Meeting people’s aspirations

Reshaping housing provision to meet the needs of local communities is a challenge – but research can help HMRPs develop new plans which are in tune with local aspirations.  

Community Engagement evaluation at Bridging NewcastleGateshead (BNG)

The vision of BNG is to “create great places to live … by 2018, the housing market in Bridging NewcastleGateshead will be revitalised and the population stabilised and starting to increase.” QA recently evaluated this HMR Pathfinder’s community engagement strategy as plans for housing market change and renewal continued.

The methodology included:

• desk research: a review of strategies and other published materials presented a picture of the ‘extent’ and ‘type’ of engagement activity taking place and gave QA the opportunity to highlight some initial findings on the impact of engagement
• depth interviews with internal and external stakeholders and local partners: an investigation of programme structures and delivery capabilities provided an ‘internal’ perspective on the effectiveness of local engagement
• face-to-face surveys with local residents: tested awareness of Bridging Newcastle Gateshead and the organisation’s impact on the lives of local residents
• focus groups: explored the findings of the survey in more detail, focusing on attitudes and behaviour, barriers to engagement and ways to encourage involvement in the programme

QA also helped BNG deliver a workshop on best practice emerging from the research and reviewed the draft Community Engagement Strategy.

Providing actionable recommendations

Bridging NewcastleGateshead now has a report detailing the impact of its community engagement strategy, identifying good practice and areas for improvement, and providing recommendations for future community engagement.