The case for mixed communities
This content applies to England only.
While neighbourhood renewal tackles the problems of existing deprived neighbourhoods, many housing professionals believe that the way to avoid these problems in future neighbourhoods is by planning mixed communities.
Mixed communities are seen as a way to address housing inequality and to help tackle social problems such as anti-social behaviour.
What are mixed communities?
A mixed community is a neighbourhood where a broad social mix of households all live side by side, including people of differing ages, ethnicities, incomes and family sizes. Housing in mixed communities is of mixed tenure, where private and socially rented housing sits alongside owner-occupied homes.
This approach represents a break from the planning attitudes of the past, when all social rented housing was concentrated in large estates.
The benefits of mixed communities
Since the 1980s, the size of England’s social housing sector has been shrinking, as the rate of new social housing development has failed to keep pace with the number of homes sold off through the Right to Buy (council tenants) and the Right to Acquire (housing association tenants). With less social housing overall, what's available is prioritised for the most disadvantaged.
The concentration of much social housing in large estates has led to very fragile communities with a number of complex social problems, increasing the risk of community breakdown, antisocial behaviour and crime. As a result, these neighbourhoods often become unpopular places to live, which in turn discourage private investment from businesses and wealthier households.
The creation of mixed communities is seen as a way of reducing the risk of such dysfunctional communities developing, ensuring that vulnerable households are not all concentrated in the same area. It also means that lower-income households have better access to the amenities and employment opportunities enjoyed by wealthier households. Research has shown that existing mixed communities are more successful and not characterised by the problems of more deprived neighbourhoods. [1]
Shelter’s view
Shelter supports the Government's commitment to promoting mixed communities and wants it to actively develop mixed communities that are well designed and managed.
Successful mixed communities should provide decent accommodation of all tenures in an integrated housing mix. Social rented housing should be interspersed amid privately owned properties. Where possible new housing and flats should blend in with the local environment and not be visibly different in terms of tenure, with residents from different tenures living together. Sensitive housing design can help to ease potential tensions.
Successful mixed communities should also ensure that households of varying needs and sizes are catered for. This must include community facilities such as shops, green spaces and leisure amenities, as well as good access to employment opportunities and schools. As communities develop, especially if they are successful, their tenure mix should be retained to ensure that low-income families are not 'priced out'.
[1] Mixed communities: success and sustainability, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 2006.
