Beyond Bricks and Mortar: Building homes, communities, and neighbourhoods
by Anne Power
On 2nd April 2025, CASE and LSE Housing and Communities hosted the launch of Anne Power’s latest book, Beyond Bricks and Mortar. Published by Policy Press, Beyond Bricks and Mortar presents a history of social housing in the UK, exploring the wider role that housing associations and councils have played in providing low-cost rented housing for low-income communities. The book illustrates the vital contribution that social housing makes to social and community well-being.
At the packed-out launch, Anne Power introduced the background to the book and what first drew her to housing. Touching on her vast experience of community activism, such as the End Slums campaign in Chicago, setting up co-operatives in Holloway and Islington, and working to rescue difficult estates across England and Wales in the 1980s, she highlighted that you cannot do housing without thinking of communities. Housing is part of communities, and essential to the social wellbeing of those communities and of wider society.
A panel of experts then gave their responses to the book and its messages, including David Orr, former Chief Executive of the National Housing Federation; Bruce Katz, US urban and housing expert; Kitty Stewart, Professor of Social Policy at the London School of Economics; and Jonathon Porritt, renowned environmentalist and campaigner.
David Orr said that shelter – housing – is the basis of everything we do, and advocated for a national vision for housing. A sufficient supply of affordable homes for people on the lowest incomes is key to making the rest of the housing system work. The housing system should start with social housing, rather than it being seen as the ‘end’ or a correction when the system does not work.
Kitty Stewart shared findings from recent research into the Benefit Cap, which highlighted the housing pressures for families in poverty, and their powerlessness to change their circumstances. The research showed that, even if families were prepared to move far from their existing homes, schools and social networks, there were only enough suitable properties available in the country in 2022 to house one in six of the capped families.
Bruce Katz shared the relevance of Beyond Bricks and Mortar and its lessons for US policymaking, in a time of radical retrenchment of housing policy and defederalization of housing. He stated that the US needs to reclaim the narrative of housing as a vehicle for social mobility, economic progress, and a platform for communities and families – something Beyond Bricks and Mortar espouses.
Jonathon Porritt stated that housing is a recognised human right, and underpins what makes society work but that UK housing policy over the last 15 years has suffered from ‘increasing dysfunctionality’. Beyond Bricks and Mortar, according to Jonathon, is an excellent explanation of how we got into the ‘mess we are in’. Jonathan reinforced David’s earlier point that we need to reclaim a different vision for social housing, one that is centred on public good.
The launch was expertly chaired by Moira Wallace, Visiting Professor-in-Practice at the LSE.
Many thanks to all who participated in the panel, and to the packed room of attendees!
Beyond Bricks and Mortar is available to buy through Policy Press. The promotional code BUP50 will give you 50% off the RRP until the end of April 2025.
News Posted: 10 April 2025 [
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