Homefinder UK provides a highly nuanced and bespoke service which helps a wide variety of people - families, couples, single people – move to permanent social housing or private rented homes, typically in a new location outside their current borough in order to access more housing choice. Our service has rehoused over 1,800 households who have been affected by homelessness including refugees, older people, survivors of domestic abuse and rough sleepers, along with those living in unacceptably crowded conditions. It is this impact that motivates myself and my team to keep going despite the incredibly challenging housing market we’re currently navigating. An environment where social housing lists exceed 100 years in some boroughs of London.

As an organisation we are always looking to learn and welcome insights that help us evolve and improve as a service. Between 2022 and 2024, our service was evaluated by the Policy Institute at King’s College, London. Since the evaluation data collection concluded almost a year ago, Homefinder UK has enhanced its services considerably adding support such as training and employment resources, befriending services, and additional relocation support – helping people not just move and survive but setting our service users up to thrive in their new locations. It is deeply unfortunate that most of those taking part in this randomised trial did not in fact move, making it impossible to assess the impact of moving through Homefinder UK on housing security, and other outcomes like health and social connections. In reality, we receive approximately 1,800 referrals a year and rehouse approximately 225-250 households every year and hear back from many applicants regarding their gratitude in helping them turn their lives around.

In the case of this trial the research found that very few people who participated in the trial successfully moved out of area in the period when it was carried out. As a result, they were unable to conduct their primary analysis of the causal effect of moving to a new area. They did carry out their secondary analysis of the impact of the service on housing security, social connectedness, physical health, mental health, and employment and benefits receipt, but this did not show any impact of being assigned to receive the service and any of these. I’m confident that should the analysis have taken place with those that successfully moved the findings would be very different.

However difficult it is for us to process this, we are always trying to improve our service and to do better.

We have had frank conversations with the team at CHI and agreed that, even when an evaluation finds that it is unable to show evidence of impact, that this still has value and can add to our understanding of the journey that our clients take when using our service.

We are committed to continuing to improve the service we offer and optimise how we help those experiencing or at risk of homelessness.

Ninesh Muthiah is Chief Executive Officer of Home Connections, which operates Homefinder UK

Read the Homefinder UK report here.