Latest news

The Healthier Housing Partnership Feb 27

Richard Turkington acts as co-ordinator for this partnership of academics and practitioners which is committed to promoting healthier housing and raising the standard of existing and new housing https://www.healthierhousing.co.uk/

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Our new paper 'Better Housing for Better Health' has just been published, it sets out the facts of unhealthy housing, the need for action and what can be done to improve poor housing.

Better Housing for Better Health: Our New Report - February 2023 (healthierhousing.co.uk)

 

 

Further Study of Rural Housing Need in King's Lynn and West Norfolk Apr 5

After the success of our research project for the Holkham Estate and Wells Town Council to assess rural housing need in an area of North Norfolk, we have been commssioned to undertake an assessment in Burnham Market and 8 adjacent parishes.

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This is a further collaboration with the expert market research agency Qa Research who will be managing the delivery of a postal survey targeted at all residential households. An analysis of demographic and housing market patterns and trends will provide a context for understanding the survey findings.

A Major Study of Housing Need in North Norfolk Mar 5

Commissioned by the Holkham Estate in partnership with Wells Town Council through its Neighbourhood Planning Group, we have undertaken a comprehensive assessment of the need for housing in the 5 adjacent parishes of Well-next-the-Sea, Holkham, Walsingham, Warham and Wighton.

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The project consisted of four consecutive stages as follows:

1. a Housing Needs Assessment profiling demographic and housing market patterns and trends across the 5 parishes in the context of the North Norfolk District;

2. a series of telephone interviews with major employers in the area to gain their views concerning the need for housing and its consequences;

3. an online survey of the views of local employees concerning the localneed for housing, and

4. a postal survey of 2,500 households in the area to identify their housing needs.

The project has provided a comprehensive analysis of current and emerging needs and identified specific requirements associated with young families and the growing older population. 

Richard Turkington joins the Board of 'Care and Repair England' Jun 26

The director of Housing Vision is delighted to announce that he has been invited to join the Board of 'Care and Repair England'.

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Care & Repair England is a small, national charitable organisation set up in 1986 to improve the homes and living conditions of older people. It believes that all older people should be able to live in a decent home of their own choosing and strives to:

Ensure that more older people can live independently and with dignity in their own homes for as long as they wish.

Connect housing, health and social care in ways that improve older people’s whole quality of life.

Work with older people to influence decisions about housing & the related services which affect their lives.

Richard is hoping to contribute his understanding of the housing system and his longstanding experience as a housing researcher.

 

Chris Watson, 1940 - 2019 Jun 26

We are sad to announce the loss from cancer of our good friend, colleague and Company Secretary, Chris Watson.

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Chris was a mentor and guiding hand to Housing Vision and especially to its Director, Richard Turkington, from its inception in 2001. Chris began his career as a geographer at Kings College, University of London and following posts at the University of Sussex and with the civil service in Edinburgh, he moved to Birmingham as a Research Fellow at the Centre for Urban and Regional Studies (CURS). He was Director of CURS from 1987-93 and continued to work there for the next 45 years, he never really retired. Following its dissolution, he helped to maintain the CURS ethos by actively supporting the establishment of the ‘Housing and Communities Research Group’ and its associated Network.

Chris was appointed the University’s Director of International Affairs from 1984-94 and Director of the Japan Centre from 1993-2002 where he continued to build links with Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea and across South East Asia which remain to this day.

He was an active member of the European Network for Housing Research from its inception in the 1980s, attending annual conferences and coordination committee meetings, and winning friends across the continent with his understated diplomacy. Until 2018, he was a co-ordinator of the Working Group on Housing in Developing Countries and supported the development of the Asia-Pacific Network for Housing Research.

He was an outstanding academic with a keen awareness of the importance of engaging with policy and practice. He was actively involved with many locally based housing associations but retained a critical detachment and recognised that ‘big is not always beautiful’. He remained an advocate of urban renewal, recently reminding UK and European audiences of the adverse consequences for public health and social equality of not renewing our older housing stock.

There is an absolute consistency in the tributes paid to him from across the world and these quotes capture some of his finest qualities:

‘Chris had a quiet determination and an absolute commitment to the highest professional standards’.

‘Chris was renowned for his friendliness, his warmth, his calm and his kindness, especially through his support for students and colleagues’.

‘Chris is one of those rare and treasured people whose gentle manner, kindness and advice I found to be always uplifting’.

‘Diplomacy and dinners are something I associate with Chris’.

Chris enjoyed life and especially travel and good food, he had a great sense of fun and loved company, he was a gentleman and a gentle man who has touched so many lives.