On 11 January 2018, LSE London launched the final report of the third of three Knowledge Exchange and Impact projects aimed at fostering debate between academics, practitioners, and government. The report, entitled A sustainable increase in London’s housing supply? was authored by Kath Scanlon, Christine Whitehead, and Fanny Blanc; click here to access the full report. The series that spawned this project started in September 2014 when the scale of the housing problem, and its extreme nature in London, was only just beginning to be realised.
The aim of all three projects has been to identify ways of accelerating residential development in London, to monitor how the system has been changing and to offer suggestions to policy makers and practitioners about how to encourage the positive and to overcome the barriers.
The approach is that of ‘knowledge exchange’ rather than traditional research. We have brought together expertise from across the spectrum — officials at all levels of government, developers both private and public, housing advocates, planners, and many others to debate and exchange ideas.
The programme has included:
- Round table discussions
- Consultations on the Housing White Paper; the election manifestos and the draft London Housing Strategy;
- Site visits to places showing interesting innovations in for example construction methods, land assembly, pace of development, tenure mix
- One-to-one interviews/conversations
- Presentations at conferences and industry events
- Comparative discussions with experts from other countries
The entire archive of the project can be found on this website, which includes blog posts, reports, presentations, podcasts, films, etc. This latest report emphasises our findings from these discussions and interactions but it also draws on our own research on many aspects of housing development especially in in London and of course on the very wide range of relevant literature published during the last few years.
Four attributes of LSE London underlie this work:
- We are independent researchers with no political axe to grind;
- We have an informed understanding of the issues involved, based on decades of research;
- We have close relationships with almost all relevant decision-making groups;
- We have a real-world familiarity with London.
The three-stage approach enabled up to build strong relationships with all groups involved in trying to increase and improve housing investment in London. It has also built up trust that we have a valuable role to play in continuing to clarify the relationships between policy and outcomes; to monitor progress; to identify not just continuing barriers but also in particular what is working and can be better supported; and to provide a platform for stakeholders to discuss tensions and opportunities in an independent environment.
Related documents and other outputs:
- Films
- A 21st Century Metropolitan Green Belt
- PLACE making: A modular approach to London’s housing shortage
- Enforcing the unenforceable: the hard work of two enforcement officers in London
- Discussing Planning Deregulation in London: Office Conversions and short-term lettings
- Creating communities in London’s new villages
- Podcast
- Reports
- ESRC Report – Cohousing: Shared Futures
- HEIF 5 Report – Accelerating housing production in London: Main findings
- HIEF 5 Report – Housing in London: Addressing the supply crisis
- Report by M. Fernaández Arrigoitia – Islington Park Street Community: A model for alternative housing in London
- LSE Report for Sutton Trust – Home Advantage: Housing the young employed in London
- Journal Article: Development of new cohousing: lessons from a London scheme for the over-50s
- HEIF 5 Research stream: Housing in London: Addressing the supply crisis – Alternative Housing
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