The geography of misery: Area disadvantage and patterns of neighbourhood dissatisfaction in England

Contemporary policy makers and social researchers are confronted with a confusing plethora of different measures of area disadvantage. Over two per cent of households reported widespread problems with: the general appearance of thearea; the behaviour of neighbours; and poor local schools. Amongst households living in semi-detached houses, 5.3 per cent were dissatisfied with their neighbourhoods. Levels of area dissatisfaction amongst householders living in social housing where the Head of Household is either unemployed or economically inactive under retirement age were significantly greater than for those households where the head is employed. In the south of England outside of Greater London the proportion of householders who were outright owners or mortgagors living in terraces or flats dissatisfied with their areas is just 6.1 per cent. However, in the rest of England the figure for householders with the same combination of attributesis over double this at 12.6 per cent.