Using the British Household Panel Survey to explorechanges in housing tenure in England

Very little information exists about households’ longer-term movements betweentenures. Some cross-section datasets include information on length of stay in anyresidence but we have no systematic study of movement over time. This study usesthe British Household Panel Study to examine movements by households over a tenyearperiod – 1994/5 and 2004/5. Changes in tenure are related to key life events –leaving home, marriage, having children, widowhood and retirement. The greatmajority of owner-occupiers remained in that tenure. This was somewhat less forthose experiencing divorce or unemployment. Most public housing tenants remainedin that tenure over the ten-year period especially the elderly and the unemployed orthose outside the labour market. About a quarter moved into owner-occupation andhalf of those through the right to buy their dwelling. The analysis looks at theassociations between moving into work and residential mobility, in particular theslower rate at which social tenants move back into employment.[...]