Mixed Evidence on Mixed Tenure Effects: Findings from a Systematic Review of UK Studies, 1995–2009

Mixed tenure is a key feature of UK housing and regeneration policy. Following an earlier review-of-reviews pertaining to mixed tenure effects (Bond et al., 2011), this paper presents a systematic review of the UK evidence published between 1999 and 2005. The majority of the available evidence is cross-sectional, mostly derived from modest-quality case-study research across nearly 100 sites, supplemented by a very few secondary studies using national data. Six broad domains of outcomes have been investigated across 27 studies. Some positive impacts of mixed tenure were found in the social and residential domains, though notably without impacts on social capital. The evidence for mixed tenure effects in the environmental, safety and economic domains is very mixed. In the human capital domain of health and education, the evidence is sparse. A stronger theoretical base (including the assessment of causal mechanisms) is required to guide future research on mixed tenure effects, which should be longer term and longitudinal in nature, using comparison case studies and secondary data.