remedies applied, and the increasingly potent political goal of universal ownership, has created interest coalitions, the effects of which have been to blur the distinctions between owners of different size. A case in point is the unintended side-effect of price control efforts on tax assessment practices. The old conflict between tenant and landlord has disappeared, but no other cleavage line has taken its place, except for intermittent confrontations between the ‘authorities’ and owners.