Council House Sales, Residualisation and Afro Caribbean Tenants

Abstract

ABSTRACTDuring the 1980s, about 30 per cent of the council housing stock of Great Britain was sold to sitting tenants. The popular areas for purchase and the popular types of property were semi-detached and terraced houses rather than flats or maisonettes, away from the large conurbations. The types of household most likely to buy were married couples with adult children in skilled occupations. This large scale selling of council housing led to the fear of a residual poor population, living in flats in inner cities. Since nearly half of Afro Caribbean households were living in council housing and since their pattern of housing was the obverse of the types that sold in large numbers, it was thought that they would be among the residualised households. The paper reports on field survey and special GHS data which show that Afro Caribbeans are more rather than less willing to buy their council homes, once property type has been controlled for. It also argues that, in some circumstances, the right to buy may act against residualisation. However, a particularly residualised group appears to be Caribbean single mothers in high rise blocks.