How 'Help to Buy' helps mainly the privileged

The Government’s pledge to extend the “Help to Buy” programme is a further mistaken investment in a policy which has had little impact on extending home ownership to lower income households, explains Bert Provan. So, the £2bn investment in “social and affordable housing” is, while welcome, wholly inadequate to meet the pressing and increasing need for low cost rented housing for households in most need

Is welfare reform working? Impacts on working age tenants: a study for SW HAILO

This report presents evidence on whether the aim of moving people who are dependent on benefits into work has been achieved, and considers three important questions: Are welfare reforms encouraging tenants into work or to work more? What are the main barriers to work for out of work tenants or tenants who want to work more? Why are many social housing tenants not working

Mixing communities? Riots, regeneration and renewal on problem estates in France and England

Riots, social exclusion, and endless improvement programmes have been a feature of the poorest neighbourhoods in France and England for the last thirty-five years or more—particularly focused on large social housing estates. Programmes of improvement have followed similar paths in each country, with mixed success. This article sets out a short overview of these programmes in each country, then contrasts and compares the objectives, approaches, and outcomes. Each country has key elements of inter-agency working, local and resident participation and planning, large-scale building rehabilitation and demolition programmes, though the French system is more often based on specific local contracts between cities and the central departments. Similar evaluation outcome indicators and frameworks of ‘floor’ and ‘gap’ targets have been set, although evidence of success is limited and, particularly in France, there has been considerable criticism of the approach and framework. In parallel, however, the concept of ‘mixed communities’ has emerged as an alternative strategic approach—intuitively reasonable, politically popular, but lacking an evidence base and often ineffective in dealing with poverty

Lille city story

La Fabrique de la Cité, a French foundation sponsored by Vinci, funded LSE Housing and Communities to produce seven updated city reports on Leipzig and six other European cities, following our initial reports in 2007. The financial crisis, Eurozone troubles and six-year recession have changed the fortunes of these hard-hit, former industrial cities yet again. These seven stories are up-to-the-minute, grounded evidence of the capacity of cities to recreate themselves as the Phoenix. Each city story is unusual in focussing on a single city and looking in depth at how it survives and thrives, or struggles. The reports draw on the earlier work of Jörg Plöger and Astrid Winkler who wrote the original city reports published in 2007, and we owe a deep debt of gratitude to them for their outstanding research, their meticulous evidence and their direct accounts of visits to the sites. We revisited all the cities several times since 2008, and this report is based on visits to Leipzig and interviews with city stakeholders. It also draws on previous research, city reports and wider evidence. We want to thank all those we met and interviewed, the projects we spent time in, all the residents, officials and programme leaders who shared their insights. In particular we thank Isabella Kohlass-Webber, Jan Richert and Ilke Rzymann. Without their input, the reports would not reflect the dynamic reality of changing cities

Saint-Étienne city story

La Fabrique de la Cité, a French foundation sponsored by Vinci, funded LSE Housing and Communities to produce seven updated city reports on Leipzig and six other European cities, following our initial reports in 2007. The financial crisis, Eurozone troubles and six-year recession have changed the fortunes of these hard-hit, former industrial cities yet again. These seven stories are up-to-the-minute, grounded evidence of the capacity of cities to recreate themselves as the Phoenix. Each city story is unusual in focussing on a single city and looking in depth at how it survives and thrives, or struggles. The reports draw on the earlier work of Jörg Plöger and Astrid Winkler who wrote the original city reports published in 2007, and we owe a deep debt of gratitude to them for their outstanding research, their meticulous evidence and their direct accounts of visits to the sites. We revisited all the cities several times since 2008, and this report is based on visits to Leipzig and interviews with city stakeholders. It also draws on previous research, city reports and wider evidence. We want to thank all those we met and interviewed, the projects we spent time in, all the residents, officials and programme leaders who shared their insights. In particular we thank Isabella Kohlass-Webber, Jan Richert and Ilke Rzymann. Without their input, the reports would not reflect the dynamic reality of changing cities

No place like an accessible home: quality of life and opportunity for disabled people with accessible housing needs

Habinteg Housing and Papworth Trust commissioned CASE at LSE to report, primarily in relation to working age disabled people, on: 1. The extent of need for housing which has accessible features (for example a stair lift), and the impact on disabled people of living in a home where their need for such a feature is not met. These impacts include economic impacts such as working patterns, income, assets, as well as impacts on wider quality of life. 2. More specifically, how far unmet need for accessibility features, or lack of access to suitable housing options, is associated with disabled people not being in work. 3. The impact of the above factors on housing choices, including what proportion of households containing a disabled person are currently, or might be in a position to become, owner-occupiers. We were also asked to advise on potential changes to data collected for large scale surveys which might enable them to become a more useful source of information for policy-makers, developers and advocacy groups. This report is part of a programme of research commissioned by Papworth Trust and Habinteg Housing. Ipsos MORI conducted opinion research on public attitudes, and further work is being done by the Institute of Public Care at Oxford Brookes University around improving information about households containing disabled people for developers of housing and council planners

High rise hope revisited: the social implications of upgrading large estates

LSE researchers interviewed residents of the Edward Woods estate in west London between 2011 and 2014 during and after renovation works which included a major energy efficiency upgrade with residents in situ. This scheme was used as a model case study for how the Green Deal and Community Energy Saving Partnership (CESP) “whole building” approach could work in high-rise, socially rented estates. The estate comprises 754 flats in three towers and several lower blocks. The headline findings are from our second survey in 2014, after the retrofit works were finished. • There are high levels of deprivation on the estate and many residents are fuel poor, with previously very cold, uninsulated flats. Most community activity and engagement on the estate is of an informal nature although there is also an active Tenant and Resident Association (TRA). Residents are positive about the estate and their homes and generally feel safe living there, although slightly less safe in 2013-14 than in 2011 due to the reduction in concierge services. • Residents, particularly in the studio flats, have made the biggest cost savings since 2011. Average energy costs have gone down significantly for those in studios and have increased a little for those in one and two-bedroom flats – but far less than the increase in energy prices. Even in the one bedroom balcony flats, where insulation appears to have been least adequate, the rise in energy bills is far lower than the rise in energy prices. This means that overall energy use (i.e. units of energy consumed) has fallen over the retrofit. • Some residents remain unaware that the retrofit work was carried out to save energy and provide warmer homes. Community education needs to focus on how people can reduce their energy use in order to maximise the gains of increased insulation, etc. • A number of residents were disappointed about the level of internal refurbishment and redecoration to the communal areas that accompanied the works – people feel they were promised more than was delivered in the end. Although there was considerable consultation at the beginning of the project, more ongoing support would have improved wider understanding of the objectives of the regeneration and helped explain the many delays. • Concerns about the reduced concierge service dominate many people’s view of the changes on the estate. The visible presence of the concierge in the blocks was removed while the works were going on and had some impact on residents’ perception of safety. • The main suggestion from Edward Woods residents was for better management of the works – particularly around the timescale of the project which slipped many times over, and communications about the delays

Social Cost Benefit Analysis of the no recourse to public funds (NRPF) policy in London

This report estimates the monetised social and economic gains (benefits) of removing of the No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) condition for certain household in England. It compares this to the costs of allowing them to be able to apply for welfare benefits and various public services paid for from public funds. This is in the form of a Social Cost Benefit Analysis and was prepared as an independent analysis for the Greater London Authority. The households in scope are households and families with visas statuses including the right to work, some of whom are on visa routes that could lead to long-term settlement in the UK. These includes holders of Tier 1, 2 or 5 visas who come to the UK to work and their dependents; those who are in the UK because of family links; dependents or others who are linked to the primary visa holder and those estimated to come via the Hong Kong British National Overseas scheme. The report estimates that there are approximately 362,000 households, including 106,000 households with children, would potentially be affected by lifting the NRPF condition. Access to public funds would be restricted by existing qualifying conditions limiting access to welfare benefits and other services to households in need of this public assistance. It found that, over ten years, removing the NRPF condition just for households with children and other vulnerable individuals would result in a net gain of £872 million. Removing the condition for all those on these visas would result in a £428 million net gain