
By Rosie Longden, Head of Community Investment, Great Places Housing Group
The story of social housing in Britain is one that’s worth knowing: a grand narrative that tells us what type of society we are; and which charts our economic and social journey from the ideological roots of “homes fit for heroes” in 1919, through to the ashes of the Grenfell tower.
It’s a story of how millions of British people were provided with the stability of knowing that their home was theirs for as long as they wanted it, the foundations on which they could build education, a decent job, and a good life for their children.
While the number of people living in socially rented housing has fallen considerably since the supply peaked in 1981 at almost 5.5 million homes, 16% of the population now live in housing association or council-owned properties. And with 1.24 million households on local authority waiting lists, demand well outstrips supply and ensures that only those in the most vulnerable circumstances are allocated a home, most often in the most economically deprived neighbourhoods in the UK.
Unsurprisingly then, we know that social housing tenants are twice as likely as the general population to be out of work and to face multiple barriers to employment. Even when in work, they are earn less than those in other tenures and are more likely to work in lower skilled jobs.
Further, the national employment picture is really quite dire. The number of people who are economically inactive is spiralling, combined with a cooling labour market and the aftermath of the 2024 Autumn budget which set out plans to raise employers’ contributions to National Insurance rates, expected by the OBR to be largely funded by employers squeezing pay. At the time of writing, we await the government’s white paper, Get Britain Working, which is expected to outline a strategy to reach 80% employment by the end of the parliament.
And yet, intervention after intervention, programme after programme is delivered to help people find work, 49 of them in England alone, worth £20 billion. Something isn’t working.
On 20th June 2006, a social policy researcher, James A. Riccio addressed an obscure sub-committee of Congress and shared compelling evidence about a programme that he had meticulously monitored and evaluated over the previous decade. The programme, JobsPlus, had been trailed across six American cities, targeting those living in public housing and resulted in “substantial and enduring”increases in participants’ earnings and employment opportunities. The model worked, Riccio said, in different cities with different demographics of residents, and in both good and bad economic times.
JobsPlus, he explained, was based on the principle of saturation of a culture of work in a neighbourhood, with convenient employment and skills support in the centre of the public housing estate. The services were available to everyone, and included neighbour-to-neighbour information sharing and other benefits and incentives, making working families the norm.
The evidence convinced policymakers to roll-out the model in the years that followed; since 2015 the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has awarded over $136 million through 56 grants to Public Housing Authorities to implement the Jobs Plus Program.
In 2023, 4,500 miles across the Atlantic, the JobsPlus model found its way to The Work and Pensions Select Committee, which recommended its trial in the UK, testing the relationship between the Department for Work and Pensions and housing associations in delivering this place-based intervention. Another 166 miles, from Whitehall to Wybourn, and the model has now launched in Sheffield, one of 10 pilot sites funded by the Labour Market Evaluation and Pilots Fund and managed by Learning and Work Institute with support from Communities that Work, the Institute for Employment Studies (IES) and MDRC.
Delivered by Great Places, in partnership with local third sector partners, JobsPlus is already showing promising signs of success six months in, with more than 40 residents already engaged with the programme. Delivered from the Pat Midgely Community Hub, a centre owned and managed by Great Places, our employment coaches work with local residents from Wybourn, providing opportunities for learning, self-employment and finding work. Using the principles of JobsPlus, we’ve also employed three local residents to work as Community Champions, saturating the neighbourhood with information and connecting people who ordinarily wouldn’t engage with employment programmes. On a recent visit, I chatted to Daine, 23, one of our Community Champions, who brims with the type of confidence and energy that is infectious. She tells me she bumped in to one of our JobsPlus participants in a local shop, “I said to her, I’ve been trying to get in contact with you! And do you know what, she called me back the next day!”. A promising start, I think.
So, is JobsPlus a panacea for the employment crisis? And can place-based interventions succeed where national programmes haven’t? Our pilot year will give us an indication of what works, and what doesn’t. What is clear though, is that Housing Associations across the UK remain committed to realising the ideological vision of our sector: a safe, decent home for those who need it, and the support and opportunities to thrive.
References
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (2017-21), Table 104: by tenure, England (historical series), last updated May 2020
Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Social housing lettings in England, tenants: April 2022 to March 2023
Building opportunity: How social housing can support skills, talent and workforce development, Learning & Work Institute 2022
Ibid.
Resolution Foundation Briefing October 2024
Local Government Association, Work Local: Our employment and skills offer to a new Government to boost inclusive growth (2024)
Jobs-Plus: A Promising Strategy for Increasing Employment and Self-Sufficiency Among Public Housing Residents Presented Before the Subcommittee on Federalism and the Census, House Committee on Government Reform James A. Riccio, Director Low-Wage Workers and Communities, MDRC June 20, 2006
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Jobs Plus Initiative Program
Learning and Work Institute https://shorturl.at/otyxM