Matching up? A pilot study of effectiveness of letting adapted social housing

Abstract

This pilot study sought to design and test a research method for evaluating the effectiveness of lettings procedures for adapted housing, utilising a coproduction approach involving housing providers and disabled researchers and applicants.A key conclusion from the pilot study was that a more substantive investigation of the effectiveness of lettings practice was potentially valuable for future policy and practice to better meet the housing needs of disabled people. In particular, more data on the experiences of disabled applicants on housing registers and moving into adapted or accessible housing was needed to better understand current practice. Such a study could also usefully investigate adapted and accessible social housing lettings within a more strategic framework for the operation of housing registers and lettings policies. The researchers were subsequently awarded a £92,500 research grant by the Disability Research into Independent Living and Learning (DRILL) programme, as part of a £5m project announced in 2015 supported by the Big Lottery Fund.