News Archive 2025

CASE News
UK ethnic wealth gap has widened over last decade

Wealth differences between ethnic groups in the UK have widened significantly since 2012/14, says new research by Eleni Karagiannaki. 

While overall wealth has grown, the gains have been unevenly distributed across ethnic groups according to the report: 

The Ethnic Wealth Divide in the UK: Mapping Disparities Across Time, Age and Immigrant Generations, by Eleni Karagiannaki. CASE Report 165

The analysis shows that while individuals from White British and Indian ethnic groups experienced substantial increases in median wealth, in contrast, wealth among individuals from the Pakistani ethnic group dropped sharply. Black African, Black Caribbean, and Bangladeshi ethnic groups remain with almost no accumulated household wealth.

Across all ethnic groups, including White British, wealth gains were disproportionately higher among those at the top, widening inequality not only between but also within groups. This resulted in very different wealth mobility patterns. Upward mobility is far less common among individuals from Black African and Black Caribbean ethnic groups, and some groups face greater risk of downward mobility from the top, such as people from Pakistani and Black African ethnic groups.

The report finds that homeownership and asset ownership — rather than the amount saved — have driven much of the widening wealth gap. Wealth-poor ethnic groups started the period studied with low ownership of high-return assets and, in many cases, saw sharp declines in homeownership*. This left them unable to benefit from rising property prices, while those who had managed to buy their houses earlier, and hold on to them—such as individuals from White British and Indian ethnic groups—amplified their wealth advantage.

The analysis of wealth over individuals’ lifetimes shows that gaps start small in early adulthood but widen dramatically by midlife. UK-born individuals from the Indian ethnic group outperform both first-generation peers and White British counterparts, while UK-born individuals from the Pakistani, Bangladeshi, and Black Caribbean ethnic groups show limited progress.

Dr Eleni Karagiannaki, from LSE’s Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, said: “Taken together, my findings underscore the cumulative disadvantages experienced by many individuals from ethnic minority backgrounds. Disparities in income early in life which intensify during middle age, combined with limited savings—largely due to lower earnings and competing financial pressures, and to a lesser extent differences in saving habits—and delayed access to homeownership, lead to marked differences over the course of people’s lives. This highlights the importance of putting policies in place that boost earnings, expand saving capacity, and improve access to asset markets. These measures will help close the wealth accumulation gap and increase the financial resilience of individuals from the poorest groups in society.”

Find out more via the LSE News pages.

*Buying a home is becoming harder because of high prices, large deposits, and expensive or hard-to-get mortgages. These challenges hit people from poorer ethnic minority groups the hardest, making existing inequalities worse.

Notes to Editors: 

This report draws on evidence from Understanding Society, The UK Household Longitudinal Study the largest household panel survey in the UK tracking thousands of households over time.

The research was funded by the British Academy under the BA Innovation Fellowship Scheme (project number IF2324\240028).

CASE News
Research on commercialisation and care sufficiency

Children’s homes run by investment firms are more likely to open in low-cost locations than areas of high need, creating major gaps in care - new study finds

Children’s homes run by investment firms are less likely to open and operate in areas of high need. Instead, they are clustering in areas where operational costs are lowest. This is one of the key findings from a new study published today (Friday 12 December) from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and funded by the Nuffield Foundation.

Published in the Lancet Public Health, the study finds that investment firms now own a quarter of children’s homes in England but instead of opening homes in inner-city areas of high need, they are increasingly opening them in rural areas in the north of England, where property prices are lowest. This has left major urban centres such as London, Bristol and Birmingham without the necessary provision.

These gaps in provision have resulted in children being placed in homes far away from their families and friends, severing the vital social connections needed for successful community reintegration and negatively impacting wellbeing and future prospects.

To undertake the study, the researchers sampled 4,356 children’s homes in operation in England between 2014 and 2023. Of these, 1,014 were linked to ownership by an investment company. Other forms of ownership include corporate firms, local authorities, third sector organisations and private individuals/families.

They found the most common type of children’s home ownership for most of the past 10 years has been some form of investment or private equity ownership. In the last decade, the number of for-profit homes have more than doubled, whilst the number of third sector and publicly owned homes has declined or stagnated.

Based on a ratio between children and places, the researchers found that some areas have over three times the expected number of children’s home places, whilst many other areas had fewer than half the number of expected places. The areas with more places than expected are typically more rural, in the north of England, and often neighbouring a city. The areas with fewer than expected places are often city-regions.

Analysis by the researchers revealed sizeable relationships between area characteristics and children’s home ownership types. They found for-profit providers disproportionately operate in lower-need areas, with investment firms particularly concentrated in regions with lower property values.

Commenting on their findings, the researchers state in the paper: “Our study shows that the commercialisation of children’s social care in England has contributed to a sufficiency crisis with profound indirect health consequences.”

They add: “The choice to locate in low-need areas potentially represents a lucrative strategy, with children placed out-of-area being 2.5 times more likely to enter private provision than those within their area.

“These harms are invisible when looking at quality ratings alone, which suggests that current regulatory frameworks are inadequate to ensure and maintain geographic equity in sufficiency. This could mean that the profit motive is fundamentally misaligned with ensuring care availability where it is most needed, or that commercial providers are not sufficiently incentivised to operate in high need areas. Either way, this reveals a system either inherently unsuited to commercial interests, or one that is too poorly resourced to effectively regulate private sector behaviour.”

Paper lead-author Benjamin Goodair a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE) at LSE commented: “It was previously unclear whether the outsourcing of social care services to the private sector would result in better or worse services, our findings suggest that in relation to the accessibility of care, it has contributed to worse services.”

Co-author François Schoenberger, Postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford, added: “Private equity firms raise capital on fixed timelines and are expected to deliver rapid returns, creating incentives to extract cash flow from the companies they acquire. In care homes, these short-term incentives can undermine the long-term investment needed to maintain the quality of care.”

Co-author Anders Bach-Mortensen, Associate professor at Roskilde University, added: “Inadequate care sufficiency is a well-known problem in the sector. Our findings suggest that ownership of care is a key contributing factor, which must be considered in policy attempts to address it.”

To read the paper, please visit The Lancet Public Health.

CASE News
Research on the Scottish child payment

Emerging evidence from a research project bringing together economists and social policy academics from the Universities of York, Glasgow and CASE has found “statistically significant reductions in both child material deprivation and food insecurity relative to England, after the introduction of the SCP (Scottish child payment).”

By comparing trends north and south of the border the researchers find that the effects of the Scottish child payment (SCP) are “considerable in size” and “that both material deprivation and food insecurity would have been between 8 and 9 percentage points higher in Scotland without the SCP.” This equates to over 70,000 fewer Scottish children in either material deprivation or food insecurity than would have been the case without the payments.

The findings are based on analysis of the DWP’s UK-wide Family Resources Survey. Alongside interviews with low-income families in Scotland and in England they offer the first comparative study across UK nations of the impact that the unique Scottish child payment is having. The payment is already widely credited with lifting at least 40,000 children out of poverty at a time when child poverty across the UK continued to rise.

Professor Kitty Stewart, Department of Social Policy and Associate Director of the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE) at LSE was part of the project team. She said: “Our results show that things are easier for Scottish families relative to English families as a result of the SCP. But wider pressures mean material deprivation is still rising both north and south of the border - just less quickly in Scotland. To make a bigger difference, the Scottish Government should build on its investment so far and increase the value of the payment.”

Read more on the LSE News pages. 

Access both papers below:

CASE paper 238:  Investing in Children: Early findings on the difference the Scottish Child Payment makes to child well-being

CASE paper 239:  Does The Scottish Child Payment Weaken Work Incentives?

CASE News
Ilona Pinter speaking with EU Reports about vulnerable migrant communities

Ilona Pinter, spoke to EU Reports, highlight the “huge financial pressures” faced by migrants- including thousands of pounds in Home Office fees and the Immigration Health surcharge 

She noted that extending routes to settlement could have serious consequences for children, saying that families with no recourse to public funds (NRPF) cannot access child-specific benefits such as Child Benefit, Scottish Child Payment, Disability Living Allowance, Child Disability Payment, or most childcare support. 

Migrant households in these situations are particularly vulnerable during periods of hardship, including redundancy, illness, or bereavement. Changes to the eligibility criteria for ILR could therefore affect the development and well-being of children in migrant households. 

“Children with foreign-born parents are already more likely to face poverty, including deep poverty, than their peers — part of this is because of ‘no recourse to public funds’ restrictions,” said Dr Pinter. 

“Extending the routes to settlement for more children will mean that more are prevented from accessing this vital support and will remain in poverty,” she added. 

Find out more from the EU Reports article. 

CASE News
LSE British Politics Blog: How to solve child poverty

As we await the publication of the Child Poverty Strategy, Kitty Stewart, Ruth Patrick and Aaron Reeves reflect on the extent to which increasing parental employment is part of the solution to child poverty. Contrary to conventional wisdom, they argue that getting more parents into paid work will make little difference to child poverty rates overall – unless accompanied by wider policy action.

Read this LSE British Politics blog post here. 

CASE News
LSE Inequalities blog post by Tania Burchardt, Ingrid Robeyns, and co-authors

What can be said – and potentially done – about extreme concentrations of wealth? As a first step, an “extreme wealth line” (EWL) specifies a level at which the harms associated with concentrations of wealth intensify and are no longer considered acceptable, write Tania Burchardt, Ingrid Robeyns and Michael Vaughan in our latest blog post. The EWL is a social indicator; it is not the same as a cap on wealth.

This article is also supported and co-signed by Rebecca Gowland and Milly Shotter (Patriotic Millionaires), Max Lawson (Oxfam International) and Danny Sriskandarajah (New Economics Foundation).

You can read the blog post here. 

CASE News
Kitty Stewart contributes to Policy Landscape 2025 report

In readiness for Parliament's return from its summer holidays, the Resolution Foundation and UK In a Changing Europe have partnered to produce the Policy Landscape 2025 report – a series of evidence-led, research-based assessments of the main policy challenges facing the UK, and how politicians could respond.

In that context, they asked some of the UK’s leading economists, policy experts and political scientists to consider the challenges the country faces in their area of expertise, the immediate and longer-term issues politicians will need to address and the potential implications of any choices they might make.

Professor of Social Policy and Associate Director of CASE Kitty Stewart is among the contributors. She wrote on Poverty and Social Security - she is well known for her work and campaigning on the two-child benefit cap. 

Other LSE academics are Paul Cheshire, Emeritus Professor of Economic Geography, who  wrote about Housing, an area of policy on which he is already much quoted, and Tony Travers, Professor in Practice, Associate Dean of the SPP, Visiting Prof at the Department of Government, and Director of LSE London and he wrote on Local Government, a subject on which he is considered a (if not the) leading expert. 

You can read the report in this link. 

CASE News
Gillian Paull on BBC 4 radio: Have one in ten women left work due to menopausal symptoms?

Have one in ten women left work due to menopausal symptoms?

Broadcast 10 September 2025

This week's "More or Less" BBC Radio 4 programme investigated the widely cited and influential finding in the 2022 Fawcett Society Report Menopause and the Workplace that "one in ten women have left work due to menopausal symptoms". The discussion with Dr Gillian Paull, Visting Senior Fellow at CASE, explored the possible flaws in this statement. 

As Gillian explained to Tim Harford in the programme, there are two main concerns with the way the "one in ten" finding has been presented. 

First, the survey used in the Fawcett Society report was only among women aged 45 to 55 who had previously experienced or were experiencing menopausal symptoms. As is has been reported that only around 80% of women experience menopausal symptoms, the one in ten survey respondents translates into a lower proportion of all women. 

Second, the survey question from which the one in ten number was drawn asked women whether they had "left a job due to their menopause symptoms". A positive answer could mean they moved between jobs rather than ceasing to work altogether as interpreted by some of the headlines reporting on the Fawcett Society study.  The survey also found that 3% of respondents had "retired early due to menopausal symptoms", which is a more clearly defined measure of leaving work altogether but was answered positively by substantially less than one in ten. 

In addition, Gillian reported that analysis she conducted using Labour Force Survey data suggests that it is highly unlikely that as many as one in ten women leave work due to menopausal symptoms. Menopausal symptoms are not identified as a specific health issue in the LFS (a serious omission) but are most likely captured within the proportion of women inactive (not working or unemployed) due to long-term health problems.  The increase in this proportion between ages 45 and 56 equates to 7% of female workers at age 45 not working at age 56 because of long term health problems. Not only is this 7% less than the one in ten, but it covers all sources of long health problems and not just the menopause.

The headlines using the "one in ten" figure may be helpful in raising awareness of the impact of the menopause on women’s work. But there is a risk that overstating the role that the menopause plays may miss other factors which inhibit paid work for women in this age group, such as caring responsibilities for elderly parents or other types of ill-health. Focusing on leaving work altogether might also mask adverse impacts of changing jobs on pay and seniority.  

For these reasons – and in the spirit of the "More or Less" programme - it’s important to get the numbers right and to know exactly what they are saying.

The "one in ten" finding was investigated by Gillian and co-researchers as part of the research project ‘Menopause in UK public discourse: visibility, content, factors and implications’, funded by the Leverhulme Trust (Project Number 268080), and led by Professor Catherine Rottenberg at Goldsmiths, University of London and Professor Shani Orgad, Department of Media and Communications at the LSE.

The full account is available via the LSE Blogs. 

You can listen at the "More or Less" podcast in this link (at 17:15).

CASE News
Ian Gough elected Fellow of the British Academy

Congratulations to Ian Gough, one of the six LSE academics, who has been elected as Fellow of the British Academy in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the humanities and social sciences.

Professor Ian Gough is an originator of the term ‘eco-social policy’ and has published numerous articles in this field. His work focuses on eco-social policy, human need theory, social aspects of climate change and inequality and ecological sustainability.

Each year, the British Academy, founded in 1902, elects to its fellowship up to 52 outstanding UK-based scholars who have achieved distinction in any branch of the humanities and social sciences.  There are now over 1700 Fellows. 

Find out more about the British Academy Fellowships. 

Read about the other LSE academics that have been elected as British Academy Fellows. 

CASE News
The Needs of Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children and Young People Living in London

New participatory study involving ‘experts by experience’ reveals that young asylum seekers living in London report confusion, delays, and harmful age assessments that hinder their integration, well-being and protection.

The study was commissioned by London Councils and the Association of London Directors of Children’s Services and was co-produced with peer researchers, a young person’s advisory group supported by the South London Refugee Association, and academic researchers from CASE and the University of Bedfordshire.

The research team worked together with the young people’s advisory group to design and develop the research tools. The peer researchers were trained and supported by university researchers to carry out in-depth ‘research conversations’ with 15 unaccompanied children and young people across several London boroughs. 

Almost all young people reported struggling to understand the asylum process. They faced significant barriers in accessing clear information about their rights and entitlements, often unaware of existing advice services, though these were limited. As unaccompanied children in England and Wales are not entitled to independent legal guardians to help them through the asylum and care processes, and are often voluntarily accommodated by local authorities, there was often no one to help children make decisions about their legal case or their future. 

Children and young people described the existing asylum process as long and uncertain, with delays placing their lives, hopes, and futures on hold. Enabling speedier decisions would help clear the current backlog, reduce costs for boroughs, and ensure that unaccompanied children are not left in prolonged uncertainty, damaging their sense of belonging. 

Intrusive and retraumatising age assessments often triggered feelings of loss and separation from families. In some cases, these assessments also delayed asylum decisions, while children who were wrongly assessed as adults faced potential harm after being placed in adult hotels and denied access to children's services. 

The young people and researchers then worked together to analyse and interpret the findings, and develop a series of policy and practice recommendations, including the need for a ‘child-first’ approach to policy-making and the need for a system of independent legal guardianship for all unaccompanied children similar to other nations.

The report’s findings and recommendations are being debated through the passage of the Children’s Well-being and Schools bill, currently making its way through the House of Lords. There will be further activities with policy-makers and parliamentarians in the coming weeks.

Executive Summary and Full report: London Councils urges root and branch reform of asylum and care system for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children | London Councils – Home

BBC Interview

You can also view Ilona Pinter and her co-author Gersi on BBC Politics London where they spoke about the findings from the report.

Young people we spoke to in our research conversations struggled to understand & navigate the complex legal processes when they reached the UK. As Gersi explained in some ways you are like a baby not understanding the language, not knowing what's supposed to happen. Without a legal guardian or designated advocate from the start, lots of things can go wrong & many of the young people we spoke to only got help much later down the line.

View the clip via the BBC iPlayer (13/07/2025 8:35 onward).

CASE News
Debt, ethnicity and local area deprivation in London

New CASE research funded by the ESRC COLIF Fellowship programme, undertaken by Eleni Karagiannaki in partnership with StepChange maps how area deprivation and ethnicity intersects with household over-indebtedness in London. The results reveal stark divides. Some key findings are: 

Area deprivation and over-indebtedness 

·         London not only exhibits a higher overall rate of over-indebtedness (13%) compared to the UK overall (10%) but it also exhibits great variation: the five most deprived London Boroughs, over-indebtedness jumps to 19%, nearly triple the rate in the five least deprived ones (6%).

·         A similar picture emerges based on the StepChange's 2023 clients’ database: the more deprived an area is, the more adults turn to debt advice services. 

·         The reason why Londoners are falling into over-indebtedness varies greatly but in 2023, the cost-of-living crisis topped the list, driving debt for over 1 in 4 of StepChange’s clients. Unemployment or redundancy followed at 17%, while challenges like lack of control over finances, injury or health issues, and reduced income or benefits were each cited by about 10% of clients. 

·         But area matters: In less deprived areas: life events like divorce/separation, pregnancy/childbirth, and family care responsibilities hit hardest. In more deprived areas: it’s irregular income, reduced income or benefits and one-off expenses pushing more people into debt.

London’s striking ethnic debt divide 

·         Ethnic minorities in London are far more likely to struggle with debt. According to survey data from Understanding Society, over-indebtedness affects 28% of Londoners of Black African, 24% of Black Caribbean, and 22% of Pakistani or Bangladeshi ethnic background—much higher than the 8% among White British groups. Even among Indian groups (16%), the rate is double.

·         Further analysis using StepChange data shows that ethnic minority groups are less likely to use most types of unsecured credit but often end up with higher debt balances. 

·         London boroughs with higher concentrations of ethnic minorities are often marked by greater levels of area deprivation and higher rates of over‑indebtedness. 

·         Differences in socio-economic characteristics help explain why many ethnic groups face higher debt, but with some exceptions: in deprived areas, Black African Londoners still face significantly higher over-indebtedness, even after accounting for these differences.

·         The reasons for over-indebtedness vary significantly by ethnic background with Londoners from ethnic minority background being more likely to cite irregular income, reduced income or benefits, or pressures related to pregnancy or childbirth—while their counterparts from White British background more often reporting separation/divorce, credit reliance to cover living costs, or lack of financial control. 

Policy and practice recommendations 

·         Introducing an enhanced data infrastructure to better understand how those most in need across different areas and ethnic groups access services, and where gaps exist and how to best fill them. 

·         Addressing area deprivation and over-indebtedness risk as over-indebtedness aligns with area deprivation, but its drivers are multifaceted. Effective policies and practice should both prevent debt buildup, support those already struggling by boosting financial resilience and address underlying drivers of poverty and deprivation. 

·         Recognising ethnic disparities as ethnic minority groups face higher over-indebtedness rates, than White Brits, suggesting an “ethnicity premium” in the financial services sector that warrants further exploration. 

·         Mitigating short-term financial shocks: Many StepChange clients - especially from ethnic minority backgrounds - attribute their debt problems to short-term shocks, which points to a lack of financial buffers. Policies should focus on enhancing overall financial stability through emergency savings, better access to low-cost credit, and targeted debt advice services.

Eleni Karagiannaki, Assistant Professorial Research Fellow at LSE, and the report’s author, said:

“The research highlights how area deprivation and ethnicity intersect to shape the complex and uneven landscape of household over-indebtedness in London. One of the most striking and concerning findings is that while financial shocks impact all ethnic groups, they are both more frequent and more damaging among ethnic minority groups and residents in poorer areas, often due to lower levels of financial resilience. The fact that so many households lack even minimal buffers against short-term shocks is alarming. This points to a widespread lack of financial buffers, such as emergency savings or affordable credit access. Tackling this crisis requires targeted, culturally competent debt and financial advice support, as well as policies that build long-term financial stability through fair credit systems, effective and adequate safety nets, and place- and identity-aware interventions.”

Peter Tutton, Director of Policy, Research, and Public Affairs at StepChange, said:

“This research shows how indebtedness in London outstrips the rest of the United Kingdom as cost of living pressures take their toll. It provides crucial insight into the complex and intersecting factors driving over-indebtedness in the capital, particularly the persistent financial challenges faced by ethnic minorities. This underscores that socio-economic characteristics alone cannot fully explain disparities in debt levels. Our client data also shows how people in more deprived areas are more likely to turn to our service for support – as people struggle to manage essential costs. 

“We need to see the Government, through the Financial Inclusion Commission, seek to support people to build financial resilience, and expand the no-interest loans scheme to allow people to manage income shocks, as well as broaden access to crisis support and grant.”

You can read the full report here. 

CASE News
New CASE research is reported in The Guardian today.

The report, Insecure Lives: The growth and impact of multiple insecurities reveals that millions of UK residents are experiencing insecurity in multiple important dimensions of their lives at the same time. For example, in 2022/23, 5.1 million UK adults experienced combined financial insecurity, housing insecurity and health insecurity (this could be due to being in a temporary job, and behind with housing payments, and long-term sick or disabled). 5.2 million experienced financial, health and work insecurity.

People experiencing multiple insecurities have two to three times the average rates of wellbeing problems including feeling under strain, difficulties sleeping due to worry, isolation, and loneliness.

Interviews reveal that multiple insecurities create material hardship and mental burdens. They create barriers to people supporting their children, taking on training, work or more or better work, and thus contributing to economic activity and growth.

CASE members Becky Tunstall, Irene Bucelli, Laura Lane and Abigail McKnight worked with colleagues Helen Lomax, Sally Pearce and Jonathan Webb and from Sheffield Hallam University. Jonathan Payne of De Montfort University, Stuart Henderson of Ulster University, Anita Mangan of Bristol University and Irena Grugulis of the University of Leeds. They explored existing literature on individual insecurities and multiple insecurities, and used the large, nationally representative Understanding Society survey to assess the scale of the issue over 2009/10-2022/23. They also talked with 36 people experiencing multiple insecurities in Sheffield, Milton Keynes and Lincolnshire to learn about the impact of multiple insecurities on people’s wellbeing and opportunities.

The research was funded by the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government through the Economic and Social Research Council, but does not represent their government policy. 

The main project report published today is the first of a series of reports from the Insecure Lives project, which will include the literature on insecurities, detail on the quantitative and qualitative findings, and promising policy approaches to reducing and mitigating multiple insecurities.  

You can read The Guardian article here. 

Read the news item on the LSE website. 

CASE News
LSE Festival 2025

The LSE Festival is an intellectually stimulating series of events, which engages a wide public audience with LSE research and expertise. It brings together global leaders, innovators and change makers to investigate how we can learn lessons from the past, tackle the challenges of today and shape the future. The Festival draws on key thinkers as well as world-class LSE academics. All events are free to attend and open to all.

The 2025 Festival will take place from Monday 16 to Saturday 21 June 2025 on the theme of "Visions for the Future". How will AI, new technologies and innovation shape our societies? How will we confront the global challenges of climate change and inequality? And, after an historic year of elections, will our political reality change? 

CASE researchers are taking part in the festival events: 

A society free from poverty: how do we get there and what would it look like? 
A public lecture by Abigail McKnight (CASE, LSE), Abby Jitendra (Joseph Rowntree Foundation), Thomas Stephens (LSE) .
The speakers will discuss some of the key policies and strategies that can bring a society free from poverty into reality, including re-thinking care and tackling inter-generational inequalities
Monday 16 June 2025 at 1pm.

Insecure lives, secure futures? 
Part of the LSE Festival Exhibition in the Marshall Building
A multidisciplinary team of researchers, led by Professor Becky Tunstall and including LSE’s Laura Lane, Abigail McKnight and Irene Bucelli, have explored how multiple insecurities affect life chances and wellbeing and how joined-up policy could help. As part of their research, they spoke to 36 people experiencing multiple insecurities in four deprived neighbourhoods in Sheffield, Milton Keynes, and Mablethorpe. Artist Laura Sorvala’s illustrations capture the impact of insecure lives and the policy interventions that could help build more secure futures.

Find out more about the LSE Festival. 

CASE News
Beyond Bricks and Mortar: Building homes, communities, and neighbourhoods New Book by Professor Anne Power

Professor Anne Power presents her latest book, Beyond Bricks and Mortar: Building homes, communities, and neighbourhoods.

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.

Hard copies and e-book versions of Beyond Bricks and Mortar are available to buy via Policy Press. LSE Housing and Communities have a limited number of discounted copies available, email J.Rowan1@lse.ac.uk for more details on how to buy.

The book was presented in CASE's Social Exclusion seminar series. Further information, including the event recordinngs, are available on the seminar page. 

CASE News
LSE Housing and Communities Book Launch

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.

CASE News
The challenge of ethnic wealth inequalities: Building understanding: Briefing paper and soundscape

As part of the British Academy-funded project “The challenge of ethnic wealth inequalities: Building understanding” Eleni Karagiannaki in partnership with the Equality Trust has been engaging with people from racialised communities to gather their perspectives on the barriers they face in building wealth and their recommendations of what can enable them to do so.

A briefing paper and a sound scape summarizing insights from the research is now published. You can read the report here and listen to the soundscape here.

For more information about the project visit the project webpage here.

CASE News
Tania Burchardt to speak in Wealth Gap event

Can we end the wealth gap?
2nd April 2025 - 4:00 – 5:30pm Online

The Fairness Foundation, a think tank that works to persuade politicians that tackling inequality in the UK should be a policy, political and moral priority, has recently published a Wealth Gap Risk Register. 

This online resource collates evidence about the impacts of wealth inequality in the UK, how to reduce it and mitigate its impacts, and public attitudes to all of this. The Foundation are planning to keep this resource updated with the latest evidence and to publish a second iteration in October 2025.

This webinar, hosted by Academics Stand Against Poverty UK, invites the Fairness Foundation to present the key findings from their register and outline their solutions to addressing the Wealth Gap. 

Responding to the presentation will be Dr Tania Burchardt, Associate Director of the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE), Deputy Director of STICERD, and an Associate Professor in the Department of Social Policy at the London School of Economics.

The Q&A and discussion will focus on the ongoing significance of wealth inequalities and to consider what evidence on impacts and solutions is missing from the first iteration of the Wealth Gap Risk Register, and how this resource could most usefully be developed in the future. 

Register to attend here.

CASE News
There’s a problem with how we measure fuel poverty, by Abigail McKnight

A new post on the LSE Politics and Policy blog about how we measure fuel poverty. 

Numerous households live in homes that are too cold for their physical and mental health and well-being. But the way we measure fuel poverty across the UK varies wildly, making policymaking solutions harder to come by. In this article, Abigail McKnight argues that we need a better way of measuring fuel poverty if we are to tackle it. 

Read the post here.

CASE News
CASE Poverty Review influencing Child Poverty Taskforce

CASE's recent review of the material deprivation survey questions used to measure child poverty, commissioned by the Department of Work and Pensions, was mentioned by Baroness Sherlock (Lab), who outlined plans for the Child Poverty Taskforce to review its metrics in light of CASE's research. 

Read the Review of UK Material Deprivation Measures, by Abigail McKnight, Irene Bucelli, Tania Burchardt, and Eleni Karagiannaki.