Population, land use and travel - Transport Policy and Planning in Great Britain - page 26

100%

Unrelated adults/ multi-
family
Lone parent with
children
Couple with children

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

Couple, no children

30%

20% One person

10%

0%

1971 1981 1991 2001

Figure 2.1 Households by household type 1971-2001

couples each retaining a 'home' for their children, for couples who live apart during
the week to come together at weekends and so on.
In fact these examples, plus the complications of second homes and weekly
commuting, highlight the oversimplification which is endemic to the recording
of household characteristics in the Census. It reports where and how people are
'normally' resident but because of people's increasingly mobile circumstances the
picture it presents is inevitably at odds with what is actually going on at any one time.
Household size and composition affects household income and - as we noted in
the previous chapter - household car ownership. Partly because of this link household
income has a strong influence on the volume and mode of travel by household
members (2.9 below).
Household income varies greatly by area. The proportion of 'rich' households
(estimated at more than £60,000 a year in 2001) varies from 1% to 8% by local
authority area with the higher bands almost entirely concentrated in the 'Outer South-
East' in a wide arc from Mid-Sussex via Hampshire, Oxfordshire and Hertfordshire
to Cambridge (Dorling and Thomas 2004). More significant in terms of absolute
numbers is the variation in 'poor' households. Using a relative measure of poverty
the proportion of poor households increased nationally in the decade to 2001 (to
24%). Proportions above 40% by local authority area are very sharply concentrated in
East Central London and in Glasgow whilst proportions above 30% are concentrated
in East London, Leicester, Nottingham, Hull, East Manchester, Liverpool, North
Lanarkshire and Dundee.

2.5 Economic activity and employment
For transport planning purposes rates of economic activity are important because
of their effect on incomes and, in most cases, because of the resulting demands for
commuting journeys. Conversely low levels of employment amongst people who
might otherwise be available for work raise issues of accessibility and the cost of
travel. The connections between non-employment, low income, low car availability
and dependence on local opportunities are profoundly important in tackling social
exclusion (Social Exclusion Unit 2003).
Overall the number of employed people is a function of two factors - the proportion
of the population who are economically active (that is in or seeking work) and the
proportion of these who actually obtain employment. The number of people who are