The homes and communities investment evidence collaboration
Lead Research Organisation:
University of York
Department Name: Centre for Housing Policy
Abstract
The aim of the homes and communities investment evidence collaboration is to embed up to date and authoritative research in the HCA's investment decision-making. The HCA was established in 2008 as the national housing and regeneration investment agency for England. Over the period 2011-2015 it has a total budget of £8bn to spend to promote economic growth and to deliver high quality affordable housing. The HCA works with local authorities, housing associations and other partners, to provide investment for new affordable housing, to improve existing social housing and to redevelop land. Through its enabling role, HCA staff provide skills and experience to local partners. At a critical time for its work, the HCA would like to form a small, highly targeted partnership with a group of key housing researchers at the London School of Economics and the Centre for Housing Policy (CHP) at the University of York.
This proposal has been developed by Dr Rebecca Tunstall (LSE), in co-ordination with Jim Bennett, Head of Corporate Strategy and Kurshida Mirza, Strategy Manager at the HCA. They have worked together on a series of successful conventional research projects. The HCA would now like to develop this relationship to promote more intensive knowledge exchange between academics and key decision-making staff. These will include staff from HCA's six localities across England, and some staff from two of the HCA's partner organisations: its sponsoring department, the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), and the national representatives of its key local partners, the Local Government Group (LGG).
The collaboration will be established through a series of three intensive, tailored workshops for about 20 key decision-making staff from the HCA, DCLG and LGG, involving detailed and interactive presentation of the current evidence base on topics selected by participants, and exploration of the implications of evidence for forthcoming decisions. The workshops are intended to be immediately applicable during the year of the collaboration. They will also build individual and organisational capacity, and form the basis for what is hoped will be an ongoing self-sustaining informal network of practioners and researcher members.
The collaboration aims to:
-Enable the HCA, DCLG and the LGG to learn from academic researchers to enhance the delivery of Government's housing and regeneration priorities;
-Bridge the gap between academic research, policy and operational delivery and practice;
-Allow researchers to engage with policy makers, to learn more about their research needs, and how research can be made most useful for application in policy.
This proposal offers the potential for research to influence directly very substantial and long-lasting public investments by the HCA and partners in affordable housing and regeneration across England over 2012 and subsequent years, through a comparatively small budget. The HCA feel there is currently a gap in bringing academic researchers and operational delivery partners together to inform and influence both delivery and ongoing and future research.
This proposal has been developed by Dr Rebecca Tunstall (LSE), in co-ordination with Jim Bennett, Head of Corporate Strategy and Kurshida Mirza, Strategy Manager at the HCA. They have worked together on a series of successful conventional research projects. The HCA would now like to develop this relationship to promote more intensive knowledge exchange between academics and key decision-making staff. These will include staff from HCA's six localities across England, and some staff from two of the HCA's partner organisations: its sponsoring department, the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), and the national representatives of its key local partners, the Local Government Group (LGG).
The collaboration will be established through a series of three intensive, tailored workshops for about 20 key decision-making staff from the HCA, DCLG and LGG, involving detailed and interactive presentation of the current evidence base on topics selected by participants, and exploration of the implications of evidence for forthcoming decisions. The workshops are intended to be immediately applicable during the year of the collaboration. They will also build individual and organisational capacity, and form the basis for what is hoped will be an ongoing self-sustaining informal network of practioners and researcher members.
The collaboration aims to:
-Enable the HCA, DCLG and the LGG to learn from academic researchers to enhance the delivery of Government's housing and regeneration priorities;
-Bridge the gap between academic research, policy and operational delivery and practice;
-Allow researchers to engage with policy makers, to learn more about their research needs, and how research can be made most useful for application in policy.
This proposal offers the potential for research to influence directly very substantial and long-lasting public investments by the HCA and partners in affordable housing and regeneration across England over 2012 and subsequent years, through a comparatively small budget. The HCA feel there is currently a gap in bringing academic researchers and operational delivery partners together to inform and influence both delivery and ongoing and future research.
Planned Impact
This Knowledge Exchange collaboration is unusual because its pathway to impact is particularly short, the potential economic and social impacts are particularly great, and, in addition, the sum sought is modest.
The proposed collaboration involves working directly with key staff of the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), the national housing and investment agency for England, and two of its key partners, the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) and the Local Government Group (LGG). The HCA is a non-departmental public body and works with public and private sector partners, local authorities, housing associations, land owners, house builders and third sector organisations. Its role is to support the development of affordable housing and to support economic and social development. Over the period 2011-2015 it has a total budget of £8bn. The individuals who will be involved in the collaboration are involved in making very substantial public investment decisions, involving multi-million pound budgets, and implications for their areas and communities that may last for decades or centuries. Any sub-optimal decisions are very costly.
The collaboration aims to embed up-to-date and authoritative academic evidence base into the strategy and decision-making of key HCA staff throughout England, though intensive workshops between key HCA staff and a team of housing academics. The intention is that members will leave each session having had a substantial grounding in all available evidence relevant to a policy and decision area they themselves have selected as a priority. They will have had the opportunity to explore the evidence with some of the authors of the key research, and to discuss with researchers at length and in small groups the practical implications of the evidence for their own specific work. They will leave the session either with some plans for prioritising within or changing their own daily activities, or with increased confidence that their existing activities are congruent with the implications of the evidence base. The potential quantifiable monetary impact and social impacts through improved public investment are substantial. Even if only one land purchase, grant or redevelopment decision by one attendee is affected, the monetary and social benefit of an improved decision is likely to outweigh the costs of the collaboration many times.
In addition to 'instrumental' impacts, this collaboration also offers the chance for conceptual impacts, through embedding greater understanding of evidence and research and its potential value in practical decision-making.
The collaboration has been established with the enthusiastic support of the HCA and partners, at a time when their resources are very constrained, when difficult decisions require to be made and the need to maximise the benefit of public expenditure is higher than ever, and the organisation wishes to make the most of existing evidence. Academic researchers involved are also enthusiastic about this unusual opportunity to engage in dialogue and evidence interpretation with key public investment decision-making and to embed their evidence.
(Impact on academic beneficiaries is dicussed under its own heading)
The proposed collaboration involves working directly with key staff of the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), the national housing and investment agency for England, and two of its key partners, the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) and the Local Government Group (LGG). The HCA is a non-departmental public body and works with public and private sector partners, local authorities, housing associations, land owners, house builders and third sector organisations. Its role is to support the development of affordable housing and to support economic and social development. Over the period 2011-2015 it has a total budget of £8bn. The individuals who will be involved in the collaboration are involved in making very substantial public investment decisions, involving multi-million pound budgets, and implications for their areas and communities that may last for decades or centuries. Any sub-optimal decisions are very costly.
The collaboration aims to embed up-to-date and authoritative academic evidence base into the strategy and decision-making of key HCA staff throughout England, though intensive workshops between key HCA staff and a team of housing academics. The intention is that members will leave each session having had a substantial grounding in all available evidence relevant to a policy and decision area they themselves have selected as a priority. They will have had the opportunity to explore the evidence with some of the authors of the key research, and to discuss with researchers at length and in small groups the practical implications of the evidence for their own specific work. They will leave the session either with some plans for prioritising within or changing their own daily activities, or with increased confidence that their existing activities are congruent with the implications of the evidence base. The potential quantifiable monetary impact and social impacts through improved public investment are substantial. Even if only one land purchase, grant or redevelopment decision by one attendee is affected, the monetary and social benefit of an improved decision is likely to outweigh the costs of the collaboration many times.
In addition to 'instrumental' impacts, this collaboration also offers the chance for conceptual impacts, through embedding greater understanding of evidence and research and its potential value in practical decision-making.
The collaboration has been established with the enthusiastic support of the HCA and partners, at a time when their resources are very constrained, when difficult decisions require to be made and the need to maximise the benefit of public expenditure is higher than ever, and the organisation wishes to make the most of existing evidence. Academic researchers involved are also enthusiastic about this unusual opportunity to engage in dialogue and evidence interpretation with key public investment decision-making and to embed their evidence.
(Impact on academic beneficiaries is dicussed under its own heading)