Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) reporting
CHIA and a consortium of private and public sector partners have commenced the development of an industry specific environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting standard, putting Australia at the forefront of ESG reporting for the sector globally.
Apart from the UK, Australia will be the first country to develop a community housing ESG reporting standard, opening the way for deeper institutional investment.
The reporting standard will demonstrate the added value community housing generates in driving improved economic and social outcomes and in doing so will help encourage and attract more diverse private sector lending, including from ESG investors.
Read the full media release here.
Social & Green Benefits Calculator
The revenue generated from operating social and affordable housing in Australia is insufficient to finance new social and affordable homes. As a consequence, the provision of social and affordable housing is dependent on government subsidy, internal resources or philanthropic grant funding to become financially viable.
Social and affordable rental housing does, however, provide a series of wider social and economic benefits (WSEB) that generate cost savings across public and private sectors.
This project involves developing a tool that enables social and affordable housing project proposals to estimate these project-specific, wider social and economic benefits, and in turn strengthen the business case for new developments.
It will provide comprehensive economic justifications for the use of external resources that would assist new supply, arguments that more accurately reflect the social outcomes that occur through the provision of social and affordable housing.
Who is doing the work?
Swinburne University of Technology will take the lead. The research team (A/ Prof C Nygaard and Dr T. Kollmann) have previously undertaken work developing the illustrative social cost-benefit analysis that informs this project.
Simetrica-Jacobs – are leaders in social value analysis, wellbeing research and econometrics. They provide research and consultancy advice to governments and organisations around the world. Simetrica- Jacobs will undertake research to quantify the benefits of access to green space and/ or property design features.
Australian Social Value Bank – will provide the Wellbeing Values which capture the social benefits associated with the provision of social and affordable homes.
Community Housing Industry Association (CHIA) and NSW Shelter
The project is being managed by CHIA, the peak body representing not for profit community housing organisations (CHOs) across Australia. On behalf of our diverse range of members CHIA undertakes research, policy development and advocacy in relation to social and affordable housing issues.
CHIA will be assisted by Shelter NSW, a policy and research advocacy body. Shelter NSW is an independent, non-profit, member-driven organisation that has been advocating for better housing outcomes since 1975.
Housing and Productivity Research Consortium
In spite of determined efforts by many Australia does not have the long term recurrent subsidy stream to enable social/ affordable housing development at scale. CHIA is one of the founding members of the Housing and Productivity Research Consortium that aims to change the way governments think about housing; specifically, demonstrating the productivity impacts from investing in housing. The initiative brings together government, the private sector and not for profits to both research and communicate housing’s wider benefits and ultimately persuade the Commonwealth to take a lead on a resourced housing strategy.
Strengthening Economic Cases for Housing
The work done by the HPRC builds on two foundational studies Making Better Economic Cases for Housing, and Strengthening Economic Cases for Housing – both led by Prof Duncan Maclennan and undertaken in conjunction with other UNSW colleagues. Those reports identify key research questions about the links between housing outcomes, productivity, stability and affordability.
