New Times, New Businesses
CHR’s international KE project, New Times, New Businesses, was launched in July, 2011. Professor Duncan Maclennan is the chief investigator, while Sharon Chisholm is the project manager. It is funded by seven partners who have identified four main themes which they will co-investigate: The Changing Context: New Roles, New Clients, New Policy Contexts, Changing economic and demographic contexts, innovations and changing tastes, Wider Impacts of Housing ( and related) Investment on Outcomes for Neighbourhoods and City Economies, the wider roles and benefits of housing actions, Finance and Regulation, the purposes and limits of regulation, addressing where money for renewal and new construction will come from as government investment falls and how assets may be used differently& Key Developments in Management andGovernance, what kinds of organisation will best deliver emerging policy and market priorities, and what will shape innovative and efficiency capacities
The transfer of family wealth across generations is of increasing political and social importance. Access to private wealth (notably housing wealth) increasingly determines life chances. This raises important concerns of intergenerational justice. A new project, ‘Mind the (Housing) Wealth Gap: Intergenerational Justice and Family Welfare’ will explore inequalities in society, particularly the uneven distribution and transfer of wealth within and across generations. The programme of research is funded for three years by the Leverhulme Trust. It will address four key aims:
- Understanding changing patterns of family housing and wealth resources;
- Identify the extent to which current demographic trajectories, changing attitudes and behaviours towards wealth will reinforce or reverse existing inequalities
- Address the barriers to change including legal, policy and financial complexities and the benefits and behaviours of individuals;
- Understand the implications of these inequalities and injustices for individuals across the life course.
A study on the role of community-based housing associations in regeneration, focusing on supporting their pivotal role as anchor organisations in their communities was led by Dr Kim MacKee. This study (http://tinyurl.com/5tbqxw2) was funded by Glasgow and West of Scotland Forum of Housing Associations.
Neighbourhoods: Effects, Dynamics & Policies
Dr Kim MacKee also Co-convened the 2011 Housing Studies Association annual conference, which was organised around the theme of: Housing in Hard Times: class, poverty and social exclusion.
Local Projects
CHR researchers have also been involved in a number of local engagement projects over the last 12 months. Prof. Duncan Maclennan and Sharon Chisholm supported by CHR colleagues delivered a visioning exercise for Fife Housing Partnership in June 2010.
Recent work has focused on exploring risks to homes posed by flooding and understanding patterns of domestic energy use. For example, work led by Dr. Donald Houston and funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has found that population growth will put three times more people at risk from flooding by 2050 than climate change unless patterns of urban development and surface water management are significantly altered, and that increased pricing of flood risk by insurers is likely to impact on housing markets in flood-risk areas. This report has been published by JRF.
Whilst this stream of work has involved understanding the way in which the environment impacts on housing, our work on domestic energy use, led by Dr. Louise Reid, has been exploring how housing impacts on the environment. Our concentration on domestic energy reflects the continuing demand for energy by households and the increasing concern about greenhouse gas emissions and global warming. Critical reviews by Louise and Donald are forthcoming in the journals of Housing Studies and Area exploring, for example the appropriateness of technological solutions divorced from measures aimed at altering lifestyles, and the UK Government’s new Green Deal. These are complimented by an ongoing project which is exploring the efficacy of the Scottish Home Energy report with recent home movers, to understand: 1) the extent to which home purchasing decisions are influenced by home energy information; and, 2) the type and frequency with which home owners undertake the improvements suggested by the home energy report. Outputs from this study, which is based on Scottish Government data and original primary qualitative research, should be available early 2012. Another project currently in the planning stage will examine the impact of population growth and changing household structures on domestic energy use. We are also convening a session of the Royal Geographic Society-Institute of British Geographers Annual Conference in August where we will hear from international academics about their research on low carbon and domestic energy use.