Close neighbours not distant friends: What has been learned about neighbourhood focused housing associations in England and the Netherlands

Abstract

Effective neighbourhood working is a key requirement for housing associations in England and the Netherlands, yet this is often hampered by conflicting institutional logics of scale and localism. Housing associations are often considered to be ideally placed to facilitate such change and have a business interest in doing so, but to do so they need to establish legitimacy and trust, and to build effective partnerships with residents, government agencies and other third sector organisations based in these neighbourhoods. This is the second paper based on a two-year action research project following eight housing associations (four in England and four in The Netherlands) in their quest to balance organisational strength with community anchorage to increase their neighbourhood focus. It tracks progress and learning from these case studies in the second year of the project in which the key themes for activities have focused on community empowerment, organisational change and partnership working. It summarises learning points, barriers and enablers in relation to these three themes, assesses the value of the learning tools used in the programme and concludes by discussing the wider implications of the programme in relation to values and community focus, relations with state and market and the ability to ‘keep on keeping on’ in a time of austerity.OTB onderzoekOTB Research Institute for the Built Environmen