Housing Studies Association Conference 2013 - Changing political and institutional landscapes: What are the consequences for housing?

Housing finds itself at the centre of unprecedented change in policy, political and institutional landscapes. As well as the on-going effects of welfare reform and the impacts of the economic downturn and austerity measures, political expediency and ideological opportunity are imposing significant challenges for the way housing is conceptualised and produced. Housing strategies are heading in new directions in different constituencies. These and other issues will be explored at the 2013 Housing Studies Association conference through the following themes:

• Changing state / market relationships and the implications for housing
• Understandings of housing as a welfare good; including notions of entitlement and conditionality
• Tenure reform and the blurring of boundaries between the social and private rented sectors
• The shifting relations between state and civic society in planning for and delivering housing

The date for your diary: 10-12 April 2013
The venue: University of York

Post-Crash City: Houses and Homes, 5 - 6 July 2012

Keynote speakers:
Moira Munro
(University of Glasgow) and Rebecca Tunstall (University of York)

Please send abstracts (max 150 words) addressing the themes of the meeting and series to rowland.atkinson@york.ac.uk

Further details and registration at: www.york.ac.uk/sociology/research/curb/events/2012/post-crash

Housing remains at the epicentre of the sense of crisis and economic malaise in so many cities globally. Not only does the cost of private housing continue to stagnate but discourses of unending asset price growth and the security of ownership as a means of attaining personal wealth have largely been punctured by the strangulation of mortgage finance, unease around the impact of public funding cuts and a more general questioning of the pyramidal nature of such investment. Alongside this ‘crisis’, also a potential opportunity to those locked-out of the previous boom, is another in public housing and welfare assistance. In this sector financial retrenchment highlights the potential for new forms of gentrification and household displacement as these forms of state aid are withdrawn in the name of financial austerity. How will major and minor cities be re-organised by these new economic and social imperatives? What opportunities remain for organised and flourishing forms of capital even within the apparent decline of private finance? What forms of resistance, action and progressive change can be mounted by communities and individuals in these contexts?

AcSS Policy Monitor

The latest edition of the AcSS Policy Monitor is available from www.acss.org.uk/docs/Policy%20monitor/PM%202.2012.pdf

TRP Conference - Localism: an opportunity for home building and community cohesion?
Papers are invited from early career researchers in town and regional planning and related disciplines for ‘Localism: an opportunity for home building and community cohesion?’, the second conference organised by the Department of Town and Regional Planning Research School at the University of Sheffield, taking place on the 25th May 2012, at the university’s Interdisciplinary Centre of the Social Sciences.
The Localism Bill brings to the fore the tension between development and local empowerment. The rhetoric surrounding the bill promotes an increase in housing supply in a manner that places the local community in direct contact with the planning process. Improving community cohesion at all levels of society is part of the Big Society objective and will be impacted upon by local development. This conference is designed to explore some of the tensions between economic growth, home building and local community cohesion.
Keynote speakers, including Professor Ian Cole, Sheffield Hallam University and Professor Nick Johnson, Urban Splash and the University of Sheffield, will provide a variety of theoretical and grounded perspectives on the conference themes. Additionally workshops will be used to explore a range of issues surrounding the conference theme from four perspectives: housing economics and home building; community cohesion and justice; planning for ‘Localism’ and housing lessons from non UK situations. The conference provides the opportunity for early career researchers, whether PhD students or researchers from outside academia, to present their research in a friendly and constructive environment. Each of the workshops will be supported by an academic member of staff from the University of Sheffield and will provide supportive and robust feedback.
Offers of papers (a title and 200 word abstract) should be emailed to r.j.dunning@sheffield.ac.uk (Richard Dunning) and c.maidment@sheffield.ac.uk (Chris Maidment) by 25th April 2012. We welcome papers covering the conference themes and also dealing with any other aspect of research corresponding to the four workshops. Thanks to the support of the Housing Studies Association five bursaries are also available, open to those submitting abstracts, covering the full cost of the conference fee and up to £25 towards travel arrangements. Successful bursary recipients will be informed by email by Friday 27th April.
The conference fee is £15, covering attendance, lunch and an evening drinks reception. Places are limited and will be offered on a first come, first served basis. Please follow this link to book your place: http://onlineshop.shef.ac.uk/browse/extra_info.asp?compid=1&catid=74&modid=1&prodid=1864&deptid=9&prodvarid=0
We would advise anyone planning to apply for a bursary to contact Richard or Chris before booking a place through the above link.

News from the Third Sector Research Centre (TSRC)

Service Delivery and Housing Workstreams

Third sector organisations are increasingly central to the provision of Public Services in the UK. This role has been developing quickly, both under the previous Labour government and the Coalition government. But it is not always well understood or evidenced, and is sometimes controversial. The Third Sector Research Centre (TSRC http://www.tsrc.ac.uk/) was initially funded for five years (2008-13) by the Cabinet Office and ESRC to undertake research in this field. David Mullins leads the Service Delivery and Housing Workstreams within TSRC.
Over the past three years the centre has produced nearly 80 working papers; 20 of them on public services and a dozen on housing including scoping studies of tenant and resident organisations, co-operative and mutuals, homelessness and advice organisations, housing associations and self-help housing; projects on service delivery partnerships, self-help housing, accommodation for ex-offenders and community investment by social housing organisations all of which can be freely accessed at http://www.tsrc.ac.uk/Publications/tabid/500/Default.aspx. Collaboration: David Mullins, Nick Acheson University of Ulster, Jenny Muir Queens University Belfast

Third Sector Partnerships for Service Delivery: Housing procurement and housing support services in Northern Ireland

Recent TSRC housing projects included a case study for the ‘Third Sector Partnerships for Service Delivery’ project on housing partnerships in Northern Ireland undertaken by David Mullins in collaboration with Dr Nick Acheson at University of Ulster (TSRC’s Northern Ireland partner) and Dr Jenny Muir at Queens University Belfast (an HSA Committee Member). The case study focused on the two largest publicly funded programmes delivered by third sector organisations in Northern Ireland - Supporting People and new social housing. It attracted the interest of the Northern Ireland Housing Executive who have now funded a fuller follow up study by David, Nick and Jenny, which will be completed in 2012.
The project is extremely timely in exploring the impact of policy changes under devolved government on the shape of the third sector in housing and the changing nature of partnerships. As yet there has been little research into the impact of either Supporting People or procurement changes on third sector partnerships in NI except the baseline study by this project team. The research will provide analysis and recommendations specific to the region, to inform policy and practice, while also making use of and contributing to the UK literature. The project provides an opportunity to deepen our understanding of partnership impact by exploring the perspectives of large and small associations within procurement groups and different types of support and housing providers within Supporting People partnerships. This will provide a fuller understanding of the policy options and consequences of the NI Government’s role in relation to third sector housing partnerships.

Self-Help Housing

Following three initial working papers and a consultation at Windsor with Building and Social Housing Foundation who published two reports on self-help housing, TSRC has continued to work with self-help housing.org to monitor the involvement of community based self-help organisations within the £10 million empty homes programme. The impact of earlier work has been highlighted by the large number of new community based groups expressing an interest in the Empty Homes Programme, and agreement by CLG and HCA to a Community Grants fund to enable such groups to be directly funded, rather than having to work through a registered housing provider. Further research is being undertaken on self-help housing including an Honorary Fellowship with Tom Moore, now of Building and Social Housing Foundation, drawing lessons from his work on community landtrusts for application to the self-help housing sector. Further papers by David Mullins, Simon Teasdale and Patricia Jones on self-help housing are forthcoming.

Special edition of Housing Studies

David Mullins is editing a special issue of the journal Housing Studies on social enterprise and hybridity in the housing sector. This is due for publication in Summer 2012. It builds on a plenary session chaired by David on the same topic at the European Network for Housing Research in Toulouse in July 2011.

Think piece on community investment and community empowerment

David Mullins was commissioned by HACT to produce a think piece on community investment and community empowerment. The think piece was presented at the TSRC/HACT seminar in June 2011 and was later presented at events held with the Centre for Social Impact in Sydney, Australia and The Community Housing Providers Forum and Swinburne Foundation in Sydney, Australia. Back home the think piece is informing HACT’s new Strategic Framework and is at the core of a Knowledge Transfer Partnership application being developed by TSRC and HACT. http://www.tsrc.ac.uk/Research/ServiceDeliverySD/Housing/Communityinvestmentandcommunityempowerment/tabid/813/Default.aspx

JRF call for proposals: Derwenthorpe: design, behaviours and inclusion.

This call is for proposals to undertake a longitudinal evaluation of the changing behaviours of people in a new community. Derwenthorpe is currently under construction and will eventually comprise a mixed tenure development of 540 homes. It provides a real life setting to observe and evaluate human behaviour. We want to evaluate the effectiveness of a range of community and/or individual level interventions geared toward encouraging pro-environmental behaviour change.

Further information

The initial phase of the Derwenthorpe development is under construction and the first residents are due to move into the new community in early March 2012. The mixed tenure development will comprise 540 new homes. It is anticipated that the development will represent an exemplar urban extension which will complement and integrate within the surrounding area of east York. Phase 1 is due for completion in October this year and the rolling programme of construction will continue with Phase 2 due to commence in late September.

A desire to promote and facilitate more sustainable lifestyles and patterns of consumption lies at the heart of the Derwenthorpe concept.

The deadline for submitting proposals is 14 May 2012, 23:59.

Further details available from the JRF website: http://www.jrf.org.uk/funding/calls-for-proposal/derwenthorpe-environment

News from BSHF

New research from BSHF on Housing Benefit claimant numbers

Research from BSHF highlights the rapid growth of in-work Housing Benefit claimant numbers in Great Britain during 2010 and 2011.
Analysis of latest figures from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) indicates that:

• The number of Housing Benefit claimants has reached a new high of 4.95 million
• In-work households account for almost all (93 per cent) of the increase in the number of claimants in the last two years
• Almost one in four households who rent their accommodation and are in employment receive Housing Benefit

The research is free to download from the BSHF website http://www.bshf.org/published-information/publication.cfm?lang=00&thePubID=5E017604-15C5-F4C0-99F1DFE5F12DBC2A

Research briefing from BSHF on Regeneration

A new briefing from BSHF summarises the findings of research on the Housing Market Renewal Pathfinder, Bridging NewcastleGateshead, which ran from 2003 to 2011 in the North East of England.
Particular findings of the research include:

• The importance of a long-term commitment to funding regeneration at a national level, preferably with some level of cross-party support
• The need for the government to clarify what will happen if the priorities of local communities conflict with those of national policymakers
• The need for a clear definition of the community being supported by regeneration
• The importance of understanding and addressing the needs and aspirations of the communities affected by regeneration

The research was conducted by Andrea Armstrong during a PhD at Durham University, which was supported by BSHF. The briefing is free to download from the BSHF website http://www.bshf.org/published-information/publication.cfm?lang=00&thePubID=81B12E18-15C5-F4C0-9904048F10A3C1E2

News from the Institute of Housing, Urban and Real Estate Research (IHURER), Heriot-Watt University

IHURER has launched a website dedicated to the ‘Multiple Exclusion Homelessness Across the UK: A Quantitative Survey’ study, funded by the ESRC, and led by Prof Suzanne Fitzpatrick. The website provides details of key findings and downloadable outputs, including the first three of a series of Briefing Papers. Future outputs will be uploaded as they become available. The MEH study has had direct influence on the forthcoming homelessness strategy for England – see the website for details. http://www.sbe.hw.ac.uk/research/ihurer/homelessness-social-exclusion/multiple-exclusion-homelessness.htm.

IHURER is hosting the European Real Estate Society Conference in Edinburgh, June 13-16 2012. Participants are attending from all over the world and almost 400 abstracts have been accepted, with housing constituting a major theme. Details are available at www.eres2012.com

Drawing on her ESRC-funded research on the role of faith-based organisations in homelessness provision, Dr Sarah Johnsen presented at the Westminster Faith Debates session focussing on ‘Religion and Welfare’ in Whitehall on 21 March. The event was chaired by Rt Hon Charles Clarke and Sarah’s paper was responded to by fellow panel members Rt Hon David Blunkett and the Most Revd Peter Smith (Catholic Archbishop of Southwark). The Westminster Faith Debates series was hosted by the AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society programme and Theos.

Prof Dennis Culhane, a leading homelessness expert from the US, and IHURER’s Prof Suzanne Fitzpatrick went on a whirlwind ‘tour’ of the UK in February, speaking at events in Edinburgh, London and Cardiff. Suzanne spoke about her work on homelessness in the UK and Europe; Dennis on homelessness policy and provision in the US. The events included:

• 7 Feb, Shelter Scotland: 'Homelessness post 2012: where next? ' at St Pauls & St George's, Edinburgh;
• 9 Feb, JRF and WISERD seminar: 'The future of homelessness policy in Wales: Learning lessons from the States and the Scots' at the University of Cardiff; and
• 10 Feb, Crisis seminar: 'Homelessness in austere times: lessons from home and abroad' at the Courtauld Institute of Art, Somerset House, London.

Mark Stephens will be joining IHURER on 1 May as Professor of Public Policy (from Urban Studies in Glasgow University). His research focuses on the themes of housing and poverty, and housing markets, much of it in a comparative context. He is Treasurer of the European Network of Housing Research and an Editor of Urban Studies.