Connection, resilience, trust, health and sufficiency: Clarion Housing Group's new framework for the future of social housing
A new social blueprint for housing
Clarion Housing Group's landmark 125th-anniversary report sets out a long-term vision for the future of social housing at a time of rapid economic, social and technological change.
Published to mark 125 years since the founding of our oldest predecessor, 5 New Giants of Opportunity brings together nine essays from leading thinkers across housing, health, technology, economics and design, each offering bold, hopeful ideas for what tomorrow's communities could look like.
A modern Beveridge moment
The report takes its inspiration from the radical ambition of the 1942 Beveridge Report, which laid the foundations of Britain's modern welfare state and named the 5 'giants' the country had to defeat: Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness.
More than 80 years on, the world has changed and so have its challenges. Climate breakdown, technological disruption, shifting demographics and deepening inequality are now among the most powerful forces shaping people's daily lives, and the institutions designed to support them must change in response.
The 5 New Giants of Opportunity report is our attempt to name that change. It identifies four interlinked pressures, the planetary emergency, technological disruption, changing demographics, and economic and social instability, as the defining context for the years ahead, and sets out a positive framework for how the housing sector and its partners can respond.
An introduction to the report
Watch this short film that brings the report's themes to life, from the pressures shaping social housing today to the opportunities a new generation of homes and communities could unlock.
A useful starting point before exploring The 5 new giants of opportunity report in detail.
The 5 new giants
At the heart of the report are 5 modern 'giants of opportunity': connection, resilience, trust, health and sufficiency.
Together they form a blueprint for a fairer, healthier and more sustainable future, and a way of organising long-term thinking across the sector. They are an invitation to look beyond bricks and mortar, towards homes that build belonging, neighbourhoods that withstand shocks, organisations that earn confidence, environments that support wellbeing, and a model of provision that meets people's needs without exceeding the planet's.
The challenges we face
Many of the pressures the report addresses are already shaping the lives of the people we serve. Findings from Clarion's 2025 Index of resident experience show that nearly half of residents say financial strain is harming their mental health. A third of working-age residents are economically inactive, often as a result of illness or disability. And 15% report feeling lonely most or all of the time, nearly double the national average.
These are not abstract trends. They describe the texture of everyday life in homes across the country, and they make clear why a new conversation about social housing is so urgently needed.
