News from Cambridge Centre for Housing and Planning Research

NEW OUTPUTS
Equity Release amongst older home owners
There is increasing interest in the role the use of equity release products can play in coping with some of the pressures of an ageing population. This study analyses what we already know about the use of equity release products by older homeowners to identify what might it be valuable to research further.
The scoping study reviews our understanding and knowledge from research on the use (or not, in most cases) of equity release products by older homeowners. It pulls together findings from the existing literature, reviews different data sets and draws on stakeholder discussions to identify what is already known about equity release in later life; what is missing from the current evidence base and the key research questions that need tackling in relation to likely future policy directions.
For more details and downloads go to Equite Release amongst older home owners
 
International review of land supply and planning systems
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has just published an international review of land supply and planning systems conducted by CCHPR, looking at what works and whether successful mechanisms from other countries could be transferred to the UK context. The review suggests that land supply is a key issue contributing to housing market volatility and problems of housing affordability in the UK.

The three main messages from the research are:

• There is no one single measure that will solve the problem – all countries struggle with balancing the need to constrain urban sprawl with the need to build sufficient homes to keep housing (more) affordable.
• But some countries, while having hot spots with high demand for housing and pressure on urban boundaries, do provide adequately outside these high pressure areas.
• Successful countries appear to be much more pro-active in the land market than the UK.

The role of the private rented sector in preventing homelessness: identifying good practice and the impact of policy change
The Oak Foundation has commissioned research that focuses on good practice that is demonstrated through Oak funded projects and looks more broadly at other successful practices and models

Support in the preparation of a housing strategy for the State of Jersey
The States of Jersey has commissioned CCHPR to provide support to its embryonic Strategic Housing unit in the preparation of an island wide, cross tenure Housing Strategy. The project comprises a series of papers for discussion with officers and the relevant Ministers between November 2012 and April 2013, leading to the production of a public Consulation Paper for circulation in May and a final Strategy Paper for debate in the States Assembly in June/July 2013.

Impact of welfare reform on housing associations – 2012 Baseline report
The National Housing Federation has commissioned Ipsos MORI and Cambridge Centre for Housing and Planning Research to assess how welfare reform impacts across the housing association sector in England.
The first component of the research programme is to establish baseline data and understand pre-emptive behaviour change before the reforms come into force. This will be a precursor to monitoring impact after April 2013, up to March 2014. To download the report go to Welfare Reform Impact Assessment

Evaluation of the FirstStop information and advice initiative for older people: findings 2011/2012
A comprehensive information and advice service enabling older people to better plan ahead for their future housing and care needs is a key requirement if Britain is to cope successfully with its ageing society. The evaluation of FirstStop shows how it is helping older people to make difficult decisions about their housing and care. To download the report go to FirstStop Evaluation

Changing the profile of social housing
New analysis by CCHPR models the likely impact of allocating a larger proportion of social housing to working households. The analysis draws on CORE data to look at the implications for different groups of housing applicants. It concludes that giving greater priority to people in work is likely to be at odds with allocating to those in greatest need. To download the report go to Changing the profile of social housing

NEW PROJECTS
Evaluation of the Housing and Other Benefit Measures in the Social Rented Sector (social sector size criteria and the benefit cap)
The DWP recently announced that CCHPR, together with Ipsos MORI, have been commissioned by the DWP to evaluate housing benefit changes in the social rented sector.
The size criteria for the social rented sector, introduced in April 2013, are part of a range of welfare reform measures, including the household benefit cap, to reduce expenditure and improve work incentives. Social tenants of working age who under-occupy will lose either 14% or 25% of their eligible housing benefit, depending on whether they have one or two or more spare rooms.
The evaluation seeks to understand the impact of the size criteria on claimants, landlords and other stakeholders and to explore how households respond to the reduction in their benefits.

Reselling Shared Ownership properties after improvements
This short research project has been commissioned by Thames Valley Housing Association in order to examine the practice of reselling shared ownership homes after the owner has undertaken (and paid for) improvements to their home. Further details available here.

Exploring perspectives on market based mechanisms for development
This project is a collaboration between CCHPR, the Department of Geography and the Office of External Affairs and Communications at the University of Cambridge. Further details available here.


    

News from Cambridge Centre for Housing and Planning Research

NEW OUTPUTS

The role of the planning system in delivering housing choice for older Londoners

This study was commissioned by the Greater London Authority to investigate the role of planning in meeting the housing needs of older Londoners. It is partly a ‘think piece’ to look specifically at the role of the planning system in helping to ensure that older Londoners have a choice of homes that they can afford and which meet their requirements for different sizes and types of dwellings in high quality environments. The study also includes original research on the scale of need for specialist housing at local level.

The findings of the study have been used to inform the Housing SPG and it is expected that the study will be of use to Boroughs in the development of polices related to older persons housing. The findings of the study will inform the further alterations to the London Plan with a view to strengthening policy on the delivery of older persons housing (further work may be required on older persons needs for other specialist services). In addition, the report will be of use to the Mayor’s Housing and Investment Teams, when updating the Housing Strategy and making funding decisions. To download the report  go to CCHPR Publications

Mapping the number of extra housing units needed for young people

Centrepoint, the youth homeless charity, commissioned CCHPR to undertake this piece of work looking at the requirement for emergency homeless accommodation, supporting housing units, social housing and private rented housing with the use of Housing Benefit across England with a specific focus on the requirements for those aged 16-25.

To download the report go to CCHPR Publications


NEW PROJECTS

The role of the private rented sector in preventing homelessness: identifying good practice and the impact of policy change

The Oak Foundation has commissioned research that focuses on good practice that is demonstrated through Oak funded projects and looks more broadly at other successful practices and models. For further details go to CCHPR projects

Support in the preparation of a housing strategy for Jersey

The States of Jersey has commissioned CCHPR to provide support to its embryonic Strategic Housing unit in the preparation of an island wide, cross tenure Housing Strategy. The project comprises a series of papers for discussion with officers and the relevant Ministers between November 2012 and April 2013, leading to the production of a public Consulation Paper for circulation in May and a final Strategy Paper for debate in the States Assembly in June/July 2013. For further details go to CCHPR projects
 

 

 

IHURER News January 2013

IHURER are pleased to announce that its new blog has just gone live – go to http://ihurerblog.wordpress.com/The first entry, by Prof Glen Bramley considers the purpose of IHURER as an interdisciplinary research institute, with a focus on the way it combines expertise on economic and social research.

IHURER is delighted to welcome Beth Watts, from the University of York, who joins the institute as Research Associate in January 2013. Beth will work primarily with Prof Suzanne Fitzpatrick and Dr Sarah Johnsen on a range of projects about homelessness and related issues.

The summary report of The Homelessness Monitor looking at Great Britain as a whole was published in December 2012, followed by individual reports on England and Scotland. Reports on Wales and Northern Ireland will follow in 2013. The Homelessness Monitor is a major five-year independent study into the impact of the economic downturn and policy developments on homelessness across the UK. This is the second year of the study to be published by homelessness charity Crisis and undertaken by IHURER Professors Suzanne Fitzpatrick, Glen Bramley and Hal Pawson, together with the University of York's Professor Steve Wilcox. The reports published to date can be downloaded from www.crisis.org.uk.

Heriot-Watt has been chosen to host the 2014 ENHR conference in Edinburgh in collaboration with Glasgow, St Andrews, Stirling and the Chartered Institute for Housing (Scotland).

News from the Centre for Housing Policy

Events

• CHP is hosting Feantsa’s  7th European Research Conference: Access to Housing for Homeless People in Europe on 21 September.
• Breaking up communities? The social impact of housing demolition in the late twentieth century:  A free study and information sharing day (with refreshments)  10am-4pm, November 2nd 2012, York. Booking is open to all. For further information or to book a place please contact atholynne.lonsdale@york.ac.uk

More details of these events can be found at CHP

New projects

Derwenthorpe: A three-year study for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, evaluating a new build eco-scheme in York. The aim is to provide feedback to residents and to the Trust to support the development of an environmentally and socially sustainable community at Derwenthorpe, and to provide lessons for other areas and for policy.

EAGA CT Fuel Poverty and Disability: This project aims:  to consolidate existing knowledge and understanding in the field of disability and fuel poverty;  to conduct empirical work that will help to understand different dimensions of disability and fuel poverty in depth, and to consider and assess the impact of policy changes on disabled people. Ultimately, the project will make policy recommendations to alleviate any negative or unintended consequences of policy change.

Lloyds TSB Banking Group are funding this project to increase their understanding of the custom-build housing market. The research aims to set the contemporary context, identify the range of experience amongst custom builders (both individuals and groups), identify any obstacles commonly encountered and the responses of key players designed to ease such barriers, including the likely impact of the current Government/industry initiatives. 

Crisis: Skylight: A project on outcomes evaluation for Crisis PRS access schemes. Evaluation of Managing the Journey of Younger Members Programme based at Skylight Oxford. 

Crisis: Evaluation Tool for the Private Rented Sector: This project aims to develop a tool to demonstrate the outcomes, effectiveness and cost benefits of schemes that enable access to the private rented sector for homeless and potentially homeless single people.

Crisis: Reconnection schemes: CHP will contribute to a project led by Heriot Watt University, evaluating the effectiveness and ethicality of reconnections schemes in England.
Simon Communities: Policy Research on the Homeless Strategy: The research will look at access to long term accommodation and housing and explore the range of possible exits.

HABITACT: Habitact is a review of Homelessness Service and Homeless Strategy Evaluation Methodologies for Use in the EU : The review is being carried out with the aim of recommending an evaluative methodology for the robust assessment of homelessness services and homelessness strategies.

NEWS FROM INSTITUTE FOR HOUSING, URBAN AND REAL ESTATE RESEARCH (IHURER)

IHURER has recently made two new senior appointments: Mark Stephens and Chris Leishman. Mark Stephens has been appointed Professor of Public Policy. Specialising in housing market volatility, housing, welfare states and poverty, and comparative analysis, he will remain an Editor of Urban Studies. Mark’s recent activities included a visit to the Department of Urban Planning and Design, Hong Kong University where he gave a public lecture on “Housing Poverty and Income Poverty”. As Academic Adviser to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s Housing Market Taskforce, he was a speaker at the launch of the Cecodhas campaign “For economic growth and stability: affordable housing wanted!”, alongside Andor Laszlo, European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion. Mark is currently working with Kenneth Gibb (Glasgow) and Duncan Maclennan (St Andrews) on a project relating to finance for affordable housing for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

Professor Chris Leishman has also moved from the University of Glasgow to IHURER. In his role as Professor of Housing Economics. Chris intends to build on his recent work modelling macro, regional and local housing markets, and developing ‘client friendly’ simulation models. He also intends to launch a housing market forecasting unit in the near future, aimed primarily at the expansion of good quality housing statistics, forecasts and intelligence to counter the reduction in research and statistical reporting capacity in the housing sector in recent years. He will continue in his role as joint Managing Editor of Housing Studies.

Professor Suzanne Fitzpatrick has recently returned from a three week visit to Australia, where she made research presentations to academic and policy audiences in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. She attended the AHURI/RMIT University National Homelessness Research Conference (19-20th April), where she gave papers on ‘Human Rights, Legal Rights and Homelessness’, and on ‘The Homelessness Consequences of Economic Recession and Policy Reform in England’ (the latter jointly with Hal Pawson). Suzanne also participated in the closing panel discussion at the conference, alongside Professor Dennis Culhane, from the University of Pennsylvania, and a range of leading figures in homelessness research in Australia. Other papers given by Professor Fitzpatrick during her visit included ‘Homelessness as Multiple Exclusion: Implications for Prevention and Service Delivery’ (University of Queensland/Queensland Government), ‘Housing First in Europe’ (University of New South Wales/Mercy Foundation), and ‘Preventing and Addressing Homelessness: A European Perspective’ (Homelessness New South Wales Providers Forum).

The LankellyChase Foundation has appointed IHURER to compile the UK’s first profile of severe and multiple disadvantage. This project focuses on people at the very sharpest end of interlocking disadvantages – such as homelessness, drug and alcohol misuse, poor mental health, and involvement with the criminal justice system. Coordinated and well-targeted responses to this group require a robust evidence base, however data underpinning social policy for those on the extreme margins has tended to be patchy and fragmented to date. By bringing together all of the available data into an integrated profile, the project seeks to provide policy makers, practitioners and other key audiences with a user-friendly resource that will allow them to understand the scale and nature of the issues facing the UK’s most marginalised people. They will also be able to identify key trends and concerns as they emerge, and to develop strategies to address these concerns. This 12 month project commenced on 1 June 2012, and is led by Professors Suzanne Fitzpatrick and Glen Bramley.

The first edition of the national ‘Homelessness Monitor’ for England, funded by Crisis and undertaken by IHURER and University of York, was published  in autumn last year, attracting considerable press attention in the UK. Crisis have now extended this project to cover Wales and Scotland, and all three 2012 Homelessness Monitors (and a Great Britain summary) will be published in autumn this year.

Dr Sarah Johnsen and Prof Suzanne Fitzpatrick, together with Anwen Jones (York), have recently begun an evaluation of ‘reconnections’ schemes for rough sleepers in England. The study is funded by Crisis and will explore both the effectiveness and ethicality of reconnection approaches.

Professors Hal Pawson (IHURER) and Steve Wilcox (York) continue to work on the UK Housing Review. The 2012 edition is already available, while the 2012 mid-year briefing will shortly be available on: http://www.york.ac.uk/res/ukhr/ukhr1112/index.htm and http://www.york.ac.uk/res/ukhr/ukhr1112/briefingpaper2011.htm

Professor Colin Jones and Dr Neil Dunse are editors, along with Michael White (Nottingham Trent) of "Challenges of the Housing Economy: An International Perspective" (Wiley-Blackwell, April 2012).  It features chapters on the housing market experiences of Australia, China, Denmark, Germany, Japan, Spain, the UK and USA looking at long term trends and issues, and the impact and responses to the international financial crisis.  These chapters are written by academics from the respective countries.  There are also chapters that examine the international evolution of social housing and the private rented sector.

A number of PhD opportunities are being offered in Heriot-Watt University’s School of the Built Environment (closing date 31 July). For details see:  http://www.sbe.hw.ac.uk/research/postgraduate/opportunities/july-sbe-research-scholarships.htm

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.