The government’s Plan to Make Work Pay will improve living standards, support economic growth, and provide more security for people in work.

The research, developed with Department for Business and Trade (DBT), was a survey of precariously employed people, such as those on zero hours contracts. The survey aimed to understand the hidden, out-of-pocket costs faced by those with uncertain working hours, such as paying for last minute childcare or travel changes. The work has been shared with DBT to support the government’s ongoing work and will be published in line with Government Social Research protocols.

The Private Rented Sector research carried out by Verian forms part of the Department’s wider monitoring and evaluation work in relation to the Renters’ Rights Bill (further details can be found in its Impact Assessment here). Specifically, my Department commissioned Verian to carry out a longitudinal survey of private renters, to help inform, baseline, and monitor the private rented sector reforms. The findings, which will set out the requirement for the work commissioned, will be published in due course, in line with the our research and analysis evaluation strategy which can be found on gov.uk here.

My Department has also commissioned Verian to conduct an evaluation scoping project to ensure effective monitoring and evaluation of the government’s leasehold and commonhold reforms. Again, we will publish the evaluation findings, which will set out the requirements of the work commissioned for the scoping study, in due course, in line with the above evaluation strategy.

The following sets out more detail of spend for Verian Group UK Ltd:

The Rough Sleeping Questionnaire was carried out in 2019 to understand issues faced by those sleeping rough. The Department repeated the questionnaire in 2025 to update findings, and commissioned Verian to conduct the survey fieldwork with those sleeping rough.

The PRS Place Based Quality Pilots are a set of pathfinder projects to improve enforcement of existing standards in the private rented sector. Verian have been commissioned to deliver an evaluation of the scheme, including a range of fieldwork and analysis of data.

The Department commissioned Verian to research Demolition Planning Policy. Verian have conducted a survey of stakeholders across the industry to understand how and why decisions are made to demolish and redevelop or retrofit buildings, explore the role of national and local policy in decision-making and the tools and guidance used to inform decisions.

The Department commissioned Verian to carry out focus groups and interviews about the levels of understanding around a number of policy areas relating to housing and infrastructure to help improve government communications to inform the Long Term Housing Strategy.

The report for the research in question is being finalised. We intend to publish this in due course, in line with departmental policy, including details of the research objectives and methodology.