Building opportunity: how social housing can support skills, talent and workforce development

This report was produced by the Learning and Work Institute and the Institute for Employment, with support from the National Housing Federation, Communities That Work, and the National Federation of ALMOs. It uses case studies from six social landlords to draw out key lessons in how social landlords are working with residents to improve jobs, incomes and wellbeing, and identify key challenges and opportunities for the future.

For the first time in at least thirty years, the workforce has stopped growing and may be getting smaller. Now more than ever, employers and the government will need to find new ways to raise participation in the labour market, engage people further from work, and improve job retention, security and progression. As our case studies highlight, social landlords can play a key role in working to address these challenges, by supporting their residents and others in their local communities to prepare for, find, secure and progress in decent work.

Employability and social housing tenants

We know that we are facing a housing crisis in the UK. Across all tenures and income levels, there is a shortage of affordable, secure, and decent accommodation. Due to this acute shortage, social housing, the most affordable tenure available, is often only accessible to those in the most extreme housing need that cannot be met in the private rented sector or through home ownership. Overall, one in seven people of working age in England live in social housing, or around five million adults.

Tenants in social housing are more likely be facing a long-term health condition, have a disability, or be a lone parent. They may be coming from severely overcrowded housing or be on a low income. Often they have experienced homelessness. Put simply, with demand as it is, to be prioritised now as a new tenant social housing today means that you are more likely to be facing a challenging set of personal and financial circumstances. It is perhaps no surprise, therefore, that often these circumstances can also act as barriers to the labour market.  

Due to these barriers, social housing tenants are twice as likely to be out of work as those in other tenures. Raising employment for people in social housing was an economic and social imperative before the pandemic, but should be a necessity now – to boost supply and help meet labour and skills shortages; to help families and communities to deal with the cost of living crisis; and to tackle inequalities between people and places.