NEWS The proliferation of websites providing house buyers with information on good and bad neighbourhoods could widen the divide between the richest and poorest places in the UK, according to new research.
The report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation warns that internet-based neighbourhood information systems (Ibnis) could lead to "online marginalisation" and "virtual segregation" of deprived areas of the country.
House hunters are currently able to use a number of commercial websites that feature information on schools and crime figures by postcode, while the government's own Neighbourhood Statistics site contains statistical, demographic and environmental information on neighbourhoods.
The report also warns that joke websites listing "crap" and "chav" towns create a negative image of the social characteristics of different areas.
Professor Roger Burrows, who led the research team from York and Durham universities, said he fears that US-style Ibnis websites, which allow users to search for neighbourhoods that match their prioritised criteria, will lead to virtual redlining of communities.
"It seems only a matter of time before the kind of powerful neighbourhood search sites available in the US start to reinforce the divide between the more and less prosperous locations in the UK," he said in the research.
Burrows said the situation is made more worrying because of the so-called "digital divide".
"Given what we know about the benefits of mixed-income communities in promoting social cohesion, it is important that greater public access to the 'social sorting' technology used by market research does not pull in the opposite direction and lead to even greater segregation between communities," he said.
The report advises that Ibnis websites should be made to specify their sources and state how the information was compiled, and that local people should be given the opportunity to challenge the way their neighbourhoods are being portrayed.
Comments
There are 10 comments. Join the discussion
1. Simon Dickson
The aim of the government's Neighbourhood Stats project was actually to do the complete opposite: to highlight deprived areas, so that regeneration efforts could be concentrated where they were needed. (I know, I used to work on it.) Nobody's arguing with that, are they? Regardless of the effect, and I don't necessarily accept there is a negative effect here... isn't it a perfect example of e-democracy in action, if people can access this knowledge and make informed decisions based upon it?
2. anonymous
This exposes the fundamental flaw in the governments obsession with offering people 'choice'. We have already seen the same effect in education and health where the obsession with publishing statistics of unknown significance leads to polarisation. Those who care, or who can afford to, choose the apparently 'better' option, leaving the less good one stuck in a spiral of decline. The irony is that it is perpetuated by a party that once stood on a platform of promoting equality.
3. Justin Wheatley
What on earth is "virtual redlining"?
Please, if you're going to be a journalist, treat our language with a bit of respect and choose words which actually mean something. In Shakespeare's times there were only about 50,000 words in the English language. There are now over a million. Surely you can choose from that ample selection the ones that convey your meaning without inventing more?
After all that I'd better re-read what I've written to check for spelling mistakes. ;o)
4. Hamish McCallum
I've recently moved house and I greatly appreciated being able to see crime statistics, in particular.
The argument of the left here (as so often) is that the truth should not be spoken in the interests of social engineering. This engineering is, of course, dictated by well-qualified people on high salaries (usually with index-linked pensions) and living in agreeable areas.
This is dishonest and morally repugnant too. The people who suffer most from it are those at the bottom of the heap: no sink estate or chav town has the least chance of improvement until its reality is faced.
5. Bryan Scott
and the alternative option is being told, or directed to, where to live and send your children to school in order to produce a "balanced community" with the demographically balanced selection of Chavs, louts, drunks etc. in any given area. Or is it just that others should not be provided with the information to make informed choice about where they live. Come to think of it why not be directed to where we should shop to get the right balance of customers through the till, the car that we drive, whoops sorry buses to use on particular days. The deprivision of the information to make a personal choice or selective decision has a familiar ring and sounds suspiciously familiar, Stalin, Pol Pot, Chairman M.
6. Tim Jackson
Are chavs that much worse than "aspirational parents"? My value systems seem to need recalibrating. If they want to go and live in their own ghettos, then let 'em.
7. Stuart Vine
Didn't people choose where to live based on evidence gleaned from driving round an area, finding out about local schools or whatever else they deemed important first?
Having the information online speeds up the process and perhaps improves the accuracy of decision making, but I would suggest that buying decisions would be similar without it.
Tip: Middle Class and not online - choose a town with a Waitrose...
8. anonymous
Quote "...that joke websites listing "crap" and "chav" towns create a negative image of the social characteristics of different areas"
Well thats 99% of the UK painted in a negative light then.
To put the lie to ill-thought out comments such as the above, Kendal makes an appearance on Chavtowns. Has it painted the town in bad light? Has it dissuaded people not to [try to] move there? Has it heck. It is still impossible to buy a 3 bedroom house (or any other for that matter) in the South Lake District.
9. Mike
So they are complaining that intelligent people that research an area may not move into it if the research points to the area being dangerous? Well, duh.
Who in their right mind would want to move into a dangerous neighborhood?
Perhaps instead of whining that they have been outed they should clean up their acts and kick the undesireables out.
10. anonymous
Oh please!. Address the problem of these suburbs and not the websites communicating information that is really already available!
I can't believe firsly that this statement is even made and just as bad is you taking the time to give it any justifcation by publishing it!
What rubbish!