New ReHousIn report: First round of Policy Labs concludes across nine countries
A new ReHousIn publication Report on the Policy Labs #1 marks the completion of the first round of Policy Labs across nine European countries. These workshops engaged national stakeholders to validate initial findings, test emerging hypotheses, and exchange perspectives on how green transition policies intersect with housing inequalities. The Labs also helped establish relationships for continued engagement ahead of the project’s next phase of fieldwork.
Differences in knowledge and awareness
The report reveals striking differences in how stakeholders across Europe perceive the inequality impacts of green policies. In countries where green interventions are widespread and public-led urban projects are common, awareness of unintended consequences – such as rising housing costs or unequal access to benefits – was high. Elsewhere, where such policies are less directly tied to urgent housing needs, awareness tended to be lower.
In Austria, for example, participants were acutely aware of how retrofitting programmes could increase rents, which often fuels resistance to climate measures unless social goals are pursued alongside environmental ones. In France, discussions turned to multi-level frictions, particularly between mayors and the Senate, underlining that the ecological transition in housing cannot be separated from political and institutional dynamics. In Hungary, where stakeholders had less prior exposure to the issue, participants nevertheless warned that excluding vulnerable groups from green policies poses an even greater risk than the policies’ social side-effects. The Italian lab reflected a complex understanding of how green interventions can reinforce inequalities, repeatedly noting the polarised impacts on different groups.
In Norway, conversations combined critical insight with contextual awareness, pointing to systemic governance challenges in coordinating housing and environmental policies. In Poland, discussions highlighted demographic change and the need to plan around social structures and available infrastructure, with stakeholder knowledge differing widely between groups. The Spanish lab brought together experts already familiar with concepts such as retrofitting, densification, and nature-based solutions, leading to robust debates on implementation challenges like community resistance, legal barriers, and conflicting policy objectives. In Switzerland, participants agreed that the inequality effects of green policies depend heavily on broader socio-economic conditions. While energy refurbishments themselves were not seen as the root problem, concern was raised over the prioritisation of climate targets over social ones at the national level. In the United Kingdom, participants recognised risks such as higher social housing rents, exclusion from retrofitted homes, and prohibitive retrofit costs for private households, but noted that there was no shared understanding of how these dynamics unfold.
Key cross-country lessons
Across all countries, the Policy Labs highlighted several common factors that can either worsen or mitigate inequality impacts of green transition policies. The tenure structure of national housing systems, and how housing is embedded within welfare systems, emerged as decisive. Public housing was seen as particularly vulnerable in cities where it makes up only a small share of the housing stock, while in highly de-commodified markets it remains an essential tool for preventing marginalisation.
Participants also underscored that fragmented governance – with conflicting interests across levels and sectors and poorly coordinated housing and energy responsibilities – continues to drive housing inequalities. Without stronger integration, well-intentioned green interventions risk reinforcing disparities rather than reducing them.
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