News from TRP University of Sheffield

New ESRC Knowledge Exchange project with Housing Quality Network
Ed Ferrari and John Flint are leading a new Knowledge Exchange Opportunities project funded by the ESRC to explore ways that housing practitioners can make better use of the insights generated by housing academics. The project's researcher, Janis Bright, will be working for 12 months with Housing Quality Network, the leading advice network for housing practitioners . Go to the HQN website.
As part of the project, Janis will also be working with a number of housing organisations to understand how they use research and how they could more effectively exploit it strategically and operationally. The project is also being supported by the Housing Studies Association. For more information, contact e.t.ferrari@sheffield.ac.uk.

TRP hosts first Big Society seminar in new series
On 7-8 March the Department of Town and Regional Planning at the University of Sheffield hosted the first of a new series of seminars funded by ESRC looking at the impact of the Big Society and Localism on housing. Speakers included Kim McKee (University of St Andrews), Tony Manzi (University of Westminster), Keith Jacobs (University of Tasmania), David Mullins (University of Birmingham), Vidhya Alakeson (Resolution Foundation), David Clapham (University of Reading), Grainia Long (Chartered Institute of Housing), Paul Broadbent (Gangmasters Licensing Authority), Mike Raco (University College London) and Peter Matthews (Heriot-Watt University), and the event was chaired by John Flint and Ed Ferrari of TRP. Follow-up seminars will be taking place in Belfast and St. Andrews throughout 2013 and 2014. Full details of the seminar series (together with papers and presentations from the first seminar) can be found at The Big Society, Localism and Housing Policy

Building Economies and Resilient Societies PhD Network
The Department of Town and Regional Planning has secured funding for two PhD studentships as part of the BEARS inter-disciplinary research network at the University of Sheffield. The network will bring together researchers and supervisors working in related areas to look at issues of economic and societal resilience in medium sized post-industrial communities, and is supported by Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council. Each project is interdisciplinary by design and will provide excellent opportunities for research students to broaden their range of disciplinary perspectives. Projects include Deprivation, educational attainment and resilience in Doncaster, to be supervised by Alasdair Rae (Department of Town and Regional Planning) and Brendan Stone (School of English), and Perceptions and realities of economy-driven housing market growth in Doncaster, to be supervised by Ed Ferrari (Department of Town and Regional Planning) and Lucy Jones (School of Architecture). More information at The Bears Group

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

News from the Centre for Housing Research, University of St Andrews

ESRC Seminar Series Website Launched by the Centre for Housing Research
The Centre for Housing Research at the University of St Andrews has launched the website for its new seminar series: "The Big Society, Localism and Housing Policy".
Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, the events will explore the impact of the coalition government’s localist ‘Big Society’ agenda on housing policy across the UK. Localism aims to shift decision-making downwards and empower local people to solve their own problems. However, in an era of restrained public spending, questions can be raised as to whether this may widen existing housing inequalities. Dr Kim McKee, Principal Investigator on the project said:
“‘The ‘Big Society’ and ‘Localism’ have become buzz words in policy and politics since the formation of the coalition government in 2010, and their influence can already be seen in housing policy and practice in the UK. This varies however depending on how devolved administrations and local authorities use their powers and budgets. Devolving power downwards may therefore lead to greater divergence in housing policy than we have seen under devolution so far. Understanding the varied geographical impact of these ideas is a key aim of the seminars.”
Drawing on expertise from the Universities of St Andrews, Sheffield, Cardiff, and Queens University Belfast, these two-day interdisciplinary workshops will bring together perspectives from academia, policy and practice and will include speakers from beyond the UK:

• Seminar 1: Localism and the Big Society: what do they mean for housing studies? (Sheffield, 7-8 March 2013)
• Seminar 2: Localism, Welfare Reform and Tenure Restructuring in the UK (Belfast, 24-25 October 2013)
• Seminar 3: The Big Society, Localism and the Future of Social Housing (St Andrews, 13-14 March 2014) 

Registration for Seminar 1 will open in autumn 2012. For more details, or to register your interest, please contact the project administrator Dr Tom Moore, or follow us on Twitter (@housingseminars). Updates will also be posted on our website: www.bigsocietylocalismhousing.co.uk