Migration and Housing Tenure in South East England

Abstract

A substantial literature has developed regarding the relationship between migration and housing tenure in Britain. It has been argued that, although those moving into council (public sector) housing are more likely to move than those moving into owner-occupied housing, administrative controls restrict potential population movement into council housing over long distances. Others have criticised this argument suggesting that council residents are typically individuals who are less likely to migrate over long distances regardless of the administrative restrictions imposed upon them. Accordingly, it is important to control for individual characteristics before the independent effect of tenure on mobility can be determined. This paper is a report of an investigation of this relationship in the South East of England, in which the Sample of Anonymised Records, a unique individual-level British data source for this type of study, were used. The study continues with a consideration of the influence of housing on migration into the South East from the North of Britain for those in manual and nonmanual occupations.