Ken Gibb was Co-director and the Governance lead at What Works Scotland from 2014 to August 2017. He is now Principal Investigator and Director of CaCHE, the UK-wide Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence.
Ken is a professor in the School of Social and Political Sciences in the subject area of Urban Studies.
He was Director of Policy Scotland, and co-director of What Works Scotland, where he co-led the Governance workstream in collaboration with Oliver Escobar.
Ken is Principal Investigator and Director of CaCHE, the Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence, CaCHE is a consortium of nine universities and four non-academic professional bodies in a major research programme examining the UK’s housing system. The programme will seek to influence future housing policy at all levels.
He is also:
- a trustee of the Urban Studies Foundation.
- a member of four editorial advisory boards.
- Chair of Sanctuary Scotland Housing Association
- immediate past president of RC43 (housing) of the International Sociological Association
- a former president of the European Real Estate Society.
Ken was an adviser to the Housing and Well-Being Commission, an 18-month Commission funded by Shelter Scotland.
He has recently acted as adviser to the Scottish Parliament’s Infrastructure and Capital Investment Committee and has worked for the Scottish Parliament’s Welfare Reform Committee.
About Ken’s research interests
Ken’s research interests are focused on the economic, financial and policy dimensions of housing. His current interests are on the financing and economics of social and affordable housing, and, the application of behavioural economics to housing. Ken has carried out research for government departments, ESRC, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, trade bodies, the private sector and international organisations like OECD.
What Works Scotland publications
- Exploring evidence, tools and strategies to expand the scope of prevention in public services (May 2016) – Co-authored
- 29th International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement – State of the Art Briefings (March 2016) – Co-authored
- The Political Economy of Local Tax Reform (August 2015)
- What Works and Learning from Failure (April 2015)
- Report to Scottish Parliament Finance Committee (March 2015) – Co-authored
- Economics of prevention seminar presentations – Community planning and health (March 2015) – Co-authored
What Works Scotland blog posts
- Messy Collaboration (January 2017)
- Community-led Approaches to Reducing Poverty (September 2016)
- Think YES? How to deliver transformational change in relationships between staff, managers and local people (July 2015)
- Shifting public services to focus on prevention: Impediments & implications (March 2015)
- ‘Fractals’, Community Planning and Placed-based Policy Geography in West Dunbartonshire (March 2015)
- What Works Scotland and the Housing Sector (December 2014)
Contact Ken
See more about Ken and his work on the University of Glasgow Social and Political Sciences website.