People and Places: Mobility Aspirations among London Households

An important question from the point of view of neighbourhood dynamics is the extent to which households are satisfied with where they live and their mobility patterns. Many of these factors can be assessed by looking at evidence on moving expectations in relation to household, dwelling and neighbourhood attributes. In this paper we examine evidence from London to examine the major factors affecting expectations. The descriptive data make it clear that there are important differences between tenure, satisfaction and expectations of moving. Once these are examined more formally in a model which introduces background, accommodation and neighbourhood variables sequentially, it becomes clear that patterns differ between the private sector, where household variables remain important, and the social sector, where dwelling variables dominate. Across all tenures the impact of neighbourhood is surprisingly limited, given the extent of dissatisfaction expressed. In policy terms this suggests that, in the UK context, the policy emphasis should be as much on changing the nature of the social rented tenure as on improving accommodation and allocation.