Housing group partners with university on research for growth strategy

Alan Rogers

Liverpool-based Cobalt Housing has continued its ‘local focus’ by partnering with the University of Liverpool to explore population, housing and social trends, to provide an evidence base for a new growth strategy.

The development of a new growth strategy represents a great opportunity to formulate a longer-term vision for how Cobalt’s existing stock, and any new developments in the coming years, might support the wider social and economic development of the neighbourhoods of North Liverpool in which it operates.

The study will provide answers to important questions relating to how the neighbourhoods in which Cobalt operates have changed over recent decades, and how they may change in the future.

Through primary and secondary research and data sets the project team, led by Prof Alex Lord, will explore a range of topics, including macro trends in housing, placing particular emphasis on the ageing population and the relationship between housing and social mobility.

The work will seek to provide evidence on Cobalt’s neighbourhoods through analysis of the local housing market, demographic trends, deprivation, health statistics and the retail environment.

This evidence base will be compiled directly to inform Cobalt’s longer-term growth strategy.

Prof Lord, from the department of geography and planning at the University of Liverpool, said, “We are delighted to begin this work with Cobalt.

“The University of Liverpool has a long-standing commitment to working with local stakeholders to support the development of our home city.

“The team from the University of Liverpool represents genuine expertise in housing markets, demography, data science and urban planning.

“This partnership with Cobalt is, therefore, a great opportunity for us, as a group of academics, to apply our expertise to support Cobalt’s growth strategy in Croxteth, Norris Green and Fazakerley.”

Alan Rogers, Cobalt Housing’s chief executive, said “Cobalt are at the start of an exciting new chapter and will soon be launching a new development strategy detailing our readiness and desire for growth for our neighbourhoods and organisation.

“We are passionate to ensure our strategic decisions are properly informed and made in the best interests of our tenants and realised that in-depth expert research would help.

“We wanted to work with a local partner on this because of the benefits it brings to Liverpool, and as the University of Liverpool are leading experts in research that confronts contemporary challenges, disrupts current thinking, discovers real solutions and develops practical applications for outcomes, we were delighted to partner with them.”

The full data sets are expected to be completed by this Spring, with the outcomes being used to inform decisions from 2019 onwards.

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