This research considers the role of local authorities in directly delivering new housing.
As increasingly recognised across the main political parties and commentators, one major reason for the 'housing crisis' is that local authorities ceased their role of direct housing providers in the 1980s. Since then, the shortfall in housing provision has mirrored the scale of the former local authority contribution to the market.
In 2017 and 2019 the RTPI published two pieces of research to explore how local authorities are returning to housebuilding in England. The ultimate aim is to understand the role of planning in facilitating the delivery of affordable and high quality housing by local authorities. This will mean we can (1) develop practice advice to promote best practice, and (2) develop recommendations for policymakers and other stakeholders to enable local authority housebuilding to flourish.
Both phases of the research were led by Professor Janice Morphet and Dr Ben Clifford at The Bartlett School of Planning, University College London. The first phase was sponsored by RTPI along with the National Planning Forum. The second phase was funded by RTPI, RTPI North East, RTPI North West, RTPI West Midlands and RTPI South East.
On November 2019 we published practice advice for planners based on this research.
Phase 2 (2018-19): Local authority direct provision of housing: continuation research
The second phase of this research describes the scale and range of local authority delivery and provides learning on delivery, outcomes and best practice. It is a mixture of desk research, roundtables in every English region with local authority planners, and 13 case studies of particular local authorities.
- Final report for Local authority direct provision of housing: continuation research (July 2019)
- Summary report (June 2019)
- Video of presentation of findings at launch event in Manchester (June 2019)
- Table of each local authority's direct delivery (April 2019)
Phase 1 (2017): Motivations, methods and means
Local authority direct provision of housing final report (Dec 2017)
The research team can be contacted at: [email protected]
