A panel of prominent experts drawn from both inside and outside the sector will attempt to go beyond "entrenched" producer interests and challenge orthodoxy in the profession.
The project is likely to have an influence on the government's forthcoming housing Green Paper in the short term, but its main focus is the long term future of social housing.
IPPR director of social policy Carey Oppenheim who is co-ordinating the project, said: "There are some quite entrenched producer interests within housing. That is going to be difficult to move beyond." She said the project would go back to "first principles" to examine what and who social housing is for over the next 20 years.
The project will also examine the finance and governance of housing. The move comes at a time of uncertainty about the role of social housing. Falling demand for homes and growing evidence that housing estates have increased rather than reduced social exclusion has challenged traditional assumptions about housing.
The project will be launched by housing minister Hilary Armstrong next month. Over the next year it will produce a number of reports and surveys and organise a series of local and national events. Centrepoint chief executive Victor Adebowale has agreed to chair the panel.
The IPPR is hoping that the project will have the same level of influence on housing policy that its Commission on Social Justice had on the government's welfare reform plans.
The IPPR was set up by the former Labour leader Neil Kinnock in 1988. Its current director Matthew Taylor is the former director of policy for the Labour party.
National Housing Federation chief executive Jim Coulter said: "Changing demand is the core to the philosophical debate about housing. Potentially this project could have a very important contribution to make. It is an area that needs long-term solutions and long-term stability."
Source
Housing Today
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