This paper examines the association between housing tenure mix and health outcomes for urban residents. The analysis used Cox’s proportional hazard regression modelling with a range of health measures from two waves of the Scottish Health Survey plus linked hospital morbidity records for the survey respondents. There was no consistent pattern in health outcomes according to housing tenure mix. For specific health issues, particular types of neighbourhood had significantly different (worse) outcomes: areas with a sizeable social renting sector for self-reported health; areas with a sizeable social- or private-renting sector for accidents; and areas dominated by social renting for alcohol-related illnesses. There are indications that adjustments to the tenure mix of social housing areas might lead to improvements in some health outcomes: improved mental health and reduced smoking, via a reduction in area deprivation; and reduced alcohol-related illnesses due to possible effects of tenure mix on material context and culture.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AllenC.CaminaM.CaseyR.CowardS.WoodM. (2005) Mixed tenure twenty years on: nothing out of the ordinary. Published for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation by the Chartered Institute of Housing, Coventry.
2.
AndrewsL.Reardon SmithW. (2005) Challenging perceptions: case studies of dispersed and mixed tenure new build housing developments. Sovereign Housing, Newbury.
3.
AtkinsonR.KintreaK. (2001) Disentangling area effects: evidence from deprived and non-deprived neighbourhoods, Urban Studies, 38(11), pp. 2277–2298.
4.
AtkinsonR.KintreaK. (2004) Opportunities and despair, it’s all there: practitioner experiences and explanations of area effects and life chances, Sociology, 38(3), pp. 437–455.
5.
BaileyN.KearnsA.LivingstonM. (2012) Place attachment in deprived neighbourhoods: the impacts of population turnover and social mix, Housing Studies, 27(2), pp. 208–231.
6.
BeattyC.FodenM.LawlessP.PearsonS.WilsonI. (2009) Transformational change? A synthesis of new evidence 2008–09: Evidence from the New Deal for Communities Programme. Department for Communities and Local Government, London.
7.
BeekmanT.LyonsF.ScottJ. (2001) Improving the understanding of the influence of owner occupiers in mixed tenure neighbourhoods. Scottish Homes, Edinburgh.
8.
BriggsX.deS. (1997) Moving up versus moving out: neighbourhood effects in housing mobility programs, Housing Policy Debate, 8(1), pp. 195–234.
9.
BromleyC.SprogstonK.SheltonN. (2005) The Scottish Health Survey 2003. Edinburgh: The Stationery Office.
10.
Brooks-GunnJ.DuncanG. J.LeventhalT.Lawrence AberJ. (1997) Lessons learned and future directions for research on the neighbourhoods in which children live, in: Brooks-GunnJ.DuncanD. J.Lawrence AberJ. (Eds) Neighbourhood Poverty, Vol. I: Context and Consequences for Children, pp. 279–297. Newark, NJ: Russell Sage Foundation.
11.
CaseA.KatzL. (1991) The company you keep: the effects of family and neighbourhood on disadvantaged youth. Working Paper No. 3705, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA.
12.
CaseyE. (1997) The Fate of Place: A Philosophical History. Berkley, CA: University of California Press.
13.
Clampet-LundquistS. (2007) No more ‘Bois Ball’: the effect of relocation from public housing on adolescents, Journal of Adolescent Research, 22(3), pp. 298–323.
14.
ClarkC.MyronR.StansfeldS. A.CandyB. (2008) A systematic review of the evidence on the effect of the built and physical environment on mental health, Journal of Public Mental Health, 6(2), pp. 14–27.
15.
CoxD. R.OakesD. (1984) Analysis of Survival Data. London: Chapman and Hall.
16.
CroucherK.MyersL.JonesR.EllawayA. (2007) Health and the physical characteristics of urban neighbourhoods: a critical literature review. Glasgow Centre for Population Health.
17.
CumminsS.McKayL.MacintyreS. (2005) McDonald’s restaurants and neighbourhood deprivation in Scotland and England, American Journal of Preventative Medicine, 4, pp. 308–310.
18.
CumminsS.CurtisS.Diez-RouzA. V.MacintyreS. (2007) Understanding and representing ‘place’ in health research: a relational approach, Social Science and Medicine, 65, pp. 1825–1838.
19.
DCLG (Department of Communities and Local Government) (2011) Planning Policy Statement 3: Housing. DCLG, London.
20.
DubowE. F.EdwardsS.IppolitoM. F. (1997) Life stressors, neighbourhood disadvantages, and resources: a focus in inner city children’s adjustment, Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 26, pp. 130–144.
21.
EllawayA.MacDonaldL.ForsythA.MacintyreS. (2010) The socio-spatial distribution of alcohol outlets in Glasgow city, Health and Place, 16, pp. 167–172.
22.
EllenI. G.TurnerM. A. (1997) Does neighbourhood matter? Assessing recent evidence, Housing Policy Debate, 8(4), pp. 833–866.
23.
EllenI. G.MihanovichT.Ad DillmanK.-N. (2001) Neighbourhood effects on health: exploring the links and assessing the evidence, Journal of Urban Affairs, 23(3/4), pp. 391–408.
24.
FurtadoB. A. (2011) Neighbourhoods in urban economics: incorporating cognitively perceived urban space in economic models, Urban Studies, 48(13), pp. 2827–2847.
25.
GalsterG. (2001) On the nature of neighbourhood, Urban Studies, 38(12), pp. 2111–2124.
26.
GalsterG. (2007) Should housing policy makers strive for neighbourhood social mix? An analysis of the West European evidence base, Housing Studies, 22(4), pp. 523–545.
27.
GalsterG. (2012) The mechanism(s) of neighbourhood effects: theory, evidence, and policy implications, in: van HamM.ManleyD.BaileyN.SimpsonL.MaclennanD. (Eds) Neighbourhood Effects Research: New Perspectives, pp. 23–56. Dordrecht: Springer.
28.
GalsterG. (2013) Neighborhood social mix: theory, evidence, and implications for policy and planning, in: CarmonN.FainsteinS (Eds) Policy, Planning, and People: promoting Justice in Urban Development. Philadelphia, PA: university of Pennsylvania Press (forthcoming).
29.
GoldbergD.WilliamsP. A. (1988) Users Guide to the General Health Questionnaire. Windsor: NFER-Nelson.
30.
GrahamE.ManleyD.HiscockR.BoyleP.DohertyJ. (2009) Mixing housing tenures: is it good for social well-being?, Urban Studies, 46(1), pp. 139–165.
31.
GrayL.BattyG. D.CraigP.StewartC.. (2010) Cohort profile: The Scottish Health Surveys Cohort: linkage of study participants to routinely collected records for mortality, hospital discharge, cancer and offspring birth characteristics in three nationwide studies, International Journal of Epidemiology, 39(2), pp. 345–350.
32.
HamM. vanHedmanL.ManleyD.CoulterR. (2012) Intergenerational transmission of neighbourhood poverty in Sweden: an innovative analysis of individual neighbourhood histories. Discussion Paper No. 6572, Institute for the Study of Labour, Bonn.
33.
HartigT.LawrenceR. (2003) Introduction: the residential context of health, Journal of Social Issues, 59(3), pp. 455–473.
34.
HedmanL. (2011) The impact of residential mobility on measurements of neighbourhood effects, Housing Studies, 26(4), pp. 501–519.
35.
JosephM. (2006) Is mixed-income development an antidote to urban poverty?, Housing Policy Debate, 17(2), pp. 209–234.
36.
KearnsA.ParkinsonM. (2001) The significance of neighbourhood, Urban Studies, 38(12), pp. 2103–2110.
37.
KleinhansR. (2004) Social implications of housing diversification in urban renewal: a review of recent literature, Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, 19, pp. 367–390.
38.
KnibbeR.BloomfieldK. (2001) Alcohol consumption estimates in surveys in Europe: comparability and sensitivity for gender differences, Journal of Substance Abuse, 22, pp. 23–38.
39.
LawlessP.FodenM.WilsonI.BeattyC. (2010) Understanding area-based regeneration: the New Deal for Communities Programme in England, Urban Studies, 47(2), pp. 257–275.
40.
LeatherP.MackintoshS.RolfeS. (2004) Papering over the cracks: housing conditions and the nation’s health. Joseph Rowntree Foundation, York.
41.
LeeA. C. K.MaheswaranR. (2010) The health benefits of green spaces: a review of the evidence, Journal of Public Health, 33(2), pp. 212–222.
42.
LynchK. (1960) The Image of the City. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
43.
MacintyreS.EllawayA.CumminsS. (2002) Place effects on health: how can we conceptualise, operationalise and measure them?, Social Science and Medicine, 55, pp. 125–139.
44.
MeenG.GibbK.GoodyJ.McGrathT.MackinnonJ. (2005) Economic Segregation in England: Causes, Consequences and Policy. Bristol: Policy Press.
45.
MegbolugeI. F.Hoek-SmitM. C.LinnemanP. D. (1996) Understanding neighbourhood dynamics: a review of the contributions of William Grigsby, Urban Studies, 33, pp. 1779–1795.
46.
MusterdS.GalsterG.AnderssonR. (2012) Temporal dimensions and measurement of neighbourhood effects, Environment and Planning A, 44, pp. 605–627.
47.
OberwittlerD. (2007) The effects of neighbourhood poverty on adolescent problem behaviours: a multi-level analysis differentiated by gender and ethnicity, Housing Studies, 22(6), pp. 781–804.
48.
ODPM (Office of the Deputy Prime Minister) (2005) Sustainable communities: people, places and prosperity. ODPM, London.
49.
PawsonH.KirkK.McIntoshS. (2000) Assessing the impact of tenure diversification: the case of Niddrie, Edinburgh. Scottish Homes, Edinburgh.
50.
PearceJ.BlakelyT.WittenK.BartieP. (2007) Neighbourhood deprivation and access to fast food retailing, American Journal of Preventative Medicine, 32, pp. 375–382.
51.
PickettK. E.PearlM. (2001) Multilevel analyses of neighbourhood socioeconomic context and health outcomes: a critical review, Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 55, pp. 111–122.
52.
PopkinS.HarrisL.CunninghamM. (2001) Families in Transition: A Qualitative Analysis of the MTO Experience. Washington, DC: The Urban Institute.
53.
ReardonS. F.FirebaughG. (2002) Measures of multigroup segregation, Sociology Methodology, 32(1), pp. 33–67.
54.
SautkinaE.BondL.KearnsA. (2012) Mixed evidence on mixed tenure effects: findings from a systematic review of UK studies, 1995–2009, Housing Studies, 27(7), pp. 748–782.
55.
ScanlonK.WhiteheadC. (2011) Conclusions: the implications for the UK, in: ScanlonK.KochanB. (Eds) Towards a Sustainable Private Rented Sector: The Lessons from Other Countries, pp. 139–153. London: LSE Publishing.
56.
Scottish Government (2005) Scottish neighbourhood statistics guide. The Scottish Government, Edinburgh.
57.
Scottish Government (2006) Scottish index of multiple deprivation 2006: general report. The Scottish Government, Edinburgh.
58.
SEU (Social Exclusion Unit) (2001) A new commitment to neighbourhood renewal: national strategy action plan. Cabinet Office, London.
59.
ShawA.McMunnA.FieldJ. (2000) The Scottish Health Survey 1998. Edinburgh: The Stationery Office.
60.
SilvermanE.LuptonR.FentonA. (2005) A good place for children? Attracting and retaining families in inner urban mixed income communities. Published for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation by the Chartered Institute of Housing, Coventry.
61.
SimonsR. L.JohnsonC.BeamanJ. J.CongerR. D.WhitbeckL. B. (1996) Parents and peer group as mediators of the effect of community structure on adolescent behaviour, American Journal of Community Psychology, 24, pp. 145–171.
62.
StockwellT.DonathS.Cooper-StanburyM.ChikritzhsT.. (2004) Under-reporting of alcohol consumption in household surveys: a comparison of quantity-frequency, graduated-frequency and recent recall, Addiction, 99(8), pp. 1024–1033.
63.
TunstallR.CoulterA. (2006) Twenty-five Years on Twenty Estates: Turning the Tide?Bristol: Policy Press.
TunstallR.LuptonR.KnealeD.JenkinsA. (2011) Teenage housing and neighbourhood adult outcomes: evidence from the 1970 cohort study. CASE Paper No. 64, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, London School of Economics.
66.
WalshD.BendelN.JonesR.HanlonP. (2010) Investigating a ‘Glasgow effect’. Glasgow Centre for Population Health.
