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.

A Geographical Fact or a Thing of the Mind? Rediscovering Ulster and the Northern Irish identity

The debate regarding the existence of a specific Ulster or Northern Irish 'identity' can be summed up in two statements made in the early stages of what later developed into the 'Troubles'. The first is a comment made by Edward Carson, one of the founding fathers of the Unionist movement in 1914 who argued that 'Ulster is a geographical fact'; the second was made by Eamonn De Valera, who later became Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland, asserting that 'Ulster is a thing of the mind only, non-existent in the world of reality' (Graham 1994: 257). Although both of these statements were made some time ago, the two opposing views that they express are at the core of the 'Northern Ireland debate'. The recognition of Northern Ireland as a separate entity is a key component in each of the conflicting discourses. For Republican Nationalists, recognising Northern Ireland would almost be a sign of surrender, the acceptance of an eternally divided Ireland whereas for Unionists, Northern Ireland is the last bastion of the British Empire in Ireland, a protective zone without which they would be 'pushed into the sea' by the Nationalist majority in Ireland.

What is interesting about both of these points of view is that each views Northern Ireland's 'regional identity' so to speak as inherently tied to the identity politics of another area. The rhetoric of both sides, both Nationalist and Unionist, conflates the identity of Northern Ireland with the identity of the island of Ireland as a whole or the identity of the United Kingdom as a whole. Although this is not entirely surprising given the historical and cultural experiences of inhabitants of Northern Ireland, is does cause some problems for analyses of Northern Ireland within the present political context in Britain. Given the drive towards devolution and recognition of regional identities within Britain, the debate regarding the existence of Northern Ireland as a specific region raises some serious questions for the politics of the region not least the question of whether a Northern Irish identity exists at all.

Of course this is not to say that a region needs to have a homogeneous identity, but in light of the attempt to graft further decision-making power onto regions in the UK, the continuing confusion regarding the existence of Northern Ireland as a socio-political region onto itself appears at best anachronistic and at worst prohibitive to political development within the area. Fundamentally, the question of how political power can be devolved to Northern Ireland if a sizeable proportion of Northern Ireland's population still believe that the political entity of Northern Ireland does not exist still remains unasked.

However, this is not a blanket criticism of the worth of existing explorations into the politics of Northern Ireland or attempts to devolve political power to Northern Ireland. On the contrary, I applaud efforts to involve residents of Northern Ireland in the decision-making process and in light of the political debates particular to Northern Ireland a move towards some form of devolved 'self-rule' cannot be praised enough and it would be wrong to condemn the steps that have been taken to allow this 'self-rule'. Nevertheless it would be equally wrong to ignore the continuing gaps in research into the politics of Northern Ireland specifically with regard to regional identity in the area. Despite the proliferation of research into partnership working and cross-community initiatives since the conflict in Northern Ireland (or the 'Troubles') has lessened, it would appear that little attention has been paid to the nature of Northern Ireland as a whole by social scientists and few empirical investigations explore the views expressed by De Valera and Carson sufficiently.

For this reason, I wish to suggest two things. Firstly, that there is a dearth in investigations, both theoretical and empirical, into the identity of Northern Ireland as a whole. Admittedly the process of identification amongst differing groups in Northern Ireland - e.g. the Catholics in Northern Ireland, the Protestants in Northern Ireland, young people in Northern Ireland and so on - has long been the subject of in-depth empirical analyses but this does not negate the fact that the question of what Northern Ireland actually is remains largely unanswered.

Secondly, I seek to suggest that the very fact that existing investigations into identity politics in Northern Ireland are rooted in this conflict schematic could potentially skew these analyses. By this I mean that, by using the conflict in Northern Ireland as the base of all research, research into the identity of Northern Ireland as a whole could be, in some respects, impossible. Identity in Northern Ireland will always be contested, always an area of conflict and never over-arching. Although this could of course be due to the socio-political and cultural history of the area and in the absence of detailed empirical evidence it is difficult to draw any real conclusions other than theoretical observations, it is an issue which requires further attention by researchers.

Overall, although there has been quite a substantial amount of attention paid to identity politics in Northern Ireland, I would argue that there is an equally substantial gap in existing research specifically in relation to the existence of a Northern Irish identity. Certainly previous research has highlighted the distinct characteristics of different groups in Northern Ireland but I would argue that this is still not enough. Essentially, as social science research, how can we investigate, with any degree of certainty, the politics of Northern Ireland after the Troubles if we don't first investigate what Northern Ireland actually is?

Deirdre Duffy, Research Associate
CRESR, Sheffield Hallam University

References
Graham, B.J. (1994) “No Place of the Mind: Contested Protestant Representations of Ulster”, Cultural Geographies 1(3): 257-281.