Poverty gap widens for children in social housing

Growing up in Social Housing is based on the role social housing has played for four generations of families since the second world war: those born in 1946, 1958, 1970 and 2000.

The study found that for those born in 1946, social housing was high quality, with a rich social mix. But from the 1960s, home ownership took over from social housing as the tenure of choice, leading to an exodus of more advantaged families.

When the 1946 cohort were age four, 11 per cent of the best-off fifth of families were in social housing, compared with 27 per cent of the least well off. But by the time the 2000 cohort were five, the proportion of the wealthiest fifth in social housing had shrunk to just two per cent, compared with 49 per cent of the least well off.

The report attributes the concentration of disadvantage in social housing to ‘wider policies to support home ownership’, as well as to social and economic changes and social housing policy.

It reads: ‘Social housing, like other parts of the welfare state, has to run harder to stand still in the face of growing social inequality and has in practice become less able to promote positive life chances in these circumstances.’

The report recommends that social landlords adopt a ‘cross tenure approach’, to address the gap. It adds: ‘The more that we target social housing on the disadvantaged, the less can be expected of specific housing policies, for example, changes in tenancy conditions.’

Growing Up in Social Housing was funded by the Tenant Services Authority, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Scottish Government. It was written by academics at the Institute of Education and the London School of Economics.

Read report author Dr Ruth Lupton’s article on the findings

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