A Place to Breathe: 10 years of St Basils' Live and Work
About
The Centre for the New Midlands and St Basils are delighted to invite you to join us for the launch of a new report; an evaluation of St Basils 'Live and Work' model.One in six young people in the UK cannot find work. In Birmingham, youth unemployment runs at double the national average. For young people without family support, the private rental market is unaffordable, untenable social housing waiting lists stretch to a decade, and the benefit system actively penalises those who secure employment. This is a structural failure with generational consequences.
St Basils' Live and Work scheme was built as a direct response. Since opening in Sandwell in 2015, it has provided genuinely affordable accommodation (with rents set at or below Local Housing Allowance) to young people in employment who might otherwise be at risk of homelessness or trapped in the benefits system. Over 230 young people have passed through the scheme, and all paid their rent from earned income.
The scheme has received national recognition, winning the ‘Outstanding Contribution to Homelessness’ category in the National Housing Awards 2018 and ‘Homelessness Partnership of the Year’ in the 2020 UK National Housing Awards. St Basil’s Live and Work model has since expanded: 80 bed spaces opened in Birmingham city centre in 2025, and a further 28 self-contained units are now confirmed for Coventry.
A decade on from the first scheme in Sandwell, the Centre for the New Midlands has conducted an independent evaluation drawing on ten years of service user data, a detailed SROI analysis, and in-depth interviews with young people residents and stakeholders. Behind the numbers are young people who described, often for the first time, being able to hold down a job, save money, and believe the future was something they could plan for.
This report launch presents the evaluation's findings and recommendations at a significant moment: St Basils has recently secured a legislative exemption within the Renters Rights Act 2025 enabling Stepping Stone accommodation for young workers nationally - moving this model from local proof of concept to national policy agenda.
Join Jean Templeton, Chief Executive of St Basils and Chair of the WMCA Homelessness Taskforce, and the Centre for the New Midlands evaluation team led by Dr Halima Sacranie and Thea Raisbeck for an evidence-led conversation about social return on investment, the cost of inaction, and what it takes to give young people access to the one thing that makes everything else possible: somewhere affordable to live and work.”
This report launch event was made possible thanks to the generosity of our partners, Trowers & Hamlins.
Date
Wednesday 13 May 2026 1:30 PM - 4:00 PM (UTC+01)Location
Trowers & Hamlins
One Snowhill, Snow Hill Queensway, Birmingham, West Midlands B4 6GB
ABOUT THE EVENT
We would ask our delegates to arrive at One Snowhill (a 2 minute walk from Birmingham Snow Hill) for registration from 1.30pm on the ground floor. Our guests will then be taken via the lifts to the 3rd floor, with the event starting promptly at 2pm. The event will close at 4pm. Teas and coffees will be available throughout the afternoon.
The agenda:
1.30pm - 2pm: Registration
2pm- 4pm Report launch
4pm: Close
With special thanks to our event hosts:
'Trowers is an international law firm with over 170 partners and more than 1000 people located across the UK, Middle East and Asia.
During our long history, we have held fast to the values and characteristics – such as service, quality, integrity and innovation – that have made us not only a leading law firm, but an inclusive and exciting place to work and establish a career. Some 240 years on, these attributes remain solidly embedded in our culture and our ways of working.
We are well known for being experts in the sectors our clients work in and getting to the crux of the issues they face. This gives us the best foundations to extend our thinking beyond the day to day delivery of transactional and advisory legal services and provide our clients with fresh thinking and commercially-driven solutions.'
For more information, please visit their website by clicking here.
Our speakers for the event:
Jean Templeton
Jean has been Chief Executive of St Basils since 2000 and prior to that has over 20 years’ experience of managing housing and neighbourhood services in a number of Local Authorities in the North East and Midlands. St Basils is a registered Housing Association and Charity providing a range of accommodation and support for young people aged 16-25 who are homeless or at risk in Birmingham and West Midlands.
Jean is Chair of the West Midlands Combined Authority’s Homelessness Taskforce and Chair of West Midlands Homelessness and Health Network and is a member of the Government’s Advisory Panel on Rough Sleeping and Homelessness. She was Chair of the national Youth Homelessness Parliament from 2013-2022. She is a member of Birmingham’s Strategic Partnership Board and Birmingham Social Housing Partnership Executive.
Dr Halima Sacranie
Dr Halima Sacranie is a housing and communities policy researcher and completed her PhD at the Centre for Urban and Regional Studies at the University of Birmingham in 2011, a regional centre of excellence for housing research. She went on to lead the Housing and Communities Research Group at the University of Birmingham from 2018 to 2023.
In her capacity as Director of Housing Research at the Centre for the New Midlands, Halima recently led the evaluation of the West Midlands Social Housing Quality Fund programme, a £15 million grant programme to tackle severe damp and mould in social housing in the West Midlands. This study was commissioned by the West Midlands Combined Authority and conducted between February to November 2024.
In January 2025 Halima embarked on an exciting new research project programme at the Centre for the New Midlands, working with the research group Social Life, to develop a Decent Neighbourhood Standard, with the first demonstrator project underway in partnership with community-led housing organisation Witton Lodge Community Association in North Birmingham.
Previously, at the University of Birmingham, Halima was the UK academic partner on CHARM (Circular Housing Asset Renovation & Management), a 4-year EU-funded project led by TU Delft in the Netherlands. The project aimed to develop asset management approaches that prevent the downcycling of materials in the renovation and construction of social rented dwellings. Her research centred on the impact on, and role of, tenants in implementing circular economy principles across partner organisations. Other previous projects based at Aston University include a 3-year study on Housing Quality, Neighbourhoods and Resident Wellbeing with VIVID Homes, and a 2-year collaboration with the Gambling Commission and Birmingham City Council examining harmful gambling and tenancy insecurity. Halima’s earlier work includes national and regional evaluations of the Empty Homes Community Grants Programme, alongside research projects funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the Nationwide Foundation, and the ESRC.
With extensive experience in applied housing research, Halima has developed a strong understanding of the housing policy and built environment landscape across the West Midlands, and works closely with stakeholders across the housing, regeneration, and community sectors. As Director of Housing Research at the Centre for the New Midlands, Halima is building a new programme of research with the ambition of establishing the think tank as a new leading centre for housing policy research. Halima also currently holds roles as an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham, a Research Fellow at Aston University, and a Trustee of the charity Climate Outreach.
Thea Raisbeck has over 17 years’ experience in a range of advocacy, research, and strategy roles within the housing and homelessness sectors. Thea specialises in issues around homelessness and supported housing, alongside examining and advocating for gendered approaches to policy, practice and provision. Thea was previously Head of Research and Best Practice at Spring Housing and is a Visiting Fellow at Aston University, Thea is a skilled qualitative researcher with extensive experience of participatory and co-production methods.
Thea holds a BA in Literature and Linguistics and an MA in Social Policy, both from the University of Birmingham.
Thea is a passionate advocate for gender equality and the eradication of violence against women and girls, Thea is also Chair of Coventry Haven, a domestic abuse charity.
Over the past 7 years Thea has researched and authored several reports which have had legislative, policy, and practice impact. This includes two pathbreaking reports on unregulated supported housing (‘exempt accommodation’), which directly contributed to a change in legislation.
As a former practitioner, Thea is invested in creating research and policy solutions that are rooted in, and have applicability to, ‘on-the-ground’ contexts. Her primary interests currently lie in understanding women’s experiences of ‘choice’ in housing and homelessness contexts, and the effects of employment on people’s experiences of supported housing.
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