The Ben Pattison Prize

Key Dates

• Tuesday, 01 July 2025 – Submission opens
• Monday, 28 July 2025 – Submission of abstracts closes (completed forms)
• Friday, 15 August 2025 – Notification of shortlisted candidates
• Monday 08 September 2025 – Submission of full dissertations opens
• Thursday, 16 October 2025 – Announcement of award winners (at the end of the HSA Autumn Lecture event)

Number of awards (subject to the number of entries)

• One undergraduate category
• One postgraduate category
• Runner-up and special accommodation category 

Who was Ben Pattison?

The Ben Pattison Prize is awarded in memory of Ben Pattison, who sadly passed away in 2020 at the age of 40 after battling myeloma and amyloidosis. At the time of his passing, Ben had recently stepped down from the Executive Committee of the Housing Studies Association, where he served in several roles, including Bursary Officer. He was also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Regional, Economic and Social Research (CRESR) at Sheffield Hallam University.

Ben was previously an ESRC-funded postgraduate researcher at the University of Birmingham. His PhD thesis, titled Understanding the Growth of the Private Rented Sector in England: Has Generation Rent Been Priced Out? explored key issues in contemporary housing policy. During his time at Birmingham, Ben worked as both a teaching associate and researcher, contributing to projects including an international study on housing wealth and welfare systems.

Prior to undertaking his PhD, Ben worked at the Building and Social Housing Foundation (BSHF), where he researched Housing Benefit, self-help housing, and the private rented sector. He also served for three years as a trustee of a charity providing accommodation for refugees and asylum seekers in the East Midlands. In addition, Ben conducted research for public and third sector organisations on issues ranging from health to international development.

Ben’s research interests centred on housing inequality and included topics such as:
• The private rented sector
• Housing associations
• Support with housing costs (e.g., Housing Benefit and Universal Credit)
• Community-led housing
• Regeneration
• Health inequalities

He published widely, with work appearing in Social Policy and Society, Housing Studies, and the International Journal of Housing Policy. Throughout his career, Ben remained committed to ensuring that his research made a real-world impact.

More importantly, Ben was a sincere, supportive and fun-loving person. He was a relaxed colleague, thoughtful and generous with his time. The housing studies community is relatively small and close-knit, and Ben is deeply missed. Through this prize, the Housing Studies Association hopes to make the housing studies world a little bit larger, by investing in future scholarships in Ben’s name.

A selection of Ben’s work includes the following:

• Pattison, B., & Mccarthy, L. (2020). The role of mental health in multiple exclusion homelessness. Social Policy and Society. http://doi.org/10.1017/S147474642000069X
• Preece, J., Hickman, P., & Pattison, B. (2019). The affordability of ‘affordable’ housing in England: conditionality and exclusion in a context of welfare reform. Housing Studies. http://doi.org/10.1080/02673037.2019.1653448
• Cole, I., & Pattison, B. (2019). Opening a new route into home ownership? The extension of the Right to Buy to housing associations in England. The international journal of housing policy. http://doi.org/10.1080/19491247.2019.1639239
• Archer, T., Crisp, R., Ferrari, E., Green, S., Mccarthy, L., Moore, T., ... Sacranie, H. (2019). Scaling up social lettings? Scope, impact and barriers. Joseph Rowntree Foundation. https://www.shu.ac.uk/centre-regional-economic-social-research/publications/scaling-up-social-lettings-scope-impact-and-barriers
• Hickman, P., Pattison, B., & Preece, J. (2018). The impact of welfare reforms on housing associations: a scoping study. UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence. https://www.shu.ac.uk/centre-regional-economic-social-research/publications/the-impact-of-welfare-reforms-on-housing-association
• Reeve, K., Mccarthy, L., Pattison, B., Parr, S., Batty, E., Maye-Banbury, A., ... Dayson, C. (2018). The mental health needs of Nottingham's homeless population: an exploratory research study. Sheffield: Sheffield Hallam University. https://www.shu.ac.uk/centre-regional-economic-social-research/publications/the-mental-health-needs-of-nottinghams-homeless-population-an-exploratory-research-study

You can read a tribute to Ben Pattison by Prof. Ian Cole.

What is Housing Studies?

The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) provide a useful overview for what Housing Studies is: 

"Housing studies is concerned with the production, consumption and experience of housing. It is a field of study which brings together a blend of academic perspectives as well as social experience. These can include sociology, psychology, economics, politics, law, social policy, management studies, geography, construction, architecture, urban design, neighbourhood planning and the housing market and how these impact on the environment and wealth.

Housing studies is a field of study, the starting point of which is a focus on residential buildings and their neighbourhoods, the organisations that provide and manage those buildings and the people who live in them (or who would like to) in equal measure. Health, well-being and social care are primary concerns as well as understanding the social, economic, legal, physical and other processes involved in the production, consumption and exchange of dwellings within a housing system

Housing studies is a multidisciplinary subject, operating within an environment of substantial change. The boundaries of housing studies are, therefore, broad and flexible. As an academic subject, it draws upon a range of theoretical influences and applies these to practical situations. It offers students transferable skills appropriate to a range of employment opportunities associated with people and their homes."

Eligibility Criteria

(1) Applicants must be registered at a UK university.

(2) Entries must align with the following topics:

• The role of the private rented sector
• The impact of regeneration
• Alternative forms of housing
• Lived experiences of housing
• The diversity of the housing experience
• Relations between housing and welfare
• Links between housing and health inequalities

(3) The submitted work must have been completed within a maximum of ten years from the date of the call for entries.

(4) The dissertation or thesis must have been submitted to the university before the award date (October 2025), unless in extenuating circumstances, for which the Housing Studies Association award panel will take into consideration.

(5) Self-nomination is accepted.

We expect submissions to reflect the multidisciplinary nature of Housing Studies. Nominations are welcomed from a wide range of disciplines, including but not limited to: sociology, psychology, economics, politics, law, social policy, management studies, geography, construction, architecture, urban design, criminology, and neighbourhood planning.

We particularly encourage studies that adopt empirical approaches—qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods. These may include questionnaires, observational work, interviews, focus groups, desk-based reviews, policy analysis, and spatial analysis. Regardless of methodology, the originality of the work and its relevance to the award must be clearly articulated.

Membership of the Housing Studies Association is not required to apply. However, those interested in the field are warmly encouraged to join our community

Membership information is available [here].

The process

Step 1: Nomination and Abstract Submission
Deadline: Monday, 28 July 2025

Students may self-nominate, or dissertation supervisors, tutors, or Heads of Department may nominate eligible students by submitting a completed nomination form (available below), which must include:

• Nominated student(s) information
• Dissertation details (title, type of research, page/word count, and supervision type)
• An extended abstract (up to 500 words) prepared by the student, outlining the research, methodology, findings, and key contributions (3–5 references should be listed separately and are not included in the word count)

Completed nomination forms must be sent to [email protected] no later than the deadline of Monday, 28 July 2025. Shortlisted candidates will be notified by Friday, 15 August 2025. Unsuccessful candidates will also be informed.

Step 2: Full Dissertation Submission and Selection
Deadline: Monday, 08 September 2025

Shortlisted candidates must submit an electronic copy of their complete dissertation to [email protected] (for the attention of the Ben Pattison Award Panel).

Assessment Criteria

A panel consisting of three assessors and a head of committee will evaluate each submission based on the following criteria:

• A strong and clear link between the introduction, methods, results, and discussion
• An engaging introduction with clearly presented aims, objectives, research questions, and/or hypotheses
• A well-defined study design and appropriate analytical procedures
• Clear presentation of results, using illustrative material where appropriate
• A discussion reflecting on theoretical, methodological, and practical implications
• A conclusion summarising key findings and recommendations for future research
• A demonstrated contribution or insight into housing studies
• Complete and correctly cited references throughout

Winners’ announcement

The winner and their institution will be notified by Thursday, 16 October 2025. The winner may also be invited to publish a short paper based on their entry on the Housing Studies Association website. Finalist abstracts will also be published on the HSA website.

How to Submit
Download the nomination form and send the completed version to:
[email protected]

Contact
For further information, please contact Dr Mahmoud Alsaeed:
[email protected]