Housing Improvement and Social Inequality by Paul N. Balchin

Author:Paul N. Balchin [Balchin, Paul N.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781032041162
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2021-07-12T00:00:00+00:00

In this section, an attempt is made to correlate the spatial distribution of improvement grants with a number of socio-economic variables, mainly to show the relationship between improvement grant approvals and the specific characteristics of the main areas of grant concentration. First, in 1974-75, the writer undertook a survey of the addresses or locations subject to grant approval in the period 1970-73. It was possible to inspect improvement grant registers of the London boroughs of Brent and Hammersmith and it was possible not only to identify specific dwellings but also to ascertain whether the grant was paid to landlords (resident or absentee) or to owner occupiers. Grants for improvement or conversion purposes were clearly distinguished. In the case of Westminster the writer was permitted to inspect a card index but it provided far less detailed information. Thus for example conversion grants were not distinguished from grants for improvement only. In the case of Kensington and Chelsea, it was only possible to locate the street or road etc. in which a grant had been approved, wall maps alone were made available for this purpose, registers or card indices remaining strictly confidential. There was no indication of the recipients of grants or whether the grants were for improvement or conversion. The information collected by the writer differed slightly from that published by the GLC and Department of the Environment but this was probably inevitable as grant registers, card indices and wall maps were either not fully up to date at the time of inspection or were in an unedited or partly uncollated form. The information was then processed and the number of grants approved in each ward was established. Where possible and relevant the grants were further categorised into those awarded to private landlords and developers, and owner occupiers, and those awarded for improvement or conversion. The percentage of households in each ward 'receiving1 improvement grants was then calculated – ‘receiving’ meaning either obtaining grants directly in the case of owner occupiers or being subject to improvement grants in the case of private tenancies.

The wards in Inner West London and in each borough (see Appendix E) were then arranged in rank order, and the percentage of households receiving improvement grants was correlated with specific variables of household tenure, housing characteristics, social composition and age structure. In this analysis standard correlation symbols are used: Rxy being the correlation coefficient, t being the student’s ‘t’ test and P being probability. It was decided not to rank the variables in order on a ward basis, but to consider them as percentages of the number of households or dwellings, or size of total population in each ward. Census data was more relevant to this method. This approach is customarily used in showing spatial distributions within local government areas.

In Inner West London, the highest proportion of households receiving improvement grants were within an arc from north Westminster, to north Kensington, to central and south Hammersmith, namely in the wards of Maida Vale, Harrow Road, Norland, Coningham, Grove, Brook Green, Town, Sulivan and Sandford (Fig.

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