The dismantling of the welfare state is perhaps the most critical issue facing government today. This thesis constitutes a critical inquiry into the transformation and repercussions of the restructuring of the public housing systems in Britain and Canada over the period 1980-1995. The importance of this thesis is to demonstrate that the unravelling of the welfare state in Britain and Canada, and specifically the targeting of the public housing systems is not an anomaly but represents part of the broader changes occurring in many Western industrialised countries. Supported by an overview of the restructuring of other welfare states and the origins of public housing in Britain and Canada this thesis provides some insight into how the direction of how public housing policies in these two countries became comparable since the introduction of privatization and federal disentanglement. The impact of these policy changes will be explored by examining the increase in polarization, marginalization and residualization of public housing. The repercussions of these policy changes will result in acceleration in the deterioration of public housing in Britain and Canada. Although the impacts resulting from the transformation in public housing policy are readily apparent, i.e., the privatization of public housing and federal disentanglement, the full impact of these processes on the remaining public housing stock in the future needs to be addressed.
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