Networks, Partnerships and Collaboration

IUT participation in housing networks

IUT is active in a number of networks and international working groups both within the EU and internationally such as in the United Nations.  We also follow a number of organisations whose work has or may have an impact on IUT members.  To guide our work we have a number of working groups, consisting of specialists from our member organisation.

 

Asian Network for Housing Research

IUT is an institutional member of APNHR:  APNHR provides a forum for housing academics, policy makers and the like who have a strong interest in housing in the region to critically examine and review housing issues and experiences in the respective and comparative socio-political and economic contexts, and to draw lessons from outside the region.

European Economic and Social Committee  

IUT is a member of the EESC liaison group. The EESC was set up by the 1957 Rome Treaties to involve economic and social interest groups in the establishment of the common market and to provide an institutional structure for briefing the European Commission and the Council of Ministers on European Community issues.

The Single European Act (1986), the Maastricht Treaty (1992), the Amsterdam Treaty (1997) and the Treaty of Nice(2000) have reinforced the EESC’s role.

The EESC is a consultative body that gives representatives of Europe’s socio-occupational interest groups and others a formal platform to express their points of view on EU issues. Its opinions are addressed to the Council, the European Commission and the European Parliament. It thus has a key role to play in the Union’s decision-making process.Committed to European integration, the EESC contributes to strengthening the democratic legitimacy and effectiveness of the European Union by enabling civil society organisations from the Member States to express their views at European level.

European Federation for Living

IUT is a member of the social domain working group of the EFL.

EFL is a European Forum that works in the interest of members to add value to their business and to build sustainable neighbourhoods.

EFL’s vision is for its unique makeup of members to be at the forefront of economic and sustainable housing community development in Europe, through quicker and better access to research, innovation and funding than by any other route.

EFL is results driven. The members are committed to working together to create concrete results – tangible, worthwhile projects. In doing this EFL will collectively develop tools and services and co-operate in EU funded programs. The members and associates are the key actors of EFL.

 

THE EUROPEAN HOUSING FORUM

IUT is a partner of the European Housing Forum (EHF), which was created in 1997, following the adoption of a resolution on the social aspect of housing by the European Parliament. The EHF is a forum gathering 15 representative organisations of the entire housing sector. Its members are all major international or European organisations representing consumers, providers, professionals, and researchers.

The member organisations represent housing consumers such as tenants, homeowners, and people who are homeless or inadequately housed; housing providers such as social and public housing associations and private developers, and housing professionals such as chartered surveyors, property managers, and researchers specialised in housing issues. The EHF is a partner of the European Parliament URBAN Intergroup.

IUT  published three joint documents with the EHF:

active ageing   

affordable housing 

and on  the role of housing in the EU

European Network for Housing Research

IUT is an institutional member of ENHR.  The European Network for Housing Research (ENHR) was established in 1988 to provide an organizational platform for institutions and individuals in (and outside) Europe, who are actively engaged in housing research. It now has about 1000 individual and nearly 100 institutional members representing almost every country in Europe. Although ENHR is an European network, researchers from outside Europe are also very welcome to join.

European Responsible Housing Initiative (ERHIN)

ERHIN is a shared vision of responsibility, covering local social sustainability, environment, economic sustainability, good governance, responsible HR management,   ERHIN produced the first online resource center entirely dedicated to Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR) in the not-for-profit, public and cooperative housing sector. It  ighlights a number of local, national and European initiatives, and reflects the sector’s commitment and contribution to sustainable and inclusive growth in Europe.   It encompasses the European Responsible Housing Awards and  a Code of Conduct.

2019 awards

Stakeholder Forum report. 

Housing Europe 

IUT works closely with Housing Europe the umbrella organisation for  social landlords .

Housing Europe is the European Federation of Public, Cooperative & Social Housing. Since 1988 it’s a network of 45 national & regional federations gathering 43,000 housing providers in 24 countries. Together they manage over 26 million homes, about 11% of existing dwellings in Europe.

 

Housing Partnership

IUT is a member of the EU Urban Agenda – Housing  Partnership and co-chairs the working group on General Housing Policy.

The objectives of the Partnership on Housing were clearly established in the text of the Pact of Amsterdam endorsed by the EU Member States:  to have affordable housing of good quality with a focus on public affordable housing, state aid rules and general housing policy.

The EU Urban Agenda – Housing Partnership focuses on:

Better regulations: Guidance on state support and social housing to improve clarity for public and private investors

Better funding: Identification and sharing of good practice on innovative financial models

Better knowledge: Contribution to  enhancing the knowledge base on social and affordable housing issues and exchange of best practices and knowledge, Elaborating an affordable housing policy toolkit

Housing Partnership’s final report and all documents can be found here 

and the final action plan here

Empoweringcities to invest in affordable housing

Better knowledge base and exchange of best practice and policy

INGO

 

IUT has participatory status with the Council of Europe, via its Conference of NGOs. Relations with International NGOs (INGOs) can seen as the Council of Europe’s statutory relations with NGOs. INGOs holding participatory status, known collectively as the Conference of INGOs of the Council of Europe, actively contribute to the decision-making process at the Council of Europe and to the implementation of its programmes, thereby ensuring their relevance to the expectations of Europeans.

Social Platform

IUT is a member of the Social policy working group and Services of General interest working group.

Social Platform is the largest network of European rights- and value-based civil society organisations working in the social sector.

Their mission is to advocate for policies that bring social progress to all in the European Union.

Social Platform applies a human-rights approach to all of of their work to fight for a socially just and cohesive Europe that promotes equality, diversity, solidarity, democracy and human dignity.

 

 

 

UNECE – Housing and Lang Management

IUT is a working partner of the UNECE committee on Housing and Land Management.The UNECE Committee on Housing and Land Management works to promote:

  • energy efficient and adequate housing, including for those with special needs and vulnerable population groups
  • compact, inclusive, resilient, smart and sustainable cities
  • transparent and efficient land use, and property registration

The URBAN Intergroup

IUT is an official partner of the Urban Intergroup.

The URBAN Intergroup at the European Parliament is a cross-parties and cross-committees grouping with a horizontal approach to discuss urban related issues. They bring together over 89 MEPs representing most EU Member States, all the political groups at the European Parliament, and workin all the parliamentary committees. They work with 118 partners from local, regional, national and European level that represent the interests of Europe’s town and cities or work in the domain relevant for urban development. The URBAN Intergroup (previously “URBAN-Housing”) was set up in 2005 to ensure that urban related problems are reflected in European Parliament’s decisions.

IUT also follows the work of a number of organisations when they touch on housing issues.

BEUC; the European Consumer Organisation

BEUC acts as the umbrella group in Brussels for its members and our main task is to represent them at European level and defend the interests of all Europe’s consumers.

BEUC investigates EU decisions and developments likely to affect consumers, with a special focus on five areas identified as priorities by our members: Financial Services, Food, Digital Rights, Consumer Rights & Enforcement and Sustainability.

Council of Europe

Council of Europe is a human rights organisation.  It has 47 members including the 28 EU states. All members have signed up to the The European Convention of Human Rights, a treaty designed to protect human rights, democracy, and the rule of law. The European Court of Human Rights  oversees the implementation of the convention in the Member States.

EUROCITIES

Eurocities was founded in 1986 by the mayors of six large cities: Barcelona, Birmingham, Frankfurt, Lyon, Milan and Rotterdam.

Eurocities bring together the local governments of over 140 of Europe’s largest cities and over 45 partner cities, that between them govern 130 million citizens across 39 countries. Through six thematic forums, a wide range of working groups, projects, activities and events, Eurocities offer members a platform for sharing knowledge and exchanging ideas.They influence and work with the EU institutions to respond to common issues that affect the day-to-day lives of Europeans.

 

EUROPEAN COMMISSION

IUT follows a number of departments ( whose work has an effect on housing and tenancy issues. These include:

DG Regio (Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy)

DG Comp  (Competition)

DG Empl   (Employment, social affairs and inclusion)

DG Ener   (Energy)

DG Eurostat  (European statistics)

DG Home (Migration and Home Affairs)

 

Early warnings

The forthcoming consultations by the Commission are listed here

European Property Federation

Founded in Brussels in 1997, EPF represents all aspects of property ownership and investment: residential landlords, housing companies, commercial property investment and development companies, shopping centres and the property interests of the institutional investors (banks, insurance companies, pension funds). Its members own property assets valued at € 1.5 trillion, providing and managing buildings for the residential or service and industry tenants that occupy them.

 

 

 

European Social Charter

The European Social Charter is a Council of Europe treaty that guarantees fundamental social and economic rights as a counterpart to the European Convention on Human Rights, which refers to civil and political rights. It guarantees a broad range of everyday human rights related to employment, housing, health, education, social protection and welfare.

 

Housing Rights Watch

Housing Rights Watch is an interdisciplinary European network of associations, lawyers and academics from different countries, who are committed to promoting the right to housing. The right to housing has been recognised as one of the most important fundamental human rights and what we seek is the realisation of every person’s right to live in dignity and to have a secure, adequate and affordable place to live.

The network was set-up in Cardiff in November 2008 in order to facilitate exchange and mutual learning among housing rights experts and advocates.

 

OECD

The mission of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is to promote policies that will improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world. The OECD provides a forum in which governments can work together to share experiences and seek solutions to common problems. They work with governments to understand what drives economic, social and environmental change. OECD measure productivity and global flows of trade and investment. They analyse and compare data to predict future trends. They set international standards on a wide range of things, from agriculture and tax to the safety of chemicals.

OECD also look at issues that directly affect everyone’s daily life, like how much people pay in taxes and social security, and how much leisure time they can take.

Drawing on facts and real-life experience, the OECD recommend policies designed to improve the quality of people’s lives.

UIPI – International Union of Property Owners

UIPI is a pan-European not-for-profit association comprising of 29 organisations from 28 countries. Jointly, they represent more than 5 million private property owners and some 20 to 25 million dwellings. Founded in 1923, the UIPI aims to protect and promote the interests, needs and concerns of private landlords and owner-occupiers at national, European and international levels.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) represents the world’s commitment to universal ideals of human dignity. They have a unique mandate from the international community to promote and protect all human rights.

The High Commissioner for Human Rights is the principal human rights official of the United Nations.

The High Commissioner heads OHCHR and spearheads the United Nations’ human rights efforts.

Communications issued by the Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing from 2014 – Present

Annual reports on housing

Urbact

For about 15 years, the URBACT programme has been the European Territorial Cooperation programme aiming to foster sustainable integrated urban development in cities across Europe. It is an instrument of the Cohesion Policy, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund, the 28 Member States, Norway & Switzerland.

URBACT’s mission is to enable cities to work together and develop integrated solutions to common urban challenges, by networking, learning from one another’s experiences, drawing lessons and identifying good practices to improve urban policies.

World Bank

The World Bank Group is one of the world’s largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries. Its five institutions share a commitment to reducing poverty, increasing shared prosperity, and promoting sustainable development.  With 189 member countries, staff from more than 170 countries and offices in over 140 locations, the World Bank Group is a unique global partnership, five institutions working for sustainable solutions that reduce poverty and build shared prosperity in developing countries.

World Health Organisation (WHO)

The goal of WHO  is to build a better, healthier future for people all over the world. Working through offices in more than 150 countries, WHO staff work side by side with governments and other partners to ensure the highest attainable level of health for all people.

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