About
The Shelter Housing Insights for Communities resource is a must-have for anyone involved in community consultation on housing development. It provides unique insights into the housing attitudes and aspirations of local communities, and facilitates cost-effective, targeted engagement. This is vital at a time when communities are to become directly involved in local development and consultations are set to increase.
Shelter Housing Insights for Communities gives you all the information you need to build a communications plan: setting out key groups to engage with, key messages to use and best channels to communicate through. We have provided a communications plan template for you to download.
What is ACORN?
ACORN is a geodemographic segmentation of the UK’s population. It segments small neighbourhoods, postcodes or consumer households into 5 Categories, 17 Groups and 56 Types. By analysing significant social factors and population behaviour, it provides precise information and an in-depth understanding of the different types of people in different parts of the UK.
How have Shelter and ACORN worked together?
Shelter has overlaid survey responses to national housing questionnaires undertaken by the National Housing and Planning Unit (NHPAU) onto ACORN’s postcode level data to reveal, for the first time, the housing aspirations and attitudes of each of ACORN’s 17 Groups.
We used ACORN demographics across housing, transport, the environment and community engagement to give the user a better understanding of each group. We also used ACORN to provide each group’s preferred communication channels to help targeting of key messages.
How do you use the tool?
Enter the name of your area into the box provided, and you will access the biggest groups in your area, each ranked by their likelihood to support housing development and to actively engage locally.
Click on any of these groups and you will get their housing attitudes profile, with their key housing issues and concerns. Also is the messaging we think will be most effective with the group, tone and style, and the best communication channels to use. You can also download a communications plan template.
You can view all the groups to see which are most likely to be in each ward. You will have to register on the ACORN site, and you’ll also get the ACORN Knowledge, the data set we used to build the profile of each group.
If you need more help using the Shelter Community Insights for Communities, you can register for online training.
Who is this resource for and how can they use it?
Developers and housing associations
You can gain an insight into the housing attitudes, issues and concerns about your proposed development held by local people. You can draw on the types of communication that can directly address these views, and use the channels of communication recommended as preferred by local people.
Local authority housing officers and planners
You will be able to prioritise the community members to consult with on housing growth and will gain a clear insight into the concerns local people may have about this issue – this means that communications can be targeted and streamlined, making them more cost-effective. In addition, the resource will recommend the communication channels that different groups in your communities prefer. It will also provide you with a communications plan template designed to make your communications planning easier.
Councillors and parish councillors
It will show you the breakdown of different demographic groups in your ward or parish and council area and their likely attitudes to housing development. This can help you to deal with residents’ objections to planning applications, or talk to your community about housing development to address some of their issues and concerns. You can also download a communications plan which will help you respond to residents’ objections or queries on housing development.
Acknowledgements
Shelter is grateful to David Lock Associates and the Town and Country Planning Association for their generous sponsorship of the Shelter Housing Insights for Communities resource.
We are also grateful to CACI for their support in our use of ACORN InSite and to TRINITI Marketing for their guidance. We would also link to thank the Department for Communities and Local Government for making research into housing attitudes by NHPAU available. Shelter also thanks the local authority officers and councillors that have advised us on the delivery of this resource.
Copyright
© CACI, 2011. All rights reserved
© BMRB, 2011. All rights reserved
© Shelter, 2011. All rights reserved
Written by Karen Stalbow, Liam Reynolds and Nigel Pearcy
Photos throughout by: Nick David, Max Hamilton, Philip Hunton, Sophie Laslett, David Potter, Nina Stromsoy, Kiem Tang, Pete Thompson and Chris Watt.
