Sense of Place, Quality of Life and Local Socioeconomic Context: Evidence from the Survey of English Housing, 2002/03

TLDR

The study investigates how local socioeconomic factors influence residents’ satisfaction with their neighbourhoods using multilevel modelling of the 2002/03 Survey of English Housing. By sequentially adding individual, property, and ecological variables and applying a multilevel framework, the authors identify the primary sampling unit as the scale where most variance in neighbourhood satisfaction is concentrated. The analysis shows that social renting is not linked to higher dissatisfaction, private renting correlates with greater satisfaction, and higher deprivation and larger settlements increase the likelihood of neighbourhood satisfaction, supporting the use of such studies to track quality‑of‑life trends.

Abstract

This paper explores associations between local socioeconomic context and perceptions of neighbourhood quality of life, using a multilevel modelling approach to analyse data from the 2002/03 Survey of English Housing. A range of individual, property and area variables is successively introduced, the aim being to determine which of these has the greatest influence on the probability of being dissatisfied with one's neighbourhood. Several variables relating to property type and characteristics were derived and a set of ecological independent variables was used that is different from those deployed in previous analyses. Using a multilevel approach, the analysis determines the spatial scale at which variance is most concentrated—namely, the primary sampling unit (PSU). The relationship between tenure and property type is broken down and it is shown that social renting per se is not necessarily associated with greater dissatisfaction, although there is an association between private renting and greater satisfaction, probably reflecting the age and social profile of private renters. In respect of ecological indicators, increased levels of deprivation were associated with a raised probability of expressing neighbourhood satisfaction, as was settlement size, which is consistent with earlier work on quality of life. Conclusions are drawn concerning the use of studies of this kind to monitor trends in neighbourhood satisfaction.