Housing, planning and development

Our housing, planning and development research team works closely with national government, local authorities, social and private sector landlords, planning consultants, developers and leading academics, providing research into the most important issues and giving voice to a range of different audiences.

We provide services ranging from tried and tested surveys, to cutting-edge and innovative consultation methods, meaning our clients benefit from our wealth of experience and our unrivalled knowledge across the housing and development sector.

Local and national housing

From measuring tenant satisfaction on behalf of large and small social landlords to evaluating policy initiatives, we are ideally placed to provide a range of innovative and bespoke research services. For us, it is not just about measuring satisfaction levels but understanding resident needs, aspirations and, above all, assessing what this means for the landlord. With increasing restraints on spending alongside continued expectations that tenants’ needs will be met, there is no more important time than now to understand, not only what tenants think of their landlord, but also what they want to see prioritised and what this means for measuring performance.

Our national and regional housing research covers the most important issues facing the housing sector today. Expansion of housing choices, reform of Housing Benefit and affordability within the property market, are just some of the key issues we are researching. Our research expertise around the intermediate housing market, attitudes to tenure and the role of the private rented sector has been widely used across government departments. We work with a range of clients to 'test', scope and evaluate housing policy using primary quantitative and qualitative social research.

Planning and development

We understand the role that effective research and consultation can play in setting and adapting regional and local plans, and shaping residential and commercial development projects. Our experience extends to using research to monitor and improve the effectiveness of development/regeneration projects and programmes at local, regional and national level.

Among the key issues that we think about is how best to involve local people in development decisions (a key focus of the Government’s agenda). Research can also support environmental impact analysis, planning, land development practice, historic preservation, infrastructure assessment, and development impact analysis.

We are able to combine research expertise on planning and development issues with a wider knowledge-base covering employment & training, education, crime and health. This helps to place regeneration and development areas and schemes in a wider context to assist in designing, managing and evaluating them.