About Us


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The Cambridge Centre for Housing and Planning Research is a research Centre within the Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge led by Peter Williams. It was established in 1990 (originally as the Property Research Unit) with the objective of undertaking policy-oriented research on all issues affecting housing and land use and has an international reputation as a leading academic research institution in the fields of housing and planning.

Since its inception, the Centre has attracted over £12m in external research grants, carrying out over 100 research projects for a variety of sponsors, ranging from the ESRC, the Department of Communities and Local Government and its forerunners, the Welsh Assembly Government, the Tenant Services Authority, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, and a wide range of other bodies including the Regional Assemblies, local authorities and housing associations. Many of the Centre’s major projects are carried out in collaboration with other leading academic institutions, including particularly the Universities of Reading, Glasgow, Sheffield, Sydney, and the London School of Economics.

To see our Annual Reports, click here.

At the present time the Centre has some fifteen researchers working on three main strands of research:

  • the interface between housing and land use planning;
  • the role and operation of the social housing sector; and
  • a more general strand examining core issues around the principles of government intervention and the future of housing demand, finance and provision.

The majority of the work is UK based and inputs into policy at the national regional and local levels. In the last two years the Centre has been involved in three major, government sponsored, projects that have significantly influenced the government's housing strategy with respect to the planning and development of new housing in England.

The Centre has close links with researchers in Australia, North America, and Europe. Members of the Centre are involved in a wide range of international conferences and symposia and publish regularly in academic and more policy oriented journals.

The Centre has a well-established database focused research unit, Dataspring, which holds and develops databases of social housing and housing market data. Dataspring is substantially funded by the Tenant Services Authority. To go to the Dataspring section of this website, click here: www.dataspring.org.uk