A number of recent publications, including the Food Foundation (2022) and a report published last month by the House of Commons Library, have highlighted that the cost-of-living crisis is disproportionately affecting low income households. Research by Fitzpatrick et. al. (2020) suggests that tenants in the Social Rented Sector are particularly exposed to the impact of the crisis, as it has the highest proportion (60%) of households of three principal housing sectors who may be described as being ‘destitute’ (i.e., unable to afford two or more of a basket of essential items). It, therefore, does not come as a surprise that social housing tenants are finding it increasingly difficult to pay their rent and sustain their tenancies. It is vital, then, to highlight through research their experiences, which is the focus of the 'Holding on to home: tenancy sustainment in social housing' study.
Category: Money
INVESTMENT ZONES – What are they, and will they work?
In its Growth Plan, published on 23 September, the Westminster government announced its intention to create Investment Zones across the whole of the UK. The label may be new, but the concept is not. At the core, the new Investment Zones are a new generation of Enterprise Zones – something that has been a feature of the UK’s economic development landscape since the 1980s.
UK Shared Prosperity Fund: Where do we stand following the White Paper?
Alongside the White Paper on Levelling Up published on 2 February, the government issued ‘pre-launch guidance’ on the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, intended to replace EU funding to the regions. Details of the UK SPF have been long-awaited, and the fund is intended to be up-and-running this spring. So where do we now stand?
THE COMMUNITY RENEWAL FUND: A WORRYING PRECEDENT
On 3 November the UK government announced a list of 477 successful bids into its new Community Renewal Fund (CRF). The fund supports investment in skills, local businesses, communities and place. The winners across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will share a total of £203m, all to be spent by the end of June 2022.
The demise of the high street: Britain’s new de-industrialisation
The changes in the retail character of our town and city centres may be as sweeping and significant in their way as the effects of de-industrialisation in the 1970s and 1980s, and similarly irreversible.
A Green Recovery will fail without rebuilding local capacity to deliver
The Covid-19 pandemic and related social and economic crises have prompted calls for governments to catalyse a green recovery. This blog aims to complement these proposals, drawing on a recent article written with Aidan While about the differential capacity to act on low carbon goals across people and places.
Gambling in Britain: Analogue Legislation in a Digital Age
The All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Gambling Related Harm’s Final Report into the Online Gambling Sector, which was published earlier this month, presents a roadmap for government, the Gambling Commission and industry to develop a safer and fairer gambling environment, and limit gambling-related harm in Great Britain. Writing in 2014, I noted how the rise in online gambling had made gambling opportunities more readily available to large swathes of the population, whilst simultaneously undermining many of the restrictions, player protection measures and responsible gambling strategies typically found in land based establishments. Over the last decade, online gambling has been a key propellant of citizens’ gambling expenditure, industry profits and state taxation revenues, with citizens losing £5.3 billion gambling remotely in 2019 alone.