Duncan Maclennan is an applied economist with interests in the functioning of and policies for housing, neighbourhoods, cities, and regions. Duncan was made a CBE for services to UK housing research and policy and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, an Honorary Member of the Chartered Institute of Housing, the Royal Town Planning Institute, and the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors. He Previously directed the UK’s national centre for Housing Research at the University of Glasgow (1982-2003) and was Head of the School of Geography and Geosciences then Professor of Strategic Urban Management at the University of St Andrews (2008-16) and has held Visiting Appointments at the Wharton Business School, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Ottawa, and UNSW and RMIT. He is currently Emeritus Professor of Urban Studies at the University of Glasgow, Adjunct Professor of Housing Economics at McMaster University (Ontario), and Visting Professor of Housing Economics at the City Futures Centre, UNSW (Sydney). 

 

Duncan has been involved in shaping housing policies in the UK and elsewhere. He served as Principal Consultant to the OECD on Urban Affairs from 1984-1996 and was adviser to the Duke of Edinburgh’s Housing Inquiry (1996), the Rowntree Foundation (1988-2003) and the RICS inquiry into UK Housing (2016). He has also worked as a policymaker. On the re-establishment of the Scottish Parliament in 1999 he was appointed Special Adviser to the first three First Ministers of Scotland. He then held senior policy positions in Australia (as a Chief Economist in the Government of Victoria), and Canada (Chief Economist at Infrastructure and Cities Canada) before returning to academia in Scotland. 

 

His specific involvements in non-profit housing have included advising the English Housing Minister in establishing the ‘new regime’ (1988) for non-profit housing, serving on the Board of Scottish Homes from 1989-1999 and in leading the policy development work to facilitate the transfer of council housing to associations in Scotland, most notably the Glasgow stock transfer and subsequently advocating the growth and diversification of the sector in the UK, Australia, and Canada. 

 

His recent work has included reviewing the roles and productivity effects of housing in the Australian economy (summarised in ‘Housing: Taming the Elephant in the Economy’ (UNSW, 2022) and more recently developing a systems approach to housing policies for CMHC in Canada. He is currently engaged in two research projects, exploring collaborative multi-order housing partnerships in metropolitan areas, and understanding transformations of non-profit housing systems in the UK, Australia, and Canada. He currently lives and works in Canada and Scotland.