Abstract:

Over 3 years ago, a group of experienced housing practitioners and academics, having spent 2 yrs together on a `Know How' Fund housing advisory project in Bulgaria, focused on the evident under-investment and short-termism they considered to characterise the British system. The outcome was the Cost-effectiveness in Housing Investment Research Programme (CHIRP) based at the University of Sussex. The Programme (described) sought to collect evidence to show that investment in better quality housing construction, management and maintenance is likely to be repaid over the comparatively short term by savings on a wide and cross-sectoral range of budgets.