People on the Move: Exploring the Functional Roles of Deprived Neighbourhoods

Abstract

Given the neighbourhood focus of much regeneration policy, we need to know more about the functional roles that neighbourhoods play in the way that households move within the housing market and hence about the different functional types of neighbourhood amongst deprived areas. Such knowledge would help both to guide the priorities of policy and to interpret the probability of policy interventions being successful. This exploratory study draws on an evaluation of the British government's National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal, part of which entails an interpretation of household mobility data from the 2001 Census. It suggests four categories of neighbourhood—transit, escalator, isolate, and improver areas—based on the relationship between where households move to and move from, focused on the 20% most deprived lower super output areas in England. Evidence on the ground suggests the plausibility of the different functional roles played by the four neighbourhood types. Some continuing conundrums—the robustness of the categorisation, the need to take account of the spatial context of deprived areas, and the difference between movers and stayers—are discussed as a prelude to further continuing research.

Spatial mobility and social outcomes

“…Previously, the focus was often on the difficulty of leaving poor neighbourhoods and studies often focused solely on those in poverty and those living in poor neighbourhoods (Robson et al 2008). Our models, which cover the entire spectrum of neighbourhoods, provide a much richer and more holistic interpretation of the process of mobility across sociospatial structures.…”

“…There is already a substantial literature examining moves out of deprived areas (South and Crowder 1997;South et al 2005;Quillian 2003), as well as churning and mobility processes across deprived neighbourhoods (Robson et al 2008). However until recently, much less attention has been directed towards the entire spectrum of neighbourhoods that households enter, reside within and subsequently exit.…”

Measuring Exterior Housing Quality in Four Older-Urban Neighbourhoods in Windsor, Ontario

“…Higher rates of victimization in older-urban neighbourhoods are also attributable to concentrations of at-risk sub-populations with age, income and lifestyle constraints, and propensities for moving in and out of a neighbourhood [72]- [75].…”

Understanding the Scale and Nature of Outcome Change in Area-Regeneration Programmes: Evidence from the New Deal for Communities Programme in England

“…First, it is possible to report cross-sectional area based change (DCLG, 2009c (DCLG, 2009a;Robson, Lymperopoulou and Rae, 2008). Areabased data thus cannot answer a question which it is not clear any previous evaluation has ever been able to address: what happens to those who stay in regeneration areas?…”