Birmingham Social Policy students present insightful housing research
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
Four University of Birmingham students awarded Commonweal's Jane Slowey Memorial Bursary for 2025/26 have conducted their final-year dissertation projects investigating current housing-related issues.
The Bursary was established in 2018, in memory of our late Trustee and University of Birmingham alumna, Jane Slowey CBE. Each recipient received a £2,500 grant and mentoring support from Commonweal.
The students recently presented their research at the annual celebration hosted by Commonweal at the University of Birmingham. Their topics covered a range of social policy areas, including care-leaver homelessness, the marketisation of housing associations, the media portrayal of asylum seekers, and estate regeneration policies.
Download the students' presentation slide deck here:
First, Samantha Robathan presented her research on the rise in homelessness among care leavers aged 18-20 in England and whether protection under the Equality Act 2010 could lead to better outcomes.
She concluded that including care leavers as a protected characteristic would improve the visibility of this group. However, noted that this approach alone cannot address the deeper social harm caused by current policies and institutional factors that impact care leavers. Overall, her research recommends that England transition from welfare-based to rights-based policymaking (as in Scotland and Wales) to prioritise the recognition and protection of care leavers' rights.
Ryan Peddie's research investigated the impact of marketisation on public support for housing associations. Specifically, he examined reasons for the shift in language from welfare to market framing across housing associations' communications over the 21st century.
He also conducted a dictator game experiment in which participants received £5 and were presented with either a welfare-oriented or a market-oriented frame, then asked how much they would donate to the housing association's work (based on the frame shown).
Ryan surveyed 250 people across the UK, and the results revealed no significant difference in average donations between the two groups. Instead, personal characteristics emerged as key predictors: older participants, women, and those with knowledge of the housing association were more likely to donate.
Georgia Solomon's study analysed news representations of asylum seekers as tenants, compared with social tenants. As part of this, she analysed 13 BBC News reports from 2025, comparing the language used to construct the 'deservingness' of an asylum seeker and a potential social housing tenant.
Overall, her research found social tenants were used as a semantic device to construct asylum seekers as 'undeserving' of state-provided housing. To combat the weaponisation of asylum seekers in the news media and by politicians (uncovered in this study, Georgia's research) suggests a shift to a rights-based model of housing in policy, political and news discourse.
Lastly, Caragh Williams shared her research findings, analysing the policies shaping the estate regeneration in Woodberry Down, Hackney - one of London's largest and longest-running regeneration schemes.
Caragh's study evaluated what alternative policies can improve the delivery of social objectives through the Woodberry Down regeneration programme. In response, her policy recommendations focus on strengthening oversight and transparency for existing residents.
This includes reforms to the Local Lettings Policy for Woodberry Down (LLPWD) to address gaps in the existing Right to Return framework, helping reduce uneven displacement and protect community ties.
We will be sharing student blogs that delve into their research findings, so keep an eye on our website.
Commonweal will shortly announce the recipients of the Jane Slowey Memorial Bursary for 2026/27.
