A Tale of Two Cities: Sociotenurial Polarisation in London and the South East,1966–1981

The late 1960s saw the reemergence of concern over the growth of social polarisation in London. Much of the evidence produced subsequently has been fragmentary and inconclusive, the results depending on the geographical extent of the analyses, the time periods, and levels of spatial disaggregation utilised. Using head of household data for 1966 and 1981, it is shown that the level of social polarisation between London and the rest of the South East increased over this period. There was also a slight tendency towards greater polarisation between inner and outer London. It is also shown that these changes were strongly associated with changes in the tenure structure of the region over this period. In particular, the large increases in the number of professional and managerial household heads in the South East outside London were strongly associated with the growth of owner occupation, whereas the relative increases in the less skilled and economically inactive in London were associated with the growth of council tenure. It is concluded that the period 1966–1981 saw an increasing degree of sociotenurial polarisation within the region and that the structure of housing opportunities by tenure played a major role in this process.