Start the day with a lively discussion about research into social housing, affordable housing and housing tenure - key themes in the world of housing that will appeal to any member of the HSA! The full abstracts are below.
Presentations from these authors and a live Q&A session are available to all HSA members. Book here
1. Becky Tunstall What is Britain’s best affordable housing?
What is Britain’s best affordable housing? This is not the elevator pitch for some kind of TV talent show, but is intended as the start of a serious academic endeavour! The paper reports on the first stage of research into what individual developments, types of housing or circumstances for housing can be described as ‘Britain’s best’. It aims to promote discussion about valuable characteristics of affordable housing, how they can be defined and measured, and how any trade-offs between them could be resolved, as well as to counteract the imbalance in research and evidence towards less successful affordable housing. The paper reports on a review of literature on potential criteria, existing lists of ‘best’ scheme and types, and potential case studies, and seeks contributions from HSA members. The next phases of work will involve detailed investigation eg of cost benefit and resident experiences of short-listed ‘best’ affordable housing.
3. James Gregory, Stefan Angel and Andrew Lymer Does housing tenure matter? Owner-occupation and wellbeing in Britain and Austria
This paper presents the case for the significance of two neglected domains of sociological enquiry: housing tenure and subjective wellbeing. Our empirical focus is on the relationship between housing tenure and subjective wellbeing in two case-study countries, Austria and the UK, using multivariate modelling of European SILC data to investigate potential interactions between tenure and individual wellbeing survey items. Our case-studies are chosen for their distinctive welfare regime characteristics and contrasting housing tenure structures. This framework allows normative as well as empirical analysis. Our results show statistically significant interactions between housing tenure and overall satisfaction with life but less significant for our other four wellbeing items. Compared to private renters, we find higher levels of satisfaction amongst owner-occupiers in both Austria and the UK. The paper concludes with a discussion of three explanatory hypotheses, highlighting potential for further theoretical and qualitative exploration of the sociology of housing tenure.
4. Anna Clarke How is social housing currently allocated in England?
Demand for social housing exceeds supply in almost all parts of England. This means that it needs to be rationed, with local authorities responsible for determining who is allocated housing in their area. Legislation and national guidelines determine some of the things that local authorities must consider when drawing up their allocation schemes, and some which cannot be. However, local authorities have been given more freedom in recent years to determine who gets access to social housing. The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) is carrying out an evidence collection exercise to improve their understanding of how the national framework for allocating social housing is working across the country, and have commissioned RSM Economic Consulting to support this exercise. This paper presents some emerging findings from the research, including a review of sub-regional working arrangements and case studies of 10 local authorities across England