News from Cambridge Centre for Housing and Planning Research

New publication - 
Measuring the affordability of housing association rents in England: a dual approach
A new journal article has been published by Dr Connie Tang in the latest issue of the International Journal of Housing Markets and Analysis. The purpose of this article is to compare relative levels of rental affordability across the English housing association sector, using two methods, rent-to-income ratio and residual income standards (poverty-line and budget standard). The rent-to-income ratio analysis identified that housing association rents were generally affordable. However, the residual income analyses using two different minimum acceptable standards suggested some scepticism in this regard. In particular, both analyses confirmed the affordability problem in London where nearly half of existing housing association tenants had disposable household incomes that were well below the poverty-line as well as the largest rent-to-income ratio. Both analyses also confirmed that lone parents were more likely than average households to have an affordability problem.

The article is published in the International Journal of Housing Markets and Analysis, Vol. 5, Issue: 3, pp.218 - 234. You can access the article online by this link: Measuring the affordability of housing association rents in England: a duel approach

New projects

Welfare reform
CCHPR is working with Ipsos Mori on a major new study for the National Housing Foundation on the impact of welfare reform. The work, which will report in 2014 aims to focus particularly on the impact of welfare reform for the housing association sector and its tenants. It will monitor the impact of reforms as they come into operation next year, including the cuts to housing benefit for under-occupiers of working age, and the changes to the method of payment brought in under Universal Credit.

Maximising the performance of the new Section 106 and Community Infrastructure Levy Planning Framework with Local Authorities: Developing a Planning Gain Model
The Centre is currently developing a simple model to estimate the impact of charging different CIL and S106 rates on the economic viability of development. The model has huge potential to assist local authorities in modelling the impact of different CIL and S106 rates on the economic viability of development across their area. We propose a project to further develop the model for local authority use. We will work with a sample of local authorities to test and refine the model with a view to eventually making it publicly available for use by local authorities to assist in developing their new CIL and S106 charging frameworks. This will transfer our academic knowledge and expertise into a tool that can be used by local authorities in policy and practice.
Evaluation of lighting interventions
CCHPR is currently starting three separate small evaluations of lighting interventions in housing settings for the Thomas Pocklington Trust. The impact on health wellbeing and reduction in falls will be examined.

Analysis of the PRS in Richmond and surrounding areas
Richmond Council, together with Richmond Housing Partnership, are currently jointly commissioning research in order form the evidence base of their tenancy strategy. This work will help supplement this evidence base by improving understanding of the private rented sector in and nearby to Richmond with a particular focus on the availability of housing for low income groups.

Developing best practice in social care and support for adults with concurrent sight loss and dementia within different housing settings
This project, funded by the National Institute for Health Research seeks to develop best practice in social care and support for people with dementia and sight loss in a range of housing settings. The research is led by York University and CCHPR will lead the element of the study that looks at the costs of care in different settings.

Channel Islands housing markets
An overview of housing markets and their economic context in the Channel Islands, based upon secondary data, has been commissioned by One Savings Bank.

Conference papers
Dr Gemma Burgess, Sarah Monk and Christine Whitehead all presented papers at the European Network for Housing Researchers conference in June. Their presentations were:

The role of regulation in the private rented sector: a comparative study (by Christine Whitehead, Sarah Monk, Sanna Markkanen, Kathleen Scanlon and Connie Tang) conducted case studies of eleven European countries to clarify how regulation had changed over the last thirty years and what impact this has had on the scale of private rental provision.

The role of the planning system in delivering housing choice to older Londoners (Sarah Monk and Gemma Burgess) draws on recent research into the role of the planning system in delivering specialist older people’s housing to explore the barriers to increased delivery and make recommendations for change.

Housing an Ageing Population: Housing Options and the Value of Information and Advice to Older People in England (Gemma Burgess) drew on ongoing work evaluating advice services for older people in England.

NEWS FROM CAMBRIDGE CENTRE FOR HOUSING AND PLANNING RESEARCH

New research publications

Housing in Transition: Understanding the dynamics of tenure change
The Resolution Foundation and Shelter funded CCHPR to examine likely future tenure trends in England ( and London) through to 2025 under three economic scenarios - weak, moderate and robust recoveries. Using Survey of English Housing data, the study looked at the impact on low to middle income households and families with children. The report is posted on the CCHPR site. Taken together with a look back to trends from 1993, in summary, what it showed was the scale of tenure transformation that has taken place so far and will probably take place in the future - especially when you drill down to specific household types and in London. It also pointed up the weakness of taking home ownership as one tenure category rather than broken down into mortgaged and owned outright -these two components have trajectories moving in opposite directions which are obscured by treating them together. The report can be downloaded from www.cchpr.landecon.cam.ac.uk/outputs/detail.asp?OutputID=276

Understanding the second-hand market for shared ownership properties
Around a third of shared ownership market is for second-hand homes, where they new buyer purchases the share from the existing shared owner. This report, commissioned by Thames Valley Housing Association explores the operation of the second-hand market for shared ownership properties. It also examines the practice of ‘staircasing’, whereby a shared owner may purchase additional shares of their home.
It draws on a survey of housing associations, focus groups with shared owners and interviews with mortgage lenders and other stakeholders, this report examines the functioning of the second-hand market for shared ownership homes in England. It can be downloaded from
www.cchpr.landecon.cam.ac.uk/outputs/detail.asp?OutputID=275

Capturing Planning Gain – The Transition from Section 106 to the Community Infrastructure Levy
The Community Infrastructure Levy came into force in April 2010 (DCLG, 2011a). It allows local authorities in England and Wales to raise funds from developers undertaking new building projects in their area and the money can be used to fund a wide range of infrastructure that is needed as a result of development. This research explores the issues arising in the transition to the new system.

The Community Infrastructure Levy, with a scaled back S106, is broadly welcomed by local authorities and most local authorities are planning to introduce a CIL within the next three years. The main finding from the research is that, whilst seen as a positive change, there is still a lot of uncertainty about the CIL – how to develop the evidence base, how to determine an appropriate charging schedule, how to use S106 alongside the CIL and how to collect the CIL funds. The report can be downloaded from www.cchpr.landecon.cam.ac.uk/outputs/detail.asp?OutputID=277

Rural housing at a time of economic change
This research was funded by the Commission for Rural Communities in order to improve understanding of likely future changes in housing markets in rural areas in England in the wider context of changing housing market pressures and government policies on affordable housing and Housing Benefit. It aimed to provide up-to-date evidence to enable CRC, Defra and other government agencies to influence housing policy at national and local levels and ensure that these policies are rural-proofed. The research objectives were to develop a new understanding of:
1. The changing levels of rents (both private and social) and the quality and location of available housing.
2. The impact of recent and forthcoming government policies on social and private tenants, including the changes to Housing Benefit and the overall benefit caps.
3. Migration: The numbers of people forced to relocate from rural areas, or unable to live where they would choose to do so
The research aimed to explore differences between rural areas, as well as between rural and urban areas overall and can be downloaded here: www.cchpr.landecon.cam.ac.uk/outputs/detail.asp?OutputID=274

Other News

CCHPR presentation at the Housing Statistics Network Social Housing Statistics Seminar
Dr Connie Tang and Professor Christine Whitehead were invited to give a presentation at the HSN Social Housing Statistics Seminar. In the first part of the presentation, Connie gave a brief overview of the recent policy changes in social housing and the collection of housing statistics, and described some CCHPR projects on how these changes affected the social housing sector. Christine then outlined the future policy analyses on impact of localism on social housing and the data requirements to support the new agenda.