The Housing and Neighbourhoods Monitor, produced for the JRF by a team of researchers from Manchester University, Glasgow University and Ulster University, analyses key housing and neighbourhood trends across the UK. The report highlights the following areas of concern:
• There are shortages in housing in many parts of the country particularly in southern Wales, large parts of southern and central England and Northern Ireland
• Inequality between areas is a major concern. For example: house prices in South East and South West England are ten times average household incomes in many neighbourhoods.
• Housing supply and affordability will continue to be a problem due to the economic downturn and a projected increase in household numbers.
Complementing the report, the JRF has established a free website at www.hnm.org.uk that brings together a wide range of housing and neighbourhood trends for the whole of the UK for the first time. The site provides detailed Google Maps and a series of charts, enabling users to examine a wide range of information for their locality, such as housing supply, affordability, new build rates, educational attainment and economic activity.
Many of the issues highlighted by the Housing and Neighbourhood Monitor such as supply and demand and housing affordability are being examined in more depth by JRF’s Housing Market Taskforce. Established in July to look into the root causes of instability in the housing market, it will provide a series of recommendations in late 2010.
