2009 Annual Report

Professor Duncan Maclennan presented a seminar on “Housing Stock Transfers: Pros and Cons” to the Seminar to State Treasury and Office for Housing, Melbourne.

 

Professor Duncan Maclennan presented a seminar on “What Makes a Successful City” at Grattan Institute, Carlton, Australia.

Professor Duncan Maclennan gave a plenary address on “Understanding Housing in the Economies” and participated in a plenary panel on “Future Challenges for Australia” at the 6th National Housing Conference, Melbourne, Australia.

 

Professor Duncan Maclennan presented a paper on “Housing Market Change: United Kingdom, New Zealand Contrasts,” Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Wellington, NZ.

Professor Duncan Maclennan presented a seminar on “Economics and Place Policies” as part of the Auckland Regional Council Refresh Seminar Series.

Norman Stewart presented a poster on the SCORE project at the KnowFife Research Fair

 

CHR hosted a morning of discussions focusing on the different experiences of housing market instability in different national contexts. Dr Beverley Searle, Professor Duncan Maclennan, Professor Hugo Priemus and Professor Bill Clark presented on the experiences of the UK, Canada, the Netherlands and the United States respectively. The event was attended by leading academics and policy makers from around Scotland.

Maarten van Ham was a visiting Research Fellow at the Department of Social and Economic Geography, Umeå University, Sweden. He presented a paper on the effects of divorce and separation on housing careers in the UK and the Netherlands. Divorce and separation have serious negative consequences on housing careers, especially for women. It takes several years to regain some of the pre-break up housing quality.

 

 

Professor Duncan Maclennan presented a paper on “Future Development of the Scottish Housing Market” at the Council of Mortgage Lenders Annual Conference, Edinburgh.

 

Professor Duncan Maclennan presented a paper on “Beyond the Home-Ownerships Era?” at an EVHA Senior Officers Event, Stirling.

 

CHR hosted a meeting in St Andrews with Gerhard Mors, Senior Analysis Manager at the Scottish Housing Regulator and David McPhee, Senior Statistician, Communities Analytical Services at the Scottish Government to exchange ideas on research priorities.

 

Professor Duncan Maclennan presented a paper on “Social Housing: Reviewed Challenges” at the TPAS Annual Conference & AGM 2009, Dundee.

 

Professor Duncan Maclennan presented a paper on “Emerging Challenges in Housing and the Economy” at the NIHE Head Office, Belfast.

 

New PhD student: Sara Tilley started as a PhD student at CHR. Sara will be supervised by Donald Houston and Maarten van Ham and will be investigating the effects of transport policy for several socio-economic and demographic groups in the UK. Sara is funded by an ESRC CASE(+3) PhD Studentship.

 

New PhD student: Rory Coulter started as a PhD student at CHR. Rory will be supervised by Maarten van Ham and Peteke Feijten and will be investigating the link between moving desires, moving expectations and moving behaviour in the UK. Rory is co-funded by CHR and the School of Geography & Geosciences.

 

Launch of the www.neighbourhoodeffects.org website. This website promotes debate about neighbourhood effects research and the evidence base for Area Based Initiatives.

 

Duncan Maclennan, Alison Sandeman and Colin Campbell were invited to Belfast to meet with the Northern Ireland Housing Executive to discuss research ideas and priorities.

 

Press release: Area-based government policies failing. New research from the University of St Andrews suggests that government attempts to tackle poverty and unemployment in Britain through neighbourhood renewal schemes are failing to target the right issues. Many government urban neighbourhood and housing policies aim to create a socio-economically balanced mix of residents in an area, motivated by the idea that living in a deprived neighbourhood has a negative effect on the employment and life chances of the residents. Using the Scottish Longitudinal Study (SLS), Dr Maarten van Ham and Dr David Manley from the Centre for Housing Research (CHR) at the University of St Andrews, showed that living in deprived neighbourhoods or living in neighbourhoods with a concentration of social housing, does not negatively influence labour market outcomes of neighbourhood residents. Dr van Ham commented, "Creating neighbourhoods with a socio-economic mix of residents is a common strategy to tackle assumed negative neighbourhood effects." "It's thought that mixed tenure neighbourhoods of both social renters and homeowners have positive effects on the poorest residents in deprived neighbourhoods, as homeowners are thought to provide positive role models." However, the study found that there is surprisingly little evidence that living in deprived neighbourhoods really affects individual life chances and concludes that policies should target individuals rather than the areas where they live. "The fact that residents of deprived neighbourhoods are often unemployed is not caused by the fact they live there," continued Dr van Ham. "Rather, they live in these areas because they have no options to live elsewhere." This outcome has important implications for neighbourhood and employment policies. Their study shows that creating mixed tenure neighbourhoods is unlikely to help individuals to get and keep a job. The research outcomes suggest that investing in people is likely to have better long term effects in improving people's lives. The effect of neighbourhood housing tenure mix on labour market outcomes: a longitudinal investigation of neighbourhood effects (Van Ham, M., and Manley, D. 2009) is published in the Journal of Economic Geography. For more information, see Press Release.

Professor Duncan Maclennan presented on “Place Policies: Comparative Perspectives” at the Homes and Communities Agency Strategy Day, London.

Maarten van Ham presented a paper at the British Society for Population Studies (BSPS), 9-11 September 2009, University of Sussex. Presentation title: “Choice-based letting, ethnicity & segregation in England.”

 

David Manley presented a paper at the British Society for Population Studies (BSPS), 9-11 September 2009, University of Sussex. Presentation title: “English Migrants on a Scottish Escalator – the case of upward occupational mobility in the Edinburgh labour market.”

 

Lee Williamson presented a paper at the British Society for Population Studies (BSPS), 9-11 September 2009, University of Sussex. Presentation title: “Right to Buy, time to move? Moving behaviour & desires.”

 

David Manley presented a paper at the ISA International Housing Conference, 1-4 September 2009, University of Glasgow, UK. Presentation title: “Neighbourhood effects and labour market outcomes: an investigation of spatial scales and measures of relative deprivation.”

 

Professor Duncan Maclennan gave a plenary address on “Housing Economics: Re-focusing after the crash” and presented a panel paper on “Housing Policy and Devolution” at the ISA Conference, Glasgow.

 

Professor Duncan Maclennan gave a talk on “Non-Profits and Scotland’s Housing” at Link's Annual General Meeting, Edinburgh.

 

New publication: Feijten P.M. and van Ham M.(2009) Neighbourhood change… reason to leave? Urban Studies 46, 2103–2122. Little attention has been paid to date to the role of a changing neighbourhood as a factor influencing the residential choice process. Processes of neighbourhood change are often beyond residents’ sphere of influence and if a changing neighbourhood causes residential stress, the only way to improve one’s neighbourhood is to move to a better one. This study aims to get more insight into the effect of neighbourhood change on residential stress by studying residents’ wish to leave their neighbourhood. Using data from The Netherlands, we show that there is no effect of a change in the socioeconomic status of the neighbourhood on moving wishes. A high level of population turnover and an increase in the proportion of non-Western ethnic minorities in the neighbourhood increase the probability that residents want to leave their neighbourhood. The latter effect disappears when controlled for residents’ subjective opinion about neighbourhood change. The full paper can be downloaded HERE.

 

New publication: van Ham M. and Manley D. (2009) Social Housing Allocation, Choice and Neighbourhood Ethnic Mix in England. Journal of Housing and the Built Environment 24, 407-422. Driven by a concern about the negative side effects of ethnic concentration neighbourhoods, many European governments aim to create more ethnically and socio-economically mixed neighbourhoods. At the same time, housing policy aims to give tenants more choice in how and where they live. The objectives of these two policies might conflict as offering people choice has the potential to increase self-segregation, especially across ethnic groups. This paper studies the effect of choice-based letting on (self) segregation in housing association stock in England. We analyse whether households who let their property under choice-based letting end up in neighbourhoods with different levels of ethnic concentrations than households who are matched to a dwelling using the traditional allocation system. We focus on how the effect of choice-based letting differs for ethnic minority households and non-ethnic minority households. Using unique data on all lettings made in the housing association sector in England in 2006/2007 and an ordered logit regression model we show that ethnic minority households are more likely to let a property in an ethnic concentration neighbourhood than non-ethnic minority households. Ethnic minorities letting their property under choice-based letting are the most likely to accept a dwelling in an ethnic concentration neighbourhood. For the full paper, click HERE.

 

Maarten van Ham presented a paper at the 5th International Conference on Population Geographies, 5-9 August 2009, Dartmouth College, NH, USA. Presentation title: “Choice-based letting, ethnicity and segregation in England.”

 

Lee Williamson presented a paper at the BHPS Research Conference 9-11 July 2009, University of Essex, UK. Presentation title: “Right to Buy…time to move?”

 

Professor Duncan Maclennan gave a plenary address on “Housing after the Crash” at the ENHR Conference, Prague, 28^th June – 1^st July 2009.

 

New publication: Permentier M., van Ham M. and Bolt G. (2009) Neighbourhood reputation and the intention to leave the neighbourhood. Environment and Planning A41, 2162-2180. Moving intentions are likely to be affected not only by whether or not residents are satisfied with their neighbourhood, but also by how they think that other city residents assess their neighbourhood: the perceived reputation of the neighbourhood. The place where one lives is a reflection of one’s position in society and therefore people may want to leave neighbourhoods with a poor reputation even if they are satisfied with their residential environment. Using data from a specifically designed survey in twenty-four Dutch neighbourhoods we tested the hypothesis that, in addition to neighbourhood satisfaction, perceived neighbourhood reputations are an important predictor of the intention to leave a neighbourhood. The results show that perceived neighbourhood reputation is indeed a significant predictor of moving intentions, even after controlling for neighbourhood satisfaction and neighbourhood attachment. This finding suggests that neighbourhood regeneration policy should focus not only on improving residents’ neighbourhood satisfaction, but also on improving the perceived reputation of neighbourhoods. The full paper can be downloaded HERE.

 

New publication: De Meester E. and van Ham M. (2009) Symmetry and asymmetry in working and commuting arrangements between partners in the Netherlands: does the residential context matter? Environment and Planning A 41, 2181-2200. Time spent on work and commuting within dual-earner households is often analysed separately for individuals, but this does no justice to the reality of dual-earner households where decisions on work and commuting are made in a household context. This paper reports on a quantitative study of the impact of the residential context on working arrangements and commuting arrangements of partners in couple and family households. Using multinomial logistic regression, we analysed data from the 2002 Netherlands Housing Demand Survey and the 2004 ABF Real Estate Monitor. The results show a (gendered) effect of residential location in terms of degree of urbanisation and job access on both working and commuting arrangements. Good access to jobs makes it more likely that couples have a symmetric full-time working arrangement and also more likely that both partners work far away from home. Those in symmetric full-time working arrangements are also those most likely to be in symmetric close commuting arrangements. This finding reflects the substantial time pressure on such households. For the full paper, click HERE.

 

Tiit Tammaru from the Department of Geography, University of Tartu visited CHR and gave a presentation on “Changing Soviet high rise housing estates: Areas of continued social mix or decline? The case of Tallinn urban region.” The presentation focussed on population changes in Soviet style large scale housing estates in Estonia since the early 1990s. Many people assumed that these large scale estates would quickly downgrade in the course of transition towards a market economy. However, recent research shows that these estates have retained a relatively good reputation and that there are no signs of their socio-economic downgrading. For more information, see Events.

 

Professor Duncan Maclennan presented a paper on “Economic and policy - where now?” at a conference on Scotland’s Housing: the right responses in recession, Holyrood.

CHR were commissioned by the Audit Commission and Communities and Local Government (CLG) to develop a series of summary reports using SP Outcomes data for Comprehensive Area Assessments.

 

Professor Duncan Maclennan presented a paper on “Housing Policies for the Future” at the SFHA Annual Conference.

Maarten van Ham, David Manley, and Duncan Maclennan have been awarded an ESRC Seminar Series grant (£18,000) together with Urban Studies Glasgow (Nick Bailey) and CCSR University of Manchester (Ludi Simpson and Stephen Jivraj). The title of the international seminar series is “Challenges in neighbourhood effects research: does it really matter where you live and what are the implications for policy?” For more information, see www.neighbourhoodeffects.org.

 

Professor Duncan Maclennan presented a paper on “Housing for City Economics” at The Cities Centre at Toronto University.

 

Supporting People datasets and publications prepared by CHR for Communities and Local Government (CLG) became official statistics and all project publications are now pre-announced before release.

 

Professor Duncan Maclennan presented a paper on “Housing Cycles, Financial Crises, and the Supply of Housing”.

 

CHR staff were invited to write several entries for the new Elsevier International Encyclopedia of Housing and Home. van Ham M. (forthcoming) The Economics of Housing Choice. In Smith S.J., Elsinga M., Fox-O’Mahony L, Ong S.E., Wachter S. (eds) The International Encyclopedia of Housing and Home. Entry 94. Elsevier: Oxford; van Ham M. & Manley D. (forthcoming) Neighbourhood Effects. In Smith S.J., Elsinga M., Fox-O’Mahony L, Ong S.E., Wachter S. (eds) The International Encyclopedia of Housing and Home. Entry 648. Elsevier: Oxford; Kromhout S. & van Ham M. (forthcoming) Allocation of Social Housing. In Smith S.J., Elsinga M., Fox-O’Mahony L, Ong S.E., Wachter S. (eds) The International Encyclopedia of Housing and Home. Entry 84. Elsevier: Oxford. For more information, go to Elsevier.

 

Matthieu Permentier has successfully defended his PhD thesis Behavioural responses to neighbourhood reputations at Utrecht University, The Netherlands. Matthieu was supervised by Maarten van Ham (CHR) and was a guest researcher at CHR in 2008.

 

Maarten van Ham gave an invited lecture at the Family, Migration and Housing conference, 2-3 April 2009, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Presentation title: “The globalisation of marriage migration.”

 

Alison Sandeman and Sheena Macdonald were awarded a two-year extension to the Supporting People Client Record and Outcomes contract (£1,612,743) for the period up to October 2011.

David Manley gave an invited lecture at the Employment Research Institute Seminar, Napier University, 4 March 2009, Edinburgh. Presentation title: “Neighbourhood social mix and transitions into and out of employment in Scotland.”

 

Maarten van Ham gave an invited lecture at the Scottish Longitudinal Study seminar, Scottish Government, 2 March 2009, Edinburgh. Presentation title: “Neighbourhood social mix and transitions into and out of employment in Scotland.”

 

New publication: van Ham M., Manley D. (2009) The Effect of Neighbourhood Housing Tenure Mix on Labour Market Outcomes: A Longitudinal Perspective. IZA Discussion Paper No. 4094 (www.iza.org). This paper investigates the effect of different levels of neighbourhood housing tenure mix on transitions from unemployment to employment and the probability of staying in employment for those with a job. We used individual level data from the Scottish Longitudinal Study (SLS), a 5.3% sample of the Scottish population, covering a 10 year period. We found a strong negative correlation between living in deprived neighbourhoods and labour market outcomes (getting or keeping a job). We found a small, but significant, positive correlation between living in mixed tenure (40-80% social housing) streets and transitions from unemployment to employment. In the conclusion we discuss the extent to which we think these results can be interpreted as 'neighbourhood effects' or selection effects. To download the full paper go to www.iza.org.

 

New publication: van Ham M. and Hooimeijer P. (2009) Regional differences in spatial flexibility: long commutes and job related migration intentions in the Netherlands. Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy 2, 129–146. Spatial flexibility of the workforce is important in clearing regional labour markets. Workers’ spatial flexibility is limited and many European countries are developing policies to enhance the spatial flexibility of the labour force. Using the 2002 Netherlands Housing Demand Survey and logistic regression models, this paper examines the determinants of both long commutes and intentions to migrate for a job. The results show that living in the highly urbanized western part of the Netherlands increases the probability that workers opt for long commutes. Living in the more peripheral regions increases the probability that workers think about moving residence. The results further show that workers with long commutes are more likely to have the intention to move residence in the near future than workers with short commutes. This indicates that long commutes are suboptimal at the individual level. For the full paper, click HERE.

 

David Manley gave an invited lecture at the ESRC Seminar Series on Gentrification and Social Mix, 19-20 February 2009, Institute of Geography at the University of Edinburgh. Presentation title: “Neighbourhood social mix and transitions into and out of employment in Scotland.”

 

van Ham M. and Clark W.A.V (2009) Neighbourhood mobility in context: household moves and changing neighbourhoods in the Netherlands. Environment and Planning A 41, 1442-1459. Although high levels of population mobility are often viewed as a problem at the neighbourhood level we know relatively little about what makes some neighbourhoods more mobile than others. The main question in this paper is to what extent differences in out-mobility between neighbourhoods can be explained by differences in the share of mobile residents, or whether other neighbourhood characteristics also play a role. To answer this question we focus on the effects of the socioeconomic status and ethnic composition of neighbourhoods and on neighbourhood change. Using data from the Netherlands population registration system and the Housing Demand Survey we model population mobility both at individual and at neighbourhood levels. The aggregate results show that the composition of the housing stock and of the neighbourhood population explain most of the variation in levels of neighbourhood out-mobility. At the same time, although ethnic minority groups in the Netherlands are shown to be relatively immobile, neighbourhoods with higher concentrations of ethnic minority residents have the highest population turnovers. The individual-level models show that people living in neighbourhoods which experience an increase in the percentage of ethnic minorities are more likely to move, except when they belong to an ethnic minority group themselves. The evidence suggests that ‘white flight’ and ‘socio-economic flight’ are important factors in neighbourhood change. The full paper can be downloaded HERE.

 

Maarten van Ham gave an invited lecture at the Scottish Social Survey Network, 8 January 2009, University of Stirling. Presentation title: “The Effect of Neighbourhood Housing Tenure Mix on Labour Market Outcomes: A Longitudinal Perspective.”

 

Maarten van Ham has joined the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) as research fellow. For more information, see www.iza.org.