Théo Bendahan: The revival of public land policy in the Île-de-France region. Funding channels, digital technologies and links to urban production sectors

Whilst post-war urban planning in France was characterised by central government intervention in the land and property markets, decentralisation has been accompanied by a decline in public land policy measures implemented by the central government. Since the 2000s, however, there has been a renewed ambition on the part of public authorities to intervene in land markets, in response in particular to the growing difficulties in accessing housing and the issues of land sealing observed in metropolitan areas. This relative resurgence of public land policy in France, underpinned by the rise of specific funding and dedicated organisations such as public land agencies (EPFs), appears counter-intuitive given the changes currently affecting the development systems of European cities: increasing budgetary pressures, the rationalisation and privatisation of the public housing stock, the significant role of private operators in the early stages of development projects, etc.

This thesis sets out to explore this apparent tension between, on the one hand, the growing and evolving role of private operators in the development of urban spaces and, on the other hand, the rebuilding of public capacity for land management prior to the implementation of urban and property development projects. By focusing on the practices and mechanisms deployed in Île-de-France since the 2010s, three lines of analysis are proposed. Firstly, the thesis examines the gradual re-establishment of public land management capacity in the Île-de-France region, through a study of the financial, legal and regulatory mechanisms, socio-technical instruments and organisational arrangements underpinning such measures. Secondly, it examines the implications of this renewed land policy for the system of urban space production and for the relationships between private property developers and the public actors involved in their regulation. Finally, it explores the ambivalent social and spatial effects of public land policy on property developments in the Île-de-France region, through an analysis of the networks—that is, the coordinated chains of actors—around which this policy is organised. In doing so, this study examines the potential contribution of public land policy mechanisms to the dynamics of tertiarisation and financialisation in urban development in the Île-de-France region.