Editing Million Programme (section)

{{Short description|Swedish housing programme}}
{{Refimprove|date=May 2022}}
{{Expert needed|Sweden|reason=most references on this topic are in [[Swedish language|Swedish]]|date=May 2022}}

{{Use British English|date=January 2019}}[[File:Rinkeby 2009.jpg|thumb|Refurbished Million Programme homes in [[Rinkeby]] (2009)]]

The '''Million Programme''' ({{langx|sv|Miljonprogrammet}}) was a large public housing program implemented in [[Sweden]] between 1965 and 1974 by the governing [[Swedish Social Democratic Party]] to ensure the availability of affordable, high-quality housing to all Swedish citizens. The program sought to construct one million new housing dwellings over a ten-year period, which it accomplished.{{efn|The program also demolished many older buildings, so the net increase in the housing stock was not one million but roughly 650,000.}}<ref name="Hall-Viden">{{Cite journal |last1=Hall |first1=Thomas |last2=Vidén |first2=Sonja |date=July 2005 |title=The Million Homes Programme: a review of the great Swedish planning project |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02665430500130233 |journal=Planning Perspectives |volume=20 |issue=3 |pages=301–328 |doi=10.1080/02665430500130233 |bibcode=2005PlPer..20..301H |s2cid=154380408 |url-access=subscription |via=Taylor & Francis Online}}</ref> As part of its intention to modernize Swedish housing, it also demolished many older buildings that national and local governments considered obsolescent, unhealthy or derelict.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Verkasalo |first1=Aino |last2=Hirvonen |first2=Jukka |date=June 2017 |title=Post-war urban renewal and demolition fluctuations in Sweden |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02665433.2017.1299635 |journal=Planning Perspectives |volume=32 |issue=3 |pages=425–435 |doi=10.1080/02665433.2017.1299635 |bibcode=2017PlPer..32..425V |s2cid=114195047 |url-access=subscription |via=Taylor & Francis Online}}</ref>

At the time, the intention to build one million new homes in a nation with a population of eight million made the Million Programme the most ambitious building programme in the world.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}} In contrast to the [[social housing]] proposals of many other developed countries, which is [[Means test|targeted]] at those with low incomes, the Million Programme was a universal program intended to provide housing to Swedish people at a variety of income levels.{{efn|A defining feature of the [[Welfare in Sweden|Swedish welfare state]] has long been its emphasis on universalism.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Lundberg |first1=Urban |last2=Åmark |first2=Klas |date=2001 |title=Social Rights and Social Security: The Swedish Welfare State, 1900–2000 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/034687501750303837 |journal=Scandinavian Journal of History |volume=26 |issue=3 |pages=157–176 |doi=10.1080/034687501750303837 |pmid=17844640 |s2cid=30803271 |url-access=subscription |via=Taylor & Francis Online}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bengtsson |first=Bo |date=November 2001 |title=Housing as a Social Right: Implications for Welfare State Theory |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1467-9477.00056 |journal=Scandinavian Political Studies |volume=24 |issue=4 |pages=255–275 |doi=10.1111/1467-9477.00056 |url-access=subscription |via=Wiley Online Library}}</ref> However, beginning in the last decades of the 20th century Swedish housing policy shifted its focus more towards support to low-income households and depressed neighborhoods.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Holmqvist |first1=Emma |last2=Turner |first2=Lena Magnusson |date=2014 |title=Swedish welfare state and housing markets: under economic and political pressure |url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10901-013-9391-0 |journal=Journal of Housing and the Built Environment |volume=29 |issue=2 |pages=237–254 |doi=10.1007/s10901-013-9391-0 |s2cid=254703820 |url-access=subscription |via=SpringerLink}}</ref>}}<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hatherly |first=Owen |date=June 16, 2013 |title=How Sweden's innovative housing programme fell foul of privatisation |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jun/16/sweden-housing-programme-privatisation |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220402164449/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jun/16/sweden-housing-programme-privatisation |archive-date=April 2, 2022 |website=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref>