Catalogue description Research Unit

The Research Unit was established to provide demographic data for use in the Outline and Area Plans (NTC 2/4 and NTC 7). Its other function was to conduct social surveys. The social survey reports can be found in section NTC 5/3 and the research data used in compiling the reports in section NTC 5/1 of the catalogue. There were surveys into private sector and rented housing, and detailed analyses were made of the social composition of residents in owner-occupied, rented and shared ownership housing.

Reports were also compiled on specific projects such as the New Town Village reports a series of regular progress reviews of New Town projects and the Four estate survey which looked at ND Houses and Wimpey estates at Leyland, Highgate, Fulwood and Higher Red Bank, Chorley.

Mobility surveys were undertaken to discover the types of households moving into the designated area and why they did so.

Shopping surveys were also undertaken in order to define the catchment areas of various centres. The centres surveyed by the Research Unit were Booths at Fulwood and Lane Ends, Ashton; Tesco and the Co-op at Leyland; and Asda at Clayton Green and Ribbleton.

The core surveys used by the Research Unit was the Master Sample a group of 1500 households regularly monitored to give the residents an opportunity to express their views and thus to assess the success of the developments. The information gathered was used to maintain a check on planning assumptions and assist in the marketing of new schemes.

NTC 5/2 comprises a series of plans showing housing development, and sometimes dates of occupation, at the project sites. These were used by research unit staff in their survey work. Original plans, without the annotations added by research unit staff, sometimes appear in the appropriate project section.

For additional files concerning the work of the Research Unit see: NTC 4/1/107-180

C denotes computer print out