A people-centred perspective on Enabling Water Smart Communities. Understanding public and professional perspectives on the future of water and housing. Synthesis of University of Manchester research for Enabling Water Smart Communities.

This research, conducted by the University of Manchester for the Enabling Water Smart Communities project, explores the perspectives of potential future residents of water smart communities, and the wider community of practice involved in the design, construction, and long-term governance of water smart housing.

Overall, the research highlights (i) that the social and sustainability outcomes of water smart communities are contingent on the everyday lives of residents’, and (ii) there is an extensive multi-sectoral network of stakeholders involved in the delivery and long-term maintenance of water smart communities. In this report we explore how people - professionals involved in the delivery of water smart communities and the people who may come to live in them - imagine and expect water smart homes and communities to affect everyday life; what their social and environmental priorities are for new housing; and what obstacles must be overcome to enable these priorities to be achieved.

Communities are at the heart of new housing developments. Whether or not new housing delivers against social and environmental objectives depends on how homes come to be lived in, and the lives they are designed to enable. Delivery of new housing requires a joined-up approach to resolve multiple problems and deliver long-term benefits.