| Issue |
Theme - Foundations for the Future |
Factor - Sustainability Tool Kit |
Description |
| 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 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.
|
| Reputation
(or image) of the community |
|
|
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.
|
| Crime
and Anti-Social Behaviour |
|
|
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.
|
| Social
exclusion and poverty |
|
|
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.
|
| The
accessibility of employment, facilities
and services |
|
|
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. |
| 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 |
|
|
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
mix of the community |
|
|
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. |
