Work with us
Some questions about housing are questions of judgement. Others can be tested against the record. If you are working on the second kind, we may be able to help.
Questions we can investigate
A useful question usually begins with a claim about what the planning or housing system does.
- Does a policy threshold change what applicants propose?
- Did an intervention change planning outcomes?
- Is one authority behaving differently from comparable authorities?
- What is actually causing schemes to fail?
- Does the evidence support an assumption being used in policy?
If the evidence exists, the question may be testable. Where it does not, that is worth establishing early.
Who we work with
Perfect Scale is open to work with local authorities, researchers, universities, housing organisations, think tanks, journalists and others working on housing and planning. The starting point is the question rather than the type of organisation asking it.
How the work is funded
The question may be funded. The answer cannot be.
Research can be supported or commissioned. Funding does not buy a particular finding.
The method is agreed before the work starts and does not change once the result is visible. It is the same method used in every borough, and the limits are reported with the result. Relevant funding and other interests are disclosed on the work they touch.
Where the evidence does not support the original proposition, that is the finding.
Standing disclosures
Perfect Scale is not commissioned by any borough to assess that borough, and no borough pays for its own dashboard. Abre Etteh authored the London Borough of Merton’s Small Sites Supplementary Planning Document and sits on a design review panel; work touching Merton carries that authorship and that seat declared in full.
The public work stays public
The datasets, dashboards, research and methods already published remain freely available. Not every conversation needs to become a project. If the published evidence already answers the question, we will point you to it.
Start with the question
Tell us what you are trying to find out, and why it matters.