What’s on the horizon?
In 2015 we will examine ideas for possible new projects to tackle social injustices, areas where Commonweal Housing’s unique approach might help to make a real difference. Release on temporary licence We want to level the playing field so that all prisoners who are eligible for temporary release are given the opportunity to do so.…
Read MoreNot guilty but still punished – report
We have recently commissioned Professor Anne Power and Dr Bert Provan at the London School of Economics (LSE) to report on the housing challenges faced by many victims of Miscarriages of Justice. The report, to be presented to minsters following the general election, will call for policy and operational change in the treatment of individuals…
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An international insight – altruism in Jordan
A local bus station in Jordan’s capital city of Amman served as the meeting point for myself and twelve others from across the globe. We would then take a 30 minute drive to the residential area of Al Zarqa – Jordan’s second city and our home for the next 2 weeks. We were to spend…
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Build lives as well as homes
Social investment – focusing on the social impact as much as any financial return – is not new to housing. From the likes of William Hesketh Lever developing a model village for his Sunlight soap factory workers in 1888 to the Cadbury brothers in Bourneville, this Victorian philanthropy – enlightened self-interest perhaps – spawned the social…
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Innovative Investment Report out now
Our new report ‘Innovative Investment’ (#SocialInvestCH) is out today – Tuesday 25 November. The report argues that social investment should be used to fund Innovative and even untested housing schemes. This timely report comes at a time of growth in the Social Investment sector and of an increasing unaffordable housing market. Yes this may be a more risky…
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The social investment arguments are not black and white
It was reported in October that at a recent event Kathy Evans, CEO at Children England, said social finance is “absolutely the wrong thing” for the voluntary sector. She went on to say that the voluntary sector is the only part of British society not yet “saddled with debt” and that pursuing a social finance…
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