ABSTRACT
A fifth of young people between the ages of 16 and 24 in England live in rural areas, yet most research on youth issues and the problems facing young people has tended to focus on urban youth. In rural housing research, as Burrows et al. (1998) note, there has been a tendency to simply ‘tag on’ consideration of young people to existing studies. Where rural youth housing issues have been addressed these have usually examined the most extreme form of housing need, homelessness. This chapter describes the rural housing problem and goes on to examine the housing difficulties faced specifically by young people in rural areas. The chapter draws on a recent study by Ford et al. (1997) of young people and housing in rural areas, and ongoing research by Jones and Rugg on the housing and labour market experiences of young people in rural North Yorkshire.1 Changes in housing and welfare policies and their consequences for young people have been discussed elsewhere (Anderson, Rugg, this volume) and are therefore only briefly referred to here. However, some attention is paid to those specific policies which have had an impact on the rural housing situation. It is suggested that the problems facing young people in rural areas are not dissimilar to those facing their urban counterparts, but may be exacerbated by aspects of rurality. A number of structural factors need to be addressed in order for young people to have a real choice about whether to leave or to stay in the country-side. However, there is also a need for further research which examines the expectations of young people and
how these are shaped by structural factors over which they have little control.
