Exploring emotions in social housing services and policy in England

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Social housing in England has come under criticism regarding the quality of services and homes. Tenants' complaints have been ignored. The death of two-year-old Awaab Ishak due to respiratory illness caused by untreated mould has brought significant public and political attention to the sector, its practices and the condition of the 4.4 million social homes in England. Government attention is now on the sector with new powers being developed for the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH), the creation of national tenant panels by the RSH and the Housing Ombudsman, the requirement for Housing Managers to have an accredited housing qualification and the roll-out of a training programme to aid tenants in complaining to landlords. What is missing is an understanding of the home as an emotional place and its contributions to academic literature and the major changes in the sector.The original research proposed in this fellowship application will explore the questions:1. What is emotionally significant for tenants about their homes and the services they receive from landlords?2. How could psychological and emotional insights help to connect landlords with tenants' emotional experiences of the home and landlord services?3. How could tenants and landlords be supported to understand and work with the emotional meaning of the home?The Feeling at Home research, funded through the ESRC continuation grant and involving 36 tenants from 14 landlords, demonstrated the value of exploring emotional insights into the home and landlord services. It revealed the stress and anger caused by what should be simple encounters such as reporting repairs and paying rent. Interactions within the tenant's home with landlords and their representatives were a particular cause of distress that could have long-lasting negative effects on trust, mental well-being and access to the home to carry out essential maintenance. The original research in this fellowship will explore the hidden emotional aspects of these home-based encounters and make recommendations for improving mutual understanding, trust, and tenant well-being. In essence, this research is about putting the heart back into our understanding of the home and landlord services.One paper will scope the impact of emotional insights into home and landlord services. The second paper will critically examine the risks of a turn in the sector to the use of digital technologies based on behavioural ideas that assume poor human cognition. A third paper will report on the storytelling methods developed during the continuation grant and used in the fellowship research. Finally, a report will be produced outlining methods for emotionally informed relationships between tenants and landlords and summarising the findings of the original research into tenant and landlord encounters in the home.This fellowship aims to develop the academic contribution of the applicant's thesis and strengthen the case for an emotional understanding of the home to inform social housing policy and practice. Social housing practitioners value the research, as evidenced by a prize from Clarion's William Sutton Homes for All award in 2022. This formed the basis of the ESRC IAA grant that paid for the applicant's role as a Research Associate as she completed her thesis write-up. This allowed for engagement with 103 tenants, landlord representatives and campaigners to explore the potential of the psychology of poverty and home geographies to reimagine the allocation of social homes. The successful completion of this research resulted in the Feeling at Home research described above. The applicant has reported her findings from this phase to 129 sector practitioners and tenants at various events, including an allocation manager conference on 31 January 2023, a tenant workshop with TAROE Trust 3 March 2023 and a William Sutton prize network event on 7 March 2023.