Nation’s largest housing association launches radical report offering ‘a new social contract for housing’
Clarion Housing Group, the country’s largest housing association, has today published a new report into the future of social housing marking the culmination of its 125th anniversary celebrations.
The landmark report, Five New Giants of Opportunity, takes its inspiration from the radical ambition of the 1942 Beveridge Report, which laid the foundations of Britain’s modern welfare state and identified five ‘giants’ facing society at the time: Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness.
Over 80 years on, the world has changed and so has its challenges. From climate breakdown and AI disruption to demographic shifts and deepening inequality, the forces shaping our society are complex and fast-moving. In response, this report brings together nine essays from a multidisciplinary panel of thinkers across housing, health, technology, economics and design, each offering bold, hopeful ideas for what the future of social housing could look like.
Read the report
Across the essays, interlinked pressures are identified as defining challenges for the years ahead: the planetary emergency, technological disruption, changing demographics, and economic and social instability. While not exhaustive, these trends demand a rethink of how we build and sustain communities.
Many of these challenges are already playing out. According to Clarion’s 2025 Index of resident experience, nearly half of residents say financial strain is harming their mental health. A third of working-age residents are economically inactive, many due to illness or disability. And 15% report feeling lonely most or all of the time, nearly double the national average.
The 5 New Giants of Opportunity is ultimately a vision for a brighter future, setting out five modern ‘giants’: connection, resilience, trust, health and sufficiency that form a new social blueprint.
Clarion is calling on government, partners and the wider housing sector to work together to meet these challenges head-on, and to seize the opportunities they present.
Introducing Five New Giants of Opportunity
This short film highlights the key themes from Clarion Housing Group’s new 125th-anniversary report, Five New Giants of Opportunity.
Inspired by the ambition of the 1942 Beveridge Report, it explores how today’s challenges – from inequality to housing quality and community resilience – are shaping the future of social housing.
“If we want a better society, we need to know what it looks like. Optimism comes from having a vision of the future, and a plan for how to get there. Leadership means showing the way forward by doing things that work – identifying, testing and implementing new approaches to tackling the problems we face. Clarion does not have all the answers, but we pledge to do everything we can to disrupt declining quality-of-life trends. By combining experimentation on the ground, co-creation with communities, and advocacy for systemic change, we aim to be part of a sector-wide movement toward a fairer, healthier, and more sustainable housing future, and I welcome anyone who wants to collaborate with us in our journey towards that goal.”
The report’s findings were presented this evening (November 19) with a keynote lecture by social historian David Olusoga at the Royal Institution in Central London where he reflected on his own childhood growing up in social housing, and the vital need for a more positive housing vision into the future.
David Olusoga, historian and broadcaster, said:
“Social housing is a lifeline for so many, but for decades our system has failed to adapt and families up and down the country have been blighted by the same issues that I experienced through my own childhood.
“Systemic change does not happen overnight, but this report sets out a positive vision for a sector that desperately needs it. Social housing could be so much more, and I commend Clarion for having the courage to lead and begin this new conversation.”