New Demographics and The Housing System

How are current and future changes in the composition and formation of households being met by the UK's housing system? How does housing availability and the use of housing equity impact on demography?

These are some of the questions a group of leading demographers, housing researchers and housing practitioners discussed at the recent conference on 'The New Demographics and the Housing System' hosted by the Centre for Housing Research at the University of St Andrews on 18th-19th April.

CPC researcher Dr Ann Berrington (University of Southampton) gave an invited paper looking at the implications of young people's housing careers for housing policy. The research addresses questions such as; which young people are more likely to live with their parents or return home? Among which social groups is shared housing or living alone more common? To what extent is non-family living associated with experience of higher education? What are the likely future impacts of benefit changes, e.g. the extension of the age limit for the single room rent restriction to age 35, on young people's housing needs?

CPC researcher Dr Chris Wilson (University of St Andrews) was also invited to present his work on 'Early adult life transitions and welfare regimes in Europe'. Chris' research identifies five different groups of European countries according to their welfare policies. He compares young peoples' early adult life transitions according to their differing policy settings.

All of the presentations from this conference can be found here.

Posted 06/05/2011 14:05