A Housing Corporation grant of £50,000 will fund a new research project to measure the true scale and impact of overcrowding in local authority and housing association homes throughout the UK. That means the housing sector will soon have a clear, updated definition of overcrowding, thanks to the Innovation and Good Practice (IGP) Grant from the Housing Corporation to tackle the issue. The grant, managed and distributed by Peabody Trust and Bradford Community Trust, (now Incommunities) will help local authorities and housing associations to measure the true scale and impact of overcrowding throughout the UK. The Housing Corporation sought expressions of interest to manage the grant from housing associations operating in the pathfinder areas, identified in the Government's Tackling Overcrowding Action Plan. The Plan announced 38 local authority pathfinder areas covering London, Birmingham, Leicester, Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool. Peabody Trust is managing the distribution of the £50k Innovation and Good Practice (IGP) Grant for all housing associations in 33 London boroughs. Bradford Community Trust will distribute the grant for the grant for the associations in Bradford, Birmingham, Leicester, Manchester and Liverpool. The grant is available to help the associations in the 38 pathfinder areas to carry out assessments of the level of overcrowding in their housing stock. The data will contribute towards assessment of the true scale of overcrowding in housing associations' stock and help measure impact of the implementation of the Statutory Bedroom Standard.

Sources: www.incommunities.co.uk, www.housingnews.co.uk
 
11th August 2008