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Francesca Albanese is head of research and evaluation at Crisis
The Thinkhouse Review: what can we learn from housing policy across the UK?
Francesa Albanese picks out reports on the role of devolution and the quality and design of housing in the latest monthly review of housing research
Thinkhouse is a website set up to be a repository of housing research. Its editorial panel of economists, chief executives, consultants and academics critiques and collates the best of the most recent housing research (scroll down for more information).
There are six reports in this month’s Thinkhouse review and two themes that jump out.
The first theme is the renewed focus on the quality and design of housing, reinforced by last week’s call for mandatory design standards for new houses by Theresa May.
New London Architecture has published a report – Public Housing: A London Renaissance – that is well worth a read to understand the historical context of the role of public housing over the past century.
The report draws attention to the renewed focus on local authorities’ building of public housing, stimulated in London by the urgency of the housing crisis and access to funding. The central thread throughout is the focus on good design and the report provides useful case studies showcasing new housing developments and effective estate regeneration.
One of its most insightful sections addresses how local authorities and developers can work with communities, shifting from a ‘top down’ approach to putting residents at the heart of regeneration. Central to this is good quality and well-located housing.
Meanwhile, the commentary from the Town and Country Planning Association on its draft ‘Healthy Homes Bill’ puts housing standards and liveable spaces at the legislation’s centre.
A mainly technical note setting out how the principles of a healthy home could be enacted in law, it gives food for thought on how these could be enforced and how they fit into current planning standards and regulations.
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The second theme this month is the role devolution has in housing policy and how we can share evidence-based learning across the UK. Several reports provide interesting reflections in the context of devolution, and act as a tool to encourage policymakers and decision-makers to learn from best practice and build on these in developing and implementing new policy.
Housing need and supply is a debate that has been very active in England, but the Independent Review of Affordable Housing Supply in Wales, commissioned by the Welsh Government, draws out recommendations from which policymakers in England can also learn. These include establishing consistent methodologies, data and timings concerning local housing market assessments to understand housing need and taking a longer-term view to meeting this need.
The recommendations from the review look beyond the numbers and explore how to increase the supply of quality affordable homes, considering both design and the skills and capacity needed to deliver this. The main question is whether these recommendations will be enacted in policy and practice.
Two reports from the UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence (CaCHE) on reforms in the private rented sector (PRS) in Scotland – Stakeholder Engagement on the Private Rented Sector and Changing Housing Aspirations and Overview of Private Rented Housing Reforms in Scotland – also highlight learning that can be applied to the rest of the UK.
The PRS in Scotland has rapidly expanded and both reports point to the increase in buy-to-let mortgages and demographic changes being major drivers of this.
Where Scotland differs from the rest of the UK is that it implemented a landlord registration scheme in 2006 and recently introduced open-ended tenancies and measures to control excessive rent increases.
The reports points out it is too early to determine the latter’s impact, but stakeholders make the case that landlord registration has generated additional data that could potentially produce a rich source of high-quality evidence that could reveal the impact of regulatory reforms.
“Two reports from the UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence on reforms in the private rented sector in Scotland highlight learning that can be applied to the rest of the UK”
If acted on, improved information about the Scottish PRS could help inform regulatory debates that are currently taking place in the rest of the UK.
Finally, The Homelessness Monitor: England 2019 – authored by Heriot-Watt University and commissioned by Crisis and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation – again draws our attention to lessons learnt in devolved housing.
Part of a series designed to be a cross-UK comparison, one of its key themes this year is the emerging impact for local authorities in England of the implementation of Homelessness Reduction Act.
The evidence is mainly positive so far, but points to areas that could be improved on in the upcoming Scottish policy commitment to introduce a stronger prevention duty.
These areas include tackling the structural causes of homelessness and ensuring there is a sufficient supply of adequate, affordable and suitable housing to meet legal requirements.
Francesca Albanese, head of research and evaluation, Crisis, and editorial panel member, Thinkhouse
What is Thinkhouse?
Thinkhouse was formally launched in spring 2018, and aims to “provide a single location and summary of the best and most innovative research pieces, policy publications and case studies”.
It specifically looks at reports that propose ways to boost the amount and quality of housing and the economic, social and community issues of not doing this.
The Thinkhouse editorial panel highlights the ‘must-read’ reports, blogs about them and runs the annual Early Career Researcher’s Prize.
The panel includes current and former housing association chief executives, academics, lawyers, economists and consultants. It is chaired by Richard Hyde, chief executive of a business that sells construction hand tools.
Who is on the panel?
Richard Hyde | Chair of Editorial Panel, CEO of HYDE |
Gemma Duggan | Head of Compliance and Performance at Extracare |
Chris Walker | Economist |
Brendan Sarsfield | CEO, Peabody |
Mick Laverty | CEO, Extracare Charitable Trust |
Martin Wheatley | Senior Fellow, Institute for Government, |
Kerri Farnsworth | Founder & MD, Kerri Farnsworth Associates |
Suzanne Benson | Head of Real Estate for the Manchester office of Trowers. |
Burcu Borysik | Policy Manager at Revolving Doors Agency, |
Ken Gibb | Professor in housing economics at the University of Glasgow, Director of CaCHE |
Peter Williams | Departmental Fellow, Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge |
Brian Robson | Executive Director of Policy and Public Affairs at the Northern Housing Consortium |
Francesca Albanese | Head of Research and Evaluation at Crisis |
Jules Birch | Journalist and blogger |
Susan Emmett | Head of Engagement for Homes England |
Mark Farmer | Founder and CEO Cast Consultancy |
Steve Moseley | Group Director of Governance, Strategy & Communications at L&Q |
Jennifer Rolison | Head of marketing at Aquila Services Group |
Philip Brown | Professor of Housing and Communities at the University of Huddersfield |
Anya Martin | Senior researcher at the National Housing Federation |
Emily Pumford | Policy & strategy advisor, Riverside |
Anthony Breach | Analyst, Centre for Cities |
Shahina Begum | Customer Insight Office, Peabody |
The Thinkhouse Early Career Researcher’s Prize 2019
What is it?
Thinkhouse, a website that collates and critiques housing research and provides monthly research reviews for Inside Housing, is now looking for entries to its Early Career Researcher’s Prize.
The prize, which is in its second year and is supported by Inside Housing, aims to give researchers in the early stages of their career “an opportunity to showcase their work to a wide and influential audience”.
It is open to those with up to eight years’ research experience, with or without a PhD, and those working in non-academic as well as academic institutions.
Entries are encouraged from the voluntary sector, thinktanks, housing associations, local authorities and journalists.
Those wanting to enter should submit a piece of research between 4,000 and 8,000 words in length. The panel will consider think pieces, papers reviewing existing evidence and policy analysis or investigative journalism. Journal articles or other papers already published or under review will be accepted.
Thinkhouse’s preference is for research pieces that “cover ways to increase the amount and quality of the UK’s housing stock and the related economic, social and community benefits of doing so” but those with other housing-related research pieces are advised to get in touch.
Papers must be emailed to info@thinkhouse.org.uk by the end of September 2019.
The winner will receive £500 and a year’s Inside Housing subscription. They will also have their award win reported by Inside Housing and their paper published on the Thinkhouse website.
The judges will focus on the following areas:
- Writing style/clarity
- Engagement with literature and theory
- Methods
- Empirical rigour/theoretical depth
- Strength of conclusions
- The extent of how the research is outcome and impact-focused so that it contributes to useful knowledge exchange
- The scalability of the research (ie the scope to make a widespread difference)
Who is on the judging panel?
- Stephen Aldridge, director for analysis and data, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
- Carl Brown, head of engagement, Inside Housing
- Professor Phil Brown, professor of social policy, University of Salford
- Professor Ken Gibb, director, CaCHE
- Richard Hyde, founder and editorial panel chair, Thinkhouse
- Anya Martin, winner of the Early Career Researcher’s Prize 2018
- Steve Moseley, group director of governance, strategy and communications, L&Q
- Jennifer Rolison, marketing executive, Altair
