Wednesday 16:00-16:30 Laurie Taylor discusses the latest social science research.
22 August 2007 repeat 26 August
THE RESIDENTIAL GAP
Laurie Taylor presents a special series of three programmes to examine the social gaps which most concern researchers in today’s divided Britain: the residential gap, the generation gap and the class gap.
Laurie is joined by two policy makers throughout the series, the Conservative MP David Willetts and the Labour MP Frank Field to explore the statistics and cross examine the specialists who, in this first part looking at the residential gap, are leading academic researchers Professor Danny Dorling and Professor Susan Smith
Seventy percent of the UK population are now owner-occupiers living in their own accommodation, the highest proportion in the world. The figure was ten percent at the beginning of the twentieth century. As wealth is increasingly invested in housing, and new credit provision allows owner occupiers to draw on equity for key stages in their lives, what impact is this having on people who rent? Will it really be possible to provide homes for key workers that enable them to join the housing economy or – as that economy continues to grow - will the gap between owners and renters become crutial?
This week’s guests:
Conservative MP David Willetts Member of Parliament for Havant; Shadow Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills
Labour MP Frank Field One-time Minister of Welfare Reform in Tony Blair’s government and author of several books and pamphlets on social policy
Danny Dorling Professor of Human Geography at Sheffield University, and author of a major report on Social inequality called Poverty and Wealth across Britain 1968 to 2005.
Poverty and Wealth across Britain 1968 to 2005 Daniel Dorling, Jan Rigby, Ben Wheeler, Dimitris Ballas, Bethan Thomas, Eldin Fahmy, David Gordon and Ruth Lupton Published for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation by The Policy Press ISBN 978 1 86134 995 8
Susan Smith Professor of Geography at the University of Durham and director of an ongoing ESRC funded research project on housing called Trading Places.
