Winston Churchill Travel Fellowship 2016: US Study Trip Considering Pre-purchase counselling to support affordable homeownership programmes

Alison was awarded a Winston Churchill Travel Fellowship under the 'New Approaches to Social and Affordable Housing' stream, supported by the National Housing Federation. The Fellowship will support study leave to New York State to examine homeownership education and counselling courses, popular in the US to enhance the sustainability of home purchase decisions and also unlock access to public subsidies to low-cost homeownership schemes.

Alison spent June 2016 touring New York State talking about pre-purchase counselling and sustainable homeownership with lenders, advice providers and intermediaries, visiting Buffalo, Albany, Long Island and New York City, with a brief detour to Boston. Visits were also made to the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University and the Furman Center at New York University (NYU).