FEATURE THE AGE DIVIDE


have become increasingly unaffordable, particularly for young adults. While the UK’s affordability crisis has been developing slowly for decades, house prices rose steeply in the 1990s and early 2000s, and the potential consequences for the age make-up of different communities has so far been neglected. An increase in residential separation of older and younger adults in England and Wales is evident: since the 1990s, neighbourhoods have become less age-mixed. In 1991, 33 districts (around 10%) had moderate levels of residential age segregation; by 2011 this had risen to 190 (almost 60% of districts). Should this be seen as a problem? Conventional


wisdom perhaps suggests that residential age segregation is expected and unproblematic given that people have different housing needs at different stages of life, and housing types tend to be clustered. However, residential age segregation can be considered, in many ways, similar to ethnic, racial or social class segregation. It is likely to emerge from an intricate interplay between changing individual/household preferences at different life stages on the one hand, and external constraints on the other, with housing affordability being particularly influential. Thus, increasing age segregation between generations can be considered problematic if it reflects an inability of households to access the housing that they need. Age segregation might also be seen as problematic in its effects: the spatial separation of people of different ages can hinder essential opportunities


The age divide A


CENTRAL HOUSING POLICY issue in the UK is the so-called ‘affordability crisis’ – the fact that both owner- occupied and private rental housing


Housing debates have almost entirely ignored residential age segregation as one of the potential consequences of the ongoing housing affordability crisis. Is age segregation something we should be worried about? By Albert Sabater, Nissa Finney and Elspeth Graham


for older and younger individuals to meet and interact, with associated policy implications for social cohesion and the organisation of society. One of the main mechanisms of residential segregation is the varying access of households to


“ Many younger people and


those on low incomes are priced out of the market


housing. Under conditions of housing shortage, households compete for homes and locations, hence their strength within the housing market depends on their resources (eg, income, social contacts, knowledge, and political power). Because the construction of new housing in the UK has been decreasing steadily since the 1970s, leading to a substantial housing shortfall, the main effect of policies that stimulate housing demand – such as Help-to-Buy, Buy-to-Let etc – is to increase house prices rather than supply. In such housing market conditions, it is no surprise that levels of housing affordability have decreased significantly in many areas as average house prices have outstripped average earnings, with the result that many younger people and those on low incomes are priced out of the market. This can be seen in the reduction in the number of first-time buyers and the decreasing home ownership rates among younger adults. According to figures from the Office for National Statistics, over half of the 25 to 34 age group were home owners in 2001 (59.6%), whereas this had declined to just over a third by 2014 (35.8%). There were also reductions in home ownership over the same period among the 35 to 44 age group (from 73.9% to 58.8%). Younger adults generally have fewer resources than older adults to afford housing, although there are also stark socioeconomic differences within generations. These variations in housing affordability are contributing to concentrations of populations of similar age and socioeconomic status in different areas. Those with lower economic resources face restricted access to certain areas, limiting their choice, whereas for those with greater economic resources housing preferences can take precedence. Housing (dis)advantages between older and younger adults have therefore become a potential source of intergenerational conflict. Nonetheless, there remains a need for a better understanding of the geographic significance


” 30 SOCIETY NOW WINTER 2018


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36