Suffolk Tribes

THE SUFFOLK SMALL BUSINESS PROJECT

What tribes live in Suffolk?

Introducing The Concept Of The Tribe.

Few people would argue with the view that the economy has changed dramatically over the last twenty years. The main basis of the change has been a shift from being an economy of the industrial age to the development of an economy of the information age. Less has been said about the attendant changes in the society that accompanies the economy. Just as there have been profound changes in the economy, there have also been profound changes in the nature of society over the past twenty years.

The main change evident in the UK society has been the diminution of the traditional working class and the growth of a newer middle class. In many ways, this change is as unhelpful as it is helpful. The new middle class is not a homogenous phenomenon, and there are wide social variations within this segment of society. The need to capture these variations led to the concept of the Lifestyle Tribe – groupings within a society that are part of a larger group (e.g. “the middle class”), but which also capture the variations within that larger group.

The idea of social class has an economic dimension, but it is not exclusively economic. There is also the question of attitude, which impacts upon consumption. It is common now to look at consumption as more of a lifestyle choice than in functional terms. With the advent of large scale and relatively low cost computer processing capacity, our purchasing patterns can be collected and aggregated for analysis to reveal our lifestyle choices – from which our social attitudes are then inferred.

An interesting result of this analysis is that we all tend to gravitate towards living close to others who are of a similar mind to us. When you think about it, this is quite obvious. Most people have a social need – they need to have the company of others – and it is logical for people to socialise with those to whom they have a natural affinity. It is customary, therefore, to find that, in residential patterns, there are clusters of like-minded people.

These clusters are grouped according to lifestyle, and form the basis of the Lifestyle Tribes. Within the tribe, although there is a degree of diversity according to age, household income and housing tenure, there is a common bond of social attitude that is more important than the diversity within the group.

However, the diversity within the tribe is the agent that causes the tribe to change over time. Although we shall describe the tribes in static terms, it has to be remembered that these tribes do change over time, and that we need to stay abreast of these changes if the analysis is to retain its practical value.

The Suffolk Tribes 2003.

There are twelve Lifestyle Tribes present in Suffolk to varying degrees. They are not distributed evenly within the county, but they do reflect the land use pattern in which they are based. Within each Lifestyle Tribe are a number of sub-groupings that help to define further the attributes of the groups. In some ways, the sub-groups are quite important, whilst in others the difference is not so central.

For example, in the most prevalent group, the “Country Dwellers”, the differences between the “Gentrified Villages” sub-group and the “Rural Retirement” sub-group are pretty important. By way of contrast, the differences between the “Rural Disadvantage” sub-group and the “Small Farms” sub-group is less marked. These distinctions reflect the special circumstances of Suffolk, which may change over time.

Notwithstanding these reservations, the population of Suffolk divides as follows:

The current distribution of the population reflects the historical development of the county. Whilst a snapshot of the population at a given point in time is useful, it has to be remembered that a population is a dynamic phenomenon. However, given this caution, we can see some interesting features of the distribution.

The most salient feature is that, despite 43.5% of the population living in rural locations (according to the Countryside Agency), only 22.8% of the population are Country Dwellers according to lifestyle. This demonstrates the increasingly suburbanised nature of the county. There is nothing to suggest that this trend will be reversed in the period up to 2020. However, despite this, we cannot readily conclude that Suffolk is developing as a dormitory economy. It is still possible for a suburban economy to develop organically.

Five groupings dominate the county by accounting for 67.9% of the population. For a rural area, it is hardly surprising that Country Dwellers account for just over a fifth of the population. What is a little more surprising is that the next four of the highest-ranking groups, accounting for 45.1% of the population, are so suburban. What links the Suburban Semis, the Blue Collar Owners, the High Income Families, and the Town Houses & Flats is the issue of property ownership. What differentiates them is scale – the cost in terms of entry to these groups. The evidence suggests that this core grouping will increase out to 2020 as the size of the Country Dweller group recedes.

Of the seven remaining groups, the Independent Elders group stands out for attention. This group predominates in areas that have become, effectively, retirement colonies. Southwold and Aldeburgh spring to mind as examples of this feature. Despite their non-urban locations, many of the residents in these areas retain an urbane view of the world that has more in common with the areas that they have retired from rather a view of the world that would be indigenous to Suffolk. For example, Country Dwellers tend to be Pro-Hunting, whilst Independent Elders tend to be Anti-Hunting. It is likely that this group will grow numerically out to 2020, and it will be interesting to see how they integrate within the county over that period.

The remaining six Tribes are of lesser significance numerically. It is possible to argue that the Mortgaged Families and Victorian Low Status groups are an extension of suburban Suffolk, but at the lower end of the property ladder. In many ways, the members of these groups demonstrate the same aspirations as those members of, say, the High Income Families or Blue Collar Owners groups. The Low Rise Council group is mainly centred on the large council estates in Ipswich, the Stylish Singles groups are a small group based in Central Ipswich, the Institutional Areas are accounted for by the American Airbases in Suffolk, and the Council Flats group is a single, anomalous, group based in Felixstowe.

In the context of our review of the small business community, of significance are the Victorian Low Status and the Stylish Singles groups. Research from the USA indicates that these are the two groupings that contain significant numbers of the “Creative Class” - the demographic that powers small business regeneration. We shall return to this theme later in the study.

For now, there are three main conclusions to our demographic analysis. The first is, despite their predominance as the single largest group, the decline of the Country Dwellers within the county. Second is the growth of the suburban groupings within the population. And third, is the development of Suffolk as a retirement location. We feel that these are the main trends that a view to 2020 should account for.

Stephen Aguilar-Millan

The Greenways Partnership

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