Commissioned by social housing provider Sovereign Hill Partnership LLP (SHP), The Young Foundation worked alongside Metrodynamics – a consultancy specialising in economic analysis, urban planning and spatial strategies – to deliver a programme of community-led research focused on revealing resident experiences regarding their local neighbourhoods and priorities for change.
Between October 2023 and March 2024, we carried out research in partnership with residents from the local community, who we paid and trained as community researchers. The aim was to help inform a new socio-economic strategy that would lay the groundwork for SHP, in partnership with other place-based organisations, to take an evidence-driven and participatory approach to a 15-year programme of local regeneration.
A complex history
South Ham and Buckskin are two distinctive neighbourhoods in Basingstoke West area. As recently as the mid-20th century, Basingstoke was still a modest market town, but after the devastation of World War II and a subsequent rebuilding programme, it was designated a London overspill town.
In 1961 Basingstoke expanded rapidly as London County Council’s plan called for 37,000 people to be moved from the capital to Basingstoke, leading to significant population growth as the town spread into surrounding rural areas. As a result, the town was transformed with new housing, major roads, industrial and commercial attracting people from across the South of England. During this period Buckskin and South Ham, two neighbourhoods to the west of the town centre were created on what was once farmland. To this day, they remain two of the largest estates in Basingstoke.
These cycles of change brought wave after wave of people into the town, with each introducing differing resident experiences, priorities, and expectations of place.
The neighbours in our close have become a family unit and I know I could knock on anyone's door for just about anything from a friendly smile or hug to a hand with something around the house. South Ham and Buckskin resident
Our approach
By working in partnership with people from the local community as peer researchers, we aimed to avoid externally driven assumptions of what mattered and reinforced narratives of separation, to build a deeper understanding of the potential to positively shape shared lived experiences in South Ham and Buckskin.
Peer research, sometimes referred to as ‘community research’, aims to reveal authentic insights into people’s lives and experiences. It is a method of participatory research which is led by people in communities, rather than a study of them. A peer researcher or community researcher is someone who has had similar experiences of something to the people they are ‘researching’. This could be based on place, or it could be based on experience.
Increasingly, place-based and national service delivery organisations are realising the importance of speaking to people about their lived experiences in the design, delivery or evaluation their programmes, and that the people best placed to understand someone’s experiences are other people like them.
Peer research aims to make research accessible to all – with no expectation of prior research knowledge or experience. At The Young Foundation, we have ten active principles of peer research, which guided design and delivery of this project. Therefore, in our work in South Ham and Buckskin, we focused on recruiting members of the community who cared about their neighbourhoods, and who were curious, non-judgemental and interested in speaking to residents about their experience of life in the area.
Like other participatory methods, peer research recognises that individuals within any community being researched are themselves competent agents, capable of participating, including as researchers. This methodology moves away from the ‘extractive’ model of social research and empowers those affected by change to play an active role, developing solutions with people, as opposed to for people.
In South Ham and Buckskin, some of the most important aspects of our work with community researchers were building trust in our work together, creating greater visibility and opportunity for change, and working collaboratively with SHP to help progress a commitment to power sharing with residents. This was SHP’s first experience of this type of community participation – which held a strategic and reputational risk for them as social housing provider – especially when levels of trust between residents and SHP remained low due to ongoing issues around response rates to tenant housing repair and maintenance needs. Working with residents in this way may require a shift from ‘business as usual’ – but through valuing community involvement and social participation can be a catalyst for positive change, creating places that are sustainable, inclusive, and reflect the aspirations of those who live there.
I wanted to give the people that live here a voice in what was going to happen in the future. To find out what they thought and wanted. By doing the research I wanted to cover all age groups and ethnicities to ensure that they had a say in the consultation process. Peer Researcher, South Ham and Buckskin
A cyclical approach to 'community listening'
Our research delivery programme was designed around a series of relationship building, insight gathering and evidence sharing activities, that formed an ‘arc’, on which we hoped trust, understanding and impact could be scaffolded and realised.
Seeing on-the-ground impact was critical for all partners, but especially for the community researchers, who knew this role increased their visibility with neighbours, friends and family. We were committed to protecting these key relationships, recognising the risks that could emerge if local priorities that did not receive due attention or response.
The Community Listening Survey unlocked voices who had not yet been heard by SHP, with residents – enabled by the community researchers – sharing their lived experiences to help shape the long-term regeneration of the area.
Key learnings
The importance of home remained at the centre of what mattered in people’s everyday lives (see Figure 1), with findings from our research with community researchers published by SHP in May 2024, as part of a summary of resident-led learnings.
However, we knew there was more to uncover about the needs, wants and hopes of Buckskin and South Ham’s residents, exploring three areas identified by the Community Listening Survey:
- Skills and employability: just 13% of residents who responded to the survey felt opportunities in the area were ‘good’. When asked to describe these opportunities, residents referenced low-paying jobs in retail and hospitality, many of which were inaccessible to those who did not have access to a car and relied upon public transportation.
- Children and young people: residents noted a lack of opportunities, as well as the limited freedom they currently experience. Respondents of all ages recognised the value that schools provide to the community, setting children up for a good start in life. However, just 15% of respondents felt there were places that children and young people could safely spend time in the area.
- Safety: this was a top priority for local residents. It was affected by perceptions of crime, anti-social behaviour, deterioration of the built environment, and the condition of their homes. Some 91% of homeowners who responded to the survey reported feeling safe during the day most or all of the time. However, this was shared by just 52% of young people (aged 16-24), dropping to 29% for the same demographic at night. Residents shared spaces they perceived as unsafe and spoke about the conditions that contributed to this feeling, including a lack of lighting and poorly designed footpaths.
Partners in change
Slowly, green shoots of change began to grow in South Ham and Buckskin, with hope for the future. Among residents who responded to the survey, 50% said they would be happy living in the area in 10 to 15 years’ time, with the same amount saying they trust that positive change is possible in the area. However, only 15% trust that they will be able to influence that future, and just 9% feel listened to and say their views are represented.
Building trust takes time and an ongoing commitment to partnership. Having highlighted the need for trust in the roles and relationships of the community researchers, we secured a commitment from SHP to continue our work together and go deeper into the areas of greatest need, identified by the community listening survey.
Our priority for the next stage of work was to deepen and consolidate trust with the community researchers, who were activated as partners in change – residents who have a deep commitment to helping realise the potential of their area and community.
In May 2024, community researchers and The Young Foundation team were invited to contribute deeper resident-led understanding to inform the wider Community Engagement Strategy, led by Something Collective, a specialist engagement company focusing on place-based collaboration between professional development organisations and communities.
Steered by the priorities of the community researchers, we explored the aims of the strategy, its audience, and different methods of communication – with a recognition that one solution will not fit all. Community researchers were now playing an active role in directing SHP’s evaluation and monitoring processes, creating mechanisms for which residents of Buckskin and South Ham could hold SHP to account during the long-term regeneration.
From September 2024 to January 2025, we explored community experiences of being a young person growing up in the area, employability options and priorities, and what creates safety and welcome through small focus groups and workshops, using a range of participatory research methods. The community researchers have played an active role in shaping the design and delivery of these sessions, creating spaces in which residents could share freely – holding space for residents to shape the future of Buckskin and South Ham.
Knowing that there is a brighter future the area will thrive. An area where the quality of life at home and out and about is above the national average. I feel proud of the small part I have played in starting these communities on the road to a hopefully brighter future. Peer Researcher, South Ham and Buckskin
From building understanding to realising impact
For change to be meaningful and sustained it often needs to happen at number of levels simultaneously, and in South Ham and Buckskin this has taken the form of physical place-based developments and shifts in individual mindsets and capabilities.
Where the community advocated for the importance of warm, welcoming, affordable or free shared spaces, this has resulted in on-the-ground investment to revitalise and renew critical local assets such as the Westside Community Centre. Understanding that safety was a key and ongoing concern for local people, not only focused SHP priorities in terms of increased lighting, the brightening up of ‘no go’ areas such as Burnaby Shops and care for green spaces and gardens, but also – through local press coverage of this work reached a wider stakeholder audience – led to wider engagement and connections for change. Community researchers shared with us that this experience had increased their confidence both in developing new research skills and capabilities, and in their relationships and connections to neighbours and different local groups. Their increased visibility in their neighbourhood rebalanced feelings of powerless and increased personal agency – that they could be the drivers behind local movements of hope.
The collective effort and shared commitment shown by SHP and the community researchers to work in partnership and listen to and make visible what was needed and valued by residents, has been crucial in realising these changes. However, the relationship remains fragile – especially as the role of SHP evolves from a social housing provider to an anchor organisation with increased regeneration responsibilities. No longer focused on the pure development and maintenance of housing for homes, but for the spaces and connections needed for thriving neighbourhoods and communities.
Our ideas for change
So where do we go from here? What could system change really look like? Deep local commitments to a rebalancing of roles and relationships are a critical first step. Beyond this, there are learnings from our work in South Ham and Buckskin about what might be adapted, and developed, to support movements of neighbours for change – partnerships between residents and organisations who together invest the time, space and resources to care, and start looking up and acting outwards.
Where the community advocated for the importance of warm, welcoming, affordable or free shared spaces, this has resulted in on-the-ground investment to revitalise and renew critical local assets such as the Westside Community Centre. Understanding that safety was a key and ongoing concern for local people, not only focused SHP priorities in terms of increased lighting, the brightening up of ‘no go’ areas such as Burnaby Shops and care for green spaces and gardens, but also – through local press coverage of this work reached a wider stakeholder audience – led to wider engagement and connections for change. Community researchers shared with us that this experience had increased their confidence both in developing new research skills and capabilities, and in their relationships and connections to neighbours and different local groups. Their increased visibility in their neighbourhood rebalanced feelings of powerless and increased personal agency – that they could be the drivers behind local movements of hope.
The collective effort and shared commitment shown by SHP and the community researchers to work in partnership and listen to and make visible what was needed and valued by residents, has been crucial in realising these changes. However, the relationship remains fragile – especially as the role of SHP evolves from a social housing provider to an anchor organisation with increased regeneration responsibilities. No longer focused on the pure development and maintenance of housing for homes, but for the spaces and connections needed for thriving neighbourhoods and communities.
Read ‘A movement of hope, a movement of neighbours’, an article inspired by our work in South Ham and Buckskin
Our heartfelt thanks to the Community Researchers and residents who gave their time and commitment to our work together in South Ham and Buckskin; your care and understanding of your place and community is inspiring.