On the planned environment and neighbourhood life: evidence from mixed-tenure housing developments twenty years on

This paper examines the extent to which the planned environment can help create and sustain socially mixed communities. It reports on research into three planned mixed tenure neighbourhoods twenty years following their development. It focuses on the lives of renters and owner-occupiers, their use of the local area and their social interactions. Although owner-occupiers and to a lesser extent renters are shown to lead ‘mobile lifestyles’, which involves spending a considerable amount of time away from the case study neighbourhoods, the quality of the planned environment and local facilities were nonetheless found to be an important feature of residents’ lives. The use of local facilities within a well-planned local environment is shown to facilitate social interaction between owners and renters, which was a source of widespread satisfaction across tenures.