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Research Programmes and Projects

Completed Programmes

Our most recent major research programme was Social Policies and Distributional Outcomes in a Changing Britain (SPDO), funded by the Nuffield Foundation. This major three-year programme was undertaken by a team of inequalities and social policy experts in CASE and in partnership with research teams at University of Manchester, Heriot-Watt University and UCL Institute of Education. It provided an assessment of social policy developments under the three Conservative Governments that were in power between May 2015 and the eve of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020.

SPDO built on a previous large four-year programme of researh Social Policy in a Cold Climate (SPCC) examining welfare spending and outcomes for the final years of the last Labour administration (2007-2010) and the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition administration (2010-2015). This programme was funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Nuffield Foundation, with London-specific analysis funded by the Trust for London.

Other major completed programmes include a three-year programme on Improving the Evidence Base for Understanding the Links between Inequalities and Poverty, funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and in collaboration with the LSE International Inequalities Institute. Systematic reviews assessing evidence of a causal relationship between family finances and children's outcomes, funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. A programme of research examining the patterns, drivers and outcomes of segregation by socioeconomic group and ethnicity in early education, funded by the Nuffield Foundation. A programme of research on multidimensional child poverty and disadvantage to tackling 'data exclusion' and extend the evidence base on missing and 'invisible' children, funded by the Nuffield Foundation.

ESRC Research Centre 1997-2006

As an ESRC Research Centre 1997-2006, CASE completed a major programme of research. Further details can be found under the various themes we used to organise our research over this period:

At an international level, we have been leading partners in four major programmes:

  • the EU funded Growing Inequalities' Impacts Project (GINI) examined how inequalities in income, earnings, wealth and education have evolved over a 30 years period, their social and economic impacts and how policies can help reduce these inequalities.
  • the IMPROVE project on social policy innovations for poverty reduction in Europe
  • a programme examining what happened to 'Weak Market Cities' recovering from industrial decline in Europe and the US
  • a Europe wide study on sustainable regeneration in suburbs, looking at social integration in deprived neighbourhoods through housing interventions by the European Regional Development FUnd (ERDF)
  • a study of the differences in consumption patterns between high and low-tax countries

In 2022, we celebrated our 25th birthday and published a special bumper issue of our Annual Report. Nine of the articles celebrate the work and legacy of John Hills, CASE co-founder and Centre Director from 1997-2016, covering a diverse range of topics on housing, pensions, fuel poverty, economic inequality, poverty and the welfare state. Other articles cover inequality, disadvantage, policy evaluation and 25 years of LSE Housing and Communities. A great way to catch-up on CASE's research and impact covering the first 25 years!