Exploring Design Measures for Sustainable Affordable Housing in UK

This research report summarizes key findings on social housing in the UK, advocating for government investment in sustainable and affordable housing to support low-income individuals and first-time buyers. It emphasizes refurbishment over demolition for upgrading existing housing stock and highlights the role of Housing Associations in providing affordable homes. The research uses secondary data, including case studies and literature, alongside qualitative questionnaires to explore design measures for sustainable and affordable social housing, particularly in the UK, examining issues like housing ownership, physical conditions, financing, and social aspects, while also considering the impact of refurbishment versus demolition in addressing the housing crisis.

Running head: SOCIAL HOUSING
Social Housing
An exploration into design measures for affordable housing sustainability
By
USMAN YAKASAI
S14145037
BNV6115 Honors Research Project A
Birmingham City University
2017/8

1
SOCIAL HOUSING
Abstract
This research paper summarizes the key findings of research into UK’s social housing. It was
found out during the sturdy that the UK government should invest in sustainable and affordable
social housing so as to take care of poor individuals, first time buyers, and the people of low
income rate who cannot afford basic houses. Also, it was found out that refurbishment of houses
in poor conditions in order to upgrade them is more important than conducting demolition of
such houses so as to rebuild new ones. The project of investing in sustainable and affordable
social housing is part of the larger programs of this research as it provides an independent
evaluation of social housing in the cities such as Birmingham. The research mainly relied on
secondary data like case studies and literatures talking about social housing in UK to attempt
answering the research questions. The interviews were also conducted through qualitative
questionnaires to explore several design measures for providing sustainable and affordable social
housing particularly in the United Kingdom

2
SOCIAL HOUSING
Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction................................................................................................................................4
1.1 Problem Statement.....................................................................................................................5
1.2 Research Background................................................................................................................6
1.3 Aims and Objectives................................................................................................................10
1.4 Research Significance..............................................................................................................11
2.0 Literature Review....................................................................................................................12
2.1 Concept of Social and Affordable Housing.............................................................................12
2.2 Economic Analysis of the Problem.........................................................................................13
2.3 Addressing the problems with affordable housing..................................................................15
2.4 Statistical analysis of the affordable housing in London.........................................................16
2.5 Affordable Housing for vulnerable and lower income people................................................18
2.6 Planning systems and ‘sustainable' housing development in UK............................................19
2.7 Case Study of Cressingham Gardens on Social Housing........................................................20
2.8 Case Study of Central Hill.......................................................................................................21
2.9 Gap in the literature.................................................................................................................22
3.0 Methodology............................................................................................................................23
3.1 Research Approach and Justification.......................................................................................23
3.2 Research strategy.....................................................................................................................24
3.3. Research scope........................................................................................................................24
4.0 Results......................................................................................................................................25
5.0 Discussion................................................................................................................................34
6.0 Conclusion...............................................................................................................................34

3
SOCIAL HOUSING
References......................................................................................................................................37

4
SOCIAL HOUSING
1.0 Introduction
The majority housing providers in UK are the Housing associations (HAs) and they
provide some 10% of the Total housing stock in the country. This number has indeed exceeded
the number of houses being provided by the UK local authorities based on the scale of new
developments and the total number of homes developed during the last few years (Homes and
Communities Agency 2015). The Housing Associations (HAs) are non-profit organizations and
their main objectives and goals are to provide sustainable and affordable social housing for
vulnerable and lower income households in the United Kingdom. Housing Associations (HAs)
have always existed in different forms for the last 20 years (Homes and Communities Agency.
2015).
Nonetheless, the Housing associations (HAs) were only effective in providing sustainable
and affordable social housing in UK during the year 1970s the time when the government started
providing them with substantial amount of capital subsidies to enable them expand investing in
such sustainable and affordable social housing using the government finance and their own
capital. However, at the end of 1980s, another big change was experienced when the
Conservative Government decided to restrict borrowings of the local authorities so as to only
support the Housing Associations (HAs)’s new investment initiative of providing provide
sustainable and affordable social housing for the vulnerable and lower income households. This
Conservative Government’s support helped the Housing Associations (HAs) in setting their rents
to at least balance their budgets and to cover costs. This also gave them an opportunity of
borrowing from the financial markets against these rents (Capital Economics 2015).

5
SOCIAL HOUSING
The borrowings enabled Housing Associations (HAs) to build houses in areas of need
and provide sustainable and affordable social housing for the vulnerable and lower income
households in these areas. The only challenge was that Housing Associations (HAs) was forced
to participate in a greater competitive market with more capital investment. For several decades
now, the UK’s government borrowing rate has fallen to merely below 25% as compared to
during the year 1988s when it was over 90%. This shows a great effort even by the government
itself to provide social housing especially to the vulnerable and lower income people. Presently,
the Housing associations (HAs) do not get a direct subsidy for borrow the houses with affordable
prices. However, they gained funds from private borrowing and Housing associations (HAs)
reserves (Whitehead, & Williams, 2011). It is obvious that the UK’s regime of 1988s had several
safeguards in providing social housing and one of them was to strengthen a regulatory
framework that would meet prudential targets by controlling standards in the whole country. In
fact, the Housing benefits which were then called income related housing allowances effectively
made the income stream for house owners very secure by providing safety net for the tenants.
This framework has indeed remained active until today regardless of the increasing financial
challenges like financing mechanisms and several housing policy changes over the years in UK.
This research was fundamentally very important as it enable me to know how the social housing
providers make decisions associated to the provision of affordable housing in the United
Kingdom.
1.1 Problem Statement
The housing problem in the United Kingdom has been categorized into four aspects
including the problem of housing ownership, social problems, and physical and financing
problems (Inside Housing. 2015). The housing ownership problem comprise of uncertainty of the

6
SOCIAL HOUSING
future of council housing, the emerging housing roles of private for profit developers as well as
steady increase of housing associations. On the other hand, the physical problems associated
with social housing in UK include high demand for more houses, poor condition of council
house estates and low quality of the newly constructed housing association stock. Consequently,
the problems associated with financing comprise of housing benefits and private capital
financing as well as the issues to do with rent setting. Finally, the problems associated with
social issues include demographic changes, anti-social behaviors, social exclusion and rights of
tenants with regards to social housing. The high cost of housing in London is a universally
accepted problem for the people who are living and walking there. Some of the attributes of
such problem are the insufficient length and the behaviour of the developers, which include
slower approach for building the houses and prioritizing overseas buyers. It has been observed
that the decline in the public sector house building imposed considerable challenges along with
the improper behaviour of the landlords. However, it was also observed that the demand and
supply have not been repealed yet. The housing market of London has been restricted due to the
rising demand of the houses which results the eventual growth in the prices. Therefore, the focus
of the research is to answer some of the questions arise with regards to these physical issues.
1.2 Research Background
Social housing is one of the basic needs as stated by Maslow. According to Maslow
(1970), physiological needs are very important because they are meant for bodily comforts and
for survival. Such needs also go along with the safety needs, and other needs such as
belongingness and love needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization needs. Therefore, even if the
other needs are as well important as stated by Maslow, but housing said to be more important
more than others in that pyramid (Maslow, 1970). The housing strategies being implemented in

7
SOCIAL HOUSING
some parts of UK like London and Birmingham aim at providing basic and affordable
housing/shelter for the vulnerable and lower income population. The local authorities and
national government aim at helping as many families as they can get basic shelter as well as
ensuring their security, sense of belonging and comfort as stated by Maslow. However, majority
of people have abandoned these settlements as they found then not able to satisfy other needs
outlined in the Maslow’s pyramid.
With regards to Maslow (1970), just being able to access basic housing alone is not
enough, instead such housing units must also be able to make a person feel secured and feel
comfortable. Moreover, a house must be a place of peace and through it individuals can have a
sense of identity. In this regard, the concept of social housing aims at giving every individual of
the United Kingdom especially the vulnerable and low income families to have basic housing
that are secure, safe and are able to encourage their friendships and relationships as well as
stimulating their feelings so as to achieve self-fulfillment. Provision of affordable social housing
is said to be one of the biggest concern for the tenants in UK (Standard and Poor, 2012). This
means that the tenants are likely to feel they are living in livable place in case there is sustainable
housing.
Refurbishment vs. demolition
Demolishing is another specific aspects associated with the housing crisis in London. it
concentrates on making way for high standardized Urban Development, which is presented in a
simplified way however the argument associated on the reasoning develops and interpretation,
which indicates that the social housing stock is not maintained properly and quite expensive to
fix. On the other hand, social housing estate requires large areas of land, which could be used in

8
SOCIAL HOUSING
a better way and it would be free from the social deprivation. It is associated with more political
debates which need to be explained with the technical evidence and analysis.
In the year of 2014 the engineering exchange at UCL undertook a review of the technical
evidence which represents the demolition and refurbishment of social housing. The developed
understanding regarding the environmental economic and health factor with a particular
emphasize on Carbon and energy. The purpose of this project was to synthesize the appropriate
evidence in terms of benefits cost and wider impacts for the future prospects. The outcome of
the project provided a range of formats that helped in making relevant decisions based on the
specific regeneration projects as well as the wider policy debate in London.
In comparing refurbishment and demolition, refurbishment is said to be more effective
than demolition because refurbishment does not lead to displacement or unsettling of residents as
opposed to demolition that will obviously disrupt, unsettle and displace the residents in the
process. Refurbishment is also said to be cost-effective and faster process as compared to
demolition and re-constructing the houses which might consume a lot of time and a lot of
resources at the same time. In this regard, the refurbishment of Cressingham Gardens and Central
Hill Estates might have been the most effective and valid option of the housing stock since it
does not lead to displacement or unsettling of residents of these estates as opposed to demolition
process might have led to displacement of people to live as their houses are being rebuilt (Bowie,
Farfel, Moran, 2005).
National estate regeneration strategy that is eviction, demolition and rebuilding for private
market

9
SOCIAL HOUSING
Lee (2018) argues that estate regeneration has been a more fractious word in London
Housing debate than ever. According to him, issues to do with expensive land and homes are
deeply interfering with social housing. This is also interferes with the city’s contrasting both as a
berth for international capital and as a functioning city (LEE (2018). Therefore, it makes the
development of the city even more difficult as well. The author is highly opposed to knocking
down of the whole neighborhood which he states is highly unpleasant for the residents. Both the
contractors and architects usually lied to the residents about regeneration of their estates and this
according to the author causes more confusion (Lee 2018). According to Dening and Elmer
(2017), good estate regeneration needs a co-design with the neighbors, residents, developers,
architects, future residents and the entire local planners’ fraternity. These people must
collaborate and work out a scheme together over a humble time to make estate regeneration more
successful (Dening and Elmer, 2017). The authors are opposed to the standard method where the
architects just design a scheme and thereafter asking some questions which according to them are
inconsequential. They are indeed opposed to eviction, demolition and rebuilding for private
markets which they argue is not the correct approach of either improving quality of housing or
providing social housing. They argue that estate regeneration must put the residents living in
those houses first.
Arguments based on demolition
Several arguments have been put forward with respect to demolition of houses in London
ant its neighborhoods. Mccall and Mooney (2018) argue that knocking down of the current poor
condition council’s houses and re-constructing high density houses that have mixed tenures will
help increase the number of social housing that satisfies the needs of the residents in the city
(Mccall and Mooney, 2018). The authors suggest that during this process, all the affected

10
SOCIAL HOUSING
residents can just get housed elsewhere either within the city villages or in the new houses. The
London city villages include all types of housing such as private housing and social housing
which are either rented or sold at the open market housing prices in London (Mccall and
Mooney, 2018). The authors argue that creation of low density houses in London is no longer
necessary because the population of London has grown past 2 million that it used to be during
the year 1939. Regardless of the London population reaching its high, the London councils’
houses only form 25% to 30% of the city houses which according to them needs to get increased.
This is the reason why the council is indeed in a position of demolishing the current low density
houses and replacing them with the high density ones (Mccall and Mooney, 2018). On the other
hand, Dubé et al. (2018) hold a contrary opinion and they argue that the council needs to
concentrate on refurbishment and remodeling swathes of housing stocks as opposed to
demolition which cause several problems to the residents in terms of being displaced to look for
new housing which sometimes prove costly to them (Dubé et al. 2018). The authors argue that
instead of undertaking demolition, the London city council should just add some 40,000 or
50,000 houses on top of the ones already existing to cater of the social housing high demand.
They have it that almost 40,000 council estates are available within London; however, only 100
have been redeveloped to provide sustainable and affordable housing for the vulnerable and
lower income individuals.
1.3 Aims and Objectives
The aim of the research is to identify the effective method of developing the sustainable
housing in UK. The study also attempts to focus on the underlying issues faced by the new
buyers due to the higher prices of houses.

11
SOCIAL HOUSING
i. To find out the appropriate measures that the local authorities, government and social
housing providers could use to increase the number houses currently available in the
major cities?
ii. To find out the best method between refurbishment and demolition to be used to improve
conditions of poor social houses in the major cities?
iii. To find out what to be done to provide sustainable and affordable houses?
Research Questions
i. What are measures to be taken by the local authorities, government and social housing
providers so as to increase the number houses currently available in the major cities?
ii. Which method between refurbishment and demolition should the local
authorities/councils use to improve conditions of poor social houses in the major cities?
iii. What can be done by the social housing providers so as to provide sustainable and
affordable houses?
1.4 Research Significance
The research study would develop the understanding of the UK social housing that
creates the greater impact on the first time buyers or other who seek purchasing the house in UK.
The study reflects the emerging issues with the social housing. Based on the defined problem
statement, the literature study would be developed by connecting the relevant case studies. The
information obtained from the research would generate the idea about the social housing issues
that create impact on the purchasing behaviour of the new buyers, regular buyers, and the buyers
from different country. The idea of the real estate business in UK would also be developed
through the appropriate analysis of the study.