Fordham Research

History of the firm

The company has evolved over the past two decades in a number of distinct stages. These are detailed below.

Planning Gain & Negotiation (1986 – 1992)

Dr. Richard Fordham originally founded Planning Gain Consultants in 1986 to negotiate planning gain tested by our viability analyses for the public sector, to be practicable as well as justified. The firm's name was changed to Planning Negotiators in 1989, to reflect expansion into providing negotiation services as well as just valuations. With the expansion into Housing Needs Assessments (HNA) the broader company name of Fordham Research was adopted.

In the early 1990's Government placed a duty on local authorities to negotiate affordable housing to replace the discontinued Council house building programme. Such negotiation required statistical evidence of housing need in the Local Authority area. Since we had negotiated affordable housing for local authorities, as part of an overall planning gain package, it was natural that we became involved in the issue of assessing housing need. At that time there were no well-established firms in the field of HNAs, nor was there an agreed approach to carrying out them out.

Housing Need (1993 – 2000)

In late 1992 and early 1993 we developed an approach to carrying out housing needs assessments and quickly began to win contracts in the field across the UK.

By 1995 the lack of government guidance became apparent: housing needs assessments by different organisations became quite different products, with different methodologies being employed to assess affordable housing need. We therefore published a document on housing needs assessments in conjunction with the National Housing and Town Planning Council (now Roof). This represented the first substantial study published on the issue of how to measure housing need.

In 1998 we published a book on the subject: Housing Need and the Need for Housing (Ashgate). This appeared as the Government began the process of developing a standardised methodology for assessing housing need, culminating in these principles being adopted by the Government in its July 2000 publication of Local Housing Needs Assessment: A Guide to Good Practice as its recommended approach to assessing the need for affordable housing. See here for our HNA Studies and updates

Wider assessment of the housing market (2000 – 2008)

Since the turn of the century the firm has expanded into a range of further fields which are listed below.

Strategic Housing Market Assessments (SHMA): While our studies had already begun to include a market element to provide complementary demand analysis beyond the main purpose of the technical housing need assessment. Once PPS3 was published (Nov 2006) formal SHMA work began, and we are now the leading firm in that field. As part of our SHMA work and commissioned separately we continue to carry out household survey based HNA. See here for our SHMA Studies

Gypsy and Traveller Accommodation Assessments (GTAA): Following from the Housing Act 2004 and Government Guidance of 2007, Fordham Research is now a leading consultant in the field of GTAAs, completing a London-wide GTAA. See here for our GTAA Studies

Key Worker Studies (KWS): The first part of the twenty-first century saw increased research into the retention and recruitment of key workers and the influencing role that access to affordable and market housing played. This focus has now broadened out to explore appropriately priced and packaged intermediate housing products for residents in local authority areas more generally.

Private Sector Stock Condition Surveys (PSSCS): Responding to a requirement for integrating the practical fieldwork of condition surveys with socio-economic household interviews and related analysis, we also began to carry out Private Sector Stock Condition Surveys, often using a combined fieldwork and research team. See here for our PSSCS Studies

Impact of the Economic Downturn on Housing and Planning Policy (2008 – Present)

Even before the Coalition Government and its emphasis on Localism, there has been a shift towards analysis of specific sectors, which are becoming ever more prevalent. This has led to our producing studies in a number of new directions: