Evidence for the cost effectiveness of our services

Evidence for potential savings through Community-Led Housing

The following is a list of benefits for which the Council could claim revenue savings through the enablement of community-led housing.

Public Health

Issue

a) Poor-condition housing costs the NHS around £1.4bn per year (Nicol et al 2015).

b) People’s need for statutory health and social care services is increased if they are lonely and socially isolated (Investing to Tackle Loneliness, UK Cabinet Office & NESTA, June 2015)

Opportunity

Reduced loneliness and higher well-being in co-operative and community-led housing (link)
Reduced loneliness results in fewer acute hospital admissions (Monbiot 2018)
Community-led housing can create a living environment where people are in frequent contact and “look out for each other” (Older Women’s Co-Housing)
Greater social cohesion and generation of social capital through co-operative and community-led models (Lang & Novy 2014)

Children’s Services

Issue

a) Pressure for Corporate Parent responsibilities, including internal and external placements from 2016/17 and expected increase in placements each year.

Opportunity

Greater levels of mutual support between residents, including young children and their parents through mixed tenure housing arranged as cohousing.
Children get a better start in life through a focus on planning and designing healthier housing. Cohousing has shown to offer a better physical environments for children to grow up. (YouTube link)
Greater focus on affordable housing in perpetuity, both for rent and ownership which is vital for families with young children (e.g. LILAC in Leeds)
Retaining much of the value that comes from development in the locality can fund quality infrastructure, affordable housing, and additional community benefits. It also enables investors and landowners to benefit from the creation of value over the long term.

Adult Social Care

Issue

a) Legal Recharges for Social Care - increasing number of cases

b) Predicted a continued increase in demand for social care and is budgeting accordingly

c) Increasing expenditure within the budgets for Older People.
d) Review the way respite is provided to focus more on alternatives to bed based respite i.e. increased care at home could provide more effective ways of ensuring carers get the breaks they need”
e) A reduction in care home admissions and better targeting of services to those who need them most could result from reviewing the placement strategy in extra care housing”

Opportunity
- Responsive to the changing needs of older residents
- Recent CLH schemes led by, and aimed specifically at, older people offer support networks to those who may otherwise find themselves living alone but do not want ‘paternalistic’ conventional housing for older people provided by Local Authorities or Charities (Scanlon and Arrigoitia 2015)
- Responsive to those living with disabilities (Coele 2014) particularly through cohousing models.
- Service provision statistics from community-led housing are generally as good as, if not better, than the best of other housing providers, with high satisfaction rates (Commission on Co-operative and Mutual Housing 2009)
- There is a growing demand for greater social and financial autonomy in later life which cohousing can offer. eg a mutual care home in Stroud.
- Community led housing schemes focus on keeping people well, living healthy, happy lives in their own communities, rather than in need of expensive, institution-based treatment and care. (Powerful Communities, Strong Economies, Locality)
- Cohousing may reduce, or offset, the need for residential care due to enabling active, independent ageing throughout life-stages. Downsizers have the option of remaining in their existing homes (HAPPI 2009)
- Cohousing for older people has advantages, such as age-friendly living environments, that help people self-care for longer and therefore avoid traditional kinds of care and support (Riseborough 2013).

Housing and Community Safety

Issue:

High turnover and over-crowding in poor quality private rented homes of multiple occupation causes neighbourhood problems

In one report by Exeter University comparing housing schemes across England, CLH residents had 40% more trust in local people, 4x more feel they have influence on decision, six times the number of friends and acquaintances, very little fear of crime and all reported higher levels of satisfaction with their local area (Clarke 2012).
Cohousing communities are more engaged in society (Brenton?) and form stronger bonds between neighbours (Wallace et al., 2013, p. 17, Schreurer et al., 2009)
CLH groups around the world are more engaged in political processes (Berggren 2013, Stephen Hill 2016
Good housing design contributes increased community cohesion and pride and reduced vandalism and crime
Collective builders put down deep roots and move on average every 25 years compared to the national average of 6 years.

Housing and Education

Issue: High vacancy rates in schools at all levels because of high housing costs (“Wheatley Park School headteacher Kate Curtis … told councillors staff were being driven out of Oxford due to high house prices … Oxford Spires Academy in East Oxford unveiled plans to build its own homes for teachers on the school site in a bid to attract talented staff” Oxford Mail, 30 Oct 2017).

a) SEN Home to School Transport - ongoing pressure from 2016/17 and expected demographic increase in each year.

CLTs could offer housing specifically restricted to teachers and other key employees.

Need help? Have any questions?

Whether you are a group, Local Authority, landowner or potential development partner please do get in touch with our dedicated community-led housing team.

Bibliography

Berggren HM (2013) Cohousing as Civic Society: Cohousing Involvement and Political Participation in Massachusetts Heidi M. Berggren University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth. New England Journal of Political Science 7(1): 21.

Chatterton P (2013) Towards an agenda for post-carbon cities: Lessons from lilac, the uk’s first ecological, affordable cohousing community. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 37(5): 1654–1674

Clarke, E., 2012. Ashley Vale Quality of Life Assessment 2012.

Choi M, Van Zandt S and Matarrita-Cascante D (2018) Can community land trusts slow gentrification? Journal of Urban Affairs. Routledge 40(3): 394–411.

Coele M (2014) Co-housing and intergenerational exchange: Exchange of housing equity for personal care assistance in intentional communities. Working with Older People 18(2): 75–81. (link 1) (link2)

Housing our Ageing Population: Panel for Innovation (HAPPI) (link)

Richard Lang & Andreas Novy (2014) Cooperative Housing and Social Cohesion: The Role of Linking Social Capital, European Planning Studies, 22:8, 1744-1764, (link)

Monbiot, G (2018) The town that’s found a potent cure for illness – community, The Guardian 21/02/2018 (link)

Mullins D and Sacranie H (2015) Building A Legacy: The Impact Of Empty Homes Community Grants Programme In The North East And Yorkshire And Humberside. .

Nicol S, Roys M, Garrett H and Building Research Establishment (2015) Briefing Paper: The Cost of Poor Housing to the NHS (link)

Oxfordshire County Council, Service and Resource Planning Medium Term Financial Plan 2017/18 - 2020/21, p9 (link)

Riseborough, M (2013), Work on the wild side: for commissioners and housing and social care providers, Housing LIN Cohousing Briefing Paper 2 https://www.housinglin.org.uk/_assets/Resources/Housing/Support_materials/Practice_briefings/HLIN_CohousingBriefing2_commissioners.pdf .

Scanlon, K and Arrigoitia Fernández, M (2015) Development of new cohousing: lessons from a London scheme for the over-50s. Urban Research & Practice 8(1).

Schreurer, J. and Newman, P. (2009) Vauban: A European Model Bridging the Green and Brown Agendas Case Study Prepared for the Revisiting Urban Planning: Global Report on Human Settlements. UN Habitat.

Investing to Tackle Loneliness, UK Cabinet Office & NESTA, June 2015

Leeds Empties: Social Impact and Social Value Evaluation Report for 2014-15, Real-Improvement 2015

Powerful Communities, Strong Economies The final report of the Keep it Local for Economic Resilience Action Research Project locality.org.uk

Stephen Hill 2016 PROPERTY, JUSTICE AND REASON - Reconnecting the Citizen and State through Community Land Trusts and Land Reform

Bringing Democracy Home published by the Commission on Co-operative and Mutual Housing ISBN 976-0-9564332-0-6 available at www.cch.coop/bringing-democracyhome 2009

Confederation of Cooperative Housing. The Case for Cooperative and Community Led Housing – The Evidence Base http://www.cch.coop/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/The-case-for-CCLH-evidence-base.pdf 2016