Themes

Regions

Housing

"without further action housing will become one of the greatest sources of social inequality in the next 20 years….Every part of the country needs more affordable homes - in the north and the south, in urban and rural communities… We need more homes - but we need better designed, more sustainable homes." Yvette Cooper, Housing Minister speaking at the launch of the housing green paper July 2007. 

The government has recognised the need for major investment in more affordable and more sustainable homes.  The Prime Minister has announced the need for 3 million more homes by 2020 and has set out a pledge of an additional three billion investment for housing.  Spiraling house prices and a lack of affordable homes provide a major challenge.  The picture on the ground is more complex however and includes areas of poor quality neighbourhoods plagued by low employment and incomes, limited aspirations and a decaying infrastructure.  Bricks and mortar are only part of the answer.  The major issue for the housing policymaker and practitioner is being able to tailor their approach to meet the needs of local communities.  This is the only way to ensure that the benefits of intervention are long term.  Factoring in the full range of social, economic and environmental issues is essential to meet the objective of creating sustainable communities.

ECOTEC's dedicated housing team is experienced in working with local authorities and national and regional agencies to develop and implement housing and planning policy.  We work with housing associations and local authorities to support business planning and asset management and with a range of sub-regional partnerships to understand markets and develop policies and strategies to support sustainable and successful communities.

ECOTEC can help you: 

  • Understand and define your housing market;
  • Carry out Strategic Housing Market Assessment
  • Prepare housing investment programmes;
  • Develop your housing strategy and policy;
  • Understand market change – migration, private rented sector, affordability;
  • Evaluate your effectiveness;
  • Plan and manage your activities.

paul.jeffrey@ecotec.com
+44 121 616 3600

Case Study: Making Housing Count in the Manchester City Region

We completed a series of research reports which

 

  • defined a reference area for the City Region,
  • established a neighbourhood typology and trajectories
  • defined the drivers of change demand
  • set out the aspirations of BME communities

 

The final output is a housing prospectus for the Manchester City Region.

 

Our work helped to identifiy housing market areas, highlighted impact of changes and provided the evidence base for a housing strategy for the city region

 

http://www.agma.gov.uk/ccm/agma/AGMA_Initiatives/MHC.en