Housing and economic growth

Reported by: Meg Buckley, CSaP Policy Intern

Housing and economic growth

For our final Policy Fellows Seminar of the term, Dr Natalie Morningstar, an Affiliated Lecturer at the Department of Social Anthropology and Fellow at Fitzwilliam College at the University of Cambridge, led a discussion on growth strategies that prioritise housing and how policymaking influences public perception.

To open her talk, Dr Morningstar explained common methodology used in social anthropology studies and how it is distinct from other social sciences. She described how social anthropologists conduct interviews and study everyday life in informal spaces, which, in her recent work, has involved meeting people living in social housing in their homes. She explained that interviews are normally semi-structured, biographical or narrative, and the data extracted from them is entirely qualitative. Survey data can be used to complement interviews, in addition to media and social network analyses which are used to look at how people interact.

Dr Morningstar has been working on longitudinal studies on social housing regenerations in two cities in the UK and Ireland.

In one city, a social housing estate in a historically working-class area was regenerated following the 2008 financial crisis. Dr Morningstar heard from residents who described an influx of upwardly mobile young people moving into the area since the regeneration, which prioritised arts and culture. According to residents this led to difficulties. A lack of engagement with the local community created a divide between people who were already living there and the people who had moved there. This had other social consequences such as protests, and both housing and the cost-of-living repeatedly came up as key issues for voters during elections. Dr Morningstar highlighted a misalignment between the perceptions of the people who live in the social housing estate and the intentions of policy makers.

The second city told a different story. Here, a group of tenants were moved as part of a redevelopment of social housing. Residents were given an opportunity to work with the local government and the approach was more social values-based, encompassing health and education. This community felt involved with the process due to open communication channels with the local government and regular community consultations. In terms of policy implications, Dr Morningstar emphasised how this positive framework of a community-led redevelopment was important for residents to build trust with the local government.

To finish, Dr Morningstar explained how ‘solving housing’ could be a key to unlock and solve many other issues for social housing residents, including health, wellbeing and access to education or work. Dr Morningstar’s work is due to be published later in the year.

Photo by Marcus Lenk on Unsplash