Mixed tenure offers few benefits claim residents

As Housing Today revealed earlier this year, a study by Demos, a think-tank close to New Labour, has found sharp divisions between owners and social renters despite attempts to mix communities (Housing Today, 20 May).

The full report, published this week, will make troubling reading for those who see mixed tenure as a solution to tackling social exclusion.

The study, based on interviews with 1,000 mixed tenure residents, found that less than two-fifths of residents had any contact with neighbours from different tenures. Only 4 per cent felt they could ask others on the estate for help with finding a job.

Both tenants and occupiers regarded their own mixed tenure estates less positively than the national average on issues such security, noise and friendliness. And on a few of the estates some residents actually thought a mixed tenure policy brought problems.

The report urges policy makers to think twice before making exaggerated claims for mixed tenure. “The hope that the current models of mixed tenure estates will foster widespread mutual support between people from different economic groups appears largely misplaced,” it says.

In a statement Demos said: “Government policy must abandon the dream of local village life and be more realistic about the diversity of modern communities.”

However, the study did find owner-occupiers on the whole did not mind living on mixed estates, despite fears of the contrary. Mixed tenure was also more successful when used in areas with street patterns rather than estates, because in the main people only know their closest neighbours. But it adds that even in street areas interaction was “hardly sufficient to create a considerably more inclusive society. If such societies ever develop, the process with take a long time.”

Author Ben Jupp said: “Mixing private and social housing on the same estate often has advantages. But let’s not think that it will change society.”