By Heleena Panicker
Housing associations in the UK should expand their role to help people in deprived areas get into work or start their own businesses, according to a new whitepaper published by the University of East Anglia.
Titled “Housing Associations as Change Makers,” the report advocates for these organisations to go beyond their traditional role of providing affordable housing to become agents for driving local economic development and social inclusion.
However, the authors of the report said housing associations’ ability to undertake such a role is hampered by a post-Brexit funding crisis.
Housing associations relied heavily on EU funding streams, such as the European Social Fund (ESF) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Between 2014 and 2020, the UK was allocated €4.9 billion from the ESF and €5.8 billion from the ERDF.
They must now look to the UK government and other potential sources for support.
“They really need strong evidence basis in order to go to the UK government and say ‘we need other sources of funding’,” said Professor Zografia Bika, a co-author of the whitepaper.
The organisations are also struggling to cope with the chronic shortage of social housing. Over the past decade, England has seen a net loss of social housing nearly every year. In 2022, there were 1.4 million fewer households in social housing than in 1980.
The whitepaper builds on insights from the £10.8 million INCREASE Valorisation Sociale project, an EU-funded initiative from 2018 to 2023. This project helped over 4,500 social housing residents in England and France start businesses or find employment through tailored support services.
Another co-author, Adi Gaskell, explained that housing associations are ideally placed for such work. “[They] are embedded in local communities, have a great understanding of the challenges and needs of those communities, and have a degree of credibility because [they] are there for the long term,” he said.
The need for such initiatives is critical as the UK grapples with significant regional inequalities. Research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies shows that regional disparities in income and employment are among the highest in the developed world.
Feature Image: European Social Fund booth at Youth. Photo credit: Edu Van Gelder/Flickr