News from CCHPR, new publications

What progress has been made on creating a more sustainable housing market?

Volatility has plagued the UK housing market for four decades. The JRF Housing Market Taskforce identified ways to create a more sustainable housing market, suggesting credible long-term policy options to avoid extreme house price fluctuation and protect vulnerable households from its effects. One year on, our new paper follows up this work, assessing the Government’s progress in tackling volatility.

For more information and to download the report please click here

The implications of the 2008-based household projections for estimates of housing need

Alan Holmans’ new article has now been published in the September issue of the TCPA journal.

The 2008-based household projections show an increased number of households because of the rise in population caused by continuing high inward migration. In terms of housing need, the new projections imply a 10% increase in the proportion needing social housing or private renting with the aid of housing benefit. This largely results from increasing numbers of lone parents.

For further details click here 

 

Analysis of the private rented sector in Richmond upon Thames and surrounding areas

Richmond Council, together with Richmond Housing Partnership, commissioned a short piece of work to help form the evidence base of their tenancy strategy. This research examined the operation of the private rented sector in Richmond and nearby with a particular focus on the availability of housing for low income groups.


Clickhere for more details and to download the report

Finch Review of Open Access Publishing: Conference 29th & 30th November 2012

This two-day Conference organised by the Academy of Social Sciences and kindly sponsored by THE, Routledge, Wiley Blackwell and SAGE looks at the implementation of the recommendations of the Finch Review for Open Access publishing in the UK.
Venue: The Royal Statistical Society, 12 Errol Street, London EC1Y 8LX
Booking: Places are available at a nominal charge of £12.50 per delegate per day
For further details click here: ACSS Events

Job vacancy: Researcher and Senior Researcher vacancies at BSHF

Applications are currently being invited for a Researcher and a Senior Researcher.
The Building & Social Housing Foundation (BSHF) is recruiting two members of research staff in the UK programme. The Senior Researcher is a permanent position, with a salary range of £27,000 - £32,000.
The Researcher position is a one year contract initially, with the possibility of extension depending on circumstances. The salary is £19,000 - £22,000.
The primary purpose of the posts is develop and carry out original, high quality housing research and analysis that has the potential to influence UK housing policy, and ultimately result in people being better housed.
We are open to candidates from a diverse range of professional backgrounds, and are interested in your analytical skills and ability to communicate with a range of audiences. You should share the programme’s commitment to using robust, evidence-led research to improve policy and practice and be open to developing new skills and knowledge.
The closing date for applications for the post of Senior Researcher is Monday 29th October 2012 at 09:00am and for the post of Researcher is Friday 26th October 2012 at 09:00am.For further details and an application form please go to http://www.bshf.org/employment/?lang=00

RC43 Conference 2013 - ‘At home in the housing market’, 10 - 12 July 2013, Centre for Urban Studies, University of Amsterdam.

Conference theme:
In contemporary societies, the meaning and function of the built environment has been transformed by the intensification and growing volatility of capital accumulation in housing and real estate. With sustained housing commodification in context of declining economic stability, most households have become ever more sensitive to the status of their homes as exchange goods and consider their respective housing market positions as central to their chances of security or future prosperity. This conference explores the dynamic interaction between homes and (housing) markets over time and across different socio-economic contexts. There are various ways of thinking about the idea of ‘being at home’ in this regard. First are the connections between homes as places, spaces and objects of family and social life, as well as housing commodities that circulate on, and are subject to, fickle and dispassionate markets. Second is the significance of the shift from pre- to post-crisis conditions and how the housing market has been experienced in different cities, regions and countries. In Europe and North America, for example, there is a distinction that not only marks out a fundamental economic reorientation but also cultural, socio-political and even family and generational transitions. In Latin America and East Asia by contrast, housing has not been so interwoven with recent global economic crises, albeit with housing commodification still deeply embedded with social change.

This conference incorporates and Young / New Researchers pre-conference

For further details go to RC 43 Conference 2013

New book: Understanding Neighbourhood Dynamics: New Insights for Neighbourhood Effects Research by Maarten van Ham, David Manley, Nick Bailey, Ludi Simpson, Duncan Maclennan.

This rare interdisciplinary combination of research into neighbourhood dynamics and effects attempts to unravel the complex relationship between disadvantaged neighbourhoods and the life outcomes of the residents who live therein. It seeks to overcome the notorious difficulties of establishing an empirical causal relationship between living in a disadvantaged area and the poorer health and well-being often found in such places. There remains a widespread belief in neighbourhood effects: that living in a poorer area can adversely affect residents' life chances. These chapters caution that neighbourhood effects cannot be fully understood without a profound understanding of the changes to, and selective mobility into and out of, these areas. Featuring fresh research findings from a number of countries and data sources, including from the UK, Australia, Sweden and the USA, this book offers fresh perspectives on neighbourhood choice and dynamics, as well as new material for social scientists, geographers and policy makers alike. It enriches neighbourhood effects research with insights from the closely related, but currently largely separate, literature on neighbourhood dynamics.
Published by Springer. For further details click here

News from TRP Sheffield

Ed Ferrari presents at the New School Housing Conference: After the Housing Crisis: Housing Policy and Finance in the USA and UK

Ed Ferrari was recently invited to present at a conference organised by the Milano School of International Affairs, Management and Urban Policy at the New School in New York. The conference, which tackled issues relating to housing policy and finance in the UK and US in the wake of the financial crisis, was sponsored by the Housing Studies Charitable Trust and the Rockefeller Foundation. Ed's paper provided a broad overview of the various housing crises suffered in the UK over the past century and more, and argued that the roots of the present housing problem were structural and predated the banking crisis of 2007. A more integrative account of housing dynamics as well as a broader conceptualisation of the value of housing were required, he argued, which demanded more investment in housing to meet not only housing needs but a range of other social and economic needs. The paper will be made available at the conference website after 15 October.

New Book - Shaping Places, by David Adams and Steve Tiesdell

Shaping Places explains how towns and cities can turn real estate development to their advantage to create the kind of places where people want to live, work, relax and invest. It contends that the production of quality places which enhance economic prosperity, social cohesion and environmental sustainability require a transformation of market outcomes. The core of the book explores why this is essential, and how it can be delivered, by linking a clear vision for the future with the necessary means to achieve it. Crucially, the book argues that public authorities should seek to shape, regulate and stimulate real estate development so that developers, landowners and funders see real benefit in creating better places.

For further details click here

The use of medical evidence in homelessness cases

This study by the University of York and Herriot Watt University examines the use of medical evidence in homelessness applications in England. It does so by examining the decision-making practices in three different local authorities: London Borough, Northern City and Eastern Town.

For further details and download the summary of the report click here