A BROKEN HOUSING SYSTEM? FEATURE
“Housing policies going back through time
have often been advanced on the basis of an ideological position regarding preferred tenures, opposition to particular forms of social housing etc, and a willingness to support interventions which would appear not to be evidenced. These have also often been unclear in terms of value for money, distributional impacts and even achieving actual policy success.”
“ Housing is dominated by the
existing standing stock of dwellings while policy change takes time More recently, the launch of independent ‘What
Works’ initiatives and the commitment to legislative impact assessments are encouraging a more objective scrutiny of research evidence for policy. “One important point of course is that housing
is dominated by the existing stock of dwellings while policy change takes time, usually more than one Parliament, to work through. So, a big problem is the lack of patient political capital. It is unquestionably unhelpful that successive governments have rapidly turned over housing ministers – I believe there have been more than 15 in the last 20 years,” says Gibb. A boost for housing research As a large new investment in housing research, encompassing seven research themes, 13 consortium partners and three co-funders, CaCHE looks set to give housing research a major boost and expand academic influence on policy.
”
“We need to be central to the campaign to restore evidence, rigorous knowledge and analysis to policymaking in housing. Our research will be prioritised according to the views of housing and research users through our sub-national knowledge exchange hubs, each acting as a group representing the regional housing system. By helping to demonstrate what works and what does not work, we intend to show the added value that good evidence brings to policymaking – including preventing heading down policy cul-de-sacs,” adds the CaCHE Director. To reach this goal, he and his team will manage a research centre spread across multiple universities, organisations and disciplines. But Professor Gibb is undaunted: “CaCHE is designed to reflect the width and complexity of the housing sector in contemporary British society. We had to be UK- wide in focus, committed to collaboration with stakeholders, and genuinely multi-disciplinary. To do all of this naturally points towards a large distributed centre across all parts of the UK and, in the end, with 13 consortium partners. It is one thing to direct a core team of staff; it is quite another to oversee 30 co-investigators spread far and wide. CaCHE is a great and rare opportunity, but it is also a challenge that cannot be taken on in anything other than a whole-hearted way,” he concludes. n
i
The UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence (CaCHE) is a consortium of 13 partners led by the University of Glasgow. The centre is funded by ESRC, Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
Web
housingevidence.ac.uk SOCIETY NOW WINTER 2018 31
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