The levels of satisfaction that people feel with their neighbourhood vary widely within regions in England - with people in parts of Inner London most likely to be dissatisfied with the area where they live, according to research funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
The study differs from conventional analyses of 'deprived areas' by combining Census data with the opinions of residents about their neighbourhood, as captured in the Government's Survey of English Housing.
Most people find their neighbourhoods friendly and are satisfied with where they live. This means that even on the most unpopular estates in London only a minority of residents - around one in four - are likely to express high levels of dissatisfaction with their neighbourhood. However, in the most popular areas, such as rural wards in Dorset, the proportion of highly dissatisfied householders falls to around one in twenty.
The study finds that the types of ward likely to hold the greatest proportion of residents who are very dissatisfied are inner city estates, ports and old industrial and mining areas. As many as four out of ten unemployed householders living on estates in the North East voice high levels of dissatisfaction with their neighbourhood.
However, concentrations of residents expressing high levels of dissatisfaction are not confined to council estates. Among home owners who live in terraced houses or flats in the North the average level of dissatisfaction reaches 13 per cent. For householders living in privately rented accommodation in London or the North, the dissatisfaction rating for those in semi-skilled jobs is as high as 35 per cent.
The most widespread cause of neighbourhood dissatisfaction is crime - perceived to be a problem by one in five householders across England as a whole. Other major contributing problems identified by residents range from litter and lack of leisure facilities to vandalism and problems with dogs. Despite this, the great majority of people in all areas find their neighbourhoods 'friendly'.
Roger Burrows, Assistant Director of the Centre for Housing Policy at the University of York and co-author of the study, said the 'geography of misery' often highlighted different neighbourhoods to those identified as 'deprived' by the Government's Index of Local Conditions. "If policy makers were guided by what people say about their neighbourhoods rather than relying on existing measures when targeting resources, then we believe that some areas - for instance in the North East - would fare better."
He added: "The analysis shows that householders experiencing the deprivations associated with high levels of dissatisfaction with their neighbourhoods are not only located within the social rented sector. This means that area regeneration programmes that only target the so-called 'worst' estates will miss a significant proportion of people who live in neighbourhoods that they, themselves, regard as squalid."
