eprintid: 10205963 rev_number: 8 eprint_status: archive userid: 699 dir: disk0/10/20/59/63 datestamp: 2025-03-13 17:16:40 lastmod: 2025-03-13 17:22:37 status_changed: 2025-03-13 17:16:40 type: article metadata_visibility: show sword_depositor: 699 creators_name: Pagani, Anna creators_name: Zimmermann, Nici creators_name: Macmillan, Alex creators_name: Zhou, Ke creators_name: Davies, Michael title: Systemic issues in the English social housing sector: mapping interconnected challenges faced by London-based housing associations ispublished: pub divisions: UCL divisions: B04 divisions: C04 divisions: F34 keywords: Social housing; housing associations; systems thinking; system dynamics; leverage points note: © 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent. abstract: The provision of good-quality social housing is crucial in addressing disparities in cities. However, in England—and particularly in London—the supply of social rent homes is threatened by interconnected pressures. The resulting complexity is difficult for housing providers to navigate, and interventions designed in response often reinforce, rather than alleviate, existing issues. Instead of tackling these issues in isolation, this paper seeks to provide a picture of their interconnections, supporting reflection on leverage points effecting change across the system. Using systems thinking, we developed six diagrams of the cause-and-effect relationships that underpin critical issues in the English social housing sector, as identified in the literature. These causal loop diagrams (CLDs) were then explored and enriched over a series of participatory activities involving four London-based housing associations and the authors of the source publications. The CLDs display the systemic effects of changes in politics and policies, and of the strategies devised in response—emerging from partial understandings of the system and the prioritization of different goals (e.g. viability, housing targets, speculation). The proposed leverage points challenge beliefs about the mechanisms required to address issues in the social housing sector, offering an alternative approach to the frequent revisions of housing policies. date: 2025-03-07 date_type: published publisher: Informa UK Limited official_url: https://doi.org/10.1080/02673037.2025.2467093 oa_status: green full_text_type: pub language: eng primo: open primo_central: open_green verified: verified_manual elements_id: 2368789 doi: 10.1080/02673037.2025.2467093 lyricists_name: Davies, Michael lyricists_name: Zimmermann, Nicole lyricists_name: Zhou, Ke lyricists_name: Pagani, Anna lyricists_id: MDAVI86 lyricists_id: NZIMM70 lyricists_id: KZHOU23 lyricists_id: APAGA31 actors_name: Zimmermann, Nicole actors_id: NZIMM70 actors_role: owner full_text_status: public publication: Housing Studies issn: 0267-3037 citation: Pagani, Anna; Zimmermann, Nici; Macmillan, Alex; Zhou, Ke; Davies, Michael; (2025) Systemic issues in the English social housing sector: mapping interconnected challenges faced by London-based housing associations. Housing Studies 10.1080/02673037.2025.2467093 <https://doi.org/10.1080/02673037.2025.2467093>. Green open access document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10205963/1/PAGANI~1.PDF