Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-29T16:55:30.191Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Council Housing, Tenure Polarisation and Older People in Two Contrasting Localities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2008

Robin Means
Robin Means
Affiliation:
Research Fellow, School for Advanced Urban Studies, University of Bristol, Rodney Lodge, Grange Road, Bristol BS8 4EA.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article attempts to illustrate the importance of housing issues in old age and to argue for a more sophisticated view of older people than that achieved by much housing research. Tenure relationships in two contrasting localities are explored and it is shown that cruder models of social and tenurial polarisation need to be treated with care because of the tendency for aggregate data to hide important variations in relationships between tenures and within tenures. Many older people wish to enter local authority council housing and they have strong views on what is the ‘best’ and ‘worst’ property on offer.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 8 , Issue 4 , December 1988 , pp. 395 - 421
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

NOTES

1 Clapton, D. and English, J. (eds). Public Housing: Current Trends and Future Development. Croom Helm, London, 1987.Google Scholar

2 Townsend, P.The structured dependency of the elderly. Ageing and Society, 1 (1981), 5–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 Walker, A.Towards a political economy of old age. Ageing and Society, 1 (1981), 73–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 Phillipson, C.Capitalism and the Construction of Old Age. Macmillan, London, 1982.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 Townsend, P. ‘Ageism and social policy’, in Phillipson, C. and Walker, A. (eds), Ageing and Social Policy: A Critical Assessment. Gower, Aldershot, 1986, pp. 15–44.Google Scholar

6 Phillipson, C., 1982, op. cit, pp. 28–35.Google Scholar

7 Dex, S. and Phillipson, C. ‘Social policy and the older worker’, in Phillipson, C. and Walker, A. (eds), Ageing and Social Policy: A Critical Assessment. Gower, Aldershot, 1986, pp. 45–60.Google Scholar

8 Townsend, P. 1981, op. cit.Google Scholar

9 Johnson, P.The Structural Dependency of the Elderly: A Critical Note. Centre for Economic Policy Research, Discussion Paper No. 202, 1987.Google Scholar

10 Dant, T., Carley, M., Gearing, B. and Johnson, M.Dependency and Old Age: Theoretical Accounts and Pratical Understandings. Care of Elderly People at Home, Open University/PSI, Project Paper No. 3, 1987.Google Scholar

11 Dickens, P., Duncan, S., Goodwin, M. and Gray, F.Housing: State and Localities. Methuen, London, 1985.Google Scholar

12 Harvey, D.Social Justice and the City. Arnold, London, 1973.Google Scholar

13 Castells, M.The Urban Question. Arnold, London, 1977.Google Scholar

14 Walker, A. 1981, op. cil.Google Scholar

15 Ibid.

16 Walker, A. ‘Pensions and the production of poverty in old age’, in Phillipson, C. and Walker, A. (eds), Ageing and Social Policy: A Critical Assessment, Aldershot, 1986, pp. 184–216.Google Scholar

17 Walker, A. ‘The politics of ageing in Britain’, in Phillipson, C., Bernard, M. and Strang, P. (eds), Dependency and Interdependence in Old Age – Theoretical Perspectives and Policy Alternatives. Croom Helm, London, 1986, pp. 30–45.Google Scholar

18 Fennell, G. ‘Sheltered housing: some unanswered questions’, in Butler, A. (ed.), Ageing: Recent Advances and Creative Responses. Croom Helm, London, 1985, pp. 178–191.Google Scholar

19 Oldman, C. ‘Housing policies for older people’, in Malpass, P. (ed.), The Housing Crisis. Croom Helm, London, 1986, pp. 174–199.Google Scholar

20 Wheeler, R. ‘Housing policy and elderly people’, in Phillipson, C. and Walker, A. (eds), Ageing and Social Policy: A Critical Assessment. Gower, Aldershot, 1986, pp. 217–233.Google Scholar

21 Means, R.Older people in British housing studies: rediscovery and emerging issues for research. Housing Studies, 2 (1987), pp. 82–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

22 Evandrou, M. and Victor, C.Differentiation in Later Life: Social Class and Housing Tenure CleavagesGoogle Scholar, Suntory Toyota International Centre for Economics and Related Disciplines, Discussion Paper No. WSP/30, 1988.

23 Coles, A. Housing 2001: fewer first-time buyers, more elderly owners, The Building Societies Gazette, 03 (1986), pp. 68–69.Google Scholar

24 Royal Commission on The Distribution of Income and Wealth, Cmnd 6999. HMSO, London, 1977.Google Scholar

25 Murie, A. and Forrest, R.Wealth, inheritance and housing policy. Policy and Politics, 8 (1980), 1–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

26 Morgan Grenfell. Housing, Inheritance and Wealth, Morgan Grenfell Economic Review, 45 (1987).Google Scholar

27 Saunders, P.Comment on Dunleavy and Preteceille. Society and Space, 4 (1986), 155–163.Google Scholar

28 Means, R.Accommodation outcomes in old age: a discussion of trends. Critical Social Policy, 18 (1986), 84–98.Google Scholar

29 Leather, P.Making Use of Home Equity in Old Age. Draft report to the Building Societies Association, 1987.Google Scholar

30 Saunders, P.Beyond housing classes: the sociological importance of property rights in means of consumption. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 8 (1984), 202–225.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

31 Forrest, R. and Murie, A. Differential accumulation: wealth, inheritance and housing policy reconsidered. Policy and Politics (in press).Google Scholar

32 Hudson, R. and Williams, A.The United Kingdom. Harper and Row, London, 1986.Google Scholar

33 Massey, D.Spatial Divisions of Labour. Macmillan, London, 1984.Google Scholar

34 Boddy, M., Lovering, J. and Bassett, K.Sunbelt City: A Study of Economic Change in Britain's M4 Growth Corridor. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1986.Google Scholar

35 Pahl, R.Social Polarisation and the Economic Crisis. Draft paper delivered to seminar organised by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, mimeo, March, 1986.Google Scholar

36 Ibid.

37 Dahrendorf, R.The erosion of citizenship and its consequence for us all. New Statesman, 12 06 1987, pp. 12–15.Google Scholar

38 Edwards, J. Positive discrimination as a strategy against exclusion: the case of the inner cities. Policy and Politics (in press).Google Scholar

39 McCulloch, D. The financial aspects of change in Clapham, D. and English, J. (eds), Public Housing: Current Trends and Future Developments. Croom Helm, London, 1987, pp. 51–66.Google Scholar

40 Forrest, R. ‘Spatial mobility, tenure mobility and emerging social divisions in the housing market’ Environment and Planning, 1987.Google Scholar

41 Karn, V., Kemeny, J. and Williams, P.Home Ownership in the Inner City – Salvation or Despair. Gower, Aldershot, 1985.Google Scholar

42 English, J.The Future of Council Housing. Croom Helm, London.Google Scholar

43 Hamnett, C. and Randolph, W. Socio-tenurial polarization in London. Mimeo, 1986.Google Scholar

44 Hansard 1979, vol. 967, col. 407.Google Scholar

45 Forrest, R. and Murie, A.Selling the Welfare State: The Privatisation of Public Housing. Routledge, London, 1988.Google Scholar

46 Dunn, R., Forrest, R. and Murie, A.The geography of council house sales in England, 1979–85. Urban Studies, 24 (1981), pp. 47–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

47 Means, , 1987, op. cit.Google Scholar

48 Miliband, R. ‘Politics and poverty’, in Wedderburn, D. (ed.), Inequality and Class Structure. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1974, pp. 183–196.Google Scholar

49 Spicker, P.Concepts of need in housing allocation. Policy and Politics, 15, pp. 17–27, 1986.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

50 Leather, P., Murie, A., Hoyes, L. and Bishop, J.Review of Home Improvement Agencies. Department of the Environment, 1985.Google Scholar

51 Leather, P. and Wheeler, R.Making Use of Home Equity in Old Age. Draft report to the Building Societies Association, 1987.Google Scholar

52 Bramley, G. and Paice, D.Housing Needs in Non-Metropolitan Areas: Report of Research carried out for the Association of District Councils. School for Advanced Urban Studies, University of Bristol, 1987.Google Scholar

53 Saunders, P.Beyond housing classes: the sociological importance of property rights in means of consumption. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 8 (1984), 202–225.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

54 Wheeler, R.Staying put: a new development in policy? Ageing and Society, 2 (1982), 299–329.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

55 Lambert, J., Paris, C. and Blackaby, B.Housing Policy and the State: Allocation, Access and Control. Macmillan, London, 1978.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

56 Simpson, A.Stacking the Decks: A Study of Race, Inequality and Council Housing in Nottingham. Nottingham and District Community Relations Council, 1981.Google Scholar

57 Phillips, D.What Price Equality? A Report on the Allocation of GLC Housing in Tower Hamlets. GLC Housing Research and Policy Report No. 9, 1986.Google Scholar

58 Dant, T., Carley, M., Gearing, B. and Johnson, M.Dependency and Old Age; Theoretical Accounts and Practical Understandings. Care of Elderly, People at Home, an Open University/PSI, Project Paper No. 3.Google Scholar