Soaring commuting costs will kill dormitory towns
Fascinating article this. We all know that the vitality of many rural settlements is conditioned by their role as commuter settlements. Indeed I have done work in the past led by Peter Bibby from Sheffield University which demonstrates that the economic potency of London has an impact on the development of many settlements far distant from it ,in what is effectively a one City economy. This economy sits south and east of a line from the Bristol Channel to theHumber– it has no metropolitan places, apart from London, being what is termed as a “poly-centric” area.
The article reveals: “Many families have moved out of London in search of cheaper property and lower mortgage costs. Research has found that the savings they hope to make will evaporate as the cost of commuting soars. Season tickets are due to increase by an average of eight per cent in January. However some fares will go up by up to 13 per cent.
This will mean that the cost of commuting and accommodation for people moving to towns such as Swindon and Hastings will be on a par with average mortgage repayments in London. In many key commuter towns the cost of two adults commuting will exceed the cost of the typical mortgage.”
Now the interesting question – if this turns out to be true is – will it cause the jobs to move to where the labour is –smoothing out the distribution of employment across the south and east of England? or will it lead to the labour having to move closer to the jobs? In the latter case this would have the effect of further weakening the viability of commuter towns and their rural satellite settlements and bloating the residential profile of Greater London. In either case it reflects the wider implications of travel policy and costs on the longer term development of where and how people live their lives. Something it is high time those responsible for transport planning took seriously.