A Place in the Country? The Housing Circumstances of Young People in Rural England

Abstract

ABSTRACT The contemporary housing circumstances of the one-fifth of all young people in England between the ages of 16 and 24 who live in rural areas are examined. Although young people are often seen as a key group in wider debates, not least because they so clearly represent the maintenance of the continuity of local people, they are infrequently examined in the research literature. More typically the young are simply ‘tagged on’ to existing studies of rural housing, demonstrating perhaps the urban emphasis of both housing research and youth studies. A rural focus on housing and youth when it does occur tends to be on extreme housing need, whereas—as this paper demonstrates—the range of issues and consequences with respect to housing are much wider. Three questions are addressed. First, what are the current household and housing circumstances of young people in rural areas of England? Second, what preferences do young people living in rural areas have in relation to housing, and how do these interact with prevailing socioeconomic structures to produce expectations? Third, what ‘choices’ do young people make and what are their wider consequences? In summary, it is asked ‘Do young people still have a place in the country?’