Hannah Rich is a Senior Research Officer at Shelter. Learn more about the project discussed in this blog and what is coming next by joining our online event ‘More than Bricks: the benefits of social homes’ on Thursday 13 Nov 3pm-4pm GMT – sign up on Eventbrite.

Homelessness costs millions every day  

There is a worsening housing emergency that is costing the government and councils millions every day. The latest government figures on homelessness show that there are now over 172,000 children who are homeless in temporary accommodation in England. This is an 8% increase in a year and the highest number since records began 21 years ago. At the same time, spend on temporary accommodation has increased by 25% in a year and reached £2.8 billion in 2024/25.    

We must build a new generation of social homes to address the worsening housing emergency. The government’s commitment to deliver 180,000 grant-funded social rent homes as part of the new 10-year Social and Affordable Homes Programme is a very welcome announcement (18,000 per year on average). But the government must ramp up to deliver 90,000 social rent homes per year over 10 years to end the housing emergency.  

New findings from ground-breaking research project 

To make the case for a significant ramp up in the delivery of social rent homes, we want to show the benefits of living in social housing. That’s why Shelter is working with IKEA to carry out a ground-breaking longitudinal research project looking at the impact of moving into a new social home.  

The research is focused on people who have moved from a private rented home or from being homeless, including living in temporary accommodation. We’re working with HACT (Housing Associations’ Charitable Trust) to survey the same social tenants up to four times over 12 months. The survey explores the impact on people’s health, wellbeing, employment and financial situation and children’s lives.  

In September, Shelter published the first findings from the project. The report, More than Bricks, shares emerging findings which show the benefits tenants experience just three months after moving into a new social home. The findings show three key changes:  

• The positive impact on people’s health and wellbeing due to reduced stress, better sleep and improved eating habits.  

• Immediate improvements to people’s ability to afford essentials, reduce their debt and plan for their future.  

• Having more space for children to play and a greater sense of belonging.   

The research project will continue to gather evidence on the impact of moving into a social rent home. We will gather insights from new social tenants to build an evidence base about the medium and long-term benefits. 

The cost of inaction  

As well as benefits to individuals, we know that building social housing benefits the economy and wider society. The economic benefits include creating new jobs and generating savings for public services as people move into an affordable and stable home.  

More than Bricks includes new economic analysis to understand the societal impact if we don’t build enough social housing. This new analysis shows that not delivering social homes at scale has significant economic consequences. Not ramping up to deliver 90,000 social rent homes per year over 10 years would lead to a cost of £117 billion in the first decade, including £64 billion in direct costs to the government.  

Social rent homes provide significant immediate benefits to people’s lives due to moving into a stable and affordable home. There are also significant costs to the government and key public services if social rent delivery remains low and households remain in poor quality and expensive homes, including temporary accommodation costs remaining high. 

CaCHE webinar to delve into research  

We’re excited to be collaborating with CaCHE to organise a webinar to delve into the longitudinal research project in more detail. In the webinar we will: 

• Provide a deeper dive into the longitudinal research findings on the benefits of social homes  

• Share insights on the methodology and learnings so far 

• Delve into how we’ve worked with people with lived experience to design and deliver the project, including setting up a panel of social tenants.  

Catherine Ryder (CEO of Placeshapers) will be chairing the panel, and we’ll be hearing from the research team alongside a member of the lived experience panel.  

Come along to the webinar to hear more about the project and what’s next.  

Sign up via Eventbrite to join us online on Thursday 13 November 3pm – 4pm GMT.