More than Tenure Mix - Developer and Purchaser Attitudes to New Housing Estates Rob Rowlands, Alan Murie and Andrew Tice

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As social mix has become central to government policy, this report examines the delivery of mix through housing tenure on new housing estates. It particularly focuses on developer attitudes to producing mix and to the experiences of purchasers in living on these estates. The report poses a number of policy and practice questions regarding:

• What is tenure mix and what is its connection to social and income mix
• The attitudes of private house builders to developing mixed tenure estates
• The experiences of households in non-social housing on mixed tenure estates
• The extent to which mixing tenure affects property prices
• The ingredients which contribute to successful and sustainable new housing estates

The research utilised interviews with national house builders, seven case study estates and a social survey of non-social residents in five estates. In all of the estates, a form of tenure mix had been employed to meet wider objectives including the provision of affordable housing, rebalancing of the local housing market and to create social mix.

Mixed tenure aims not only to achieve social mix, but also to promote interaction within communities. It depends on the planning system, which determines numbers and outputs, but the desired outcome is a qualitative improvement in community life.

Against this background, the key messages in the report include:

• Mixing tenure cannot deliver social or income mix on its own
• Developers accept that mixed tenure is unavoidable and many want to work towards a better solution
• Purchasers accept that mixed tenure is inevitable in all neighbourhoods
• The role of the private rented sector is misunderstood by policy makers
• Qualitative approaches must be adopted if estates are to be successful

Published for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation by the Chartered Institute of Housing.

ISBN: 1-905018-17-7  Order no: 237   Published: March 2006

Contents

1. Executive Summary
2. Introduction
3. Tenure mix and policy perspectives
4. Developers' attitudes to tenure mix
5. Case studies of new mixed tenure developments
6. Purchasers' and residents' views
7. The impact of mixed tenure on house prices
8. Conclusions and policy implications