Halima Sacranie

Background

About Halima Sacranie

I am a housing and communities policy researcher and completed my PhD at the Centre for Urban and Regional Studies at the University of Birmingham in 2011, a regional centre of excellence for housing research. As Director of Housing Research at the Centre for the New Midlands, I led the evaluation of the West Midlands Social Housing Quality Fund programme, a £15 million grant programme to tackle severe damp and mould in social housing in the West Midlands. This study was commissioned by the West Midlands Combined Authority and conducted between February to November 2024. I an currently working on an exciting new research project programme at the Centre for the New Midlands, working with the research group Social Life, to develop a Decent Neighbourhood Standard, with the first demonstrator project underway in partnership with community-led housing organisation Witton Lodge Community Association in North Birmingham. Previously, at the University of Birmingham, I was the UK academic partner on CHARM (Circular Housing Asset Renovation & Management), a 4-year EU-funded project led by TU Delft in the Netherlands. The project aimed to develop asset management approaches that prevent the downcycling of materials in the renovation and construction of social rented dwellings. Other previous projects based at Aston University include a 3-year study on Housing Quality, Neighbourhoods and Resident Wellbeing with VIVID Homes, and a 2-year collaboration with the Gambling Commission and Birmingham City Council examining harmful gambling and tenancy insecurity. As Director of Housing Research at the Centre for the New Midlands, I am engaged on a new programme of research with the ambition of establishing the think tank as a new regional centre for excellence for housing policy research. My other current roles are as Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham, a Research Fellow at Aston University, and a Trustee of the charity Climate Outreach.