Audit Commission

Summary [Download full report below this summary]

Building better lives finds that councils feel pressured into focusing on building brand new housing - 94 per cent of councils have prioritised new and/or affordable housing targets through their local area agreements, but fewer than a third prioritised targets relating to their existing housing stock. This is despite the financial savings, environmental improvements and social benefits of doing so.

If councils thought of housing more broadly, they could do more to combat poverty, ill-health, educational under-achievement and help strengthen their local communities. The recession makes a strategic view of housing all the more important.

The report is supported by a range of materials including:

• an animated presentation to raise the profile of strategic housing in councils (to download, right-click and select 'Save Target As...'). This presentation has no audio content.
  • windows media video version of the strategic housing presentation (WMV, 38mb)
  • powerpoint version of the strategic housing presentation (powerpoint, 23mb)
  • pdf version of the strategic housing presentation (PDF, 5mb) (opens in a new window)
• case studies
• questions for improved partnership working
• a guide to using delivery chain workshops to improve local outcomes
• a decision making guide (PDF, 236kb) (opens in a new window) to help members and senior officers (based around relevance, quality and presentation) consider whether they have all of the information they need to take decisions around strategic housing
• tailored briefing sheets for:
  • councillors (PDF, 865kb) (opens in a new window)
  • council chief executives (PDF, 855kb) (opens in a new window)
  • housing associations (PDF, 848kb) (opens in a new window)

Get the full study 

Download the full national study below. This study contains all our findings and recommendations.

Building better lives - Getting the best from strategic housing ( PDF, 4mb )

Building better lives report summary ( PDF, 249kb )

Get free PDF Reader from Adobe

If you require a copy of this document in large print, in Braille, on tape, or in a language other than English, please call: 0844 798 7070.

To order hard copies of this report, please call 0800 50 20 30 or email ac-orders@audit-commission.gov.uk