Recent publications

Valuing Housing and Local Environment Improvements using the Wellbeing Valuation Method and the English Housing Survey

Published: January 2017

Authors: Jim Vine, Mary-Kathryn Rallings Adams, Christina Knudsen, Ricky Lawton, Daniel Fujiwara

Using Wellbeing Valuation, this project analysed data collected through the English
Housing Survey. The approach enables monetary values to be placed on the impact of
housing provider activities around core housing; it does this by investigating the
associations between attributes of the home, including its surroundings, and individual
wellbeing.

Social Sustainability: A White paper for Your Housing

Published: December 2015

Author: William Howard

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the concept of ‘social sustainability’ so that housing providers will be able to determine (from a position informed by evidence) the elements of social sustainability they can positively affect in the neighbourhoods and communities in which they work.

Procurement and Social Value: A White Paper for Wandle

Published: October 2015

Author: William Howard, David King, Frances Harkin

The aim of this white paper is to explore practice and regulation around the incorporation of social value in the procurement process and inform procurement activity at Wandle. 

Transforming care pathways for people with dementia

Published: October 2015

Authors: David King, Amy Swan, Lindsey Livney, Peter Molyneux

This report written in partnership with HACT builds on the National Housing Federation's 2013 publication Dementia – finding housing solutions and subsequent work that has been carried out through their strategic partnership work with the Department of Health. Housing associations are ideally placed to help health and social care commissioners deliver this change; promoting more integrated service pathways, applying the best evidence to practice, and co-designing support packages with individuals to ensure better health outcomes.

Community asset transfer: A toolkit for housing providers

Published: September 2015

Authors: Mary-Kathryn Rallings, Frances Harkin

Housing Providers typically own a range of Community Assets including land and buildings. The management of these Community Assets is a significant part of Housing Providers’ Community Investment activity, yet little is known about the strategic approach they take when managing a portfolio. Affinity Sutton asked HACT to conduct this research and produce this toolkit in conjunction with three Community Organisations that were pioneers of Affinity Sutton’s Community Asset Transfer approach.

The Wellbeing Value of Tackling Homelessness

Published: September 2015

Authors: Daniel Fujiwara, Jim Vine

This research breaks new ground in exploring key issues around homelessness using rigorous statistical methods to place monetary values on the impact of tackling homelessness. A new large longitudinal dataset – Journeys Home – was used, enabling us to assess the impact of moving between different housing statuses on life satisfaction and the effect of accessing support services on housing status.

The health impacts of housing associations' community investment activities: Measuring the indirect impact of improved health on wellbeing

Published: May 2015

Authors: Lizzie Trotter, Jim Vine and Daniel Fujiwara

Affinity Sutton, HACT and SImetrica have previously deployed the wellbeing valuation approach to create the Social Value Bank, the largest robust and consistent set of monetary values for social outcomes. In the earlier work, the analysis controlled for the effects of health, calculating values that represented the direct effect of outcomes (such as gaining employment) on people’s wellbeing. However, many outcomes might also improve people’s wellbeing indirectly, by improving their health, which in turn improves their subjective wellbeing.

Approaches to tenancy management in the social housing sector: Exploring new models in the tenant-landlord relationship

Published: September 2014 

Author: Mary-Kathryn Rallings

There has been recent controversy over new approaches to tenancy management that formalise engagement with the landlord as part of the tenancy agreement, reward/sanction behaviour, and/or introduce fixed-term tenancies. At their core, these new models ask fundamental questions about the nature of the tenant-landlord relationship. How are the rights and responsibilities of tenants and landlords defined? What does ‘independence’ mean in the context of providing support for tenants? 

HACT investigates these questions in a new research report. This report concludes that there are several important elements to both support-based and rewards-based models, including recognising links between community investment and tenancy management, focusing efforts on pre-tenancy work, and capitalising on existing expertise within the organisation to help housing officers succeed in increasingly demanding roles. This report serves as an important starting point for discussion, conceptualising different angles of the debate as well as analysing whether these models intimate a cultural shift.

Strategic approaches to employment: Responding to change in the sector

Published: July 2014

Authors: Mary-Kathryn Rallings, John Coburn

This report follows HACT's year-long action-learning programme with eight participating housing providers. It offers a glimpse into the broad array of employability activity within the sector, and showcases the resources invested in supporting tenants into employment. All of these activities suggest that housing providers are looking at the challenges around employment, considering the implications of welfare reform, thinking creatively, and critically exploring different responses.