| Issue |
Theme
- Foundations for the Future |
Factor - Sustainability
Tool Kit |
Definition |
| Buildings |
 |
|
This looks at estate renewal
strategies, asset management, adapting housing
stock, long-term issues for redevelopment and
achieving excellence in environmental performance. |
| Communities |
|
|
This looks at community development, resident
empowerment, local action, employment, urban
management, rural issues, transport & traffic,
support needed for different age groups,
and crime & anti-social behaviour. |
| Culture |
|
|
This looks at corporate and business planning,
maintaining value and culture. |
| Tenancies |
|
|
This looks at good landlord services and
delivery, supporting vulnerable tenants,
changing tenures and achieving sustainable
communities. |
| Demand for Housing |
|
|
The organisation of housing and facilities
has changed significantly in the past two
decades. The changing distribution of work
and the range of essential facilities and
services has placed a much greater emphasis
on households having access to transport.
The emergence of new Information and Communication
technologies is further likely to alter the
way services are delivered in communities.
Therefore, for a community to remain sustainable,
it is important that residents have access
to employment, services and facilities, consistent
with what most people would consider reasonable. |
| Reputation
(or image) of the community |
|
|
Criminality and anti-social activities are
regularly cited in surveys by tenants as
their most important concern about continuing
to live in a community. The adverse impacts
that activities such as drug dealing or petty
vandalism can have on the demand for housing
are obvious. The fear of crime is far more
prevalent than the experience of crime. For
sustainability, it is therefore important
to consider both actual levels and perceived
levels of crime. |
| Crime
and Anti-Social Behaviour |
|
|
The demand for housing is the principal measure
of community sustainability. Low demand for
social housing, when concentrated in a particular
community is a strong indication that it
is unsustainable. The long-term aspects of
demand have been emphasised by researchers
who have linked fundamental changes in the
economy, age structures and the aspirations
and consumption behaviour of tenants with
changes in social housing sustainability.
These latter features constitute a more strategic
influence on sustainability and are more
important in setting the context for social
housing development. |
| Social
exclusion and poverty |
|
|
Social cohesiveness is difficult to quantify,
but nonetheless frequently mentioned as an
important contributor to the health of a
community. Concepts, such as the friendliness
of residents or a sense of community may
be measures of the degree of mutual support
present in a community. The extent which
a resident can depend on neighbours to mind
a child in an emergency or the vigilance
of a homewatch group can make a community
an easier place in which to live and thereby
more attractive. |
| The
accessibility of employment, facilities
and services |
|
|
The pre-requisite of creating
communities with diverse tenures and diverse
types of households is almost received wisdom
within the social housing movement. It is said
that sustainability can be enhanced for example,
if developments avoid concentrations of low-income
households that are unable to provide sufficient
business to support local shops and leisure
facilities. However, this demonstrates that
it is the relationship between the composition
of the community and its facilities that is
important and not merely the concentration
of particular groups. The same applies to the
relationship between groups. Developments which
place youths and older people in close proximity
can be unsustainable. |
| The
quality of the community's built and green
environment |
|
|
The quality of a community's
environment consists of three elements. The
first is the state of the built environment,
that is the extent to which there are vandalised
or dilapidated buildings. The second concerns
the state of its green environment, including
the amounts and condition of green and brown
land available. The third is the degree to
which the community's environment is well maintained,
for example, via the removal of fly-tipped
rubbish. As many regeneration initiatives have
shown, addressing such environmental concerns
can substantially enhance the demand for housing. |
| The
quality, design and layout of housing |
|
|
The relationship between the
physical aspects of a community's housing,
its design, layout and build quality and the
sustainability of the demand for that property
is superficially simple. If accommodation is
too small or otherwise does not match households'
requirements, the demand for that accommodation
will be less sustainable. However, it is important
to recognise that the physical suitability
of property also depends on the effective delivery
of complementary supporting services, for example,
concierges for tower blocks. |
| The
extent of social cohesion |
|
|
Housing management staff emphasise
the weight accorded by tenants to the reputation
or image a community possesses. Often a community's
reputation will simply be a reflection of the
failure of agencies to deliver on other factors.
However, positive or adverse reputations can
eventually become an important influence on
the demand to live in a community, particularly
amongst applicants, regardless of the original
conditions, which produced that reputation. |
| The
mix of the community |
|
|
Social exclusion and poverty
are highly correlated with residents' dissatisfaction
with their community. Poverty can undermine
a community's attractiveness by eroding residents'
ability to maintain their properties or support
local facilities like shops and clubs. It can
also affect other features that contribute
to attractiveness, such as the performance
of local schools. |
