News from JRF

CALLS FOR PROPOSALS
Poverty focussed review of housing organisations strategic and business plans
This project will explore where poverty fits within the strategies, policies and business plans of local authorities, housing associations and private landlords. For further details click here

Links between housing and poverty over the life course
This call is for a critical review of evidence that will consider how housing of all tenure types can mitigate or exacerbate poverty. This includes the likelihood of people being in poverty and exiting it; as well as what aspects of housing act to mitigate or exacerbate poverty. Further information is available here

PUBLICATIONS
Innovative financing of affordable housing
Kenneth Gibb, Duncan Maclennan and Mark Stephens examine what can we learn from international and UK best practice that could help support the expanded financing of affordable housing supply?
In a challenging economic climate, innovation is needed to stretch limited public subsidy and increase private contributions to help deliver additional affordable housing. This study:

• explores emerging themes in the financing of affordable housing;
• highlights promising policies from the UK and abroad that provide innovative funding ideas to increase supply;
• concludes that long-term housing policy needs to address market failures and permanently reduce housing market volatility, which would mean re-examining housing taxation and the safety net for vulnerable home-owners, as well as supporting the rented sector’s wider market role.

The report summary is available here

Changes to affordable housing in London and implications for delivery - Ben Harrison, Joanna Wilson and Jenifer Johnson
The demand for property, the mix of tenures and households, the difference in affordability of renting or buying, and the levels of acute housing need, all distinguish the London housing market from England as a whole. These have major implications for the delivery of affordable housing.
This Viewpoint:

• summarises a number of relevant housing indicators;
• sets out the key housing policy reforms undertaken by the Coalition Government; and
• explores the implications of these for London practitioners;
• argues that London needs a new, sustainable delivery model for new housing, underpinned by clear definitions of 'affordability' and 'housing need'.

The report summary is available here

The links between housing and poverty -
Rebacca Tunstall et al. examine how housing can mitigate or exacerbate the impact of poverty on people's lives.Poverty and low incomes prevent people from accessing potential housing options, and make others hard to sustain.
This study analyses the past decade of UK evidence to explore:

• the relationship between housing circumstances and the experience of poverty;
• the relative importance of housing cost, quality and location and other factors in the impact of poverty on people's lives; and
• the role of housing in enabling people to take up employment and increase income from work.

Report summary available here