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Prominent housing academic Sir John Hills dies at 66
Sir John Hills, a leading academic on social welfare and inequality, has died of cancer at the age of 66.
Sir John was formerly a professor at the London School of Economics (LSE) and chair of the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusions, through which he produced a landmark report of the role of social housing in England.
The seminal Hills Review, published in 2007, urged the government to give greater attention to the management of existing social housing stock, support mixed-income families within existing communities and called for reforms to housing benefit.
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The academic was also commissioned by the government to conduct a review into fuel poverty in 2012, which highlighted the importance of improving energy efficiency of homes of those struggling with fuel poverty.
Sir John, who also held roles at HM Treasury and the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), received a CBE in 1998 and was knighted in 2013.
He died on 21 December 2020.
Discussing his passing on Twitter, Paul Johnson, director of the IFS, said: “He was brilliant and kind, rigorous and compassionate, articulate and passionate. An unfathomable loss to the social sciences as well as to his family, friends and colleagues.”
Announcing his death, the LSE said: “It is with great sadness that the school announces the death of our esteemed colleague Professor Sir John Hills.
“A brilliant scholar, a generous colleague and mentor, and a kind and modest man, he made tremendous contributions to social science and his work has had a major impact on social policy, especially in relation to poverty and inequality.”
