News from Cambridge Centre for Housing and Planning Research

NEW OUTPUTS
Intended and unintended consequences? A case study survey of housing associations and welfare reform
With the Welfare Reform Act 2012 heralding the introduction of some of the most significant changes to the administration and distribution of benefits in recent times, the National Housing Federation has commissioned Ipsos MORI and Cambridge Centre for Housing and Planning Research to assess how these changes impact across the housing association sector in England. The baseline report was published in late 2012 and this case report builds on that with the results of 15 in depth case study housing associations. For further details and to download the report click here

Building Social Capital through Community Timebanking: an interim evaluation of the Cambridgeshire timebanking project
This research is evaluating the development of a timebanking project in Cambridgeshire for Cambridgeshire County Council and the CHS Group. Timebanking is a community scheme which enables local people to exchange skills and support in a structured way around the swapping of units of their time. It can help to build social capital in local communities, but may also have the potential to generate cost savings. The interim report suggests that the time banks are developing successfully, with increasing numbers of members and exchanges. There is evidence of a range of benefits to the members who are involved and evidence of positive soft outcomes. The challenge for the time bank coordinators is to grow the time banks and consider how they may become sustainable long term. Click here to download the interim report.

Analysis of the potential value for money to the public purse of the Lincolnshire Home Improvement Agency Housing Options Advice service
This report analyses the potential savings to the public purse of the Lincolnshire Home Improvement Agency (LHIA) housing options advice service. The methodology builds on research conducted for the large scale evaluation of the national FirstStop service conducted by the University of Cambridge.
The analysis shows that the service has the potential to not only improve the quality of life, health, wellbeing and social isolation of individuals who use the housing options service, but to also generate savings to the public purse by preventing homelessness, unwanted or early entry into residential care, falls in the home, health deterioration as a result of unsuitable housing and can reduce under-occupation and free up much needed family housing, whilst helping older people to remain healthy and independent in the most suitable housing for their needs. Click here to download the final report.

NEW PROJECTS
An economic and spatial analysis of the future development of Wisbech in Cambridgeshire
This work aims to assess the:

• current economic profile of Wisbech;
• likely future economic role of Wisbech under different scenarios;
• sectors most likely to have potential for future employment growth; and to
• Make broad recommendations for future economic and spatial strategies to 2020.

News from the Third Sector Research Centre (TSRC)

Service Delivery and Housing Workstreams

Third sector organisations are increasingly central to the provision of Public Services in the UK. This role has been developing quickly, both under the previous Labour government and the Coalition government. But it is not always well understood or evidenced, and is sometimes controversial. The Third Sector Research Centre (TSRC http://www.tsrc.ac.uk/) was initially funded for five years (2008-13) by the Cabinet Office and ESRC to undertake research in this field. David Mullins leads the Service Delivery and Housing Workstreams within TSRC.
Over the past three years the centre has produced nearly 80 working papers; 20 of them on public services and a dozen on housing including scoping studies of tenant and resident organisations, co-operative and mutuals, homelessness and advice organisations, housing associations and self-help housing; projects on service delivery partnerships, self-help housing, accommodation for ex-offenders and community investment by social housing organisations all of which can be freely accessed at http://www.tsrc.ac.uk/Publications/tabid/500/Default.aspx. Collaboration: David Mullins, Nick Acheson University of Ulster, Jenny Muir Queens University Belfast

Third Sector Partnerships for Service Delivery: Housing procurement and housing support services in Northern Ireland

Recent TSRC housing projects included a case study for the ‘Third Sector Partnerships for Service Delivery’ project on housing partnerships in Northern Ireland undertaken by David Mullins in collaboration with Dr Nick Acheson at University of Ulster (TSRC’s Northern Ireland partner) and Dr Jenny Muir at Queens University Belfast (an HSA Committee Member). The case study focused on the two largest publicly funded programmes delivered by third sector organisations in Northern Ireland - Supporting People and new social housing. It attracted the interest of the Northern Ireland Housing Executive who have now funded a fuller follow up study by David, Nick and Jenny, which will be completed in 2012.
The project is extremely timely in exploring the impact of policy changes under devolved government on the shape of the third sector in housing and the changing nature of partnerships. As yet there has been little research into the impact of either Supporting People or procurement changes on third sector partnerships in NI except the baseline study by this project team. The research will provide analysis and recommendations specific to the region, to inform policy and practice, while also making use of and contributing to the UK literature. The project provides an opportunity to deepen our understanding of partnership impact by exploring the perspectives of large and small associations within procurement groups and different types of support and housing providers within Supporting People partnerships. This will provide a fuller understanding of the policy options and consequences of the NI Government’s role in relation to third sector housing partnerships.

Self-Help Housing

Following three initial working papers and a consultation at Windsor with Building and Social Housing Foundation who published two reports on self-help housing, TSRC has continued to work with self-help housing.org to monitor the involvement of community based self-help organisations within the £10 million empty homes programme. The impact of earlier work has been highlighted by the large number of new community based groups expressing an interest in the Empty Homes Programme, and agreement by CLG and HCA to a Community Grants fund to enable such groups to be directly funded, rather than having to work through a registered housing provider. Further research is being undertaken on self-help housing including an Honorary Fellowship with Tom Moore, now of Building and Social Housing Foundation, drawing lessons from his work on community landtrusts for application to the self-help housing sector. Further papers by David Mullins, Simon Teasdale and Patricia Jones on self-help housing are forthcoming.

Special edition of Housing Studies

David Mullins is editing a special issue of the journal Housing Studies on social enterprise and hybridity in the housing sector. This is due for publication in Summer 2012. It builds on a plenary session chaired by David on the same topic at the European Network for Housing Research in Toulouse in July 2011.

Think piece on community investment and community empowerment

David Mullins was commissioned by HACT to produce a think piece on community investment and community empowerment. The think piece was presented at the TSRC/HACT seminar in June 2011 and was later presented at events held with the Centre for Social Impact in Sydney, Australia and The Community Housing Providers Forum and Swinburne Foundation in Sydney, Australia. Back home the think piece is informing HACT’s new Strategic Framework and is at the core of a Knowledge Transfer Partnership application being developed by TSRC and HACT. http://www.tsrc.ac.uk/Research/ServiceDeliverySD/Housing/Communityinvestmentandcommunityempowerment/tabid/813/Default.aspx

New Understanding Welfare textbooks from The Policy Press

The Policy Press has recently published two new textbooks in the highly regarded Understanding Welfare series:
Understanding community by Peter Somerville
Understanding the environment and social policy edited by Tony Fitzpatrick

Both textbooks are intended for people teaching courses in these areas and are available on inspection for those leading courses of at least 12 students*. Information on each book is detailed below and if you would like to order an inspection copy please follow this link:
http://www.policypress.co.uk/inspection_copy.asp Alternatively they can be ordered at 20% discount on the website http://www.policypress.co.uk/

Understanding community is a highly topical text offering a clear understanding of policy and theory in relation to community. By examining areas of government policy, such as economic development, education, health, housing, and community safety, this book explores the difficulties that communities face and discusses new concepts such as community cohesion, social capital and community capacity building. Somerville challenges our understanding of community, both social and conceptual, and assesses the strengths and limitations of this understanding. This book is recommended for students studying social policy, social work and sociology, and as a resource for policymakers in community development, urban regeneration and allied fields.

Understanding the environment and social policy explores the key social, political, economic and moral challenges that environmental problems pose for social policy in a global context. Combining theory and practice with an interdisciplinary approach, the book reviews the current strategies and policies and provides a critique of proposed future developments in the field. Bringing together leading experts, it guides the reader through the subject in an accessible way using chapter summaries, further reading, recommended webpages, a glossary and questions for discussion.
Providing a comprehensive overview, the book is aimed at students, teachers, activists, practitioners and policymakers.

*Inspection copies are available to lecturers who wish to consider adopting them for a course of 12 or more students. If the title is recommended for purchase on a course, it may be kept. If not, it should be paid for or returned to the distributor in resaleable condition within 28 days. A maximum of three titles can be requested at any one time.