Social Segregation Flashcards
Housing
Developers, builders and planners tend
to build housing on blocks of land with a particular
market in mind. The requirement to include a
proportion of ‘affordable housing’ may affect housing
value in some areas but wealthier groups can choose
where they live, paying premium prices for houses well
away from poor areas, with pleasing environments
and services such as quality schools and parks. Poorer
groups typically have less choice.
Changing environment
Housing is only a
partial explanation for inequality since housing
neighbourhoods change over time. In the UK, houses
that were built for large families in Georgian and
Victorian times are now too big for the average family.
Many have been converted into houses of multiple
occupation (HMOs), often occupied by those on low
incomes or students. Conversely, former poor areas
are being gentrified. The ‘right to buy’ legislation
of the 1980s transformed many council estates, as
houses were bought by their occupants and improved.
Ethnic dimension
Ethnic groups originally
come to the country as new immigrants. When
they first arrive they may suffer discrimination
in the job market and may be either unemployed
or employed in low-paid jobs. They are only able
to afford to buy cheap housing or they have to rent
privately (for example, Moss Side in Manchester
or St Paul’s in Bristol). Therefore, newly arrived
migrants concentrate in poor areas in the city, often
clustered into multicultural areas. Such ethnic
groupings tend to persist into later generations.
