The UK has a profound and on-going housing crisis, especially in high demand areas in London, the South East and major cities. It also faces problems of low demand and housing decline in many areas. We have been leading the thinking for several years about what can be done to tackle the problem, including new research on both housing supply and demand. We have, for example, recently published reports on: ‘Shared Ownership in the North West’ ‘Does council housing have a future’; ‘Housing and planning’; ‘Are housing associations ready for an ageing population’; ‘The case for a property speculation tax’, ‘The great house price divide’; ‘HRA one year on’; ‘London for sale’ and ‘New urban living’.
We have also led debates on the ‘Implications of declining home ownership’ and on the ‘Growth of the private rented sector’ and how housing associations can be ‘Social hearted, commercially minded’ in a changing policy and financial environment. We commissioned recently published a major study on the prospects for community-led housing.
Our work also covers new funding tools and policy interventions that can help regenerate local areas and support sustainable development, as well as how housing connects with economic development, healthcare and welfare.
We have worked with the Department for Communities and Local Government and the GLA, as well as a range of housing providers, including councils, house builders and the private rented sector. We have particularly strong links with housing associations and in recent years have worked with: Peabody, Genesis, Triathlon Homes, Equity Housing, Metropolitan, Sovereign, One Housing Group, Home Group, Hyde Housing, and Places for People.
The Institute has provided advice to the Chartered Institute of Housing and the National Housing Federation and worked with the British Property Federation on tackling ‘Regeneration in a downturn’. We provided the secretariat and expert advice to a Commission on the future of council housing in Southwark. and more recently the Redfern Review into the decline of homeownership.