Research from the University of Sheffield has shed new light on how planning and policy on social housing has changed over the past 20 years.

The research, led by Tony Crook, Emeritus Professor of Town and Regional Planning at the University of Sheffield, found that in the last two decades housing associations have built more small flats, housed more working households and helped create more socially balanced communities than in previous decades. 

These findings are set out in a new research published today  (16 June 2011) and provide for the first time, a detailed retrospective analysis of the new homes built by housing associations in England over the period 1989 to 2009.

The research was carried out by a team of experts from the University of Sheffield, the University of Cambridge and the London School of Economics.  A wide range of data enabled the team to investigate in detail what new homes were built by Englands housing associations, where these were located and who rented or bought them.

Looking in detail at the types and sizes of new homes that were constructed and how these changed over time, the team mapped where all these homes were built at postcode level across the whole of England and linked this to new analyses of social deprivation and tenure mix.  Anonymous administrative  data on tenants who were allocated these new homes or who bought new low cost homes provided the social, economic and demographic characteristics of the households that moved into them.

Overall housing associations built 450,000 new dwellings over the period and new dwellings built by housing associations accounted for a fifth of all new homes being constructed in 2009, with higher proportions in the southern regions of England.  The research showed four major trends:

• By the end of the period two bedroom flats accounted for nearly half of all new output and overall planning densities on development sites had also increased. A smaller proportion of what was built was in the form of houses and both very small and very large flats.  This mirrors a similar trend in the private sector.

• Nearly four in ten new housing association dwellings in 2009 were for low cost home ownership compared with one in ten two decades ago.  Few of these were bought by existing housing association tenants.

• An increasing proportion of those who moved into new rented homes were existing housing associations tenants, those in work, and smaller younger households, especially in London.

• Only a quarter of new housing association homes are being built in areas dominated by social housing.  The vast majority are either in areas of low deprivation, built by private developers as part of mixed communities, or in the areas of the greatest deprivation, built as part of public sector led regeneration programmes which include low cost homes to buy as well as to rent. 

Also commenting on the findings, Professor Christine Whitehead, from the University of Cambridges Centre for Housing and Planning Research, said: “Our results illustrate the pressure on housing associations to secure as many units as possible with given public funding.  This, together with planning policy, has led to increasing emphasis on two bedroom flats across most of England.  Housing associations have become particularly instrumental in providing for employed households squeezed out of the private market, especially in London and the South East.”

Notes for editors:
The report New Affordable Homes: What, For Whom and Where Have Registered Providers Been Building between 1989 and 2009 is published by the Homes and Communities Agency and is available at:  http://www.homesandcommunities.co.uk/new-affordable-homes

The research team included Professor Tony Crook, Paul Brindley, Peter Bibby and Dr Ed Ferrari from the University of Sheffield, Professor Christine Whitehead, Michael Jones, Sarah Monk and Dr Connie Tang from the University of Cambridge, and Dr Becky Tunstall from the London School of Economics.

For further information please contact: Amy Stone, Media Relations Officer, on 0114 2221046 or email a.f.stone@sheffield.ac.uk
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