When a local government council wanted to attract and keep residents and address housing affordability, it needed insights into what the community wanted and how to address development in building a strategy.
Housing is a critical part of a thriving community. Having available, appropriate and affordable housing is needed to support the economy, health and wellbeing, culture and the very existence of a community. Our local government client knew this and also that not addressing the growing problems with housing across its townships also had long-term consequences for people choosing to live, work and have families in the area, and businesses investing in the area. Census and available data showed people were already moving away and
In building a housing strategy our client had many questions they needed answers. They needed to understand what the community thought about current types of housing and its availability, what they saw as their future needs, who they saw as a priority, what role they saw the council having in addressing issues, and what factors were driving and likely to drive future needs,
After workshops with the client to understand their needs and what information they had that pointed to issues, we undertook an extensive review of data, reports and available research to create a framework for our research. This review showed emerging trends facing our client were also being faced by others who had looked at potential solutions. Solutions we reviewed with our client’s team to explore in the next phase of the research.
The next phase of the project involved surveying the community. While this survey among just under four hundred residents was primarily done online to access a representative sample of community members, a combination of council led communication on their website, engaging with community groups to access targeted specific needs groups, research panel and employing local residents to recruit people to undertake the survey. This recruitment involved the team engaging with people on the high streets and council areas, including pop-up signage to promote the survey and the council’s planned strategy.
Results from the research gave clear insights into the community’s concerns about housing, especially for younger people and essential workers. The research also showed that changes in hybrid working were changing housing needs and the capacity of younger residents to remain in the area when changing employers. While the council was initially concerned that residents were reluctant about development, they favoured higher density to avoid environmental loss and loss of heritage buildings. The community also supported a wider variety of housing types to address different household structures. Supporting the council’s concern, housing availability was a major factor in residents moving out of the local community.