Housing Benefit – who really benefits?
This week has seen yet another TV exposé on rogue landlords, this time by BBC Panorama “The Great Housing Benefit Scandal” aired on 20 April. Whilst, as in all good exposé investigative journalism, extremes have been shown, there can be no question however that the landlords shown in this film are providing very poor quality…
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Re-uniting mothers and children
Local Re-Unite successes Gloucestershire and Derby sit at two ends of the Re-Unite spectrum. Louise’s* life has been transformed – from a difficult childhood in Gloucestershire and a subsequent custodial sentence, she has now been re-united with her young son and is moving on in her life. A five bed house in Derby recently became…
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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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