From the Chief Executive…Playing the inspection card
I’m so impressed by all the work I see going on as HQN’s members get ready for inspection. They’re putting together a blueprint for social housing. Will it make a difference to tenants’ lives? We know what to do, but will we get the cash to deliver. Could our plans to improve housing wind up […]
Housing in Practice: A sense of purpose: How a garden supports independent living
In the latest in our Housing in Practice series, Neil Merrick reports on a housing association that worked with residents at a home for people with learning disabilities to create a sensory garden. The resident’s story Prior to a few months ago, ‘John’ (name changed) rarely stepped outside his ground floor flat at Barnsbury […]
What older private renters need from the government
By Morgan Vine Head of Policy and Influencing,Independent Age Rajia is 70. She’s forced to do all her cooking in the front room because the kitchen – with a leaking roof, holes in the floor, rats running at night and walls full of mould – is unusable. Her landlord refuses to make repairs. […]
Why I’m still shamed by the lack of board diversity in social housing
By Lara Oyedele Former president of the Chartered Institute of Housing and CEO of Black on Board It’s not easy challenging the status quo. There’s a well-known quote that insists power is never voluntarily relinquished. Or words to that effect. History is awash with revolutions, skirmishes, campaigns, demonstrations, slogans, songs and even artwork, […]
A life in 15 questions
Victoria Slade Chief Executive, Guernsey Housing Association 1 What do you do for fun? When I’m not busy overthinking things, like the definition of fun, then it’s all about being in a quiet space, absorbed in a good book, or being outdoors, admiring nature. The coast here has a massive tidal range, so […]
The last word
A crisis of supply By Hannah Fearn, freelance journalist specialising in social affairs The housing crisis we’re in is a complicated beast that isn’t only one of supply. But it is a crisis of supply, to which there’s only one solution: build more houses, more quickly. Given the rate of progress in recent […]
How residential reputations affect neighbourhood attachment: New longitudinal insights from Chile
By Quentin Ramond and Gabriel Otero Why examine the consequences of residential reputations on neighbourhood attachment? In October 2019, Chile experienced a massive insurrection as thousands of people took to the streets in protest against the neoliberal system established during the military dictatorship (1973-1990) that’s perpetuated vast socioeconomic inequalities. The capital city, […]
Can community right to buy offer decent homes?
Alex Diner, from the New Economics Foundation, says locally-based initiatives can boost affordable housing supply and improve dilapidated neighbourhoods. Despite years of rhetoric around levelling up, England remains riven by geographical and regional inequality. Angela Rayner criticised the government’s levelling up agenda as “false promises”. Decades of centralised decision-making and underinvestment in our former […]
Mission accomplished! Members of a cooperative in Nicaragua build their own homes
Access to adequate housing continues to be an unfulfilled right in many parts of the world, writes Winnie Narváez Herrera, Facilitator ÁBACOenRed /FUPECG. In Latin America, the problem of housing quality is even more serious than the problem of not having a home, and this is made worse by the increasing effects of climate change, […]
Paws for thought: How pets turn housing into a home
Keeping animals as pets, it hardly needs to be pointed out, is a big part of British identity – but for those living in social housing, having a pet isn’t always straightforward. Neil Merrick explores the issues. At times, it was heartbreaking watching people who were homeless being forced to make such an agonising […]