Project number: 2023-SUS-009

Collaboration between social housing and rail increase societal benefits

This project brought together key stakeholders from across the railway and the Housing Association Charitable Trust (HACT) to improve positive community impact in areas of high social deprivation.

'Societal issues impact both rail and housing, and collaborative interventions like this will benefit all.'

Caroline Lee
Senior Social Value Advisor, Volker Rail, Chair of the Social Sustainability Working Group

The challenge

Stations and rail infrastructure are often close to areas of social housing. Rail and social housing both suffer from similar societal factors at these locations but were not collaborating to address these issues.

The rail network extends across the country. Social housing providers build and maintain property occupied by more than 4 million UK households. Therefore rail and social housing both cover large areas of the country. Importantly, the same societal issues are often present in these locations. These include high levels of deprivation and lower levels of employment, educational attainment, or health and wellbeing.

This project explored how the two sectors could work together better to understand and address these societal factors.

What we did

RSSB worked with the HACT to bring the two sectors together. This led us to find and recognise effective actions.

A review of stakeholder policy and documentation brought key issues to light. HACT also led a series of events for key stakeholders, who came from London, Manchester, Doncaster, and Scotland. Next, as more detailed understanding was needed, interviews were carried out.

Overall, RSSB and HACT found several ways our sectors can collaborate. There are short and longer term opportunities that will support positive outcomes and priorities for each organisation.

Benefits delivered

The impact of social deprivation can be reduced by the way the railway and social housing sectors work together. This will have multiple practical benefits in the short and longer term.

In the short term, the two sectors will share details about smaller-scale projects. This includes funding opportunities and interventions to improve employability. It also includes community outreach activities.

In the longer term, the two sectors will share more complex data and projects. This includes sharing data insights and the development of more structured collaborative interventions. These will benefit both parties and the communities where they take place.

The Social Sustainability Working Group has begun incorporating the outputs of this research into its ongoing work programme.