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English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09 UK Data Archive Study Number 6923 - English Housing Survey, 2008-2010: Secure Data Service Access

English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

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Page 1: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

English Housing SurveyHeadline Report 2008-09

UK Data Archive Study Number 6923 - English Housing Survey 2008-2010 Secure Data Service Access

February 2010Department for Communities and Local Government

English Housing Survey

Headline Report 2008-09

Communities and Local Government Eland HouseBressenden PlaceLondon SW1E 5DUTelephone 020 7944 4400Website wwwcommunitiesgovuk

copy Crown Copyright 2010

Copyright in the typographical arrangement rests with the CrownThis publication excluding logos may be reproduced free of charge in any format or medium for research private study or for internal circulation within an organisation This is subject to it being reproduced accurately and not used in a misleading context The material must be acknowledged as Crown copyright and the title of the publication specified

Any other use of the contents of this publication would require a copyright licence Please apply for a Click-Use Licence for core material at wwwopsigovukclick-usesystemonlinepLoginasp or by writing to the Office of Public Sector Information Information Policy Team Kew Richmond Surrey TW9 4DU

e-mail licensingopsigovuk

If you require this publication in an alternative format please email alternativeformatscommunitiesgsigovukCommunities and Local Government PublicationsTel 0300 123 1124Fax 0300 123 1125

Email productcommunitiesgsigovuk

Online via the Communities and Local Government website wwwcommunitiesgovuk

75February 2010

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

| 3

Contents

Acknowledgements 5

Introduction 6

Key findings 8

Section 1 Households 9

Section 2 Housing stock 24

Annex tables 38

Technical annex 49

Glossary 54

Acknowledgements | 5

Acknowledgements

The launch of the English Housing Survey (EHS) has been dependent on a number of people and organisations involved in the initial feasibility work and the surveyrsquos subsequent design management data collection processing and analysis Communities and Local Government would like to thank in particular

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) who undertook initial development work on the household questionnaire and sample design

ONS manages the EHS on behalf of the Department and undertakes the household interviews and the subsequent data validation and creation of derived analytical measures It also has responsibility for the sampling and weighting of the datasets and for the running of the Market Value Survey and is involved in the production of tables and analytical reports

ONS work in partnership with Miller Mitchell Burley Lane (MMBL) who undertake the visual inspection of the properties MMBL employ and manage a large field force of professional surveyors who work in close co-operation with the ONS interviewers to maximise response rates and deliver high quality data

The Building Research Establishment (BRE) which is the development partner of the Department for the EHS BRE helps develop the physical survey questionnaire and surveyor training materials and delivers the surveyor training sessions BRE has also had responsibility for developing and implementing a new automated data collection and validation process for the physical survey It is involved in analysing the data and developing and running models to create key measures and analytical variables for the survey and reporting the findings

The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) who provide market valuations for a sub-sample of the EHS properties and information on the local area and housing market

The interviewers and surveyors who collect information from households and carry out the visual inspection

The households who take part in the survey

Communities and Local Government staff who manage and work on the survey

6 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Introduction

1 In April 2008 the English House Condition Survey was integrated with the Survey of English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS) This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey

2 The report is split into two sections

Section 1Focuses on the profile of households including trends in tenures household type and economic status of households It also covers the buying aspirations of renters overcrowding and under-occupation recent movers and satisfaction with home and local area

Section 2Provides an overview of the housing stock in England including the age size and type of home and presents measures of living conditions This includes energy efficiency of the housing stock decent homes the Housing Health and Safety Rating System and homes affected by damp and mould

3 There are a number of additional tables presented in an annex which provide further detail to that covered in the main body of the report

4 More detailed results will be published in annual reporting later in the year A full technical report will also be made available

5 Results for households (not in relation to the physical condition of the home) are presented for 2008-09 and are based on fieldwork carried out between April 08 and March 09 of a sample of 17691 households This is referred to as the lsquofull household samplersquo throughout the report

6 Results which relate to the physical dwelling are presented for 2008 and are based on fieldwork carried out between April 2007 and March 2009 (a mid-point of April 2008) The sample comprises of 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where a physical inspection was carried out and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured This is referred to as the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo throughout the report More details on the samples underpinning the reportrsquos findings are provided in the Technical annex

7 Caution needs to be exercised in interpreting some details as differences may not always be statistically significant The text draws attention only to differences that are significantly different at the 95 confidence level

Introduction | 7

8 The EHS has three component surveys a household interview followed by a physical inspection and a market value survey of a sub sample of the properties The sampling and grossing design of the EHS differs in some ways from the surveys it replaced these changes are summarised in the Technical annex at the end of this report

9 Information on the English Housing Survey can be accessed via this link wwwcommunitiesgovukhousinghousingresearchhousingsurveys

10 Information and past reports on the Survey of English Housing and the English House Condition Survey can also be accessed via this link

11 If you have any queries about this report or would like any further information please contact ehscommunitiesgsigovuk

8 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Key findings

bull There was a decrease in the number of owner occupied households from a peak of 148 million in 2005 and 2006 to 146 million in 2008-09 In contrast the number of households renting privately rose by one million since 2001 from 21 million to 31 million in 2008-09

bull Couples with no dependent children were the most common type of household (36) and the most common type of owner occupiers (42) in 2008-09 Amongst renters one-person households were the most common 41 of social renters and 30 of private renters

bull Over half (59) of all private renters expected to eventually buy a home in the UK compared to only around a quarter (27) of social renters Of those who did expect to buy 24 of private renters and 10 of social renters expected to buy within the next two years

bull Overcrowding was highest in the rented sectors 67 of social rented households and 54 of private rented households were overcrowded as measured by the bedroom standard In contrast only 16 of owner occupiers were overcrowded

bull The energy efficiency of homes continued to improve with the average SAP rating increasing from 42 to 51 between 1996 and 2008 Not only were social sector homes more energy efficient than those in the private sector (59 and 49 respectively) but they have seen greatest improvement since 1996 with the average SAP rating increasing from 47 to 59

bull A potentially serious (Category 1) hazard as measured under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System was present in around 48 million homes in 2008 22 of the housing stock

bull Some 74 million homes (33) were non-decent in 2008 Overall social sector homes were in a better condition than private sector homes with 27 being non-decent compared to 34

bull In 2008 31 million lsquovulnerablersquo householdsrsquo1 were living in the private sector of which 12 million (39) were living in non-decent homes the remaining 19 million (61) were living in decent accommodation

1 Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

Section 1 Households | 9

Section 1Households

11 Results for households (not in relation to the physical condition of the home) are presented for 2008-09 and are based on fieldwork carried out between April 2008 and March 2009 of a sample of 17691 households This is referred to as the lsquofull household samplersquo throughout the report

Trends in tenure

12 In 2008-09 there were an estimated 215 million households in England Owner occupation was the largest tenure accounting for 679 of all households but this has declined from a high of 709 in 2003 Social renting was the second largest tenure in 2008-09 representing 178 of all households this share having remained stable over recent years The smallest tenure private renting has seen a surge in the past few years It accounted for 142 of households in 2008-09 compared to a share of only 10 in 2001

13 Table 1 shows the number and proportion of households by tenure since 2001 with estimates prior to 2008-09 based on Labour Force Survey data Labour Force Survey data has been used for the main tenure estimates and trends in recent years in all Survey of English Housing (SEH) reports and Live Tables This was because the LFS had a much larger sample size than the SEH and this provided more robust overall estimates of households by tenure The EHS grossing methodology uses the LFS tenure distribution and therefore there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution

14 Despite the significant fall in owner occupation as a proportion of all households 679 the actual number of owner occupiers in England has declined only slightly from 148 million in 2005 to 146 million in 2008-09 The number of households renting privately has risen by around one million since 2001 from 21 million to 31 million

10 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 1 Trends in tenure 2001 to 2008-09 England

all households

owner occupiers

ownoutright

buying witha mortgage

all owner occupiers

social renters

private renters

all households

thousands of households2001 5885 8473 14358 3983 2062 204032002 6019 8540 14559 3972 2131 206622003 6158 8542 14701 3804 2234 207392004 6288 8389 14677 3797 2284 207582005 6352 8440 14791 3696 2445 209322006 6425 8365 14790 3736 2566 210922007 6505 8228 14733 3755 2691 211782008 6653 7975 14628 3797 2982 21407 2008-09 6770 7851 14621 3842 3067 21530

percentages2001 288 415 704 195 101 1002002 291 413 705 192 103 1002003 297 412 709 183 108 1002004 303 404 707 183 110 1002005 303 403 707 177 117 1002006 305 397 701 177 122 1002007 307 389 696 177 127 1002008 311 373 683 177 139 100 2008-09 314 365 679 178 142 100

Note data for years prior to 2001 can be found in table S101 wwwcommunitiesgovukdocumentshousingxls139262xls Tenure trends based on SEH annual data for 1993-94 to 2007-08 are available in Fifteen years of the Survey of English Housingwwwcommunitiesgovukdocumentsstatisticspdf1346239pdfSources2001 to 2008 ONS Labour Force Survey2008-09 English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

15 Figure 1 shows the trend in tenure back to 1980 Owner occupation rose steadily throughout the 1980s and at a lesser rate throughout the 1990s The level of private renting saw little change throughout the 1980s and early 1990s but has since increased to around 31 million in 2008-09 In 1980 54 million households were social renters but by 2008-09 this had decreased to 38 million

Section 1 Households | 11

Figure 1 Trend in tenure 1980 to 2008ndash09

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

2008

-09

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

1997

1996

1995

1994

1993

1992

1991

1990

1989

1988

1987

1986

1985

1984

1983

1982

1981

1980

owner occupierssocial rentersprivate renters

mill

ion

ho

use

ho

lds

Source 1980 to 2008 ONS Labour Force Survey 2008ndash09 English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Household type

16 Couples with no dependent children were the most common type of household in 2008-09 (36) These households were also the most common type of owner occupiers Amongst renters one-person households were the most common 41 of social renters and 30 of private renters Although only 7 of households overall were lone parents with dependent children there was a noticeable difference by tenure 17 of social renters 11 of private renters and 3 of owner occupiers (see Table 2)

12 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 2 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent child(ren)1

couple with dependent child(ren)1

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)1

other multi-

person households 1 male 1 female

all household

types

thousands of householdsown outright 3538 424 103 396 769 1541 6770buying with mortgage 2670 2971 405 402 791 612 7851all owner occupiers 6208 3395 508 798 1560 2153 14621 local authority 333 287 331 177 342 417 1887housing association 352 299 341 151 354 458 1955all social renters 685 587 672 328 696 875 3842 private renters 764 535 333 514 582 339 3067 all tenures 7657 4516 1514 1640 2838 3366 21530

percentagesown outright 52 6 2 6 11 23 100buying with mortgage 34 38 5 5 10 8 100all owner occupiers 42 23 3 5 11 15 100 local authority 18 15 18 9 18 22 100housing association 18 15 17 8 18 23 100all social renters 18 15 17 9 18 23 100 private renters 25 17 11 17 19 11 100 all tenures 36 21 7 8 13 16 100

Note 1) These categories can also include non-dependent childrenSource English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

17 Figure 2 shows each household type split by tenure An estimated 66 of couples with dependent children were buying with a mortgage 13 were social renters 12 were private renters and 9 owned outright The tenure split for lone parents with dependent children was quite different with only 27 buying with a mortgage whilst 44 were social renters 22 were private renters and 7 owned outright

Section 1 Households | 13

Figure 2 Household type by tenure 2008-09p

erce

nta

ge

private renterssocial rentersbuying with mortgageown outright

allhousehold

types

allone-personhouseholds

othermulti-personhouseholds

lone parentwith

dependentchild(ren)

couple withdependentchild(ren)

couple nodependentchild(ren)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sampleNote underlying data is presented in annex table 1

Economic status

18 In 2008-09 91 of household reference persons (HRP)2 who were buying with a mortgage were working 85 full-time and 6 part-time Around 60 of outright owners were retired compared to only 9 of private renters In the social rented sector over half the household reference persons were economically inactive with 31 retired and 26 lsquoother inactiversquo (such as long-term sickness or disability or lone parent)

2 see glossary for definition

14 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 3 Economic status of household reference person by tenure 2008-09

all households

economic status of HRP

full time work

part-time work

un-employed retired

other inactive all

thousands of householdsown outright 1777 570 54 4079 290 6770buying with mortgage 6679 470 101 312 290 7851all owner occupiers 8456 1040 155 4390 580 14621 local authority 444 203 172 566 503 1887housing association 489 182 152 643 488 1955all social renters 933 385 324 1209 991 3842 all private renters 1874 262 143 274 514 3067 all tenures 11263 1687 622 5873 2085 21530

percentagesown outright 26 8 1 60 4 100buying with mortgage 85 6 1 4 4 100all owner occupiers 58 7 1 30 4 100 local authority 24 11 9 30 27 100housing association 25 9 8 33 25 100all social renters 24 10 8 31 26 100 all private renters 61 9 5 9 17 100 all tenures 52 8 3 27 10 100Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

19 Table 3 shows the economic status of all householders Figure 3 shows the economic status of those of working age ndash men aged under 65 and women aged under 60 Within this group 94 of those buying with a mortgage were working compared to only 49 of those who were social renters Unemployment was highest in the social rented sector 12 compared to 5 of private renters and only 1 of owner occupiers

110 There was also a much higher proportion of lsquoother inactiversquo amongst working age social renters than those in other tenures 37 compared to 19 of private renters 10 of outright owners and 4 of mortgagors

Section 1 Households | 15

Figure 3 Economic status of working age HRPs 2008-09

other inactiveretiredunemployedworking

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

alltenures

privaterenters

socialrenters

buying withmortgage

ownoutright

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sampleNote underlying data is presented in annex table 2

Age of household reference person by tenure

111 Owner occupation is the most common tenure in England In 2008-09 there were 68 million households that owned outright and 78 million buying with a mortgage Around three-quarters of mortgagors were aged between 35 and 64 with only 3 aged 65 or over Outright owners the majority of whom were likely to have once had a mortgage and paid it off were concentrated in the older age groups 6 were aged under 45 Overall 32 of owner occupiers were in the 16 to 44 age range

112 Around half (51) of householders aged 25 to 34 were owners 17 were social renters and 31 were private renters Within the 35 to 44 age group the proportions of social and private renters were very similar 17 and 16 respectively and 67 of householders in this age group were owners

113 Over 80 of private renters were aged under 55 with only 8 aged 65 or over By contrast 28 of owner occupiers and 29 of social renters were aged 65 or over

16 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 4 Age of household reference person by tenure 2008-09

all households

age of HRP

16 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54 55 - 64 65 or over all ages

thousands of householdsown outright 9 87 329 759 1752 3833 6770buying with mortgage 114 1562 2619 2237 1071 249 7851all owner occupiers 123 1649 2948 2996 2823 4082 14621 local authority 123 306 373 318 244 523 1887housing association 112 254 385 349 256 599 1955all social renters 235 560 757 667 501 1122 3842 private renters 497 995 686 380 252 257 3067 all tenures 855 3203 4392 4043 3576 5461 21530

percentage within tenureown outright 0 1 5 11 26 57 100buying with mortgage 1 20 33 28 14 3 100all owner occupiers 1 11 20 20 19 28 100 local authority 7 16 20 17 13 28 100housing association 6 13 20 18 13 31 100all social renters 6 15 20 17 13 29 100 private renters 16 32 22 12 8 8 100 all tenures 4 15 20 19 17 25 100

percentage within age groupown outright 1 3 7 19 49 70 31buying with mortgage 13 49 60 55 30 5 36all owner occupiers 14 51 67 74 79 75 68 local authority 14 10 8 8 7 10 9housing association 13 8 9 9 7 11 9all social renters 27 17 17 17 14 21 18 private renters 58 31 16 9 7 5 14 all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Section 1 Households | 17

Figure 4 Age of household reference person by tenure 2008ndash09

per

cen

tage

private renterssocial rentersbuying with mortgageown outright

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

65 or over 55ndash64 45ndash54 35ndash44

age of HRP

25ndash34 16ndash24

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Buying expectations of renters

114 In 2008-09 27 of social renters expected to eventually become homeowners compared to 59 of private renters Of those who did expect to buy 44 of social renters expected to buy their current accommodation compared to only 13 of private renters

18 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 5 Buying aspirations of social and private renters 2008-09

all renters

social renters private renters

percentagesWill eventually buy or share home in UK yes 27 59no 73 41All 100 100

Expect to buy current accommodation (all who expect to buy) yes 44 13no 56 87All 100 100

When expect to buy (all who expect to buy) Less than a yearrsquos time 3 81 year but less than 2 years 7 162 years but less than 5 years 25 345 years or more 65 42All 100 100

Note Expectations to buy include shared ownershipSource English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

115 An estimated 24 of private renters expecting to buy (14 of all private renters) thought that they would buy within the next two years This proportion had fallen from 34 in 2006-07 (see Figure 5) whilst the proportion expecting to buy in five or more yearsrsquo time had risen from 35 to 42 over this period These changes suggest that private renters now expect to rent for longer before being in a position to buy perhaps due to affordability issues

Figure 5 Trend in expected time to buying ndash private renters expecting to buy eventually

per

cen

tage

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

2008-09 2007-082006-07

5 years or more2 years but less than 5lt2 years

Note based on those private renters who expect to buy eventuallySource English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Section 1 Households | 19

Overcrowding and under-occupation

116 Levels of overcrowding are measured using the ldquobedroom standardrdquo (see definition in Glossary) Essentially this is the difference between the number of bedrooms needed to avoid undesirable sharing (given the number and ages of household members and their relationships to each other) and the number of bedrooms actually available to the household

117 The previous estimates of overcrowding were based on three-year moving averages from the Survey of English Housing for 2005-06 2006-07 and 2007-08 The reason for having to base estimates on a three-year average was that with fewer than 3 per cent of households overcrowded the sample size for a single year was too small to provide reliable annual estimates However for 2008-09 in addition to the EHS sample of 17700 households we have information from a further 95000 households that were interviewed for the ONS Labour Force Survey This combined sample was sufficiently large to deliver robust single year estimates for 2008-09 without the need to carry forward the three-year average series

Table 6 Overcrowding and under-occupation by tenure 2008-09

all households

difference from bedroom standard

overcrowded at standardone above

standardunder-

occupied total

thousands of householdsowner occupiers 231 2117 5416 6855 14620

social renters 258 2032 1121 430 3841

private renters 164 1312 1095 494 3066

all tenures 654 5462 7633 7779 21527

percentagesowner occupiers 16 145 370 469 100

social renters 67 529 292 112 100

private renters 54 428 357 161 100

all tenures 30 254 355 361 100

Notes Details of the bedroom standard can be found in the GlossarySource English Housing Survey - full household sample and ONS Labour Force Survey

118 The overall rate of overcrowding in England for 2008-09 was 30 (see Table 6) This compares to the previously published estimate of 28 (averaged over the period 2005-06 to 2007-08) There were around 654000 overcrowded households (compared to an average of 570000 over the period 2005-06 to 2007-08) Levels of overcrowding varied considerably by tenure and were lowest in the owner occupied sector at 16 up from 14 for the period 2005-06 to 2007-08 Around 67 of social renters were overcrowded and 54 of private renters compared to 59 and 49 respectively for 2005-06 to 2007-08

20 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

119 Although the overall rate of overcrowding has shown little change in recent years this is largely due to the relatively stable rate of overcrowding in the owner occupied sector the largest tenure Over the past decade overcrowding has been rising in both the rented sectors

Figure 6 Trend in overcrowding rates by tenure 1995-96 to 2008-09 (3 year moving average)

private renters social rentersowner occupiers all tenures

per

cen

tage

of

ho

use

ho

lds

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

2008

-09

2007

-08

2006

-07

2005

-06

2004

-05

2003

-04

2002

-03

2001

-02

2000

-01

1999

-00

1998

-99

1997

-98

1996

-97

1995

-96

Source Survey of English Housing to 2007-08 and combined English Housing Survey (full sample) plus Labour Force Survey for 2008-09 The estimates up to 2007-08 are three-year moving averages so the ldquo2007-08rdquo figure is actually the average of 2005-06 2006-07 and 2007-08 Since the 2008-09 estimates are for that year only a gap has been introduced to separate the three-year averages to 2007-08 from the annual estimates for 2008-09

120 Around 78 million households were estimated to be under-occupying their accommodation in 2008-09 that is they had at least two bedrooms more than they needed (see definition of bedroom standard in Glossary) Under-occupation was far more likely to be found in the owner occupied sector than in the rented sectors 47 of owner occupiers were under-occupying accommodation compared to 11 of social renters and 16 of private renters

Recent movers

121 In this section we look at those households that had been in their current accommodation for less than 12 months at the time of interview

Section 1 Households | 21

Table 7 Previous tenure by current tenure 2008-09

HRPs resident less than a year

previous tenure ndash continuing households

current tenurenew

householdowner

occupierssocial

rentersprivate renters all tenures

thousands of householdsoutright owners 4 83 0 12 99buying with mortgage 68 204 13 131 416all owner occupiers 72 287 13 144 515

local authority 20 13 76 20 129housing association 24 9 105 38 177all social renters 44 23 181 58 306

private renters 229 141 47 686 1103

all tenures 345 450 241 887 1924

percentageoutright owners 4 84 0 13 100buying with mortgage 16 49 3 32 100all owner occupiers 14 56 3 28 100

local authority 15 10 59 15 100housing association 14 5 59 22 100all social renters 15 7 59 19 100

private renters 21 13 4 62 100

all tenures 18 23 13 46 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

122 Around 18 of households that had moved into their accommodation in the previous year were new households Two thirds (66) of these new households were private renters and around one fifth (21) were owner occupiers Movement within tenure was more common than moves between tenures 62 of current private renters had previously been private renters 59 of social renters had moved from another social rented property and 56 of owner occupiers had owned their previous property Movement into the social rented sector for continuing households was more likely to be from private renting (19 of current social renters) than from owner occupation (7)

22 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Attitudes to home and local area

123 Around 90 of households in England were satisfied with their accommodation in 2008-09 The highest levels of satisfaction were expressed by outright owners 73 of whom said that they were very satisfied with their homes Over three quarters of social renters were satisfied with their homes but 9 were slightly dissatisfied and 7 were very dissatisfied Around 82 of private renters were very or fairly satisfied with their accommodation and only 3 said they were very dissatisfied

Table 8 Satisfaction with accommodation by tenure 2008-09

all households

very satisfied

fairly satisfied

neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

slightly dissatisfied

very dissatisfied Total

thousands of householdsoutright owners 4926 1535 111 100 36 6709buying with mortgage 4604 2719 232 200 55 7810all owneroccupiers 9530 4254 343 300 91 14519

local authority 697 736 98 192 142 1866housing association 842 700 116 159 117 1935all social renters 1539 1437 214 351 260 3801

private renters 1240 1211 193 227 102 2972

all tenures 12309 6901 751 878 452 21291

percentagesoutright owners 73 23 2 1 1 100buying with mortgage 59 35 3 3 1 100all owneroccupiers 66 29 2 2 1 100

local authority 37 39 5 10 8 100housing association 44 36 6 8 6 100all social renters 40 38 6 9 7 100

private renters 42 41 6 8 3 100

all tenures 58 32 4 4 2 100

Note This question is not asked of proxy respondents and a small proportion of respondents chose not to answer These exclusions are reflected in the overall total number of households in this table Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

124 A large majority of households are satisfied with the local area in which they live In 2008-09 just over half of all households in England were very satisfied with their local area and 87 were very or fairly satisfied Only 3 of households were very dissatisfied with their local area

Section 1 Households | 23

125 There were some differences by tenure 89 of owner occupiers were satisfied with their local area compared to 79 of social renters and 85 of private renters Whilst only two per cent of owner occupiers and private renters said that they were very dissatisfied with their local area seven per cent of social renters were very dissatisfied

Table 9 Satisfaction with local area by tenure 2008-09

all households

very satisfied

fairly satisfied

neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

slightly dissatisfied

very dissatisfied Total

thousands of householdsoutright owners 3999 2093 180 322 114 6708buying with mortgage 3919 2973 371 420 127 7810all owners 7918 5066 552 742 241 14518

local authority 754 712 122 159 122 1867housing association 861 679 116 150 129 1936all social renters 1615 1391 238 309 251 3803

private renters 1520 1001 183 194 73 2972

all tenures 11052 7458 972 1245 565 21293

percentagesoutright owners 60 31 3 5 2 100buying with mortgage 50 38 5 5 2 100all owners 55 35 4 5 2 100

local authority 40 38 7 9 7 100housing association 44 35 6 8 7 100all social renters 42 37 6 8 7 100

private renters 51 34 6 7 2 100

all tenures 52 35 5 6 3 100

Note This question is not asked of proxy respondents and a small proportion of respondents chose not to answer These exclusions are reflected in the overall total number of households in this table Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

24 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Section 2Housing stock

21 Results relating to the housing stock in this report are presented using two yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the English House Condition Survey (EHCS) For this transition year data from the last full year of the EHCS (2007-08) were combined with the first year of the EHS (2008-09)

22 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Stock profile

23 There were around 222 million dwellings in 2008 Table 10 Of these 183 million (82 of the stock) were in the private sector and comprised 150 million owner occupied homes and 33 million private rented homes There were 39 million social sector homes (18 of the stock) of which two million were owned by local authority and two million by housing associations

Section 2 Housing stock | 25

Table 10 Stock profile 2008

all dwellings

private sector social sector

owner occupied

private rented

all private sector

local authority

housing association

all social sector

all dwellings

in group

thousands of dwellingsdwelling agepre 1919 3194 1309 4503 86 170 257 47601919-44 2689 431 3120 336 187 522 36421945-64 2708 384 3092 760 511 1271 43631965-80 3146 536 3682 665 467 1132 48141981-90 1401 222 1624 107 223 330 1953post 1990 1869 415 2284 30 394 424 2708

dwelling typemid terrace 2638 820 3459 325 367 693 4151end terrance 1440 340 1779 199 222 421 2201small terraced house 1216 548 1764 192 217 408 2172mediumlarge terraced house 2862 612 3475 333 373 705 4180all terrace 4078 1160 5238 524 589 1114 6352semi-detached house 4515 556 5070 365 351 716 5786detached house 3575 267 3843 5 18 24 3867bungalow 1548 133 1681 176 236 412 2092converted flat 284 427 712 38 75 113 825purpose built flat low rise 926 704 1630 724 626 1349 2979purpose built flat high rise 81 49 130 152 56 208 338

floor arealess than 50 sqm 742 652 1394 550 536 1086 248050 to 69 sqm 2913 1028 3942 725 680 1405 534770 to 89 sqm 4361 890 5251 575 553 1127 637990 to 109 sqm 2632 322 2954 102 132 234 3188110 sqm or more 4359 403 4763 32 52 83 4846

type of areacity centre 295 262 558 72 75 147 704other urban centre 2263 967 3230 538 458 996 4227suburban residential 9204 1581 10785 1236 1171 2407 13192rural residential 2074 233 2307 105 190 295 2601village centre 647 110 756 26 47 72 829rural 524 144 668 7 11 19 687

deprived local areasmost deprived 10 773 325 1097 595 468 1064 21612-5th 5331 1518 6849 1121 1025 2145 89956-9th 7072 1188 8260 249 423 672 8932least deprived 1832 266 2097 19 36 54 2152

occupancy statusoccupied 14610 2858 17468 1896 1860 3755 21223vacant 398 438 836 88 92 180 1016

Total 15007 3296 18304 1984 1951 3935 22239

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

26 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

24 The large majority of dwellings were houses (181 million) most commonly terraced or semi-detached The remainder of the stock 41 million consisited of flats predominately purpose built low rise flats However types of housing vary markedly between tenures While 91 of owner occupied housing was made up of houses almost half (46) of local authority homes were flats Figure 7 Flats also accounted for over a third of private rented homes and housing association homes (36 and 39 respectively)

Figure 7 Dwelling type by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

purpose built flat high risepurpose built flat low riseconverted flatdetached houses and bungalowssemi-detached housemediumlarge terraced housesmall terraced house

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

25 England has a relatively old housing stock with some 84 million homes built before 1945 of which 48 million were built before 1919 A fifth of homes (47 million) have been built since 1980

26 Stock in different tenures have different age profiles It is noticeable that owner occupied homes are evenly distributed across the five age bands compared with other tenures Figure 8 In the private rented sector for example 40 (13 million homes) were built before 1919 significantly higher than other tenures Housing association homes were more likely to have been built during the 1980s and 1990s (32) compared to only 7 of local authority homes

Section 2 Housing stock | 27

Figure 8 Age of housing stock by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

post 19901981-901965-801945-641919-44pre 1919

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

27 Some 44 million (29) of owner occupied homes had a floor area greater than 110m2 including 18 million (12 of the sector) which were over 150m2 This reflects the proportion of semi-detached and detached owner occupied homes which tend to be large Social sector homes were most likely to have a floor area of less than 50m2 compared with those in the private sector (28 and 8 respectively)

28 Homes in England were most likely to be located in suburban residential areas and least likely to be found in rural areas (59 and 3 respectively)

Energy efficiency of the housing stock

Heating and insulation29 Key ways of increasing the energy efficiency of existing homes are

improvements to their heating systems and levels of insulation For heating the type of heating system boiler in use and the fuel used are all related to energy performance

210 Central heating is the predominant main heating system present in 199 million homes (89 of the housing stock) in 2008 see Annex Table 3 This was followed by storage heaters present in 16 million (7) of homes and room heaters in 700000 homes (3) Central heating is generally considered to be the most cost effective and relatively efficient method of heating whereas room heaters tend to be the least cost effective and relatively inefficient method of heating

28 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

211 In 2008 92 of owner occupied homes had central heating systems compared to 88 of social and 80 of private rented homes see Annex Table 4 In part this reflects the higher proportion of flats in the rented sectors compared with owner occupation with 23 of flats using storage heaters

212 Condensing boilers are generally the most efficient boiler type and are now mandatory for new and replacement boilers (for gas fired boilers since 2005 for oil fired boilers since 2007) However even prior to these requirements the less efficient standard and back boilers were decreasing in use with the growing popularity of standard combination types Figure 9 Recent years have seen rapidly expanding take up of condensing and particularly combination condensing boilers In 2008 37 million homes (17 of the stock) had one of the two types of condensing boilers

Figure 9 Boiler types 1996-2008

no boiler

condensing-combination boiler condensing boilercombination boilerback boiler (to fire or stove)standard boiler (floor or wall)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

20082007200620052004200320011996

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes underpinning data is presented in Annex Table 5Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

213 For a home to provide optimum energy performance a high level of thermal insulation needs to be present alongside an efficient heating system Standard insulation measures include cavity wall insulation loft insulation and double glazing which have all improved in the stock since 1996 Figure 10

214 In 2008 155 million homes (70) had external walls of cavity construction 74 million homes (33 of the stock) had cavity wall insulation 47 million homes (21) had 200mm or more of loft insulation and 157 million homes (71) had full double glazing with an additional 29 million homes (13) having more than half double glazed Figure 10

Section 2 Housing stock | 29

Figure 10 Insulation measures 1996-2008

20082007200620052004200320011996

entire housedouble glazing

200mm or moreof loft insulation

cavity walls withinsulation

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes1) Only 89 of dwellings have lofts and 70 of dwellings have cavity walls2) Underpinning data is presented in annex Table 7Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

215 In 2008 the social rented sector had the greatest proportion of homes with cavity wall insulation (local authority 42 housing association 44) 200mm or more of loft insulation (local authority 24 housing association 29) and full double glazing (local authority 75 housing association 83) whereas the private rented sector had the lowest proportion of all three standard insulation measures cavity wall insulation (17) 200mm or more of loft insulation (13) and full double glazing (61) Figure 11

30 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Figure 11 Percentage of dwellings with efficient insulation measures by tenure 2008

full double glazing200mm or moreloft insulation

cavity withinsulation

cavity wall

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

housing associationlocal authorityprivate rentedowner occupied0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Base all dwellingsSource English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

SAP Rating

216 The energy efficiency of the housing stock continued to improve between 1996 and 2008 the average SAP rating of a home increased by 9 SAP points from 42 to 51 Table 11 The social sector was on average more energy efficient than the private sector and saw the greatest improvement with the average SAP rating increasing by 12 SAP points from 47 to 59

Table 11 Energy efficiency average SAP rating by tenure 2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

owner occupied 411 444 450 456 461 469 481 496private rented 379 419 444 457 460 466 481 502all private 407 441 449 456 461 468 481 497

local authority 457 496 520 539 553 558 562 580housing association 509 564 567 573 589 593 595 603all social 468 519 539 553 569 574 578 592

all tenures 421 457 466 474 481 487 498 514

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Section 2 Housing stock | 31

217 There has been a significant increase in the proportion of homes achieving the highest Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands in 2008 10 (23 million) of homes achieved the highest (EER) Bands A to C3 compared with 7 (16 million) in 2006 Table 12 The number of homes in the lowest EER Bands (F and G) fell by a million over the same period The majority of homes (73) continue to be in the EER Bands D or E

Table 12 Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 35 35 77Band C (69-80) 1545 1710 2229Band D (55-68) 6555 7316 7865Band E (39-54) 9072 8859 8310Band F (21-38) 3838 3389 2972Band G (1-20) 943 881 786Total 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 02 02 03Band C (69-80) 70 77 100Band D (55-68) 298 330 354Band E (39-54) 413 399 374Band F (21-38) 175 153 134Band G (1-20) 43 40 35Total 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 2006 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Housing health and safety rating system

218 A potentially serious (Category 1) hazard as measured under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System was present in around 48 million homes in 2008 22 of the housing stock

2 EER Bands are used in the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) The Certificate provides among other indicators an energy efficiency rating for the home on a scale from A-G (where A is the most efficient and G the least efficient)

32 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Housing conditions

Housing Health and Safety Rating System219 There was no significant change in the proportion of homes with any Category

1 hazard between 2006 and 2008 Hazards tend to be more common in older housing stock for example stairs are more likely to be steep and narrow in older housing making lsquofalls on stairsrsquo more likely or heating and insulation measures tend to be less effective in older stock making lsquoexcess coldrsquo a more serious hazard Therefore it is not surprising that hazards are more common in the private sector where the older housing stock is concentrated Almost a quarter of housing in the private sector had at least one category 1 hazard in 2008 (24) compared to around 13 in the social sector Table 14 Privately rented homes were most likely to have Category 1 hazards present compared to housing association homes (31 and 13 respectively)

220 The most common type of hazard in all four tenures was falls (see annex Table 10 for details of which hazards are included in this category) Overall 13 of homes have at least one type of falls hazard present

Decent homes221 In 2008 74 million homes (33) were non-decent4 Table 13 Housing

association housing was the least likely to be non-decent (23) while private rented housing was in the worst condition with 44 of homes being non-decent Overall social sector homes were in a better condition than private sector homes with 27 being non-decent compared to 34

222 The number of non-decent homes fell from 77 million in 2006 to 74 million in 20085 Conditions in the social sector improved with the proportion of homes failing the standard falling by two percentage points from 29 in 2006 to 27 in 2008 Private sector homes also improved from 36 non-decent in 2006 to 34 non-decent in 2008

4 Estimates from the EHS are based soley on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors subject to any limitations of the information they collect The EHS estimates in this report do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property

5 In 2006 the Housing Health and Safety Rating System replaced the Fitness Standard as the statutory minimum standard for housing Earlier estimates based on the original definition are not comparable therefore any change in the number of decent homes can only be referenced back to 2006 Figures for decent homes prior to 2006 can be found in the 2006 English House Condition Survey Annual Report available at wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

Section 2 Housing stock | 33

Table 13 Non-decent homes by tenure 2006 ndash 2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5335 5304 4842private rented 1223 1244 1449all private 6558 6548 6291

local authority 676 652 625housing association 465 486 444all social 1142 1138 1069

all tenures 7700 7686 7360

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 346 341 323private rented 468 454 440all private 363 358 344

local authority 324 328 315housing association 252 255 228all social 290 292 272

all tenures 350 346 331

Notes1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties between 2007 and 2008 are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates See Annex Table 11Sources2006 ndash 2007 English House Condition Survey2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Reasons for failing decent homes223 Of the four components required to meet the decent homes standard the

presence of one or more category 1 hazards under the HHSRS was the most commonly failed Table 14 This is particularly the case for private sector homes where 24 of homes had one or more Category 1 hazards present compared to 13 of social sector homes

34 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 14 Homes failing decent homes criteria by tenure 2008

all dwellings

Category 1 hazard (HHSRS)

thermal comfort

modern facilities repair all non-decent

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 3342 1773 379 817 4842private rented 978 637 160 369 1449all private 4320 2411 539 1186 6291

local authority 298 227 138 146 625housing association 224 199 50 86 444all social 522 426 188 231 1069

all tenures 4842 2837 727 1417 7360

percentages

owner occupied 223 118 25 54 323private rented 297 193 49 112 440all private 236 132 29 65 344

local authority 150 115 70 74 315housing association 115 102 25 44 228all social 133 108 48 59 272

all tenures 218 128 33 64 331

Note The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoids a break in the time series See Annex Table 12 for estimate based on 26 hazardsSource English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

224 There was significant progress in the thermal comfort of homes between 2006 and 2008 The proportion of homes failing thermal comfort fell to 13 in 2008 from 16 in 2006 Improvement has been made across all tenures

Private sector vulnerable households225 In 2008 31 million lsquovulnerablersquo households6 were living in the private sector of

which 12 million (39) were living in non-decent homes the remaining 19 million (61) were living in decent accommodation Table 15 There has been no significant change since 2006

226 Vulnerable households who privately rent their accommodation were more likely to live in non-decent homes compared to social tenants (51 and 26 respectively) Table 15

6 Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

Section 2 Housing stock | 35

Table 15 Households living in decent homes 2006-2008

all dwellings

number (000s) percentage ()

2006 2007 2008 2006 2007 2008

decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 1543 1575 1428 630 649 653private rented 334 354 429 450 482 490all private vulnerable 1877 1929 1857 588 610 606

private non- vulnerableowner occupied 8418 8531 8494 664 667 683private rented 922 985 1246 567 566 588all private non-vulnerable 9340 9516 9740 653 655 669

all owner occupied 9961 10106 9922 658 664 678all private rented 1256 1339 1675 530 541 559all private 11217 11445 11597 641 647 658all social 2690 2649 2798 722 719 740all households 13907 14094 14395 655 659 672

non-decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 905 851 760 370 351 347private rented 408 380 447 550 518 510all private vulnerable 1313 1231 1207 412 390 394

private non-vulnerableowner occupied 4262 4264 3946 336 333 317private rented 704 754 874 433 434 412all private non-vulnerable 4966 5018 4820 347 345 331

all owner occupied 5167 5115 4706 342 336 322all private rented 1112 1134 1321 470 459 441all private 6279 6249 6027 359 353 342

all social 1034 1037 985 278 281 260all households 7313 7286 7012 345 341 328

Notes 1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoid a break in the time series See Annex Table 13 for further detailsSource English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

36 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Damp and mould growth227 The proportion of homes with damp problems has reduced from 13 in 1996

to 8 in 2008 Table 16

Table 16 Number and percentage of homes with damp problems in one or more rooms 1996-2008

all dwellings

rising damp

penetrating damp

condensation mould

any damp problems

thousands of dwellings1996 858 1271 1145 26012001 625 1032 860 20322003 740 1066 1003 22832004 750 1035 951 22512005 759 952 941 22102006 724 886 947 21582007 640 833 881 19162008 584 759 865 1746

percentage of dwellings1996 42 63 56 1282001 29 49 41 962003 34 50 47 1062004 35 48 44 1042005 35 44 43 1012006 33 40 43 982007 29 38 40 862008 26 34 39 78

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

228 Privately rented homes were more likely to experience damp problems compared to other tenures Figure 11 Privately rented homes were more likely to be older homes and experience problems with rising or penetrating damp due to defects in the damp proof course roof covering gutters and down pipes which would affect at least one room in the property

229 In the social sector damp problems were more likely to be caused by serious condensation and mould growth rather than by rising damp Figure 12

Section 2 Housing stock | 37

Figure 12 Percentage of homes with a damp problem by tenure 2008

rising damp penetrating damp condensationmould

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

alltenures

housingassociation

localauthority

privaterented

owneroccupied

per

cen

tage

of

ho

mes

wit

h d

amp

pro

ble

ms

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

38 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex tables

Households

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

Annex Table 2 Economic Status of working age HRP by tenure 2008-09

Energy efficiency

Annex Table 3 Heating Type 1996-2008

Annex Table 4 Main Heating System by tenure 2008

Annex Table 5 Boiler Types 1996-2008

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

Annex Table 8 Cavity Wall insulation by tenure 2008

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

Housing Health and Safety Rating System

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 HHSRS hazards present (comparison of estimates based on any one of 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Non-decent homes in deprived areas

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes in deprived areas by tenure 2006-2008

Annex tables | 39

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent

child(ren)

couple with dependent

child(ren)

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)

other multi-

person households

all one-person

households

all household

types

percentageown outright 46 9 7 24 37 31buying with mortgage 35 66 27 25 23 36social renters 9 13 44 20 25 18private renters 10 12 22 31 15 14

all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 2 Economic status of working age HRP by tenure

all households

working un-employed retired other inactive Total percentage

own outright 74 2 14 10 100buying with mortgage 94 1 1 4 100social renters 49 12 1 37 100private renters 75 5 1 19 100all tenures 80 4 3 13 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 3 Heating type 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingscentral heating 16178 18177 18604 18919 19179 19553 19862 19862storage heater 1643 1600 1587 1616 1609 1532 1552 1641fixed roomportable heater 2515 2001 1294 1078 993 904 776 736Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingscentral heating 796 860 866 875 881 889 895 893storage heater 81 76 74 75 74 70 70 74fixed roomportable heating heater 124 95 60 50 46 41 35 33Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

40 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 4 Main heating system by tenure 2008

all dwellings

central heating storage heaterfixed room

heatingportable

heating only all dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 13788 790 411 19 15007 private rented 2630 441 208 17 3296 all private 16418 1232 619 36 18304

local authority 1776 160 46 2 1984 housing association 1669 249 33 1 1951 all social 3445 409 79 3 3935

all tenures 19862 1641 698 38 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 919 53 27 01 1000 private rented 798 134 63 05 1000 all private 897 67 34 02 1000

local authority 895 80 23 01 1000 housing association 855 128 17 00 1000 all social 875 104 20 01 1000

all tenures 893 74 31 02 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 5 Boiler types 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsstandard boiler 10447 10338 9642 9635 9425 9014 8782 8072back boiler 2773 2759 2580 2409 2181 2131 1944 1688combination boiler 2810 4431 5492 5934 6254 6312 6287 6082condensing boiler ndash 155 154 202 300 460 698 948condensing-combination boiler ndash 318 373 417 727 1297 1837 2773no boiler 4305 3140 3244 3016 2894 2775 2642 2676Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsstandard boiler 514 489 449 446 433 410 396 363back boiler 136 130 120 111 100 97 88 76combination boiler 138 210 256 275 287 287 283 273condensing boiler 00 07 07 09 14 21 31 43condensing-combination boiler 00 15 17 19 33 59 83 125no boiler 212 149 151 140 133 126 119 120Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 41

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

all dwellings

standard boiler

back boiler

combination boiler

condensing boiler

condensing-combination

boilerno

boilerall

dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 6223 1045 3984 713 1756 1286 15007 private rented 817 149 1112 73 429 716 3296 all private 7040 1194 5096 787 2185 2002 18304

local authority 499 271 481 90 335 309 1984 housing association 533 223 505 72 254 365 1951 all social 1032 494 986 162 589 674 3935

all 8072 1688 6082 948 2773 2676 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 415 70 265 48 117 86 1000 private rented 248 45 337 22 130 217 1000 all private 385 65 278 43 119 109 1000

local authority 251 136 242 45 169 156 1000 housing association 273 114 259 37 130 187 1000 all social 262 125 250 41 150 171 1000

all 363 76 273 43 125 120 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 2853 5210 5334 5825 5974 6644 7267 7418200mm or more of loft insulation 583 1256 2034 2530 2919 3520 4258 4685entire house double glazing 6169 10753 11915 12846 13486 13924 14850 15747

all dwellings 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 140 246 248 270 274 302 327 334200mm or more of loft insulation 29 59 95 117 134 160 192 211entire house double glazing 303 509 555 594 619 633 669 708

all dwellings 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

42 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 8 Cavity wall insulation by tenure

all dwellings

cavity with insulation

cavity uninsulated other all

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5161 5483 4364 15007private rented 566 1213 1517 3296private 5727 6696 5882 18304

local authority 834 657 493 1984housing association 857 720 374 1951social 1691 1378 867 3935

total 7418 8073 6749 22239

percentage of dwellingsowner occupied 344 365 291 100private rented 172 368 460 100private 313 366 321 100

local authority 420 331 248 100housing association 439 369 192 100social 430 350 220 100

total 334 363 303 100

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 43

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

all dwellings

no loftno

insulationless than

50mm50 up to

99mm

100 up to

149mm

150 up to

199mm200mm or more

all dwellings

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 748 442 432 3009 5147 2007 3223 15007 private rented 672 175 66 857 813 281 434 3296 private 1420 617 497 3866 5960 2288 3657 18304

local authority 614 33 19 171 471 206 470 1984 housing association 467 20 16 143 482 265 558 1951 social 1081 53 35 314 953 471 1028 3935

total 2501 670 532 4179 6913 2759 4685 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 50 29 29 200 343 134 215 1000private rented 204 53 20 260 247 85 132 1000private 78 34 27 211 326 125 200 1000

local authority 309 17 10 86 237 104 237 1000housing association 239 10 08 73 247 136 286 1000social 275 14 09 80 242 120 261 1000

total 112 30 24 188 311 124 211 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

44 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

hazard presentnumber of homes (000s) each hazard is present in

falling on stairs 2025excess cold 1966falling on level surfaces 788falling between levels 443fire 318

entry by intruders

flames hot surfacesleaddamp and mould growth 50 to 100 eachcollision and entrapmentradiationfalls associated with baths

crowding and space

food safetypersonal hygiene sanitation and drainage 20 to 50 eachnoisedomestic hygiene pests and refuseelectrical hazards

structural collapse and falling elements

water supplycarbon monoxide and fuel combustion productsposition and operability of amenities less thanexcess heat 20 eachlightinguncombusted fuel gasexplosions

any of the 15 hazards 4842

any of the 26 hazards 5039

Note For 2006 and 2007 the survey reported on 15 hazards only The 2008 EHS can provide estimates for 26 hazards - the additional hazards are marked with an asterisk The three remaining hazards not included in the survey are presence of asbestos biocides or volatile organic compounds For reporting purposes HHSRS and non-decent estimates will be based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with previous years and avoid a break in the time seriesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 45

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 4842 4925private rented 1449 1478all private 6291 6403

local authority 625 640housing association 444 464all social 1069 1104

all tenures 7360 7507

percentagesowner occupied 323 328private rented 440 448all private 344 350

local authority 315 323housing association 228 238all social 272 281

all tenures 331 338

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

46 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 hazards present (compariosn of estimates based on any one to the 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 3342 3452private rented 978 1013all private 4320 4465

local authority 298 326RSL 224 248all social 522 574

all tenures 4842 5039

percentagesowner occupied 223 230private rented 297 307all private 236 244

local authority 150 164RSL 115 127all social 133 146

all tenures 218 227

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 47

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all households

15 hazards 26 hazards

number (000s) percentage () number (000s) percentage ()

decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 1428 653 1413 646private rented 429 490 417 476all private vulnerable 1857 606 1830 597 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 8494 683 8425 677private rented 1246 588 1232 581all private non-vulnerable 9740 669 9657 663 all owner occupied 9922 678 9839 673all private rented 1675 559 1648 550all private 11597 658 11487 663all social 2798 740 2766 731

all households 14395 672 14253 666

non-decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 760 347 775 354private rented 447 510 459 524all private vulnerable 1207 394 1234 403 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 3946 317 4015 323private rented 874 412 888 419all private non-vulnerable 4820 331 4903 337 all owner occupied 4706 322 4790 327all private rented 1321 441 1347 450all private 6027 342 6137 348all social 985 260 1017 269

all households 7012 328 7154 334

Note For reporting purposes decent homes estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

48 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes1 by deprived and other districts by tenure 2006-2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsSocial NRF88 662 652 605Other districts 480 486 464 Private NRF88 2544 2621 2442Other districts 4013 3928 3849

percentages of dwellingsSocial NRF88 313 304 278Other districts 264 278 263 Private NRF88 381 380 361Other districts 353 344 333

Note NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving Neighbourhood Renewal Funding 2001-2006Source English House Condition Survey 2006-2007English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub sample)

Technical annex | 49

Technical annex

General description

The survey consists of three main elements an initial interview survey of 17700 households with a follow up physical inspection and a desk based market valuation of a sub-sample of 8000 of these dwellings including vacant dwellings The interview survey sample forms part of ONSrsquos Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the core questions from the IHS form part of the EHS questionnaire More information about the IHS is available from its webpage wwwstatisticsgovukCCInuggetaspID=936ampPos=1ampColRank=1ampRank=224

The EHS interview content covers the key topics included under the former SEH and EHCS The content of the physical and market value components remains very largely unchanged from the former EHCS

Sampling and grossing

2008-09 Sample1 The initial sample for 2008-09 consisted of 32100 addresses drawn as a systematic

random sample from the Postcode Address File (small users) Interviews were attempted at all of these addresses over the course of the survey year from April 2008 to March 2009 A proportion of addresses were found not to be valid residential properties (eg demolished properties secondholiday homes small businesses not yet built)

2 Of the 17691 addresses where interviews were achieved (the lsquofull household samplersquo) all social rented properties and a sub-sample of private properties were regarded as eligible for the physical survey and the respondentrsquos consent was sought A proportion of vacant properties were also sub-sampled Physical surveys were completed in 7972 cases and these cases contribute to the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo (see below)

3 The principal differences in sampling methodology between the EHS and its predecessors the SEH and EHCS are that

bull The EHS uses an unclustered sample This enables a smaller sample to be used with no loss of precision ie without sampling errors being increased The more scattered sample does however have some implications for fieldwork organisation

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 2: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

February 2010Department for Communities and Local Government

English Housing Survey

Headline Report 2008-09

Communities and Local Government Eland HouseBressenden PlaceLondon SW1E 5DUTelephone 020 7944 4400Website wwwcommunitiesgovuk

copy Crown Copyright 2010

Copyright in the typographical arrangement rests with the CrownThis publication excluding logos may be reproduced free of charge in any format or medium for research private study or for internal circulation within an organisation This is subject to it being reproduced accurately and not used in a misleading context The material must be acknowledged as Crown copyright and the title of the publication specified

Any other use of the contents of this publication would require a copyright licence Please apply for a Click-Use Licence for core material at wwwopsigovukclick-usesystemonlinepLoginasp or by writing to the Office of Public Sector Information Information Policy Team Kew Richmond Surrey TW9 4DU

e-mail licensingopsigovuk

If you require this publication in an alternative format please email alternativeformatscommunitiesgsigovukCommunities and Local Government PublicationsTel 0300 123 1124Fax 0300 123 1125

Email productcommunitiesgsigovuk

Online via the Communities and Local Government website wwwcommunitiesgovuk

75February 2010

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

| 3

Contents

Acknowledgements 5

Introduction 6

Key findings 8

Section 1 Households 9

Section 2 Housing stock 24

Annex tables 38

Technical annex 49

Glossary 54

Acknowledgements | 5

Acknowledgements

The launch of the English Housing Survey (EHS) has been dependent on a number of people and organisations involved in the initial feasibility work and the surveyrsquos subsequent design management data collection processing and analysis Communities and Local Government would like to thank in particular

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) who undertook initial development work on the household questionnaire and sample design

ONS manages the EHS on behalf of the Department and undertakes the household interviews and the subsequent data validation and creation of derived analytical measures It also has responsibility for the sampling and weighting of the datasets and for the running of the Market Value Survey and is involved in the production of tables and analytical reports

ONS work in partnership with Miller Mitchell Burley Lane (MMBL) who undertake the visual inspection of the properties MMBL employ and manage a large field force of professional surveyors who work in close co-operation with the ONS interviewers to maximise response rates and deliver high quality data

The Building Research Establishment (BRE) which is the development partner of the Department for the EHS BRE helps develop the physical survey questionnaire and surveyor training materials and delivers the surveyor training sessions BRE has also had responsibility for developing and implementing a new automated data collection and validation process for the physical survey It is involved in analysing the data and developing and running models to create key measures and analytical variables for the survey and reporting the findings

The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) who provide market valuations for a sub-sample of the EHS properties and information on the local area and housing market

The interviewers and surveyors who collect information from households and carry out the visual inspection

The households who take part in the survey

Communities and Local Government staff who manage and work on the survey

6 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Introduction

1 In April 2008 the English House Condition Survey was integrated with the Survey of English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS) This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey

2 The report is split into two sections

Section 1Focuses on the profile of households including trends in tenures household type and economic status of households It also covers the buying aspirations of renters overcrowding and under-occupation recent movers and satisfaction with home and local area

Section 2Provides an overview of the housing stock in England including the age size and type of home and presents measures of living conditions This includes energy efficiency of the housing stock decent homes the Housing Health and Safety Rating System and homes affected by damp and mould

3 There are a number of additional tables presented in an annex which provide further detail to that covered in the main body of the report

4 More detailed results will be published in annual reporting later in the year A full technical report will also be made available

5 Results for households (not in relation to the physical condition of the home) are presented for 2008-09 and are based on fieldwork carried out between April 08 and March 09 of a sample of 17691 households This is referred to as the lsquofull household samplersquo throughout the report

6 Results which relate to the physical dwelling are presented for 2008 and are based on fieldwork carried out between April 2007 and March 2009 (a mid-point of April 2008) The sample comprises of 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where a physical inspection was carried out and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured This is referred to as the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo throughout the report More details on the samples underpinning the reportrsquos findings are provided in the Technical annex

7 Caution needs to be exercised in interpreting some details as differences may not always be statistically significant The text draws attention only to differences that are significantly different at the 95 confidence level

Introduction | 7

8 The EHS has three component surveys a household interview followed by a physical inspection and a market value survey of a sub sample of the properties The sampling and grossing design of the EHS differs in some ways from the surveys it replaced these changes are summarised in the Technical annex at the end of this report

9 Information on the English Housing Survey can be accessed via this link wwwcommunitiesgovukhousinghousingresearchhousingsurveys

10 Information and past reports on the Survey of English Housing and the English House Condition Survey can also be accessed via this link

11 If you have any queries about this report or would like any further information please contact ehscommunitiesgsigovuk

8 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Key findings

bull There was a decrease in the number of owner occupied households from a peak of 148 million in 2005 and 2006 to 146 million in 2008-09 In contrast the number of households renting privately rose by one million since 2001 from 21 million to 31 million in 2008-09

bull Couples with no dependent children were the most common type of household (36) and the most common type of owner occupiers (42) in 2008-09 Amongst renters one-person households were the most common 41 of social renters and 30 of private renters

bull Over half (59) of all private renters expected to eventually buy a home in the UK compared to only around a quarter (27) of social renters Of those who did expect to buy 24 of private renters and 10 of social renters expected to buy within the next two years

bull Overcrowding was highest in the rented sectors 67 of social rented households and 54 of private rented households were overcrowded as measured by the bedroom standard In contrast only 16 of owner occupiers were overcrowded

bull The energy efficiency of homes continued to improve with the average SAP rating increasing from 42 to 51 between 1996 and 2008 Not only were social sector homes more energy efficient than those in the private sector (59 and 49 respectively) but they have seen greatest improvement since 1996 with the average SAP rating increasing from 47 to 59

bull A potentially serious (Category 1) hazard as measured under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System was present in around 48 million homes in 2008 22 of the housing stock

bull Some 74 million homes (33) were non-decent in 2008 Overall social sector homes were in a better condition than private sector homes with 27 being non-decent compared to 34

bull In 2008 31 million lsquovulnerablersquo householdsrsquo1 were living in the private sector of which 12 million (39) were living in non-decent homes the remaining 19 million (61) were living in decent accommodation

1 Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

Section 1 Households | 9

Section 1Households

11 Results for households (not in relation to the physical condition of the home) are presented for 2008-09 and are based on fieldwork carried out between April 2008 and March 2009 of a sample of 17691 households This is referred to as the lsquofull household samplersquo throughout the report

Trends in tenure

12 In 2008-09 there were an estimated 215 million households in England Owner occupation was the largest tenure accounting for 679 of all households but this has declined from a high of 709 in 2003 Social renting was the second largest tenure in 2008-09 representing 178 of all households this share having remained stable over recent years The smallest tenure private renting has seen a surge in the past few years It accounted for 142 of households in 2008-09 compared to a share of only 10 in 2001

13 Table 1 shows the number and proportion of households by tenure since 2001 with estimates prior to 2008-09 based on Labour Force Survey data Labour Force Survey data has been used for the main tenure estimates and trends in recent years in all Survey of English Housing (SEH) reports and Live Tables This was because the LFS had a much larger sample size than the SEH and this provided more robust overall estimates of households by tenure The EHS grossing methodology uses the LFS tenure distribution and therefore there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution

14 Despite the significant fall in owner occupation as a proportion of all households 679 the actual number of owner occupiers in England has declined only slightly from 148 million in 2005 to 146 million in 2008-09 The number of households renting privately has risen by around one million since 2001 from 21 million to 31 million

10 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 1 Trends in tenure 2001 to 2008-09 England

all households

owner occupiers

ownoutright

buying witha mortgage

all owner occupiers

social renters

private renters

all households

thousands of households2001 5885 8473 14358 3983 2062 204032002 6019 8540 14559 3972 2131 206622003 6158 8542 14701 3804 2234 207392004 6288 8389 14677 3797 2284 207582005 6352 8440 14791 3696 2445 209322006 6425 8365 14790 3736 2566 210922007 6505 8228 14733 3755 2691 211782008 6653 7975 14628 3797 2982 21407 2008-09 6770 7851 14621 3842 3067 21530

percentages2001 288 415 704 195 101 1002002 291 413 705 192 103 1002003 297 412 709 183 108 1002004 303 404 707 183 110 1002005 303 403 707 177 117 1002006 305 397 701 177 122 1002007 307 389 696 177 127 1002008 311 373 683 177 139 100 2008-09 314 365 679 178 142 100

Note data for years prior to 2001 can be found in table S101 wwwcommunitiesgovukdocumentshousingxls139262xls Tenure trends based on SEH annual data for 1993-94 to 2007-08 are available in Fifteen years of the Survey of English Housingwwwcommunitiesgovukdocumentsstatisticspdf1346239pdfSources2001 to 2008 ONS Labour Force Survey2008-09 English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

15 Figure 1 shows the trend in tenure back to 1980 Owner occupation rose steadily throughout the 1980s and at a lesser rate throughout the 1990s The level of private renting saw little change throughout the 1980s and early 1990s but has since increased to around 31 million in 2008-09 In 1980 54 million households were social renters but by 2008-09 this had decreased to 38 million

Section 1 Households | 11

Figure 1 Trend in tenure 1980 to 2008ndash09

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

2008

-09

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

1997

1996

1995

1994

1993

1992

1991

1990

1989

1988

1987

1986

1985

1984

1983

1982

1981

1980

owner occupierssocial rentersprivate renters

mill

ion

ho

use

ho

lds

Source 1980 to 2008 ONS Labour Force Survey 2008ndash09 English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Household type

16 Couples with no dependent children were the most common type of household in 2008-09 (36) These households were also the most common type of owner occupiers Amongst renters one-person households were the most common 41 of social renters and 30 of private renters Although only 7 of households overall were lone parents with dependent children there was a noticeable difference by tenure 17 of social renters 11 of private renters and 3 of owner occupiers (see Table 2)

12 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 2 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent child(ren)1

couple with dependent child(ren)1

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)1

other multi-

person households 1 male 1 female

all household

types

thousands of householdsown outright 3538 424 103 396 769 1541 6770buying with mortgage 2670 2971 405 402 791 612 7851all owner occupiers 6208 3395 508 798 1560 2153 14621 local authority 333 287 331 177 342 417 1887housing association 352 299 341 151 354 458 1955all social renters 685 587 672 328 696 875 3842 private renters 764 535 333 514 582 339 3067 all tenures 7657 4516 1514 1640 2838 3366 21530

percentagesown outright 52 6 2 6 11 23 100buying with mortgage 34 38 5 5 10 8 100all owner occupiers 42 23 3 5 11 15 100 local authority 18 15 18 9 18 22 100housing association 18 15 17 8 18 23 100all social renters 18 15 17 9 18 23 100 private renters 25 17 11 17 19 11 100 all tenures 36 21 7 8 13 16 100

Note 1) These categories can also include non-dependent childrenSource English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

17 Figure 2 shows each household type split by tenure An estimated 66 of couples with dependent children were buying with a mortgage 13 were social renters 12 were private renters and 9 owned outright The tenure split for lone parents with dependent children was quite different with only 27 buying with a mortgage whilst 44 were social renters 22 were private renters and 7 owned outright

Section 1 Households | 13

Figure 2 Household type by tenure 2008-09p

erce

nta

ge

private renterssocial rentersbuying with mortgageown outright

allhousehold

types

allone-personhouseholds

othermulti-personhouseholds

lone parentwith

dependentchild(ren)

couple withdependentchild(ren)

couple nodependentchild(ren)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sampleNote underlying data is presented in annex table 1

Economic status

18 In 2008-09 91 of household reference persons (HRP)2 who were buying with a mortgage were working 85 full-time and 6 part-time Around 60 of outright owners were retired compared to only 9 of private renters In the social rented sector over half the household reference persons were economically inactive with 31 retired and 26 lsquoother inactiversquo (such as long-term sickness or disability or lone parent)

2 see glossary for definition

14 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 3 Economic status of household reference person by tenure 2008-09

all households

economic status of HRP

full time work

part-time work

un-employed retired

other inactive all

thousands of householdsown outright 1777 570 54 4079 290 6770buying with mortgage 6679 470 101 312 290 7851all owner occupiers 8456 1040 155 4390 580 14621 local authority 444 203 172 566 503 1887housing association 489 182 152 643 488 1955all social renters 933 385 324 1209 991 3842 all private renters 1874 262 143 274 514 3067 all tenures 11263 1687 622 5873 2085 21530

percentagesown outright 26 8 1 60 4 100buying with mortgage 85 6 1 4 4 100all owner occupiers 58 7 1 30 4 100 local authority 24 11 9 30 27 100housing association 25 9 8 33 25 100all social renters 24 10 8 31 26 100 all private renters 61 9 5 9 17 100 all tenures 52 8 3 27 10 100Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

19 Table 3 shows the economic status of all householders Figure 3 shows the economic status of those of working age ndash men aged under 65 and women aged under 60 Within this group 94 of those buying with a mortgage were working compared to only 49 of those who were social renters Unemployment was highest in the social rented sector 12 compared to 5 of private renters and only 1 of owner occupiers

110 There was also a much higher proportion of lsquoother inactiversquo amongst working age social renters than those in other tenures 37 compared to 19 of private renters 10 of outright owners and 4 of mortgagors

Section 1 Households | 15

Figure 3 Economic status of working age HRPs 2008-09

other inactiveretiredunemployedworking

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

alltenures

privaterenters

socialrenters

buying withmortgage

ownoutright

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sampleNote underlying data is presented in annex table 2

Age of household reference person by tenure

111 Owner occupation is the most common tenure in England In 2008-09 there were 68 million households that owned outright and 78 million buying with a mortgage Around three-quarters of mortgagors were aged between 35 and 64 with only 3 aged 65 or over Outright owners the majority of whom were likely to have once had a mortgage and paid it off were concentrated in the older age groups 6 were aged under 45 Overall 32 of owner occupiers were in the 16 to 44 age range

112 Around half (51) of householders aged 25 to 34 were owners 17 were social renters and 31 were private renters Within the 35 to 44 age group the proportions of social and private renters were very similar 17 and 16 respectively and 67 of householders in this age group were owners

113 Over 80 of private renters were aged under 55 with only 8 aged 65 or over By contrast 28 of owner occupiers and 29 of social renters were aged 65 or over

16 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 4 Age of household reference person by tenure 2008-09

all households

age of HRP

16 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54 55 - 64 65 or over all ages

thousands of householdsown outright 9 87 329 759 1752 3833 6770buying with mortgage 114 1562 2619 2237 1071 249 7851all owner occupiers 123 1649 2948 2996 2823 4082 14621 local authority 123 306 373 318 244 523 1887housing association 112 254 385 349 256 599 1955all social renters 235 560 757 667 501 1122 3842 private renters 497 995 686 380 252 257 3067 all tenures 855 3203 4392 4043 3576 5461 21530

percentage within tenureown outright 0 1 5 11 26 57 100buying with mortgage 1 20 33 28 14 3 100all owner occupiers 1 11 20 20 19 28 100 local authority 7 16 20 17 13 28 100housing association 6 13 20 18 13 31 100all social renters 6 15 20 17 13 29 100 private renters 16 32 22 12 8 8 100 all tenures 4 15 20 19 17 25 100

percentage within age groupown outright 1 3 7 19 49 70 31buying with mortgage 13 49 60 55 30 5 36all owner occupiers 14 51 67 74 79 75 68 local authority 14 10 8 8 7 10 9housing association 13 8 9 9 7 11 9all social renters 27 17 17 17 14 21 18 private renters 58 31 16 9 7 5 14 all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Section 1 Households | 17

Figure 4 Age of household reference person by tenure 2008ndash09

per

cen

tage

private renterssocial rentersbuying with mortgageown outright

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

65 or over 55ndash64 45ndash54 35ndash44

age of HRP

25ndash34 16ndash24

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Buying expectations of renters

114 In 2008-09 27 of social renters expected to eventually become homeowners compared to 59 of private renters Of those who did expect to buy 44 of social renters expected to buy their current accommodation compared to only 13 of private renters

18 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 5 Buying aspirations of social and private renters 2008-09

all renters

social renters private renters

percentagesWill eventually buy or share home in UK yes 27 59no 73 41All 100 100

Expect to buy current accommodation (all who expect to buy) yes 44 13no 56 87All 100 100

When expect to buy (all who expect to buy) Less than a yearrsquos time 3 81 year but less than 2 years 7 162 years but less than 5 years 25 345 years or more 65 42All 100 100

Note Expectations to buy include shared ownershipSource English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

115 An estimated 24 of private renters expecting to buy (14 of all private renters) thought that they would buy within the next two years This proportion had fallen from 34 in 2006-07 (see Figure 5) whilst the proportion expecting to buy in five or more yearsrsquo time had risen from 35 to 42 over this period These changes suggest that private renters now expect to rent for longer before being in a position to buy perhaps due to affordability issues

Figure 5 Trend in expected time to buying ndash private renters expecting to buy eventually

per

cen

tage

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

2008-09 2007-082006-07

5 years or more2 years but less than 5lt2 years

Note based on those private renters who expect to buy eventuallySource English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Section 1 Households | 19

Overcrowding and under-occupation

116 Levels of overcrowding are measured using the ldquobedroom standardrdquo (see definition in Glossary) Essentially this is the difference between the number of bedrooms needed to avoid undesirable sharing (given the number and ages of household members and their relationships to each other) and the number of bedrooms actually available to the household

117 The previous estimates of overcrowding were based on three-year moving averages from the Survey of English Housing for 2005-06 2006-07 and 2007-08 The reason for having to base estimates on a three-year average was that with fewer than 3 per cent of households overcrowded the sample size for a single year was too small to provide reliable annual estimates However for 2008-09 in addition to the EHS sample of 17700 households we have information from a further 95000 households that were interviewed for the ONS Labour Force Survey This combined sample was sufficiently large to deliver robust single year estimates for 2008-09 without the need to carry forward the three-year average series

Table 6 Overcrowding and under-occupation by tenure 2008-09

all households

difference from bedroom standard

overcrowded at standardone above

standardunder-

occupied total

thousands of householdsowner occupiers 231 2117 5416 6855 14620

social renters 258 2032 1121 430 3841

private renters 164 1312 1095 494 3066

all tenures 654 5462 7633 7779 21527

percentagesowner occupiers 16 145 370 469 100

social renters 67 529 292 112 100

private renters 54 428 357 161 100

all tenures 30 254 355 361 100

Notes Details of the bedroom standard can be found in the GlossarySource English Housing Survey - full household sample and ONS Labour Force Survey

118 The overall rate of overcrowding in England for 2008-09 was 30 (see Table 6) This compares to the previously published estimate of 28 (averaged over the period 2005-06 to 2007-08) There were around 654000 overcrowded households (compared to an average of 570000 over the period 2005-06 to 2007-08) Levels of overcrowding varied considerably by tenure and were lowest in the owner occupied sector at 16 up from 14 for the period 2005-06 to 2007-08 Around 67 of social renters were overcrowded and 54 of private renters compared to 59 and 49 respectively for 2005-06 to 2007-08

20 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

119 Although the overall rate of overcrowding has shown little change in recent years this is largely due to the relatively stable rate of overcrowding in the owner occupied sector the largest tenure Over the past decade overcrowding has been rising in both the rented sectors

Figure 6 Trend in overcrowding rates by tenure 1995-96 to 2008-09 (3 year moving average)

private renters social rentersowner occupiers all tenures

per

cen

tage

of

ho

use

ho

lds

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

2008

-09

2007

-08

2006

-07

2005

-06

2004

-05

2003

-04

2002

-03

2001

-02

2000

-01

1999

-00

1998

-99

1997

-98

1996

-97

1995

-96

Source Survey of English Housing to 2007-08 and combined English Housing Survey (full sample) plus Labour Force Survey for 2008-09 The estimates up to 2007-08 are three-year moving averages so the ldquo2007-08rdquo figure is actually the average of 2005-06 2006-07 and 2007-08 Since the 2008-09 estimates are for that year only a gap has been introduced to separate the three-year averages to 2007-08 from the annual estimates for 2008-09

120 Around 78 million households were estimated to be under-occupying their accommodation in 2008-09 that is they had at least two bedrooms more than they needed (see definition of bedroom standard in Glossary) Under-occupation was far more likely to be found in the owner occupied sector than in the rented sectors 47 of owner occupiers were under-occupying accommodation compared to 11 of social renters and 16 of private renters

Recent movers

121 In this section we look at those households that had been in their current accommodation for less than 12 months at the time of interview

Section 1 Households | 21

Table 7 Previous tenure by current tenure 2008-09

HRPs resident less than a year

previous tenure ndash continuing households

current tenurenew

householdowner

occupierssocial

rentersprivate renters all tenures

thousands of householdsoutright owners 4 83 0 12 99buying with mortgage 68 204 13 131 416all owner occupiers 72 287 13 144 515

local authority 20 13 76 20 129housing association 24 9 105 38 177all social renters 44 23 181 58 306

private renters 229 141 47 686 1103

all tenures 345 450 241 887 1924

percentageoutright owners 4 84 0 13 100buying with mortgage 16 49 3 32 100all owner occupiers 14 56 3 28 100

local authority 15 10 59 15 100housing association 14 5 59 22 100all social renters 15 7 59 19 100

private renters 21 13 4 62 100

all tenures 18 23 13 46 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

122 Around 18 of households that had moved into their accommodation in the previous year were new households Two thirds (66) of these new households were private renters and around one fifth (21) were owner occupiers Movement within tenure was more common than moves between tenures 62 of current private renters had previously been private renters 59 of social renters had moved from another social rented property and 56 of owner occupiers had owned their previous property Movement into the social rented sector for continuing households was more likely to be from private renting (19 of current social renters) than from owner occupation (7)

22 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Attitudes to home and local area

123 Around 90 of households in England were satisfied with their accommodation in 2008-09 The highest levels of satisfaction were expressed by outright owners 73 of whom said that they were very satisfied with their homes Over three quarters of social renters were satisfied with their homes but 9 were slightly dissatisfied and 7 were very dissatisfied Around 82 of private renters were very or fairly satisfied with their accommodation and only 3 said they were very dissatisfied

Table 8 Satisfaction with accommodation by tenure 2008-09

all households

very satisfied

fairly satisfied

neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

slightly dissatisfied

very dissatisfied Total

thousands of householdsoutright owners 4926 1535 111 100 36 6709buying with mortgage 4604 2719 232 200 55 7810all owneroccupiers 9530 4254 343 300 91 14519

local authority 697 736 98 192 142 1866housing association 842 700 116 159 117 1935all social renters 1539 1437 214 351 260 3801

private renters 1240 1211 193 227 102 2972

all tenures 12309 6901 751 878 452 21291

percentagesoutright owners 73 23 2 1 1 100buying with mortgage 59 35 3 3 1 100all owneroccupiers 66 29 2 2 1 100

local authority 37 39 5 10 8 100housing association 44 36 6 8 6 100all social renters 40 38 6 9 7 100

private renters 42 41 6 8 3 100

all tenures 58 32 4 4 2 100

Note This question is not asked of proxy respondents and a small proportion of respondents chose not to answer These exclusions are reflected in the overall total number of households in this table Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

124 A large majority of households are satisfied with the local area in which they live In 2008-09 just over half of all households in England were very satisfied with their local area and 87 were very or fairly satisfied Only 3 of households were very dissatisfied with their local area

Section 1 Households | 23

125 There were some differences by tenure 89 of owner occupiers were satisfied with their local area compared to 79 of social renters and 85 of private renters Whilst only two per cent of owner occupiers and private renters said that they were very dissatisfied with their local area seven per cent of social renters were very dissatisfied

Table 9 Satisfaction with local area by tenure 2008-09

all households

very satisfied

fairly satisfied

neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

slightly dissatisfied

very dissatisfied Total

thousands of householdsoutright owners 3999 2093 180 322 114 6708buying with mortgage 3919 2973 371 420 127 7810all owners 7918 5066 552 742 241 14518

local authority 754 712 122 159 122 1867housing association 861 679 116 150 129 1936all social renters 1615 1391 238 309 251 3803

private renters 1520 1001 183 194 73 2972

all tenures 11052 7458 972 1245 565 21293

percentagesoutright owners 60 31 3 5 2 100buying with mortgage 50 38 5 5 2 100all owners 55 35 4 5 2 100

local authority 40 38 7 9 7 100housing association 44 35 6 8 7 100all social renters 42 37 6 8 7 100

private renters 51 34 6 7 2 100

all tenures 52 35 5 6 3 100

Note This question is not asked of proxy respondents and a small proportion of respondents chose not to answer These exclusions are reflected in the overall total number of households in this table Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

24 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Section 2Housing stock

21 Results relating to the housing stock in this report are presented using two yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the English House Condition Survey (EHCS) For this transition year data from the last full year of the EHCS (2007-08) were combined with the first year of the EHS (2008-09)

22 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Stock profile

23 There were around 222 million dwellings in 2008 Table 10 Of these 183 million (82 of the stock) were in the private sector and comprised 150 million owner occupied homes and 33 million private rented homes There were 39 million social sector homes (18 of the stock) of which two million were owned by local authority and two million by housing associations

Section 2 Housing stock | 25

Table 10 Stock profile 2008

all dwellings

private sector social sector

owner occupied

private rented

all private sector

local authority

housing association

all social sector

all dwellings

in group

thousands of dwellingsdwelling agepre 1919 3194 1309 4503 86 170 257 47601919-44 2689 431 3120 336 187 522 36421945-64 2708 384 3092 760 511 1271 43631965-80 3146 536 3682 665 467 1132 48141981-90 1401 222 1624 107 223 330 1953post 1990 1869 415 2284 30 394 424 2708

dwelling typemid terrace 2638 820 3459 325 367 693 4151end terrance 1440 340 1779 199 222 421 2201small terraced house 1216 548 1764 192 217 408 2172mediumlarge terraced house 2862 612 3475 333 373 705 4180all terrace 4078 1160 5238 524 589 1114 6352semi-detached house 4515 556 5070 365 351 716 5786detached house 3575 267 3843 5 18 24 3867bungalow 1548 133 1681 176 236 412 2092converted flat 284 427 712 38 75 113 825purpose built flat low rise 926 704 1630 724 626 1349 2979purpose built flat high rise 81 49 130 152 56 208 338

floor arealess than 50 sqm 742 652 1394 550 536 1086 248050 to 69 sqm 2913 1028 3942 725 680 1405 534770 to 89 sqm 4361 890 5251 575 553 1127 637990 to 109 sqm 2632 322 2954 102 132 234 3188110 sqm or more 4359 403 4763 32 52 83 4846

type of areacity centre 295 262 558 72 75 147 704other urban centre 2263 967 3230 538 458 996 4227suburban residential 9204 1581 10785 1236 1171 2407 13192rural residential 2074 233 2307 105 190 295 2601village centre 647 110 756 26 47 72 829rural 524 144 668 7 11 19 687

deprived local areasmost deprived 10 773 325 1097 595 468 1064 21612-5th 5331 1518 6849 1121 1025 2145 89956-9th 7072 1188 8260 249 423 672 8932least deprived 1832 266 2097 19 36 54 2152

occupancy statusoccupied 14610 2858 17468 1896 1860 3755 21223vacant 398 438 836 88 92 180 1016

Total 15007 3296 18304 1984 1951 3935 22239

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

26 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

24 The large majority of dwellings were houses (181 million) most commonly terraced or semi-detached The remainder of the stock 41 million consisited of flats predominately purpose built low rise flats However types of housing vary markedly between tenures While 91 of owner occupied housing was made up of houses almost half (46) of local authority homes were flats Figure 7 Flats also accounted for over a third of private rented homes and housing association homes (36 and 39 respectively)

Figure 7 Dwelling type by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

purpose built flat high risepurpose built flat low riseconverted flatdetached houses and bungalowssemi-detached housemediumlarge terraced housesmall terraced house

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

25 England has a relatively old housing stock with some 84 million homes built before 1945 of which 48 million were built before 1919 A fifth of homes (47 million) have been built since 1980

26 Stock in different tenures have different age profiles It is noticeable that owner occupied homes are evenly distributed across the five age bands compared with other tenures Figure 8 In the private rented sector for example 40 (13 million homes) were built before 1919 significantly higher than other tenures Housing association homes were more likely to have been built during the 1980s and 1990s (32) compared to only 7 of local authority homes

Section 2 Housing stock | 27

Figure 8 Age of housing stock by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

post 19901981-901965-801945-641919-44pre 1919

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

27 Some 44 million (29) of owner occupied homes had a floor area greater than 110m2 including 18 million (12 of the sector) which were over 150m2 This reflects the proportion of semi-detached and detached owner occupied homes which tend to be large Social sector homes were most likely to have a floor area of less than 50m2 compared with those in the private sector (28 and 8 respectively)

28 Homes in England were most likely to be located in suburban residential areas and least likely to be found in rural areas (59 and 3 respectively)

Energy efficiency of the housing stock

Heating and insulation29 Key ways of increasing the energy efficiency of existing homes are

improvements to their heating systems and levels of insulation For heating the type of heating system boiler in use and the fuel used are all related to energy performance

210 Central heating is the predominant main heating system present in 199 million homes (89 of the housing stock) in 2008 see Annex Table 3 This was followed by storage heaters present in 16 million (7) of homes and room heaters in 700000 homes (3) Central heating is generally considered to be the most cost effective and relatively efficient method of heating whereas room heaters tend to be the least cost effective and relatively inefficient method of heating

28 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

211 In 2008 92 of owner occupied homes had central heating systems compared to 88 of social and 80 of private rented homes see Annex Table 4 In part this reflects the higher proportion of flats in the rented sectors compared with owner occupation with 23 of flats using storage heaters

212 Condensing boilers are generally the most efficient boiler type and are now mandatory for new and replacement boilers (for gas fired boilers since 2005 for oil fired boilers since 2007) However even prior to these requirements the less efficient standard and back boilers were decreasing in use with the growing popularity of standard combination types Figure 9 Recent years have seen rapidly expanding take up of condensing and particularly combination condensing boilers In 2008 37 million homes (17 of the stock) had one of the two types of condensing boilers

Figure 9 Boiler types 1996-2008

no boiler

condensing-combination boiler condensing boilercombination boilerback boiler (to fire or stove)standard boiler (floor or wall)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

20082007200620052004200320011996

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes underpinning data is presented in Annex Table 5Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

213 For a home to provide optimum energy performance a high level of thermal insulation needs to be present alongside an efficient heating system Standard insulation measures include cavity wall insulation loft insulation and double glazing which have all improved in the stock since 1996 Figure 10

214 In 2008 155 million homes (70) had external walls of cavity construction 74 million homes (33 of the stock) had cavity wall insulation 47 million homes (21) had 200mm or more of loft insulation and 157 million homes (71) had full double glazing with an additional 29 million homes (13) having more than half double glazed Figure 10

Section 2 Housing stock | 29

Figure 10 Insulation measures 1996-2008

20082007200620052004200320011996

entire housedouble glazing

200mm or moreof loft insulation

cavity walls withinsulation

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes1) Only 89 of dwellings have lofts and 70 of dwellings have cavity walls2) Underpinning data is presented in annex Table 7Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

215 In 2008 the social rented sector had the greatest proportion of homes with cavity wall insulation (local authority 42 housing association 44) 200mm or more of loft insulation (local authority 24 housing association 29) and full double glazing (local authority 75 housing association 83) whereas the private rented sector had the lowest proportion of all three standard insulation measures cavity wall insulation (17) 200mm or more of loft insulation (13) and full double glazing (61) Figure 11

30 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Figure 11 Percentage of dwellings with efficient insulation measures by tenure 2008

full double glazing200mm or moreloft insulation

cavity withinsulation

cavity wall

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

housing associationlocal authorityprivate rentedowner occupied0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Base all dwellingsSource English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

SAP Rating

216 The energy efficiency of the housing stock continued to improve between 1996 and 2008 the average SAP rating of a home increased by 9 SAP points from 42 to 51 Table 11 The social sector was on average more energy efficient than the private sector and saw the greatest improvement with the average SAP rating increasing by 12 SAP points from 47 to 59

Table 11 Energy efficiency average SAP rating by tenure 2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

owner occupied 411 444 450 456 461 469 481 496private rented 379 419 444 457 460 466 481 502all private 407 441 449 456 461 468 481 497

local authority 457 496 520 539 553 558 562 580housing association 509 564 567 573 589 593 595 603all social 468 519 539 553 569 574 578 592

all tenures 421 457 466 474 481 487 498 514

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Section 2 Housing stock | 31

217 There has been a significant increase in the proportion of homes achieving the highest Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands in 2008 10 (23 million) of homes achieved the highest (EER) Bands A to C3 compared with 7 (16 million) in 2006 Table 12 The number of homes in the lowest EER Bands (F and G) fell by a million over the same period The majority of homes (73) continue to be in the EER Bands D or E

Table 12 Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 35 35 77Band C (69-80) 1545 1710 2229Band D (55-68) 6555 7316 7865Band E (39-54) 9072 8859 8310Band F (21-38) 3838 3389 2972Band G (1-20) 943 881 786Total 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 02 02 03Band C (69-80) 70 77 100Band D (55-68) 298 330 354Band E (39-54) 413 399 374Band F (21-38) 175 153 134Band G (1-20) 43 40 35Total 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 2006 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Housing health and safety rating system

218 A potentially serious (Category 1) hazard as measured under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System was present in around 48 million homes in 2008 22 of the housing stock

2 EER Bands are used in the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) The Certificate provides among other indicators an energy efficiency rating for the home on a scale from A-G (where A is the most efficient and G the least efficient)

32 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Housing conditions

Housing Health and Safety Rating System219 There was no significant change in the proportion of homes with any Category

1 hazard between 2006 and 2008 Hazards tend to be more common in older housing stock for example stairs are more likely to be steep and narrow in older housing making lsquofalls on stairsrsquo more likely or heating and insulation measures tend to be less effective in older stock making lsquoexcess coldrsquo a more serious hazard Therefore it is not surprising that hazards are more common in the private sector where the older housing stock is concentrated Almost a quarter of housing in the private sector had at least one category 1 hazard in 2008 (24) compared to around 13 in the social sector Table 14 Privately rented homes were most likely to have Category 1 hazards present compared to housing association homes (31 and 13 respectively)

220 The most common type of hazard in all four tenures was falls (see annex Table 10 for details of which hazards are included in this category) Overall 13 of homes have at least one type of falls hazard present

Decent homes221 In 2008 74 million homes (33) were non-decent4 Table 13 Housing

association housing was the least likely to be non-decent (23) while private rented housing was in the worst condition with 44 of homes being non-decent Overall social sector homes were in a better condition than private sector homes with 27 being non-decent compared to 34

222 The number of non-decent homes fell from 77 million in 2006 to 74 million in 20085 Conditions in the social sector improved with the proportion of homes failing the standard falling by two percentage points from 29 in 2006 to 27 in 2008 Private sector homes also improved from 36 non-decent in 2006 to 34 non-decent in 2008

4 Estimates from the EHS are based soley on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors subject to any limitations of the information they collect The EHS estimates in this report do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property

5 In 2006 the Housing Health and Safety Rating System replaced the Fitness Standard as the statutory minimum standard for housing Earlier estimates based on the original definition are not comparable therefore any change in the number of decent homes can only be referenced back to 2006 Figures for decent homes prior to 2006 can be found in the 2006 English House Condition Survey Annual Report available at wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

Section 2 Housing stock | 33

Table 13 Non-decent homes by tenure 2006 ndash 2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5335 5304 4842private rented 1223 1244 1449all private 6558 6548 6291

local authority 676 652 625housing association 465 486 444all social 1142 1138 1069

all tenures 7700 7686 7360

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 346 341 323private rented 468 454 440all private 363 358 344

local authority 324 328 315housing association 252 255 228all social 290 292 272

all tenures 350 346 331

Notes1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties between 2007 and 2008 are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates See Annex Table 11Sources2006 ndash 2007 English House Condition Survey2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Reasons for failing decent homes223 Of the four components required to meet the decent homes standard the

presence of one or more category 1 hazards under the HHSRS was the most commonly failed Table 14 This is particularly the case for private sector homes where 24 of homes had one or more Category 1 hazards present compared to 13 of social sector homes

34 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 14 Homes failing decent homes criteria by tenure 2008

all dwellings

Category 1 hazard (HHSRS)

thermal comfort

modern facilities repair all non-decent

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 3342 1773 379 817 4842private rented 978 637 160 369 1449all private 4320 2411 539 1186 6291

local authority 298 227 138 146 625housing association 224 199 50 86 444all social 522 426 188 231 1069

all tenures 4842 2837 727 1417 7360

percentages

owner occupied 223 118 25 54 323private rented 297 193 49 112 440all private 236 132 29 65 344

local authority 150 115 70 74 315housing association 115 102 25 44 228all social 133 108 48 59 272

all tenures 218 128 33 64 331

Note The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoids a break in the time series See Annex Table 12 for estimate based on 26 hazardsSource English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

224 There was significant progress in the thermal comfort of homes between 2006 and 2008 The proportion of homes failing thermal comfort fell to 13 in 2008 from 16 in 2006 Improvement has been made across all tenures

Private sector vulnerable households225 In 2008 31 million lsquovulnerablersquo households6 were living in the private sector of

which 12 million (39) were living in non-decent homes the remaining 19 million (61) were living in decent accommodation Table 15 There has been no significant change since 2006

226 Vulnerable households who privately rent their accommodation were more likely to live in non-decent homes compared to social tenants (51 and 26 respectively) Table 15

6 Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

Section 2 Housing stock | 35

Table 15 Households living in decent homes 2006-2008

all dwellings

number (000s) percentage ()

2006 2007 2008 2006 2007 2008

decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 1543 1575 1428 630 649 653private rented 334 354 429 450 482 490all private vulnerable 1877 1929 1857 588 610 606

private non- vulnerableowner occupied 8418 8531 8494 664 667 683private rented 922 985 1246 567 566 588all private non-vulnerable 9340 9516 9740 653 655 669

all owner occupied 9961 10106 9922 658 664 678all private rented 1256 1339 1675 530 541 559all private 11217 11445 11597 641 647 658all social 2690 2649 2798 722 719 740all households 13907 14094 14395 655 659 672

non-decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 905 851 760 370 351 347private rented 408 380 447 550 518 510all private vulnerable 1313 1231 1207 412 390 394

private non-vulnerableowner occupied 4262 4264 3946 336 333 317private rented 704 754 874 433 434 412all private non-vulnerable 4966 5018 4820 347 345 331

all owner occupied 5167 5115 4706 342 336 322all private rented 1112 1134 1321 470 459 441all private 6279 6249 6027 359 353 342

all social 1034 1037 985 278 281 260all households 7313 7286 7012 345 341 328

Notes 1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoid a break in the time series See Annex Table 13 for further detailsSource English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

36 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Damp and mould growth227 The proportion of homes with damp problems has reduced from 13 in 1996

to 8 in 2008 Table 16

Table 16 Number and percentage of homes with damp problems in one or more rooms 1996-2008

all dwellings

rising damp

penetrating damp

condensation mould

any damp problems

thousands of dwellings1996 858 1271 1145 26012001 625 1032 860 20322003 740 1066 1003 22832004 750 1035 951 22512005 759 952 941 22102006 724 886 947 21582007 640 833 881 19162008 584 759 865 1746

percentage of dwellings1996 42 63 56 1282001 29 49 41 962003 34 50 47 1062004 35 48 44 1042005 35 44 43 1012006 33 40 43 982007 29 38 40 862008 26 34 39 78

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

228 Privately rented homes were more likely to experience damp problems compared to other tenures Figure 11 Privately rented homes were more likely to be older homes and experience problems with rising or penetrating damp due to defects in the damp proof course roof covering gutters and down pipes which would affect at least one room in the property

229 In the social sector damp problems were more likely to be caused by serious condensation and mould growth rather than by rising damp Figure 12

Section 2 Housing stock | 37

Figure 12 Percentage of homes with a damp problem by tenure 2008

rising damp penetrating damp condensationmould

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

alltenures

housingassociation

localauthority

privaterented

owneroccupied

per

cen

tage

of

ho

mes

wit

h d

amp

pro

ble

ms

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

38 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex tables

Households

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

Annex Table 2 Economic Status of working age HRP by tenure 2008-09

Energy efficiency

Annex Table 3 Heating Type 1996-2008

Annex Table 4 Main Heating System by tenure 2008

Annex Table 5 Boiler Types 1996-2008

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

Annex Table 8 Cavity Wall insulation by tenure 2008

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

Housing Health and Safety Rating System

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 HHSRS hazards present (comparison of estimates based on any one of 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Non-decent homes in deprived areas

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes in deprived areas by tenure 2006-2008

Annex tables | 39

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent

child(ren)

couple with dependent

child(ren)

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)

other multi-

person households

all one-person

households

all household

types

percentageown outright 46 9 7 24 37 31buying with mortgage 35 66 27 25 23 36social renters 9 13 44 20 25 18private renters 10 12 22 31 15 14

all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 2 Economic status of working age HRP by tenure

all households

working un-employed retired other inactive Total percentage

own outright 74 2 14 10 100buying with mortgage 94 1 1 4 100social renters 49 12 1 37 100private renters 75 5 1 19 100all tenures 80 4 3 13 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 3 Heating type 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingscentral heating 16178 18177 18604 18919 19179 19553 19862 19862storage heater 1643 1600 1587 1616 1609 1532 1552 1641fixed roomportable heater 2515 2001 1294 1078 993 904 776 736Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingscentral heating 796 860 866 875 881 889 895 893storage heater 81 76 74 75 74 70 70 74fixed roomportable heating heater 124 95 60 50 46 41 35 33Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

40 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 4 Main heating system by tenure 2008

all dwellings

central heating storage heaterfixed room

heatingportable

heating only all dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 13788 790 411 19 15007 private rented 2630 441 208 17 3296 all private 16418 1232 619 36 18304

local authority 1776 160 46 2 1984 housing association 1669 249 33 1 1951 all social 3445 409 79 3 3935

all tenures 19862 1641 698 38 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 919 53 27 01 1000 private rented 798 134 63 05 1000 all private 897 67 34 02 1000

local authority 895 80 23 01 1000 housing association 855 128 17 00 1000 all social 875 104 20 01 1000

all tenures 893 74 31 02 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 5 Boiler types 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsstandard boiler 10447 10338 9642 9635 9425 9014 8782 8072back boiler 2773 2759 2580 2409 2181 2131 1944 1688combination boiler 2810 4431 5492 5934 6254 6312 6287 6082condensing boiler ndash 155 154 202 300 460 698 948condensing-combination boiler ndash 318 373 417 727 1297 1837 2773no boiler 4305 3140 3244 3016 2894 2775 2642 2676Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsstandard boiler 514 489 449 446 433 410 396 363back boiler 136 130 120 111 100 97 88 76combination boiler 138 210 256 275 287 287 283 273condensing boiler 00 07 07 09 14 21 31 43condensing-combination boiler 00 15 17 19 33 59 83 125no boiler 212 149 151 140 133 126 119 120Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 41

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

all dwellings

standard boiler

back boiler

combination boiler

condensing boiler

condensing-combination

boilerno

boilerall

dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 6223 1045 3984 713 1756 1286 15007 private rented 817 149 1112 73 429 716 3296 all private 7040 1194 5096 787 2185 2002 18304

local authority 499 271 481 90 335 309 1984 housing association 533 223 505 72 254 365 1951 all social 1032 494 986 162 589 674 3935

all 8072 1688 6082 948 2773 2676 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 415 70 265 48 117 86 1000 private rented 248 45 337 22 130 217 1000 all private 385 65 278 43 119 109 1000

local authority 251 136 242 45 169 156 1000 housing association 273 114 259 37 130 187 1000 all social 262 125 250 41 150 171 1000

all 363 76 273 43 125 120 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 2853 5210 5334 5825 5974 6644 7267 7418200mm or more of loft insulation 583 1256 2034 2530 2919 3520 4258 4685entire house double glazing 6169 10753 11915 12846 13486 13924 14850 15747

all dwellings 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 140 246 248 270 274 302 327 334200mm or more of loft insulation 29 59 95 117 134 160 192 211entire house double glazing 303 509 555 594 619 633 669 708

all dwellings 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

42 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 8 Cavity wall insulation by tenure

all dwellings

cavity with insulation

cavity uninsulated other all

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5161 5483 4364 15007private rented 566 1213 1517 3296private 5727 6696 5882 18304

local authority 834 657 493 1984housing association 857 720 374 1951social 1691 1378 867 3935

total 7418 8073 6749 22239

percentage of dwellingsowner occupied 344 365 291 100private rented 172 368 460 100private 313 366 321 100

local authority 420 331 248 100housing association 439 369 192 100social 430 350 220 100

total 334 363 303 100

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 43

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

all dwellings

no loftno

insulationless than

50mm50 up to

99mm

100 up to

149mm

150 up to

199mm200mm or more

all dwellings

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 748 442 432 3009 5147 2007 3223 15007 private rented 672 175 66 857 813 281 434 3296 private 1420 617 497 3866 5960 2288 3657 18304

local authority 614 33 19 171 471 206 470 1984 housing association 467 20 16 143 482 265 558 1951 social 1081 53 35 314 953 471 1028 3935

total 2501 670 532 4179 6913 2759 4685 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 50 29 29 200 343 134 215 1000private rented 204 53 20 260 247 85 132 1000private 78 34 27 211 326 125 200 1000

local authority 309 17 10 86 237 104 237 1000housing association 239 10 08 73 247 136 286 1000social 275 14 09 80 242 120 261 1000

total 112 30 24 188 311 124 211 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

44 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

hazard presentnumber of homes (000s) each hazard is present in

falling on stairs 2025excess cold 1966falling on level surfaces 788falling between levels 443fire 318

entry by intruders

flames hot surfacesleaddamp and mould growth 50 to 100 eachcollision and entrapmentradiationfalls associated with baths

crowding and space

food safetypersonal hygiene sanitation and drainage 20 to 50 eachnoisedomestic hygiene pests and refuseelectrical hazards

structural collapse and falling elements

water supplycarbon monoxide and fuel combustion productsposition and operability of amenities less thanexcess heat 20 eachlightinguncombusted fuel gasexplosions

any of the 15 hazards 4842

any of the 26 hazards 5039

Note For 2006 and 2007 the survey reported on 15 hazards only The 2008 EHS can provide estimates for 26 hazards - the additional hazards are marked with an asterisk The three remaining hazards not included in the survey are presence of asbestos biocides or volatile organic compounds For reporting purposes HHSRS and non-decent estimates will be based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with previous years and avoid a break in the time seriesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 45

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 4842 4925private rented 1449 1478all private 6291 6403

local authority 625 640housing association 444 464all social 1069 1104

all tenures 7360 7507

percentagesowner occupied 323 328private rented 440 448all private 344 350

local authority 315 323housing association 228 238all social 272 281

all tenures 331 338

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

46 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 hazards present (compariosn of estimates based on any one to the 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 3342 3452private rented 978 1013all private 4320 4465

local authority 298 326RSL 224 248all social 522 574

all tenures 4842 5039

percentagesowner occupied 223 230private rented 297 307all private 236 244

local authority 150 164RSL 115 127all social 133 146

all tenures 218 227

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 47

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all households

15 hazards 26 hazards

number (000s) percentage () number (000s) percentage ()

decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 1428 653 1413 646private rented 429 490 417 476all private vulnerable 1857 606 1830 597 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 8494 683 8425 677private rented 1246 588 1232 581all private non-vulnerable 9740 669 9657 663 all owner occupied 9922 678 9839 673all private rented 1675 559 1648 550all private 11597 658 11487 663all social 2798 740 2766 731

all households 14395 672 14253 666

non-decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 760 347 775 354private rented 447 510 459 524all private vulnerable 1207 394 1234 403 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 3946 317 4015 323private rented 874 412 888 419all private non-vulnerable 4820 331 4903 337 all owner occupied 4706 322 4790 327all private rented 1321 441 1347 450all private 6027 342 6137 348all social 985 260 1017 269

all households 7012 328 7154 334

Note For reporting purposes decent homes estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

48 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes1 by deprived and other districts by tenure 2006-2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsSocial NRF88 662 652 605Other districts 480 486 464 Private NRF88 2544 2621 2442Other districts 4013 3928 3849

percentages of dwellingsSocial NRF88 313 304 278Other districts 264 278 263 Private NRF88 381 380 361Other districts 353 344 333

Note NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving Neighbourhood Renewal Funding 2001-2006Source English House Condition Survey 2006-2007English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub sample)

Technical annex | 49

Technical annex

General description

The survey consists of three main elements an initial interview survey of 17700 households with a follow up physical inspection and a desk based market valuation of a sub-sample of 8000 of these dwellings including vacant dwellings The interview survey sample forms part of ONSrsquos Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the core questions from the IHS form part of the EHS questionnaire More information about the IHS is available from its webpage wwwstatisticsgovukCCInuggetaspID=936ampPos=1ampColRank=1ampRank=224

The EHS interview content covers the key topics included under the former SEH and EHCS The content of the physical and market value components remains very largely unchanged from the former EHCS

Sampling and grossing

2008-09 Sample1 The initial sample for 2008-09 consisted of 32100 addresses drawn as a systematic

random sample from the Postcode Address File (small users) Interviews were attempted at all of these addresses over the course of the survey year from April 2008 to March 2009 A proportion of addresses were found not to be valid residential properties (eg demolished properties secondholiday homes small businesses not yet built)

2 Of the 17691 addresses where interviews were achieved (the lsquofull household samplersquo) all social rented properties and a sub-sample of private properties were regarded as eligible for the physical survey and the respondentrsquos consent was sought A proportion of vacant properties were also sub-sampled Physical surveys were completed in 7972 cases and these cases contribute to the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo (see below)

3 The principal differences in sampling methodology between the EHS and its predecessors the SEH and EHCS are that

bull The EHS uses an unclustered sample This enables a smaller sample to be used with no loss of precision ie without sampling errors being increased The more scattered sample does however have some implications for fieldwork organisation

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 3: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

Communities and Local Government Eland HouseBressenden PlaceLondon SW1E 5DUTelephone 020 7944 4400Website wwwcommunitiesgovuk

copy Crown Copyright 2010

Copyright in the typographical arrangement rests with the CrownThis publication excluding logos may be reproduced free of charge in any format or medium for research private study or for internal circulation within an organisation This is subject to it being reproduced accurately and not used in a misleading context The material must be acknowledged as Crown copyright and the title of the publication specified

Any other use of the contents of this publication would require a copyright licence Please apply for a Click-Use Licence for core material at wwwopsigovukclick-usesystemonlinepLoginasp or by writing to the Office of Public Sector Information Information Policy Team Kew Richmond Surrey TW9 4DU

e-mail licensingopsigovuk

If you require this publication in an alternative format please email alternativeformatscommunitiesgsigovukCommunities and Local Government PublicationsTel 0300 123 1124Fax 0300 123 1125

Email productcommunitiesgsigovuk

Online via the Communities and Local Government website wwwcommunitiesgovuk

75February 2010

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

| 3

Contents

Acknowledgements 5

Introduction 6

Key findings 8

Section 1 Households 9

Section 2 Housing stock 24

Annex tables 38

Technical annex 49

Glossary 54

Acknowledgements | 5

Acknowledgements

The launch of the English Housing Survey (EHS) has been dependent on a number of people and organisations involved in the initial feasibility work and the surveyrsquos subsequent design management data collection processing and analysis Communities and Local Government would like to thank in particular

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) who undertook initial development work on the household questionnaire and sample design

ONS manages the EHS on behalf of the Department and undertakes the household interviews and the subsequent data validation and creation of derived analytical measures It also has responsibility for the sampling and weighting of the datasets and for the running of the Market Value Survey and is involved in the production of tables and analytical reports

ONS work in partnership with Miller Mitchell Burley Lane (MMBL) who undertake the visual inspection of the properties MMBL employ and manage a large field force of professional surveyors who work in close co-operation with the ONS interviewers to maximise response rates and deliver high quality data

The Building Research Establishment (BRE) which is the development partner of the Department for the EHS BRE helps develop the physical survey questionnaire and surveyor training materials and delivers the surveyor training sessions BRE has also had responsibility for developing and implementing a new automated data collection and validation process for the physical survey It is involved in analysing the data and developing and running models to create key measures and analytical variables for the survey and reporting the findings

The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) who provide market valuations for a sub-sample of the EHS properties and information on the local area and housing market

The interviewers and surveyors who collect information from households and carry out the visual inspection

The households who take part in the survey

Communities and Local Government staff who manage and work on the survey

6 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Introduction

1 In April 2008 the English House Condition Survey was integrated with the Survey of English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS) This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey

2 The report is split into two sections

Section 1Focuses on the profile of households including trends in tenures household type and economic status of households It also covers the buying aspirations of renters overcrowding and under-occupation recent movers and satisfaction with home and local area

Section 2Provides an overview of the housing stock in England including the age size and type of home and presents measures of living conditions This includes energy efficiency of the housing stock decent homes the Housing Health and Safety Rating System and homes affected by damp and mould

3 There are a number of additional tables presented in an annex which provide further detail to that covered in the main body of the report

4 More detailed results will be published in annual reporting later in the year A full technical report will also be made available

5 Results for households (not in relation to the physical condition of the home) are presented for 2008-09 and are based on fieldwork carried out between April 08 and March 09 of a sample of 17691 households This is referred to as the lsquofull household samplersquo throughout the report

6 Results which relate to the physical dwelling are presented for 2008 and are based on fieldwork carried out between April 2007 and March 2009 (a mid-point of April 2008) The sample comprises of 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where a physical inspection was carried out and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured This is referred to as the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo throughout the report More details on the samples underpinning the reportrsquos findings are provided in the Technical annex

7 Caution needs to be exercised in interpreting some details as differences may not always be statistically significant The text draws attention only to differences that are significantly different at the 95 confidence level

Introduction | 7

8 The EHS has three component surveys a household interview followed by a physical inspection and a market value survey of a sub sample of the properties The sampling and grossing design of the EHS differs in some ways from the surveys it replaced these changes are summarised in the Technical annex at the end of this report

9 Information on the English Housing Survey can be accessed via this link wwwcommunitiesgovukhousinghousingresearchhousingsurveys

10 Information and past reports on the Survey of English Housing and the English House Condition Survey can also be accessed via this link

11 If you have any queries about this report or would like any further information please contact ehscommunitiesgsigovuk

8 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Key findings

bull There was a decrease in the number of owner occupied households from a peak of 148 million in 2005 and 2006 to 146 million in 2008-09 In contrast the number of households renting privately rose by one million since 2001 from 21 million to 31 million in 2008-09

bull Couples with no dependent children were the most common type of household (36) and the most common type of owner occupiers (42) in 2008-09 Amongst renters one-person households were the most common 41 of social renters and 30 of private renters

bull Over half (59) of all private renters expected to eventually buy a home in the UK compared to only around a quarter (27) of social renters Of those who did expect to buy 24 of private renters and 10 of social renters expected to buy within the next two years

bull Overcrowding was highest in the rented sectors 67 of social rented households and 54 of private rented households were overcrowded as measured by the bedroom standard In contrast only 16 of owner occupiers were overcrowded

bull The energy efficiency of homes continued to improve with the average SAP rating increasing from 42 to 51 between 1996 and 2008 Not only were social sector homes more energy efficient than those in the private sector (59 and 49 respectively) but they have seen greatest improvement since 1996 with the average SAP rating increasing from 47 to 59

bull A potentially serious (Category 1) hazard as measured under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System was present in around 48 million homes in 2008 22 of the housing stock

bull Some 74 million homes (33) were non-decent in 2008 Overall social sector homes were in a better condition than private sector homes with 27 being non-decent compared to 34

bull In 2008 31 million lsquovulnerablersquo householdsrsquo1 were living in the private sector of which 12 million (39) were living in non-decent homes the remaining 19 million (61) were living in decent accommodation

1 Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

Section 1 Households | 9

Section 1Households

11 Results for households (not in relation to the physical condition of the home) are presented for 2008-09 and are based on fieldwork carried out between April 2008 and March 2009 of a sample of 17691 households This is referred to as the lsquofull household samplersquo throughout the report

Trends in tenure

12 In 2008-09 there were an estimated 215 million households in England Owner occupation was the largest tenure accounting for 679 of all households but this has declined from a high of 709 in 2003 Social renting was the second largest tenure in 2008-09 representing 178 of all households this share having remained stable over recent years The smallest tenure private renting has seen a surge in the past few years It accounted for 142 of households in 2008-09 compared to a share of only 10 in 2001

13 Table 1 shows the number and proportion of households by tenure since 2001 with estimates prior to 2008-09 based on Labour Force Survey data Labour Force Survey data has been used for the main tenure estimates and trends in recent years in all Survey of English Housing (SEH) reports and Live Tables This was because the LFS had a much larger sample size than the SEH and this provided more robust overall estimates of households by tenure The EHS grossing methodology uses the LFS tenure distribution and therefore there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution

14 Despite the significant fall in owner occupation as a proportion of all households 679 the actual number of owner occupiers in England has declined only slightly from 148 million in 2005 to 146 million in 2008-09 The number of households renting privately has risen by around one million since 2001 from 21 million to 31 million

10 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 1 Trends in tenure 2001 to 2008-09 England

all households

owner occupiers

ownoutright

buying witha mortgage

all owner occupiers

social renters

private renters

all households

thousands of households2001 5885 8473 14358 3983 2062 204032002 6019 8540 14559 3972 2131 206622003 6158 8542 14701 3804 2234 207392004 6288 8389 14677 3797 2284 207582005 6352 8440 14791 3696 2445 209322006 6425 8365 14790 3736 2566 210922007 6505 8228 14733 3755 2691 211782008 6653 7975 14628 3797 2982 21407 2008-09 6770 7851 14621 3842 3067 21530

percentages2001 288 415 704 195 101 1002002 291 413 705 192 103 1002003 297 412 709 183 108 1002004 303 404 707 183 110 1002005 303 403 707 177 117 1002006 305 397 701 177 122 1002007 307 389 696 177 127 1002008 311 373 683 177 139 100 2008-09 314 365 679 178 142 100

Note data for years prior to 2001 can be found in table S101 wwwcommunitiesgovukdocumentshousingxls139262xls Tenure trends based on SEH annual data for 1993-94 to 2007-08 are available in Fifteen years of the Survey of English Housingwwwcommunitiesgovukdocumentsstatisticspdf1346239pdfSources2001 to 2008 ONS Labour Force Survey2008-09 English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

15 Figure 1 shows the trend in tenure back to 1980 Owner occupation rose steadily throughout the 1980s and at a lesser rate throughout the 1990s The level of private renting saw little change throughout the 1980s and early 1990s but has since increased to around 31 million in 2008-09 In 1980 54 million households were social renters but by 2008-09 this had decreased to 38 million

Section 1 Households | 11

Figure 1 Trend in tenure 1980 to 2008ndash09

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

2008

-09

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

1997

1996

1995

1994

1993

1992

1991

1990

1989

1988

1987

1986

1985

1984

1983

1982

1981

1980

owner occupierssocial rentersprivate renters

mill

ion

ho

use

ho

lds

Source 1980 to 2008 ONS Labour Force Survey 2008ndash09 English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Household type

16 Couples with no dependent children were the most common type of household in 2008-09 (36) These households were also the most common type of owner occupiers Amongst renters one-person households were the most common 41 of social renters and 30 of private renters Although only 7 of households overall were lone parents with dependent children there was a noticeable difference by tenure 17 of social renters 11 of private renters and 3 of owner occupiers (see Table 2)

12 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 2 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent child(ren)1

couple with dependent child(ren)1

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)1

other multi-

person households 1 male 1 female

all household

types

thousands of householdsown outright 3538 424 103 396 769 1541 6770buying with mortgage 2670 2971 405 402 791 612 7851all owner occupiers 6208 3395 508 798 1560 2153 14621 local authority 333 287 331 177 342 417 1887housing association 352 299 341 151 354 458 1955all social renters 685 587 672 328 696 875 3842 private renters 764 535 333 514 582 339 3067 all tenures 7657 4516 1514 1640 2838 3366 21530

percentagesown outright 52 6 2 6 11 23 100buying with mortgage 34 38 5 5 10 8 100all owner occupiers 42 23 3 5 11 15 100 local authority 18 15 18 9 18 22 100housing association 18 15 17 8 18 23 100all social renters 18 15 17 9 18 23 100 private renters 25 17 11 17 19 11 100 all tenures 36 21 7 8 13 16 100

Note 1) These categories can also include non-dependent childrenSource English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

17 Figure 2 shows each household type split by tenure An estimated 66 of couples with dependent children were buying with a mortgage 13 were social renters 12 were private renters and 9 owned outright The tenure split for lone parents with dependent children was quite different with only 27 buying with a mortgage whilst 44 were social renters 22 were private renters and 7 owned outright

Section 1 Households | 13

Figure 2 Household type by tenure 2008-09p

erce

nta

ge

private renterssocial rentersbuying with mortgageown outright

allhousehold

types

allone-personhouseholds

othermulti-personhouseholds

lone parentwith

dependentchild(ren)

couple withdependentchild(ren)

couple nodependentchild(ren)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sampleNote underlying data is presented in annex table 1

Economic status

18 In 2008-09 91 of household reference persons (HRP)2 who were buying with a mortgage were working 85 full-time and 6 part-time Around 60 of outright owners were retired compared to only 9 of private renters In the social rented sector over half the household reference persons were economically inactive with 31 retired and 26 lsquoother inactiversquo (such as long-term sickness or disability or lone parent)

2 see glossary for definition

14 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 3 Economic status of household reference person by tenure 2008-09

all households

economic status of HRP

full time work

part-time work

un-employed retired

other inactive all

thousands of householdsown outright 1777 570 54 4079 290 6770buying with mortgage 6679 470 101 312 290 7851all owner occupiers 8456 1040 155 4390 580 14621 local authority 444 203 172 566 503 1887housing association 489 182 152 643 488 1955all social renters 933 385 324 1209 991 3842 all private renters 1874 262 143 274 514 3067 all tenures 11263 1687 622 5873 2085 21530

percentagesown outright 26 8 1 60 4 100buying with mortgage 85 6 1 4 4 100all owner occupiers 58 7 1 30 4 100 local authority 24 11 9 30 27 100housing association 25 9 8 33 25 100all social renters 24 10 8 31 26 100 all private renters 61 9 5 9 17 100 all tenures 52 8 3 27 10 100Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

19 Table 3 shows the economic status of all householders Figure 3 shows the economic status of those of working age ndash men aged under 65 and women aged under 60 Within this group 94 of those buying with a mortgage were working compared to only 49 of those who were social renters Unemployment was highest in the social rented sector 12 compared to 5 of private renters and only 1 of owner occupiers

110 There was also a much higher proportion of lsquoother inactiversquo amongst working age social renters than those in other tenures 37 compared to 19 of private renters 10 of outright owners and 4 of mortgagors

Section 1 Households | 15

Figure 3 Economic status of working age HRPs 2008-09

other inactiveretiredunemployedworking

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

alltenures

privaterenters

socialrenters

buying withmortgage

ownoutright

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sampleNote underlying data is presented in annex table 2

Age of household reference person by tenure

111 Owner occupation is the most common tenure in England In 2008-09 there were 68 million households that owned outright and 78 million buying with a mortgage Around three-quarters of mortgagors were aged between 35 and 64 with only 3 aged 65 or over Outright owners the majority of whom were likely to have once had a mortgage and paid it off were concentrated in the older age groups 6 were aged under 45 Overall 32 of owner occupiers were in the 16 to 44 age range

112 Around half (51) of householders aged 25 to 34 were owners 17 were social renters and 31 were private renters Within the 35 to 44 age group the proportions of social and private renters were very similar 17 and 16 respectively and 67 of householders in this age group were owners

113 Over 80 of private renters were aged under 55 with only 8 aged 65 or over By contrast 28 of owner occupiers and 29 of social renters were aged 65 or over

16 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 4 Age of household reference person by tenure 2008-09

all households

age of HRP

16 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54 55 - 64 65 or over all ages

thousands of householdsown outright 9 87 329 759 1752 3833 6770buying with mortgage 114 1562 2619 2237 1071 249 7851all owner occupiers 123 1649 2948 2996 2823 4082 14621 local authority 123 306 373 318 244 523 1887housing association 112 254 385 349 256 599 1955all social renters 235 560 757 667 501 1122 3842 private renters 497 995 686 380 252 257 3067 all tenures 855 3203 4392 4043 3576 5461 21530

percentage within tenureown outright 0 1 5 11 26 57 100buying with mortgage 1 20 33 28 14 3 100all owner occupiers 1 11 20 20 19 28 100 local authority 7 16 20 17 13 28 100housing association 6 13 20 18 13 31 100all social renters 6 15 20 17 13 29 100 private renters 16 32 22 12 8 8 100 all tenures 4 15 20 19 17 25 100

percentage within age groupown outright 1 3 7 19 49 70 31buying with mortgage 13 49 60 55 30 5 36all owner occupiers 14 51 67 74 79 75 68 local authority 14 10 8 8 7 10 9housing association 13 8 9 9 7 11 9all social renters 27 17 17 17 14 21 18 private renters 58 31 16 9 7 5 14 all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Section 1 Households | 17

Figure 4 Age of household reference person by tenure 2008ndash09

per

cen

tage

private renterssocial rentersbuying with mortgageown outright

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

65 or over 55ndash64 45ndash54 35ndash44

age of HRP

25ndash34 16ndash24

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Buying expectations of renters

114 In 2008-09 27 of social renters expected to eventually become homeowners compared to 59 of private renters Of those who did expect to buy 44 of social renters expected to buy their current accommodation compared to only 13 of private renters

18 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 5 Buying aspirations of social and private renters 2008-09

all renters

social renters private renters

percentagesWill eventually buy or share home in UK yes 27 59no 73 41All 100 100

Expect to buy current accommodation (all who expect to buy) yes 44 13no 56 87All 100 100

When expect to buy (all who expect to buy) Less than a yearrsquos time 3 81 year but less than 2 years 7 162 years but less than 5 years 25 345 years or more 65 42All 100 100

Note Expectations to buy include shared ownershipSource English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

115 An estimated 24 of private renters expecting to buy (14 of all private renters) thought that they would buy within the next two years This proportion had fallen from 34 in 2006-07 (see Figure 5) whilst the proportion expecting to buy in five or more yearsrsquo time had risen from 35 to 42 over this period These changes suggest that private renters now expect to rent for longer before being in a position to buy perhaps due to affordability issues

Figure 5 Trend in expected time to buying ndash private renters expecting to buy eventually

per

cen

tage

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

2008-09 2007-082006-07

5 years or more2 years but less than 5lt2 years

Note based on those private renters who expect to buy eventuallySource English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Section 1 Households | 19

Overcrowding and under-occupation

116 Levels of overcrowding are measured using the ldquobedroom standardrdquo (see definition in Glossary) Essentially this is the difference between the number of bedrooms needed to avoid undesirable sharing (given the number and ages of household members and their relationships to each other) and the number of bedrooms actually available to the household

117 The previous estimates of overcrowding were based on three-year moving averages from the Survey of English Housing for 2005-06 2006-07 and 2007-08 The reason for having to base estimates on a three-year average was that with fewer than 3 per cent of households overcrowded the sample size for a single year was too small to provide reliable annual estimates However for 2008-09 in addition to the EHS sample of 17700 households we have information from a further 95000 households that were interviewed for the ONS Labour Force Survey This combined sample was sufficiently large to deliver robust single year estimates for 2008-09 without the need to carry forward the three-year average series

Table 6 Overcrowding and under-occupation by tenure 2008-09

all households

difference from bedroom standard

overcrowded at standardone above

standardunder-

occupied total

thousands of householdsowner occupiers 231 2117 5416 6855 14620

social renters 258 2032 1121 430 3841

private renters 164 1312 1095 494 3066

all tenures 654 5462 7633 7779 21527

percentagesowner occupiers 16 145 370 469 100

social renters 67 529 292 112 100

private renters 54 428 357 161 100

all tenures 30 254 355 361 100

Notes Details of the bedroom standard can be found in the GlossarySource English Housing Survey - full household sample and ONS Labour Force Survey

118 The overall rate of overcrowding in England for 2008-09 was 30 (see Table 6) This compares to the previously published estimate of 28 (averaged over the period 2005-06 to 2007-08) There were around 654000 overcrowded households (compared to an average of 570000 over the period 2005-06 to 2007-08) Levels of overcrowding varied considerably by tenure and were lowest in the owner occupied sector at 16 up from 14 for the period 2005-06 to 2007-08 Around 67 of social renters were overcrowded and 54 of private renters compared to 59 and 49 respectively for 2005-06 to 2007-08

20 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

119 Although the overall rate of overcrowding has shown little change in recent years this is largely due to the relatively stable rate of overcrowding in the owner occupied sector the largest tenure Over the past decade overcrowding has been rising in both the rented sectors

Figure 6 Trend in overcrowding rates by tenure 1995-96 to 2008-09 (3 year moving average)

private renters social rentersowner occupiers all tenures

per

cen

tage

of

ho

use

ho

lds

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

2008

-09

2007

-08

2006

-07

2005

-06

2004

-05

2003

-04

2002

-03

2001

-02

2000

-01

1999

-00

1998

-99

1997

-98

1996

-97

1995

-96

Source Survey of English Housing to 2007-08 and combined English Housing Survey (full sample) plus Labour Force Survey for 2008-09 The estimates up to 2007-08 are three-year moving averages so the ldquo2007-08rdquo figure is actually the average of 2005-06 2006-07 and 2007-08 Since the 2008-09 estimates are for that year only a gap has been introduced to separate the three-year averages to 2007-08 from the annual estimates for 2008-09

120 Around 78 million households were estimated to be under-occupying their accommodation in 2008-09 that is they had at least two bedrooms more than they needed (see definition of bedroom standard in Glossary) Under-occupation was far more likely to be found in the owner occupied sector than in the rented sectors 47 of owner occupiers were under-occupying accommodation compared to 11 of social renters and 16 of private renters

Recent movers

121 In this section we look at those households that had been in their current accommodation for less than 12 months at the time of interview

Section 1 Households | 21

Table 7 Previous tenure by current tenure 2008-09

HRPs resident less than a year

previous tenure ndash continuing households

current tenurenew

householdowner

occupierssocial

rentersprivate renters all tenures

thousands of householdsoutright owners 4 83 0 12 99buying with mortgage 68 204 13 131 416all owner occupiers 72 287 13 144 515

local authority 20 13 76 20 129housing association 24 9 105 38 177all social renters 44 23 181 58 306

private renters 229 141 47 686 1103

all tenures 345 450 241 887 1924

percentageoutright owners 4 84 0 13 100buying with mortgage 16 49 3 32 100all owner occupiers 14 56 3 28 100

local authority 15 10 59 15 100housing association 14 5 59 22 100all social renters 15 7 59 19 100

private renters 21 13 4 62 100

all tenures 18 23 13 46 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

122 Around 18 of households that had moved into their accommodation in the previous year were new households Two thirds (66) of these new households were private renters and around one fifth (21) were owner occupiers Movement within tenure was more common than moves between tenures 62 of current private renters had previously been private renters 59 of social renters had moved from another social rented property and 56 of owner occupiers had owned their previous property Movement into the social rented sector for continuing households was more likely to be from private renting (19 of current social renters) than from owner occupation (7)

22 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Attitudes to home and local area

123 Around 90 of households in England were satisfied with their accommodation in 2008-09 The highest levels of satisfaction were expressed by outright owners 73 of whom said that they were very satisfied with their homes Over three quarters of social renters were satisfied with their homes but 9 were slightly dissatisfied and 7 were very dissatisfied Around 82 of private renters were very or fairly satisfied with their accommodation and only 3 said they were very dissatisfied

Table 8 Satisfaction with accommodation by tenure 2008-09

all households

very satisfied

fairly satisfied

neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

slightly dissatisfied

very dissatisfied Total

thousands of householdsoutright owners 4926 1535 111 100 36 6709buying with mortgage 4604 2719 232 200 55 7810all owneroccupiers 9530 4254 343 300 91 14519

local authority 697 736 98 192 142 1866housing association 842 700 116 159 117 1935all social renters 1539 1437 214 351 260 3801

private renters 1240 1211 193 227 102 2972

all tenures 12309 6901 751 878 452 21291

percentagesoutright owners 73 23 2 1 1 100buying with mortgage 59 35 3 3 1 100all owneroccupiers 66 29 2 2 1 100

local authority 37 39 5 10 8 100housing association 44 36 6 8 6 100all social renters 40 38 6 9 7 100

private renters 42 41 6 8 3 100

all tenures 58 32 4 4 2 100

Note This question is not asked of proxy respondents and a small proportion of respondents chose not to answer These exclusions are reflected in the overall total number of households in this table Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

124 A large majority of households are satisfied with the local area in which they live In 2008-09 just over half of all households in England were very satisfied with their local area and 87 were very or fairly satisfied Only 3 of households were very dissatisfied with their local area

Section 1 Households | 23

125 There were some differences by tenure 89 of owner occupiers were satisfied with their local area compared to 79 of social renters and 85 of private renters Whilst only two per cent of owner occupiers and private renters said that they were very dissatisfied with their local area seven per cent of social renters were very dissatisfied

Table 9 Satisfaction with local area by tenure 2008-09

all households

very satisfied

fairly satisfied

neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

slightly dissatisfied

very dissatisfied Total

thousands of householdsoutright owners 3999 2093 180 322 114 6708buying with mortgage 3919 2973 371 420 127 7810all owners 7918 5066 552 742 241 14518

local authority 754 712 122 159 122 1867housing association 861 679 116 150 129 1936all social renters 1615 1391 238 309 251 3803

private renters 1520 1001 183 194 73 2972

all tenures 11052 7458 972 1245 565 21293

percentagesoutright owners 60 31 3 5 2 100buying with mortgage 50 38 5 5 2 100all owners 55 35 4 5 2 100

local authority 40 38 7 9 7 100housing association 44 35 6 8 7 100all social renters 42 37 6 8 7 100

private renters 51 34 6 7 2 100

all tenures 52 35 5 6 3 100

Note This question is not asked of proxy respondents and a small proportion of respondents chose not to answer These exclusions are reflected in the overall total number of households in this table Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

24 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Section 2Housing stock

21 Results relating to the housing stock in this report are presented using two yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the English House Condition Survey (EHCS) For this transition year data from the last full year of the EHCS (2007-08) were combined with the first year of the EHS (2008-09)

22 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Stock profile

23 There were around 222 million dwellings in 2008 Table 10 Of these 183 million (82 of the stock) were in the private sector and comprised 150 million owner occupied homes and 33 million private rented homes There were 39 million social sector homes (18 of the stock) of which two million were owned by local authority and two million by housing associations

Section 2 Housing stock | 25

Table 10 Stock profile 2008

all dwellings

private sector social sector

owner occupied

private rented

all private sector

local authority

housing association

all social sector

all dwellings

in group

thousands of dwellingsdwelling agepre 1919 3194 1309 4503 86 170 257 47601919-44 2689 431 3120 336 187 522 36421945-64 2708 384 3092 760 511 1271 43631965-80 3146 536 3682 665 467 1132 48141981-90 1401 222 1624 107 223 330 1953post 1990 1869 415 2284 30 394 424 2708

dwelling typemid terrace 2638 820 3459 325 367 693 4151end terrance 1440 340 1779 199 222 421 2201small terraced house 1216 548 1764 192 217 408 2172mediumlarge terraced house 2862 612 3475 333 373 705 4180all terrace 4078 1160 5238 524 589 1114 6352semi-detached house 4515 556 5070 365 351 716 5786detached house 3575 267 3843 5 18 24 3867bungalow 1548 133 1681 176 236 412 2092converted flat 284 427 712 38 75 113 825purpose built flat low rise 926 704 1630 724 626 1349 2979purpose built flat high rise 81 49 130 152 56 208 338

floor arealess than 50 sqm 742 652 1394 550 536 1086 248050 to 69 sqm 2913 1028 3942 725 680 1405 534770 to 89 sqm 4361 890 5251 575 553 1127 637990 to 109 sqm 2632 322 2954 102 132 234 3188110 sqm or more 4359 403 4763 32 52 83 4846

type of areacity centre 295 262 558 72 75 147 704other urban centre 2263 967 3230 538 458 996 4227suburban residential 9204 1581 10785 1236 1171 2407 13192rural residential 2074 233 2307 105 190 295 2601village centre 647 110 756 26 47 72 829rural 524 144 668 7 11 19 687

deprived local areasmost deprived 10 773 325 1097 595 468 1064 21612-5th 5331 1518 6849 1121 1025 2145 89956-9th 7072 1188 8260 249 423 672 8932least deprived 1832 266 2097 19 36 54 2152

occupancy statusoccupied 14610 2858 17468 1896 1860 3755 21223vacant 398 438 836 88 92 180 1016

Total 15007 3296 18304 1984 1951 3935 22239

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

26 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

24 The large majority of dwellings were houses (181 million) most commonly terraced or semi-detached The remainder of the stock 41 million consisited of flats predominately purpose built low rise flats However types of housing vary markedly between tenures While 91 of owner occupied housing was made up of houses almost half (46) of local authority homes were flats Figure 7 Flats also accounted for over a third of private rented homes and housing association homes (36 and 39 respectively)

Figure 7 Dwelling type by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

purpose built flat high risepurpose built flat low riseconverted flatdetached houses and bungalowssemi-detached housemediumlarge terraced housesmall terraced house

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

25 England has a relatively old housing stock with some 84 million homes built before 1945 of which 48 million were built before 1919 A fifth of homes (47 million) have been built since 1980

26 Stock in different tenures have different age profiles It is noticeable that owner occupied homes are evenly distributed across the five age bands compared with other tenures Figure 8 In the private rented sector for example 40 (13 million homes) were built before 1919 significantly higher than other tenures Housing association homes were more likely to have been built during the 1980s and 1990s (32) compared to only 7 of local authority homes

Section 2 Housing stock | 27

Figure 8 Age of housing stock by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

post 19901981-901965-801945-641919-44pre 1919

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

27 Some 44 million (29) of owner occupied homes had a floor area greater than 110m2 including 18 million (12 of the sector) which were over 150m2 This reflects the proportion of semi-detached and detached owner occupied homes which tend to be large Social sector homes were most likely to have a floor area of less than 50m2 compared with those in the private sector (28 and 8 respectively)

28 Homes in England were most likely to be located in suburban residential areas and least likely to be found in rural areas (59 and 3 respectively)

Energy efficiency of the housing stock

Heating and insulation29 Key ways of increasing the energy efficiency of existing homes are

improvements to their heating systems and levels of insulation For heating the type of heating system boiler in use and the fuel used are all related to energy performance

210 Central heating is the predominant main heating system present in 199 million homes (89 of the housing stock) in 2008 see Annex Table 3 This was followed by storage heaters present in 16 million (7) of homes and room heaters in 700000 homes (3) Central heating is generally considered to be the most cost effective and relatively efficient method of heating whereas room heaters tend to be the least cost effective and relatively inefficient method of heating

28 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

211 In 2008 92 of owner occupied homes had central heating systems compared to 88 of social and 80 of private rented homes see Annex Table 4 In part this reflects the higher proportion of flats in the rented sectors compared with owner occupation with 23 of flats using storage heaters

212 Condensing boilers are generally the most efficient boiler type and are now mandatory for new and replacement boilers (for gas fired boilers since 2005 for oil fired boilers since 2007) However even prior to these requirements the less efficient standard and back boilers were decreasing in use with the growing popularity of standard combination types Figure 9 Recent years have seen rapidly expanding take up of condensing and particularly combination condensing boilers In 2008 37 million homes (17 of the stock) had one of the two types of condensing boilers

Figure 9 Boiler types 1996-2008

no boiler

condensing-combination boiler condensing boilercombination boilerback boiler (to fire or stove)standard boiler (floor or wall)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

20082007200620052004200320011996

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes underpinning data is presented in Annex Table 5Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

213 For a home to provide optimum energy performance a high level of thermal insulation needs to be present alongside an efficient heating system Standard insulation measures include cavity wall insulation loft insulation and double glazing which have all improved in the stock since 1996 Figure 10

214 In 2008 155 million homes (70) had external walls of cavity construction 74 million homes (33 of the stock) had cavity wall insulation 47 million homes (21) had 200mm or more of loft insulation and 157 million homes (71) had full double glazing with an additional 29 million homes (13) having more than half double glazed Figure 10

Section 2 Housing stock | 29

Figure 10 Insulation measures 1996-2008

20082007200620052004200320011996

entire housedouble glazing

200mm or moreof loft insulation

cavity walls withinsulation

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes1) Only 89 of dwellings have lofts and 70 of dwellings have cavity walls2) Underpinning data is presented in annex Table 7Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

215 In 2008 the social rented sector had the greatest proportion of homes with cavity wall insulation (local authority 42 housing association 44) 200mm or more of loft insulation (local authority 24 housing association 29) and full double glazing (local authority 75 housing association 83) whereas the private rented sector had the lowest proportion of all three standard insulation measures cavity wall insulation (17) 200mm or more of loft insulation (13) and full double glazing (61) Figure 11

30 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Figure 11 Percentage of dwellings with efficient insulation measures by tenure 2008

full double glazing200mm or moreloft insulation

cavity withinsulation

cavity wall

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

housing associationlocal authorityprivate rentedowner occupied0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Base all dwellingsSource English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

SAP Rating

216 The energy efficiency of the housing stock continued to improve between 1996 and 2008 the average SAP rating of a home increased by 9 SAP points from 42 to 51 Table 11 The social sector was on average more energy efficient than the private sector and saw the greatest improvement with the average SAP rating increasing by 12 SAP points from 47 to 59

Table 11 Energy efficiency average SAP rating by tenure 2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

owner occupied 411 444 450 456 461 469 481 496private rented 379 419 444 457 460 466 481 502all private 407 441 449 456 461 468 481 497

local authority 457 496 520 539 553 558 562 580housing association 509 564 567 573 589 593 595 603all social 468 519 539 553 569 574 578 592

all tenures 421 457 466 474 481 487 498 514

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Section 2 Housing stock | 31

217 There has been a significant increase in the proportion of homes achieving the highest Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands in 2008 10 (23 million) of homes achieved the highest (EER) Bands A to C3 compared with 7 (16 million) in 2006 Table 12 The number of homes in the lowest EER Bands (F and G) fell by a million over the same period The majority of homes (73) continue to be in the EER Bands D or E

Table 12 Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 35 35 77Band C (69-80) 1545 1710 2229Band D (55-68) 6555 7316 7865Band E (39-54) 9072 8859 8310Band F (21-38) 3838 3389 2972Band G (1-20) 943 881 786Total 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 02 02 03Band C (69-80) 70 77 100Band D (55-68) 298 330 354Band E (39-54) 413 399 374Band F (21-38) 175 153 134Band G (1-20) 43 40 35Total 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 2006 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Housing health and safety rating system

218 A potentially serious (Category 1) hazard as measured under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System was present in around 48 million homes in 2008 22 of the housing stock

2 EER Bands are used in the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) The Certificate provides among other indicators an energy efficiency rating for the home on a scale from A-G (where A is the most efficient and G the least efficient)

32 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Housing conditions

Housing Health and Safety Rating System219 There was no significant change in the proportion of homes with any Category

1 hazard between 2006 and 2008 Hazards tend to be more common in older housing stock for example stairs are more likely to be steep and narrow in older housing making lsquofalls on stairsrsquo more likely or heating and insulation measures tend to be less effective in older stock making lsquoexcess coldrsquo a more serious hazard Therefore it is not surprising that hazards are more common in the private sector where the older housing stock is concentrated Almost a quarter of housing in the private sector had at least one category 1 hazard in 2008 (24) compared to around 13 in the social sector Table 14 Privately rented homes were most likely to have Category 1 hazards present compared to housing association homes (31 and 13 respectively)

220 The most common type of hazard in all four tenures was falls (see annex Table 10 for details of which hazards are included in this category) Overall 13 of homes have at least one type of falls hazard present

Decent homes221 In 2008 74 million homes (33) were non-decent4 Table 13 Housing

association housing was the least likely to be non-decent (23) while private rented housing was in the worst condition with 44 of homes being non-decent Overall social sector homes were in a better condition than private sector homes with 27 being non-decent compared to 34

222 The number of non-decent homes fell from 77 million in 2006 to 74 million in 20085 Conditions in the social sector improved with the proportion of homes failing the standard falling by two percentage points from 29 in 2006 to 27 in 2008 Private sector homes also improved from 36 non-decent in 2006 to 34 non-decent in 2008

4 Estimates from the EHS are based soley on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors subject to any limitations of the information they collect The EHS estimates in this report do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property

5 In 2006 the Housing Health and Safety Rating System replaced the Fitness Standard as the statutory minimum standard for housing Earlier estimates based on the original definition are not comparable therefore any change in the number of decent homes can only be referenced back to 2006 Figures for decent homes prior to 2006 can be found in the 2006 English House Condition Survey Annual Report available at wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

Section 2 Housing stock | 33

Table 13 Non-decent homes by tenure 2006 ndash 2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5335 5304 4842private rented 1223 1244 1449all private 6558 6548 6291

local authority 676 652 625housing association 465 486 444all social 1142 1138 1069

all tenures 7700 7686 7360

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 346 341 323private rented 468 454 440all private 363 358 344

local authority 324 328 315housing association 252 255 228all social 290 292 272

all tenures 350 346 331

Notes1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties between 2007 and 2008 are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates See Annex Table 11Sources2006 ndash 2007 English House Condition Survey2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Reasons for failing decent homes223 Of the four components required to meet the decent homes standard the

presence of one or more category 1 hazards under the HHSRS was the most commonly failed Table 14 This is particularly the case for private sector homes where 24 of homes had one or more Category 1 hazards present compared to 13 of social sector homes

34 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 14 Homes failing decent homes criteria by tenure 2008

all dwellings

Category 1 hazard (HHSRS)

thermal comfort

modern facilities repair all non-decent

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 3342 1773 379 817 4842private rented 978 637 160 369 1449all private 4320 2411 539 1186 6291

local authority 298 227 138 146 625housing association 224 199 50 86 444all social 522 426 188 231 1069

all tenures 4842 2837 727 1417 7360

percentages

owner occupied 223 118 25 54 323private rented 297 193 49 112 440all private 236 132 29 65 344

local authority 150 115 70 74 315housing association 115 102 25 44 228all social 133 108 48 59 272

all tenures 218 128 33 64 331

Note The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoids a break in the time series See Annex Table 12 for estimate based on 26 hazardsSource English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

224 There was significant progress in the thermal comfort of homes between 2006 and 2008 The proportion of homes failing thermal comfort fell to 13 in 2008 from 16 in 2006 Improvement has been made across all tenures

Private sector vulnerable households225 In 2008 31 million lsquovulnerablersquo households6 were living in the private sector of

which 12 million (39) were living in non-decent homes the remaining 19 million (61) were living in decent accommodation Table 15 There has been no significant change since 2006

226 Vulnerable households who privately rent their accommodation were more likely to live in non-decent homes compared to social tenants (51 and 26 respectively) Table 15

6 Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

Section 2 Housing stock | 35

Table 15 Households living in decent homes 2006-2008

all dwellings

number (000s) percentage ()

2006 2007 2008 2006 2007 2008

decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 1543 1575 1428 630 649 653private rented 334 354 429 450 482 490all private vulnerable 1877 1929 1857 588 610 606

private non- vulnerableowner occupied 8418 8531 8494 664 667 683private rented 922 985 1246 567 566 588all private non-vulnerable 9340 9516 9740 653 655 669

all owner occupied 9961 10106 9922 658 664 678all private rented 1256 1339 1675 530 541 559all private 11217 11445 11597 641 647 658all social 2690 2649 2798 722 719 740all households 13907 14094 14395 655 659 672

non-decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 905 851 760 370 351 347private rented 408 380 447 550 518 510all private vulnerable 1313 1231 1207 412 390 394

private non-vulnerableowner occupied 4262 4264 3946 336 333 317private rented 704 754 874 433 434 412all private non-vulnerable 4966 5018 4820 347 345 331

all owner occupied 5167 5115 4706 342 336 322all private rented 1112 1134 1321 470 459 441all private 6279 6249 6027 359 353 342

all social 1034 1037 985 278 281 260all households 7313 7286 7012 345 341 328

Notes 1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoid a break in the time series See Annex Table 13 for further detailsSource English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

36 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Damp and mould growth227 The proportion of homes with damp problems has reduced from 13 in 1996

to 8 in 2008 Table 16

Table 16 Number and percentage of homes with damp problems in one or more rooms 1996-2008

all dwellings

rising damp

penetrating damp

condensation mould

any damp problems

thousands of dwellings1996 858 1271 1145 26012001 625 1032 860 20322003 740 1066 1003 22832004 750 1035 951 22512005 759 952 941 22102006 724 886 947 21582007 640 833 881 19162008 584 759 865 1746

percentage of dwellings1996 42 63 56 1282001 29 49 41 962003 34 50 47 1062004 35 48 44 1042005 35 44 43 1012006 33 40 43 982007 29 38 40 862008 26 34 39 78

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

228 Privately rented homes were more likely to experience damp problems compared to other tenures Figure 11 Privately rented homes were more likely to be older homes and experience problems with rising or penetrating damp due to defects in the damp proof course roof covering gutters and down pipes which would affect at least one room in the property

229 In the social sector damp problems were more likely to be caused by serious condensation and mould growth rather than by rising damp Figure 12

Section 2 Housing stock | 37

Figure 12 Percentage of homes with a damp problem by tenure 2008

rising damp penetrating damp condensationmould

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

alltenures

housingassociation

localauthority

privaterented

owneroccupied

per

cen

tage

of

ho

mes

wit

h d

amp

pro

ble

ms

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

38 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex tables

Households

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

Annex Table 2 Economic Status of working age HRP by tenure 2008-09

Energy efficiency

Annex Table 3 Heating Type 1996-2008

Annex Table 4 Main Heating System by tenure 2008

Annex Table 5 Boiler Types 1996-2008

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

Annex Table 8 Cavity Wall insulation by tenure 2008

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

Housing Health and Safety Rating System

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 HHSRS hazards present (comparison of estimates based on any one of 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Non-decent homes in deprived areas

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes in deprived areas by tenure 2006-2008

Annex tables | 39

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent

child(ren)

couple with dependent

child(ren)

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)

other multi-

person households

all one-person

households

all household

types

percentageown outright 46 9 7 24 37 31buying with mortgage 35 66 27 25 23 36social renters 9 13 44 20 25 18private renters 10 12 22 31 15 14

all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 2 Economic status of working age HRP by tenure

all households

working un-employed retired other inactive Total percentage

own outright 74 2 14 10 100buying with mortgage 94 1 1 4 100social renters 49 12 1 37 100private renters 75 5 1 19 100all tenures 80 4 3 13 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 3 Heating type 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingscentral heating 16178 18177 18604 18919 19179 19553 19862 19862storage heater 1643 1600 1587 1616 1609 1532 1552 1641fixed roomportable heater 2515 2001 1294 1078 993 904 776 736Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingscentral heating 796 860 866 875 881 889 895 893storage heater 81 76 74 75 74 70 70 74fixed roomportable heating heater 124 95 60 50 46 41 35 33Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

40 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 4 Main heating system by tenure 2008

all dwellings

central heating storage heaterfixed room

heatingportable

heating only all dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 13788 790 411 19 15007 private rented 2630 441 208 17 3296 all private 16418 1232 619 36 18304

local authority 1776 160 46 2 1984 housing association 1669 249 33 1 1951 all social 3445 409 79 3 3935

all tenures 19862 1641 698 38 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 919 53 27 01 1000 private rented 798 134 63 05 1000 all private 897 67 34 02 1000

local authority 895 80 23 01 1000 housing association 855 128 17 00 1000 all social 875 104 20 01 1000

all tenures 893 74 31 02 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 5 Boiler types 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsstandard boiler 10447 10338 9642 9635 9425 9014 8782 8072back boiler 2773 2759 2580 2409 2181 2131 1944 1688combination boiler 2810 4431 5492 5934 6254 6312 6287 6082condensing boiler ndash 155 154 202 300 460 698 948condensing-combination boiler ndash 318 373 417 727 1297 1837 2773no boiler 4305 3140 3244 3016 2894 2775 2642 2676Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsstandard boiler 514 489 449 446 433 410 396 363back boiler 136 130 120 111 100 97 88 76combination boiler 138 210 256 275 287 287 283 273condensing boiler 00 07 07 09 14 21 31 43condensing-combination boiler 00 15 17 19 33 59 83 125no boiler 212 149 151 140 133 126 119 120Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 41

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

all dwellings

standard boiler

back boiler

combination boiler

condensing boiler

condensing-combination

boilerno

boilerall

dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 6223 1045 3984 713 1756 1286 15007 private rented 817 149 1112 73 429 716 3296 all private 7040 1194 5096 787 2185 2002 18304

local authority 499 271 481 90 335 309 1984 housing association 533 223 505 72 254 365 1951 all social 1032 494 986 162 589 674 3935

all 8072 1688 6082 948 2773 2676 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 415 70 265 48 117 86 1000 private rented 248 45 337 22 130 217 1000 all private 385 65 278 43 119 109 1000

local authority 251 136 242 45 169 156 1000 housing association 273 114 259 37 130 187 1000 all social 262 125 250 41 150 171 1000

all 363 76 273 43 125 120 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 2853 5210 5334 5825 5974 6644 7267 7418200mm or more of loft insulation 583 1256 2034 2530 2919 3520 4258 4685entire house double glazing 6169 10753 11915 12846 13486 13924 14850 15747

all dwellings 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 140 246 248 270 274 302 327 334200mm or more of loft insulation 29 59 95 117 134 160 192 211entire house double glazing 303 509 555 594 619 633 669 708

all dwellings 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

42 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 8 Cavity wall insulation by tenure

all dwellings

cavity with insulation

cavity uninsulated other all

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5161 5483 4364 15007private rented 566 1213 1517 3296private 5727 6696 5882 18304

local authority 834 657 493 1984housing association 857 720 374 1951social 1691 1378 867 3935

total 7418 8073 6749 22239

percentage of dwellingsowner occupied 344 365 291 100private rented 172 368 460 100private 313 366 321 100

local authority 420 331 248 100housing association 439 369 192 100social 430 350 220 100

total 334 363 303 100

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 43

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

all dwellings

no loftno

insulationless than

50mm50 up to

99mm

100 up to

149mm

150 up to

199mm200mm or more

all dwellings

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 748 442 432 3009 5147 2007 3223 15007 private rented 672 175 66 857 813 281 434 3296 private 1420 617 497 3866 5960 2288 3657 18304

local authority 614 33 19 171 471 206 470 1984 housing association 467 20 16 143 482 265 558 1951 social 1081 53 35 314 953 471 1028 3935

total 2501 670 532 4179 6913 2759 4685 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 50 29 29 200 343 134 215 1000private rented 204 53 20 260 247 85 132 1000private 78 34 27 211 326 125 200 1000

local authority 309 17 10 86 237 104 237 1000housing association 239 10 08 73 247 136 286 1000social 275 14 09 80 242 120 261 1000

total 112 30 24 188 311 124 211 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

44 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

hazard presentnumber of homes (000s) each hazard is present in

falling on stairs 2025excess cold 1966falling on level surfaces 788falling between levels 443fire 318

entry by intruders

flames hot surfacesleaddamp and mould growth 50 to 100 eachcollision and entrapmentradiationfalls associated with baths

crowding and space

food safetypersonal hygiene sanitation and drainage 20 to 50 eachnoisedomestic hygiene pests and refuseelectrical hazards

structural collapse and falling elements

water supplycarbon monoxide and fuel combustion productsposition and operability of amenities less thanexcess heat 20 eachlightinguncombusted fuel gasexplosions

any of the 15 hazards 4842

any of the 26 hazards 5039

Note For 2006 and 2007 the survey reported on 15 hazards only The 2008 EHS can provide estimates for 26 hazards - the additional hazards are marked with an asterisk The three remaining hazards not included in the survey are presence of asbestos biocides or volatile organic compounds For reporting purposes HHSRS and non-decent estimates will be based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with previous years and avoid a break in the time seriesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 45

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 4842 4925private rented 1449 1478all private 6291 6403

local authority 625 640housing association 444 464all social 1069 1104

all tenures 7360 7507

percentagesowner occupied 323 328private rented 440 448all private 344 350

local authority 315 323housing association 228 238all social 272 281

all tenures 331 338

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

46 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 hazards present (compariosn of estimates based on any one to the 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 3342 3452private rented 978 1013all private 4320 4465

local authority 298 326RSL 224 248all social 522 574

all tenures 4842 5039

percentagesowner occupied 223 230private rented 297 307all private 236 244

local authority 150 164RSL 115 127all social 133 146

all tenures 218 227

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 47

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all households

15 hazards 26 hazards

number (000s) percentage () number (000s) percentage ()

decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 1428 653 1413 646private rented 429 490 417 476all private vulnerable 1857 606 1830 597 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 8494 683 8425 677private rented 1246 588 1232 581all private non-vulnerable 9740 669 9657 663 all owner occupied 9922 678 9839 673all private rented 1675 559 1648 550all private 11597 658 11487 663all social 2798 740 2766 731

all households 14395 672 14253 666

non-decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 760 347 775 354private rented 447 510 459 524all private vulnerable 1207 394 1234 403 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 3946 317 4015 323private rented 874 412 888 419all private non-vulnerable 4820 331 4903 337 all owner occupied 4706 322 4790 327all private rented 1321 441 1347 450all private 6027 342 6137 348all social 985 260 1017 269

all households 7012 328 7154 334

Note For reporting purposes decent homes estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

48 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes1 by deprived and other districts by tenure 2006-2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsSocial NRF88 662 652 605Other districts 480 486 464 Private NRF88 2544 2621 2442Other districts 4013 3928 3849

percentages of dwellingsSocial NRF88 313 304 278Other districts 264 278 263 Private NRF88 381 380 361Other districts 353 344 333

Note NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving Neighbourhood Renewal Funding 2001-2006Source English House Condition Survey 2006-2007English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub sample)

Technical annex | 49

Technical annex

General description

The survey consists of three main elements an initial interview survey of 17700 households with a follow up physical inspection and a desk based market valuation of a sub-sample of 8000 of these dwellings including vacant dwellings The interview survey sample forms part of ONSrsquos Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the core questions from the IHS form part of the EHS questionnaire More information about the IHS is available from its webpage wwwstatisticsgovukCCInuggetaspID=936ampPos=1ampColRank=1ampRank=224

The EHS interview content covers the key topics included under the former SEH and EHCS The content of the physical and market value components remains very largely unchanged from the former EHCS

Sampling and grossing

2008-09 Sample1 The initial sample for 2008-09 consisted of 32100 addresses drawn as a systematic

random sample from the Postcode Address File (small users) Interviews were attempted at all of these addresses over the course of the survey year from April 2008 to March 2009 A proportion of addresses were found not to be valid residential properties (eg demolished properties secondholiday homes small businesses not yet built)

2 Of the 17691 addresses where interviews were achieved (the lsquofull household samplersquo) all social rented properties and a sub-sample of private properties were regarded as eligible for the physical survey and the respondentrsquos consent was sought A proportion of vacant properties were also sub-sampled Physical surveys were completed in 7972 cases and these cases contribute to the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo (see below)

3 The principal differences in sampling methodology between the EHS and its predecessors the SEH and EHCS are that

bull The EHS uses an unclustered sample This enables a smaller sample to be used with no loss of precision ie without sampling errors being increased The more scattered sample does however have some implications for fieldwork organisation

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 4: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

| 3

Contents

Acknowledgements 5

Introduction 6

Key findings 8

Section 1 Households 9

Section 2 Housing stock 24

Annex tables 38

Technical annex 49

Glossary 54

Acknowledgements | 5

Acknowledgements

The launch of the English Housing Survey (EHS) has been dependent on a number of people and organisations involved in the initial feasibility work and the surveyrsquos subsequent design management data collection processing and analysis Communities and Local Government would like to thank in particular

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) who undertook initial development work on the household questionnaire and sample design

ONS manages the EHS on behalf of the Department and undertakes the household interviews and the subsequent data validation and creation of derived analytical measures It also has responsibility for the sampling and weighting of the datasets and for the running of the Market Value Survey and is involved in the production of tables and analytical reports

ONS work in partnership with Miller Mitchell Burley Lane (MMBL) who undertake the visual inspection of the properties MMBL employ and manage a large field force of professional surveyors who work in close co-operation with the ONS interviewers to maximise response rates and deliver high quality data

The Building Research Establishment (BRE) which is the development partner of the Department for the EHS BRE helps develop the physical survey questionnaire and surveyor training materials and delivers the surveyor training sessions BRE has also had responsibility for developing and implementing a new automated data collection and validation process for the physical survey It is involved in analysing the data and developing and running models to create key measures and analytical variables for the survey and reporting the findings

The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) who provide market valuations for a sub-sample of the EHS properties and information on the local area and housing market

The interviewers and surveyors who collect information from households and carry out the visual inspection

The households who take part in the survey

Communities and Local Government staff who manage and work on the survey

6 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Introduction

1 In April 2008 the English House Condition Survey was integrated with the Survey of English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS) This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey

2 The report is split into two sections

Section 1Focuses on the profile of households including trends in tenures household type and economic status of households It also covers the buying aspirations of renters overcrowding and under-occupation recent movers and satisfaction with home and local area

Section 2Provides an overview of the housing stock in England including the age size and type of home and presents measures of living conditions This includes energy efficiency of the housing stock decent homes the Housing Health and Safety Rating System and homes affected by damp and mould

3 There are a number of additional tables presented in an annex which provide further detail to that covered in the main body of the report

4 More detailed results will be published in annual reporting later in the year A full technical report will also be made available

5 Results for households (not in relation to the physical condition of the home) are presented for 2008-09 and are based on fieldwork carried out between April 08 and March 09 of a sample of 17691 households This is referred to as the lsquofull household samplersquo throughout the report

6 Results which relate to the physical dwelling are presented for 2008 and are based on fieldwork carried out between April 2007 and March 2009 (a mid-point of April 2008) The sample comprises of 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where a physical inspection was carried out and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured This is referred to as the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo throughout the report More details on the samples underpinning the reportrsquos findings are provided in the Technical annex

7 Caution needs to be exercised in interpreting some details as differences may not always be statistically significant The text draws attention only to differences that are significantly different at the 95 confidence level

Introduction | 7

8 The EHS has three component surveys a household interview followed by a physical inspection and a market value survey of a sub sample of the properties The sampling and grossing design of the EHS differs in some ways from the surveys it replaced these changes are summarised in the Technical annex at the end of this report

9 Information on the English Housing Survey can be accessed via this link wwwcommunitiesgovukhousinghousingresearchhousingsurveys

10 Information and past reports on the Survey of English Housing and the English House Condition Survey can also be accessed via this link

11 If you have any queries about this report or would like any further information please contact ehscommunitiesgsigovuk

8 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Key findings

bull There was a decrease in the number of owner occupied households from a peak of 148 million in 2005 and 2006 to 146 million in 2008-09 In contrast the number of households renting privately rose by one million since 2001 from 21 million to 31 million in 2008-09

bull Couples with no dependent children were the most common type of household (36) and the most common type of owner occupiers (42) in 2008-09 Amongst renters one-person households were the most common 41 of social renters and 30 of private renters

bull Over half (59) of all private renters expected to eventually buy a home in the UK compared to only around a quarter (27) of social renters Of those who did expect to buy 24 of private renters and 10 of social renters expected to buy within the next two years

bull Overcrowding was highest in the rented sectors 67 of social rented households and 54 of private rented households were overcrowded as measured by the bedroom standard In contrast only 16 of owner occupiers were overcrowded

bull The energy efficiency of homes continued to improve with the average SAP rating increasing from 42 to 51 between 1996 and 2008 Not only were social sector homes more energy efficient than those in the private sector (59 and 49 respectively) but they have seen greatest improvement since 1996 with the average SAP rating increasing from 47 to 59

bull A potentially serious (Category 1) hazard as measured under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System was present in around 48 million homes in 2008 22 of the housing stock

bull Some 74 million homes (33) were non-decent in 2008 Overall social sector homes were in a better condition than private sector homes with 27 being non-decent compared to 34

bull In 2008 31 million lsquovulnerablersquo householdsrsquo1 were living in the private sector of which 12 million (39) were living in non-decent homes the remaining 19 million (61) were living in decent accommodation

1 Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

Section 1 Households | 9

Section 1Households

11 Results for households (not in relation to the physical condition of the home) are presented for 2008-09 and are based on fieldwork carried out between April 2008 and March 2009 of a sample of 17691 households This is referred to as the lsquofull household samplersquo throughout the report

Trends in tenure

12 In 2008-09 there were an estimated 215 million households in England Owner occupation was the largest tenure accounting for 679 of all households but this has declined from a high of 709 in 2003 Social renting was the second largest tenure in 2008-09 representing 178 of all households this share having remained stable over recent years The smallest tenure private renting has seen a surge in the past few years It accounted for 142 of households in 2008-09 compared to a share of only 10 in 2001

13 Table 1 shows the number and proportion of households by tenure since 2001 with estimates prior to 2008-09 based on Labour Force Survey data Labour Force Survey data has been used for the main tenure estimates and trends in recent years in all Survey of English Housing (SEH) reports and Live Tables This was because the LFS had a much larger sample size than the SEH and this provided more robust overall estimates of households by tenure The EHS grossing methodology uses the LFS tenure distribution and therefore there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution

14 Despite the significant fall in owner occupation as a proportion of all households 679 the actual number of owner occupiers in England has declined only slightly from 148 million in 2005 to 146 million in 2008-09 The number of households renting privately has risen by around one million since 2001 from 21 million to 31 million

10 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 1 Trends in tenure 2001 to 2008-09 England

all households

owner occupiers

ownoutright

buying witha mortgage

all owner occupiers

social renters

private renters

all households

thousands of households2001 5885 8473 14358 3983 2062 204032002 6019 8540 14559 3972 2131 206622003 6158 8542 14701 3804 2234 207392004 6288 8389 14677 3797 2284 207582005 6352 8440 14791 3696 2445 209322006 6425 8365 14790 3736 2566 210922007 6505 8228 14733 3755 2691 211782008 6653 7975 14628 3797 2982 21407 2008-09 6770 7851 14621 3842 3067 21530

percentages2001 288 415 704 195 101 1002002 291 413 705 192 103 1002003 297 412 709 183 108 1002004 303 404 707 183 110 1002005 303 403 707 177 117 1002006 305 397 701 177 122 1002007 307 389 696 177 127 1002008 311 373 683 177 139 100 2008-09 314 365 679 178 142 100

Note data for years prior to 2001 can be found in table S101 wwwcommunitiesgovukdocumentshousingxls139262xls Tenure trends based on SEH annual data for 1993-94 to 2007-08 are available in Fifteen years of the Survey of English Housingwwwcommunitiesgovukdocumentsstatisticspdf1346239pdfSources2001 to 2008 ONS Labour Force Survey2008-09 English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

15 Figure 1 shows the trend in tenure back to 1980 Owner occupation rose steadily throughout the 1980s and at a lesser rate throughout the 1990s The level of private renting saw little change throughout the 1980s and early 1990s but has since increased to around 31 million in 2008-09 In 1980 54 million households were social renters but by 2008-09 this had decreased to 38 million

Section 1 Households | 11

Figure 1 Trend in tenure 1980 to 2008ndash09

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

2008

-09

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

1997

1996

1995

1994

1993

1992

1991

1990

1989

1988

1987

1986

1985

1984

1983

1982

1981

1980

owner occupierssocial rentersprivate renters

mill

ion

ho

use

ho

lds

Source 1980 to 2008 ONS Labour Force Survey 2008ndash09 English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Household type

16 Couples with no dependent children were the most common type of household in 2008-09 (36) These households were also the most common type of owner occupiers Amongst renters one-person households were the most common 41 of social renters and 30 of private renters Although only 7 of households overall were lone parents with dependent children there was a noticeable difference by tenure 17 of social renters 11 of private renters and 3 of owner occupiers (see Table 2)

12 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 2 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent child(ren)1

couple with dependent child(ren)1

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)1

other multi-

person households 1 male 1 female

all household

types

thousands of householdsown outright 3538 424 103 396 769 1541 6770buying with mortgage 2670 2971 405 402 791 612 7851all owner occupiers 6208 3395 508 798 1560 2153 14621 local authority 333 287 331 177 342 417 1887housing association 352 299 341 151 354 458 1955all social renters 685 587 672 328 696 875 3842 private renters 764 535 333 514 582 339 3067 all tenures 7657 4516 1514 1640 2838 3366 21530

percentagesown outright 52 6 2 6 11 23 100buying with mortgage 34 38 5 5 10 8 100all owner occupiers 42 23 3 5 11 15 100 local authority 18 15 18 9 18 22 100housing association 18 15 17 8 18 23 100all social renters 18 15 17 9 18 23 100 private renters 25 17 11 17 19 11 100 all tenures 36 21 7 8 13 16 100

Note 1) These categories can also include non-dependent childrenSource English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

17 Figure 2 shows each household type split by tenure An estimated 66 of couples with dependent children were buying with a mortgage 13 were social renters 12 were private renters and 9 owned outright The tenure split for lone parents with dependent children was quite different with only 27 buying with a mortgage whilst 44 were social renters 22 were private renters and 7 owned outright

Section 1 Households | 13

Figure 2 Household type by tenure 2008-09p

erce

nta

ge

private renterssocial rentersbuying with mortgageown outright

allhousehold

types

allone-personhouseholds

othermulti-personhouseholds

lone parentwith

dependentchild(ren)

couple withdependentchild(ren)

couple nodependentchild(ren)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sampleNote underlying data is presented in annex table 1

Economic status

18 In 2008-09 91 of household reference persons (HRP)2 who were buying with a mortgage were working 85 full-time and 6 part-time Around 60 of outright owners were retired compared to only 9 of private renters In the social rented sector over half the household reference persons were economically inactive with 31 retired and 26 lsquoother inactiversquo (such as long-term sickness or disability or lone parent)

2 see glossary for definition

14 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 3 Economic status of household reference person by tenure 2008-09

all households

economic status of HRP

full time work

part-time work

un-employed retired

other inactive all

thousands of householdsown outright 1777 570 54 4079 290 6770buying with mortgage 6679 470 101 312 290 7851all owner occupiers 8456 1040 155 4390 580 14621 local authority 444 203 172 566 503 1887housing association 489 182 152 643 488 1955all social renters 933 385 324 1209 991 3842 all private renters 1874 262 143 274 514 3067 all tenures 11263 1687 622 5873 2085 21530

percentagesown outright 26 8 1 60 4 100buying with mortgage 85 6 1 4 4 100all owner occupiers 58 7 1 30 4 100 local authority 24 11 9 30 27 100housing association 25 9 8 33 25 100all social renters 24 10 8 31 26 100 all private renters 61 9 5 9 17 100 all tenures 52 8 3 27 10 100Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

19 Table 3 shows the economic status of all householders Figure 3 shows the economic status of those of working age ndash men aged under 65 and women aged under 60 Within this group 94 of those buying with a mortgage were working compared to only 49 of those who were social renters Unemployment was highest in the social rented sector 12 compared to 5 of private renters and only 1 of owner occupiers

110 There was also a much higher proportion of lsquoother inactiversquo amongst working age social renters than those in other tenures 37 compared to 19 of private renters 10 of outright owners and 4 of mortgagors

Section 1 Households | 15

Figure 3 Economic status of working age HRPs 2008-09

other inactiveretiredunemployedworking

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

alltenures

privaterenters

socialrenters

buying withmortgage

ownoutright

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sampleNote underlying data is presented in annex table 2

Age of household reference person by tenure

111 Owner occupation is the most common tenure in England In 2008-09 there were 68 million households that owned outright and 78 million buying with a mortgage Around three-quarters of mortgagors were aged between 35 and 64 with only 3 aged 65 or over Outright owners the majority of whom were likely to have once had a mortgage and paid it off were concentrated in the older age groups 6 were aged under 45 Overall 32 of owner occupiers were in the 16 to 44 age range

112 Around half (51) of householders aged 25 to 34 were owners 17 were social renters and 31 were private renters Within the 35 to 44 age group the proportions of social and private renters were very similar 17 and 16 respectively and 67 of householders in this age group were owners

113 Over 80 of private renters were aged under 55 with only 8 aged 65 or over By contrast 28 of owner occupiers and 29 of social renters were aged 65 or over

16 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 4 Age of household reference person by tenure 2008-09

all households

age of HRP

16 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54 55 - 64 65 or over all ages

thousands of householdsown outright 9 87 329 759 1752 3833 6770buying with mortgage 114 1562 2619 2237 1071 249 7851all owner occupiers 123 1649 2948 2996 2823 4082 14621 local authority 123 306 373 318 244 523 1887housing association 112 254 385 349 256 599 1955all social renters 235 560 757 667 501 1122 3842 private renters 497 995 686 380 252 257 3067 all tenures 855 3203 4392 4043 3576 5461 21530

percentage within tenureown outright 0 1 5 11 26 57 100buying with mortgage 1 20 33 28 14 3 100all owner occupiers 1 11 20 20 19 28 100 local authority 7 16 20 17 13 28 100housing association 6 13 20 18 13 31 100all social renters 6 15 20 17 13 29 100 private renters 16 32 22 12 8 8 100 all tenures 4 15 20 19 17 25 100

percentage within age groupown outright 1 3 7 19 49 70 31buying with mortgage 13 49 60 55 30 5 36all owner occupiers 14 51 67 74 79 75 68 local authority 14 10 8 8 7 10 9housing association 13 8 9 9 7 11 9all social renters 27 17 17 17 14 21 18 private renters 58 31 16 9 7 5 14 all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Section 1 Households | 17

Figure 4 Age of household reference person by tenure 2008ndash09

per

cen

tage

private renterssocial rentersbuying with mortgageown outright

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

65 or over 55ndash64 45ndash54 35ndash44

age of HRP

25ndash34 16ndash24

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Buying expectations of renters

114 In 2008-09 27 of social renters expected to eventually become homeowners compared to 59 of private renters Of those who did expect to buy 44 of social renters expected to buy their current accommodation compared to only 13 of private renters

18 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 5 Buying aspirations of social and private renters 2008-09

all renters

social renters private renters

percentagesWill eventually buy or share home in UK yes 27 59no 73 41All 100 100

Expect to buy current accommodation (all who expect to buy) yes 44 13no 56 87All 100 100

When expect to buy (all who expect to buy) Less than a yearrsquos time 3 81 year but less than 2 years 7 162 years but less than 5 years 25 345 years or more 65 42All 100 100

Note Expectations to buy include shared ownershipSource English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

115 An estimated 24 of private renters expecting to buy (14 of all private renters) thought that they would buy within the next two years This proportion had fallen from 34 in 2006-07 (see Figure 5) whilst the proportion expecting to buy in five or more yearsrsquo time had risen from 35 to 42 over this period These changes suggest that private renters now expect to rent for longer before being in a position to buy perhaps due to affordability issues

Figure 5 Trend in expected time to buying ndash private renters expecting to buy eventually

per

cen

tage

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

2008-09 2007-082006-07

5 years or more2 years but less than 5lt2 years

Note based on those private renters who expect to buy eventuallySource English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Section 1 Households | 19

Overcrowding and under-occupation

116 Levels of overcrowding are measured using the ldquobedroom standardrdquo (see definition in Glossary) Essentially this is the difference between the number of bedrooms needed to avoid undesirable sharing (given the number and ages of household members and their relationships to each other) and the number of bedrooms actually available to the household

117 The previous estimates of overcrowding were based on three-year moving averages from the Survey of English Housing for 2005-06 2006-07 and 2007-08 The reason for having to base estimates on a three-year average was that with fewer than 3 per cent of households overcrowded the sample size for a single year was too small to provide reliable annual estimates However for 2008-09 in addition to the EHS sample of 17700 households we have information from a further 95000 households that were interviewed for the ONS Labour Force Survey This combined sample was sufficiently large to deliver robust single year estimates for 2008-09 without the need to carry forward the three-year average series

Table 6 Overcrowding and under-occupation by tenure 2008-09

all households

difference from bedroom standard

overcrowded at standardone above

standardunder-

occupied total

thousands of householdsowner occupiers 231 2117 5416 6855 14620

social renters 258 2032 1121 430 3841

private renters 164 1312 1095 494 3066

all tenures 654 5462 7633 7779 21527

percentagesowner occupiers 16 145 370 469 100

social renters 67 529 292 112 100

private renters 54 428 357 161 100

all tenures 30 254 355 361 100

Notes Details of the bedroom standard can be found in the GlossarySource English Housing Survey - full household sample and ONS Labour Force Survey

118 The overall rate of overcrowding in England for 2008-09 was 30 (see Table 6) This compares to the previously published estimate of 28 (averaged over the period 2005-06 to 2007-08) There were around 654000 overcrowded households (compared to an average of 570000 over the period 2005-06 to 2007-08) Levels of overcrowding varied considerably by tenure and were lowest in the owner occupied sector at 16 up from 14 for the period 2005-06 to 2007-08 Around 67 of social renters were overcrowded and 54 of private renters compared to 59 and 49 respectively for 2005-06 to 2007-08

20 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

119 Although the overall rate of overcrowding has shown little change in recent years this is largely due to the relatively stable rate of overcrowding in the owner occupied sector the largest tenure Over the past decade overcrowding has been rising in both the rented sectors

Figure 6 Trend in overcrowding rates by tenure 1995-96 to 2008-09 (3 year moving average)

private renters social rentersowner occupiers all tenures

per

cen

tage

of

ho

use

ho

lds

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

2008

-09

2007

-08

2006

-07

2005

-06

2004

-05

2003

-04

2002

-03

2001

-02

2000

-01

1999

-00

1998

-99

1997

-98

1996

-97

1995

-96

Source Survey of English Housing to 2007-08 and combined English Housing Survey (full sample) plus Labour Force Survey for 2008-09 The estimates up to 2007-08 are three-year moving averages so the ldquo2007-08rdquo figure is actually the average of 2005-06 2006-07 and 2007-08 Since the 2008-09 estimates are for that year only a gap has been introduced to separate the three-year averages to 2007-08 from the annual estimates for 2008-09

120 Around 78 million households were estimated to be under-occupying their accommodation in 2008-09 that is they had at least two bedrooms more than they needed (see definition of bedroom standard in Glossary) Under-occupation was far more likely to be found in the owner occupied sector than in the rented sectors 47 of owner occupiers were under-occupying accommodation compared to 11 of social renters and 16 of private renters

Recent movers

121 In this section we look at those households that had been in their current accommodation for less than 12 months at the time of interview

Section 1 Households | 21

Table 7 Previous tenure by current tenure 2008-09

HRPs resident less than a year

previous tenure ndash continuing households

current tenurenew

householdowner

occupierssocial

rentersprivate renters all tenures

thousands of householdsoutright owners 4 83 0 12 99buying with mortgage 68 204 13 131 416all owner occupiers 72 287 13 144 515

local authority 20 13 76 20 129housing association 24 9 105 38 177all social renters 44 23 181 58 306

private renters 229 141 47 686 1103

all tenures 345 450 241 887 1924

percentageoutright owners 4 84 0 13 100buying with mortgage 16 49 3 32 100all owner occupiers 14 56 3 28 100

local authority 15 10 59 15 100housing association 14 5 59 22 100all social renters 15 7 59 19 100

private renters 21 13 4 62 100

all tenures 18 23 13 46 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

122 Around 18 of households that had moved into their accommodation in the previous year were new households Two thirds (66) of these new households were private renters and around one fifth (21) were owner occupiers Movement within tenure was more common than moves between tenures 62 of current private renters had previously been private renters 59 of social renters had moved from another social rented property and 56 of owner occupiers had owned their previous property Movement into the social rented sector for continuing households was more likely to be from private renting (19 of current social renters) than from owner occupation (7)

22 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Attitudes to home and local area

123 Around 90 of households in England were satisfied with their accommodation in 2008-09 The highest levels of satisfaction were expressed by outright owners 73 of whom said that they were very satisfied with their homes Over three quarters of social renters were satisfied with their homes but 9 were slightly dissatisfied and 7 were very dissatisfied Around 82 of private renters were very or fairly satisfied with their accommodation and only 3 said they were very dissatisfied

Table 8 Satisfaction with accommodation by tenure 2008-09

all households

very satisfied

fairly satisfied

neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

slightly dissatisfied

very dissatisfied Total

thousands of householdsoutright owners 4926 1535 111 100 36 6709buying with mortgage 4604 2719 232 200 55 7810all owneroccupiers 9530 4254 343 300 91 14519

local authority 697 736 98 192 142 1866housing association 842 700 116 159 117 1935all social renters 1539 1437 214 351 260 3801

private renters 1240 1211 193 227 102 2972

all tenures 12309 6901 751 878 452 21291

percentagesoutright owners 73 23 2 1 1 100buying with mortgage 59 35 3 3 1 100all owneroccupiers 66 29 2 2 1 100

local authority 37 39 5 10 8 100housing association 44 36 6 8 6 100all social renters 40 38 6 9 7 100

private renters 42 41 6 8 3 100

all tenures 58 32 4 4 2 100

Note This question is not asked of proxy respondents and a small proportion of respondents chose not to answer These exclusions are reflected in the overall total number of households in this table Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

124 A large majority of households are satisfied with the local area in which they live In 2008-09 just over half of all households in England were very satisfied with their local area and 87 were very or fairly satisfied Only 3 of households were very dissatisfied with their local area

Section 1 Households | 23

125 There were some differences by tenure 89 of owner occupiers were satisfied with their local area compared to 79 of social renters and 85 of private renters Whilst only two per cent of owner occupiers and private renters said that they were very dissatisfied with their local area seven per cent of social renters were very dissatisfied

Table 9 Satisfaction with local area by tenure 2008-09

all households

very satisfied

fairly satisfied

neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

slightly dissatisfied

very dissatisfied Total

thousands of householdsoutright owners 3999 2093 180 322 114 6708buying with mortgage 3919 2973 371 420 127 7810all owners 7918 5066 552 742 241 14518

local authority 754 712 122 159 122 1867housing association 861 679 116 150 129 1936all social renters 1615 1391 238 309 251 3803

private renters 1520 1001 183 194 73 2972

all tenures 11052 7458 972 1245 565 21293

percentagesoutright owners 60 31 3 5 2 100buying with mortgage 50 38 5 5 2 100all owners 55 35 4 5 2 100

local authority 40 38 7 9 7 100housing association 44 35 6 8 7 100all social renters 42 37 6 8 7 100

private renters 51 34 6 7 2 100

all tenures 52 35 5 6 3 100

Note This question is not asked of proxy respondents and a small proportion of respondents chose not to answer These exclusions are reflected in the overall total number of households in this table Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

24 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Section 2Housing stock

21 Results relating to the housing stock in this report are presented using two yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the English House Condition Survey (EHCS) For this transition year data from the last full year of the EHCS (2007-08) were combined with the first year of the EHS (2008-09)

22 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Stock profile

23 There were around 222 million dwellings in 2008 Table 10 Of these 183 million (82 of the stock) were in the private sector and comprised 150 million owner occupied homes and 33 million private rented homes There were 39 million social sector homes (18 of the stock) of which two million were owned by local authority and two million by housing associations

Section 2 Housing stock | 25

Table 10 Stock profile 2008

all dwellings

private sector social sector

owner occupied

private rented

all private sector

local authority

housing association

all social sector

all dwellings

in group

thousands of dwellingsdwelling agepre 1919 3194 1309 4503 86 170 257 47601919-44 2689 431 3120 336 187 522 36421945-64 2708 384 3092 760 511 1271 43631965-80 3146 536 3682 665 467 1132 48141981-90 1401 222 1624 107 223 330 1953post 1990 1869 415 2284 30 394 424 2708

dwelling typemid terrace 2638 820 3459 325 367 693 4151end terrance 1440 340 1779 199 222 421 2201small terraced house 1216 548 1764 192 217 408 2172mediumlarge terraced house 2862 612 3475 333 373 705 4180all terrace 4078 1160 5238 524 589 1114 6352semi-detached house 4515 556 5070 365 351 716 5786detached house 3575 267 3843 5 18 24 3867bungalow 1548 133 1681 176 236 412 2092converted flat 284 427 712 38 75 113 825purpose built flat low rise 926 704 1630 724 626 1349 2979purpose built flat high rise 81 49 130 152 56 208 338

floor arealess than 50 sqm 742 652 1394 550 536 1086 248050 to 69 sqm 2913 1028 3942 725 680 1405 534770 to 89 sqm 4361 890 5251 575 553 1127 637990 to 109 sqm 2632 322 2954 102 132 234 3188110 sqm or more 4359 403 4763 32 52 83 4846

type of areacity centre 295 262 558 72 75 147 704other urban centre 2263 967 3230 538 458 996 4227suburban residential 9204 1581 10785 1236 1171 2407 13192rural residential 2074 233 2307 105 190 295 2601village centre 647 110 756 26 47 72 829rural 524 144 668 7 11 19 687

deprived local areasmost deprived 10 773 325 1097 595 468 1064 21612-5th 5331 1518 6849 1121 1025 2145 89956-9th 7072 1188 8260 249 423 672 8932least deprived 1832 266 2097 19 36 54 2152

occupancy statusoccupied 14610 2858 17468 1896 1860 3755 21223vacant 398 438 836 88 92 180 1016

Total 15007 3296 18304 1984 1951 3935 22239

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

26 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

24 The large majority of dwellings were houses (181 million) most commonly terraced or semi-detached The remainder of the stock 41 million consisited of flats predominately purpose built low rise flats However types of housing vary markedly between tenures While 91 of owner occupied housing was made up of houses almost half (46) of local authority homes were flats Figure 7 Flats also accounted for over a third of private rented homes and housing association homes (36 and 39 respectively)

Figure 7 Dwelling type by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

purpose built flat high risepurpose built flat low riseconverted flatdetached houses and bungalowssemi-detached housemediumlarge terraced housesmall terraced house

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

25 England has a relatively old housing stock with some 84 million homes built before 1945 of which 48 million were built before 1919 A fifth of homes (47 million) have been built since 1980

26 Stock in different tenures have different age profiles It is noticeable that owner occupied homes are evenly distributed across the five age bands compared with other tenures Figure 8 In the private rented sector for example 40 (13 million homes) were built before 1919 significantly higher than other tenures Housing association homes were more likely to have been built during the 1980s and 1990s (32) compared to only 7 of local authority homes

Section 2 Housing stock | 27

Figure 8 Age of housing stock by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

post 19901981-901965-801945-641919-44pre 1919

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

27 Some 44 million (29) of owner occupied homes had a floor area greater than 110m2 including 18 million (12 of the sector) which were over 150m2 This reflects the proportion of semi-detached and detached owner occupied homes which tend to be large Social sector homes were most likely to have a floor area of less than 50m2 compared with those in the private sector (28 and 8 respectively)

28 Homes in England were most likely to be located in suburban residential areas and least likely to be found in rural areas (59 and 3 respectively)

Energy efficiency of the housing stock

Heating and insulation29 Key ways of increasing the energy efficiency of existing homes are

improvements to their heating systems and levels of insulation For heating the type of heating system boiler in use and the fuel used are all related to energy performance

210 Central heating is the predominant main heating system present in 199 million homes (89 of the housing stock) in 2008 see Annex Table 3 This was followed by storage heaters present in 16 million (7) of homes and room heaters in 700000 homes (3) Central heating is generally considered to be the most cost effective and relatively efficient method of heating whereas room heaters tend to be the least cost effective and relatively inefficient method of heating

28 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

211 In 2008 92 of owner occupied homes had central heating systems compared to 88 of social and 80 of private rented homes see Annex Table 4 In part this reflects the higher proportion of flats in the rented sectors compared with owner occupation with 23 of flats using storage heaters

212 Condensing boilers are generally the most efficient boiler type and are now mandatory for new and replacement boilers (for gas fired boilers since 2005 for oil fired boilers since 2007) However even prior to these requirements the less efficient standard and back boilers were decreasing in use with the growing popularity of standard combination types Figure 9 Recent years have seen rapidly expanding take up of condensing and particularly combination condensing boilers In 2008 37 million homes (17 of the stock) had one of the two types of condensing boilers

Figure 9 Boiler types 1996-2008

no boiler

condensing-combination boiler condensing boilercombination boilerback boiler (to fire or stove)standard boiler (floor or wall)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

20082007200620052004200320011996

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes underpinning data is presented in Annex Table 5Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

213 For a home to provide optimum energy performance a high level of thermal insulation needs to be present alongside an efficient heating system Standard insulation measures include cavity wall insulation loft insulation and double glazing which have all improved in the stock since 1996 Figure 10

214 In 2008 155 million homes (70) had external walls of cavity construction 74 million homes (33 of the stock) had cavity wall insulation 47 million homes (21) had 200mm or more of loft insulation and 157 million homes (71) had full double glazing with an additional 29 million homes (13) having more than half double glazed Figure 10

Section 2 Housing stock | 29

Figure 10 Insulation measures 1996-2008

20082007200620052004200320011996

entire housedouble glazing

200mm or moreof loft insulation

cavity walls withinsulation

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes1) Only 89 of dwellings have lofts and 70 of dwellings have cavity walls2) Underpinning data is presented in annex Table 7Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

215 In 2008 the social rented sector had the greatest proportion of homes with cavity wall insulation (local authority 42 housing association 44) 200mm or more of loft insulation (local authority 24 housing association 29) and full double glazing (local authority 75 housing association 83) whereas the private rented sector had the lowest proportion of all three standard insulation measures cavity wall insulation (17) 200mm or more of loft insulation (13) and full double glazing (61) Figure 11

30 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Figure 11 Percentage of dwellings with efficient insulation measures by tenure 2008

full double glazing200mm or moreloft insulation

cavity withinsulation

cavity wall

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

housing associationlocal authorityprivate rentedowner occupied0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Base all dwellingsSource English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

SAP Rating

216 The energy efficiency of the housing stock continued to improve between 1996 and 2008 the average SAP rating of a home increased by 9 SAP points from 42 to 51 Table 11 The social sector was on average more energy efficient than the private sector and saw the greatest improvement with the average SAP rating increasing by 12 SAP points from 47 to 59

Table 11 Energy efficiency average SAP rating by tenure 2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

owner occupied 411 444 450 456 461 469 481 496private rented 379 419 444 457 460 466 481 502all private 407 441 449 456 461 468 481 497

local authority 457 496 520 539 553 558 562 580housing association 509 564 567 573 589 593 595 603all social 468 519 539 553 569 574 578 592

all tenures 421 457 466 474 481 487 498 514

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Section 2 Housing stock | 31

217 There has been a significant increase in the proportion of homes achieving the highest Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands in 2008 10 (23 million) of homes achieved the highest (EER) Bands A to C3 compared with 7 (16 million) in 2006 Table 12 The number of homes in the lowest EER Bands (F and G) fell by a million over the same period The majority of homes (73) continue to be in the EER Bands D or E

Table 12 Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 35 35 77Band C (69-80) 1545 1710 2229Band D (55-68) 6555 7316 7865Band E (39-54) 9072 8859 8310Band F (21-38) 3838 3389 2972Band G (1-20) 943 881 786Total 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 02 02 03Band C (69-80) 70 77 100Band D (55-68) 298 330 354Band E (39-54) 413 399 374Band F (21-38) 175 153 134Band G (1-20) 43 40 35Total 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 2006 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Housing health and safety rating system

218 A potentially serious (Category 1) hazard as measured under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System was present in around 48 million homes in 2008 22 of the housing stock

2 EER Bands are used in the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) The Certificate provides among other indicators an energy efficiency rating for the home on a scale from A-G (where A is the most efficient and G the least efficient)

32 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Housing conditions

Housing Health and Safety Rating System219 There was no significant change in the proportion of homes with any Category

1 hazard between 2006 and 2008 Hazards tend to be more common in older housing stock for example stairs are more likely to be steep and narrow in older housing making lsquofalls on stairsrsquo more likely or heating and insulation measures tend to be less effective in older stock making lsquoexcess coldrsquo a more serious hazard Therefore it is not surprising that hazards are more common in the private sector where the older housing stock is concentrated Almost a quarter of housing in the private sector had at least one category 1 hazard in 2008 (24) compared to around 13 in the social sector Table 14 Privately rented homes were most likely to have Category 1 hazards present compared to housing association homes (31 and 13 respectively)

220 The most common type of hazard in all four tenures was falls (see annex Table 10 for details of which hazards are included in this category) Overall 13 of homes have at least one type of falls hazard present

Decent homes221 In 2008 74 million homes (33) were non-decent4 Table 13 Housing

association housing was the least likely to be non-decent (23) while private rented housing was in the worst condition with 44 of homes being non-decent Overall social sector homes were in a better condition than private sector homes with 27 being non-decent compared to 34

222 The number of non-decent homes fell from 77 million in 2006 to 74 million in 20085 Conditions in the social sector improved with the proportion of homes failing the standard falling by two percentage points from 29 in 2006 to 27 in 2008 Private sector homes also improved from 36 non-decent in 2006 to 34 non-decent in 2008

4 Estimates from the EHS are based soley on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors subject to any limitations of the information they collect The EHS estimates in this report do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property

5 In 2006 the Housing Health and Safety Rating System replaced the Fitness Standard as the statutory minimum standard for housing Earlier estimates based on the original definition are not comparable therefore any change in the number of decent homes can only be referenced back to 2006 Figures for decent homes prior to 2006 can be found in the 2006 English House Condition Survey Annual Report available at wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

Section 2 Housing stock | 33

Table 13 Non-decent homes by tenure 2006 ndash 2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5335 5304 4842private rented 1223 1244 1449all private 6558 6548 6291

local authority 676 652 625housing association 465 486 444all social 1142 1138 1069

all tenures 7700 7686 7360

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 346 341 323private rented 468 454 440all private 363 358 344

local authority 324 328 315housing association 252 255 228all social 290 292 272

all tenures 350 346 331

Notes1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties between 2007 and 2008 are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates See Annex Table 11Sources2006 ndash 2007 English House Condition Survey2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Reasons for failing decent homes223 Of the four components required to meet the decent homes standard the

presence of one or more category 1 hazards under the HHSRS was the most commonly failed Table 14 This is particularly the case for private sector homes where 24 of homes had one or more Category 1 hazards present compared to 13 of social sector homes

34 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 14 Homes failing decent homes criteria by tenure 2008

all dwellings

Category 1 hazard (HHSRS)

thermal comfort

modern facilities repair all non-decent

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 3342 1773 379 817 4842private rented 978 637 160 369 1449all private 4320 2411 539 1186 6291

local authority 298 227 138 146 625housing association 224 199 50 86 444all social 522 426 188 231 1069

all tenures 4842 2837 727 1417 7360

percentages

owner occupied 223 118 25 54 323private rented 297 193 49 112 440all private 236 132 29 65 344

local authority 150 115 70 74 315housing association 115 102 25 44 228all social 133 108 48 59 272

all tenures 218 128 33 64 331

Note The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoids a break in the time series See Annex Table 12 for estimate based on 26 hazardsSource English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

224 There was significant progress in the thermal comfort of homes between 2006 and 2008 The proportion of homes failing thermal comfort fell to 13 in 2008 from 16 in 2006 Improvement has been made across all tenures

Private sector vulnerable households225 In 2008 31 million lsquovulnerablersquo households6 were living in the private sector of

which 12 million (39) were living in non-decent homes the remaining 19 million (61) were living in decent accommodation Table 15 There has been no significant change since 2006

226 Vulnerable households who privately rent their accommodation were more likely to live in non-decent homes compared to social tenants (51 and 26 respectively) Table 15

6 Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

Section 2 Housing stock | 35

Table 15 Households living in decent homes 2006-2008

all dwellings

number (000s) percentage ()

2006 2007 2008 2006 2007 2008

decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 1543 1575 1428 630 649 653private rented 334 354 429 450 482 490all private vulnerable 1877 1929 1857 588 610 606

private non- vulnerableowner occupied 8418 8531 8494 664 667 683private rented 922 985 1246 567 566 588all private non-vulnerable 9340 9516 9740 653 655 669

all owner occupied 9961 10106 9922 658 664 678all private rented 1256 1339 1675 530 541 559all private 11217 11445 11597 641 647 658all social 2690 2649 2798 722 719 740all households 13907 14094 14395 655 659 672

non-decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 905 851 760 370 351 347private rented 408 380 447 550 518 510all private vulnerable 1313 1231 1207 412 390 394

private non-vulnerableowner occupied 4262 4264 3946 336 333 317private rented 704 754 874 433 434 412all private non-vulnerable 4966 5018 4820 347 345 331

all owner occupied 5167 5115 4706 342 336 322all private rented 1112 1134 1321 470 459 441all private 6279 6249 6027 359 353 342

all social 1034 1037 985 278 281 260all households 7313 7286 7012 345 341 328

Notes 1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoid a break in the time series See Annex Table 13 for further detailsSource English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

36 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Damp and mould growth227 The proportion of homes with damp problems has reduced from 13 in 1996

to 8 in 2008 Table 16

Table 16 Number and percentage of homes with damp problems in one or more rooms 1996-2008

all dwellings

rising damp

penetrating damp

condensation mould

any damp problems

thousands of dwellings1996 858 1271 1145 26012001 625 1032 860 20322003 740 1066 1003 22832004 750 1035 951 22512005 759 952 941 22102006 724 886 947 21582007 640 833 881 19162008 584 759 865 1746

percentage of dwellings1996 42 63 56 1282001 29 49 41 962003 34 50 47 1062004 35 48 44 1042005 35 44 43 1012006 33 40 43 982007 29 38 40 862008 26 34 39 78

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

228 Privately rented homes were more likely to experience damp problems compared to other tenures Figure 11 Privately rented homes were more likely to be older homes and experience problems with rising or penetrating damp due to defects in the damp proof course roof covering gutters and down pipes which would affect at least one room in the property

229 In the social sector damp problems were more likely to be caused by serious condensation and mould growth rather than by rising damp Figure 12

Section 2 Housing stock | 37

Figure 12 Percentage of homes with a damp problem by tenure 2008

rising damp penetrating damp condensationmould

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

alltenures

housingassociation

localauthority

privaterented

owneroccupied

per

cen

tage

of

ho

mes

wit

h d

amp

pro

ble

ms

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

38 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex tables

Households

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

Annex Table 2 Economic Status of working age HRP by tenure 2008-09

Energy efficiency

Annex Table 3 Heating Type 1996-2008

Annex Table 4 Main Heating System by tenure 2008

Annex Table 5 Boiler Types 1996-2008

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

Annex Table 8 Cavity Wall insulation by tenure 2008

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

Housing Health and Safety Rating System

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 HHSRS hazards present (comparison of estimates based on any one of 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Non-decent homes in deprived areas

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes in deprived areas by tenure 2006-2008

Annex tables | 39

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent

child(ren)

couple with dependent

child(ren)

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)

other multi-

person households

all one-person

households

all household

types

percentageown outright 46 9 7 24 37 31buying with mortgage 35 66 27 25 23 36social renters 9 13 44 20 25 18private renters 10 12 22 31 15 14

all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 2 Economic status of working age HRP by tenure

all households

working un-employed retired other inactive Total percentage

own outright 74 2 14 10 100buying with mortgage 94 1 1 4 100social renters 49 12 1 37 100private renters 75 5 1 19 100all tenures 80 4 3 13 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 3 Heating type 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingscentral heating 16178 18177 18604 18919 19179 19553 19862 19862storage heater 1643 1600 1587 1616 1609 1532 1552 1641fixed roomportable heater 2515 2001 1294 1078 993 904 776 736Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingscentral heating 796 860 866 875 881 889 895 893storage heater 81 76 74 75 74 70 70 74fixed roomportable heating heater 124 95 60 50 46 41 35 33Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

40 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 4 Main heating system by tenure 2008

all dwellings

central heating storage heaterfixed room

heatingportable

heating only all dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 13788 790 411 19 15007 private rented 2630 441 208 17 3296 all private 16418 1232 619 36 18304

local authority 1776 160 46 2 1984 housing association 1669 249 33 1 1951 all social 3445 409 79 3 3935

all tenures 19862 1641 698 38 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 919 53 27 01 1000 private rented 798 134 63 05 1000 all private 897 67 34 02 1000

local authority 895 80 23 01 1000 housing association 855 128 17 00 1000 all social 875 104 20 01 1000

all tenures 893 74 31 02 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 5 Boiler types 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsstandard boiler 10447 10338 9642 9635 9425 9014 8782 8072back boiler 2773 2759 2580 2409 2181 2131 1944 1688combination boiler 2810 4431 5492 5934 6254 6312 6287 6082condensing boiler ndash 155 154 202 300 460 698 948condensing-combination boiler ndash 318 373 417 727 1297 1837 2773no boiler 4305 3140 3244 3016 2894 2775 2642 2676Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsstandard boiler 514 489 449 446 433 410 396 363back boiler 136 130 120 111 100 97 88 76combination boiler 138 210 256 275 287 287 283 273condensing boiler 00 07 07 09 14 21 31 43condensing-combination boiler 00 15 17 19 33 59 83 125no boiler 212 149 151 140 133 126 119 120Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 41

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

all dwellings

standard boiler

back boiler

combination boiler

condensing boiler

condensing-combination

boilerno

boilerall

dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 6223 1045 3984 713 1756 1286 15007 private rented 817 149 1112 73 429 716 3296 all private 7040 1194 5096 787 2185 2002 18304

local authority 499 271 481 90 335 309 1984 housing association 533 223 505 72 254 365 1951 all social 1032 494 986 162 589 674 3935

all 8072 1688 6082 948 2773 2676 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 415 70 265 48 117 86 1000 private rented 248 45 337 22 130 217 1000 all private 385 65 278 43 119 109 1000

local authority 251 136 242 45 169 156 1000 housing association 273 114 259 37 130 187 1000 all social 262 125 250 41 150 171 1000

all 363 76 273 43 125 120 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 2853 5210 5334 5825 5974 6644 7267 7418200mm or more of loft insulation 583 1256 2034 2530 2919 3520 4258 4685entire house double glazing 6169 10753 11915 12846 13486 13924 14850 15747

all dwellings 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 140 246 248 270 274 302 327 334200mm or more of loft insulation 29 59 95 117 134 160 192 211entire house double glazing 303 509 555 594 619 633 669 708

all dwellings 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

42 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 8 Cavity wall insulation by tenure

all dwellings

cavity with insulation

cavity uninsulated other all

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5161 5483 4364 15007private rented 566 1213 1517 3296private 5727 6696 5882 18304

local authority 834 657 493 1984housing association 857 720 374 1951social 1691 1378 867 3935

total 7418 8073 6749 22239

percentage of dwellingsowner occupied 344 365 291 100private rented 172 368 460 100private 313 366 321 100

local authority 420 331 248 100housing association 439 369 192 100social 430 350 220 100

total 334 363 303 100

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 43

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

all dwellings

no loftno

insulationless than

50mm50 up to

99mm

100 up to

149mm

150 up to

199mm200mm or more

all dwellings

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 748 442 432 3009 5147 2007 3223 15007 private rented 672 175 66 857 813 281 434 3296 private 1420 617 497 3866 5960 2288 3657 18304

local authority 614 33 19 171 471 206 470 1984 housing association 467 20 16 143 482 265 558 1951 social 1081 53 35 314 953 471 1028 3935

total 2501 670 532 4179 6913 2759 4685 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 50 29 29 200 343 134 215 1000private rented 204 53 20 260 247 85 132 1000private 78 34 27 211 326 125 200 1000

local authority 309 17 10 86 237 104 237 1000housing association 239 10 08 73 247 136 286 1000social 275 14 09 80 242 120 261 1000

total 112 30 24 188 311 124 211 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

44 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

hazard presentnumber of homes (000s) each hazard is present in

falling on stairs 2025excess cold 1966falling on level surfaces 788falling between levels 443fire 318

entry by intruders

flames hot surfacesleaddamp and mould growth 50 to 100 eachcollision and entrapmentradiationfalls associated with baths

crowding and space

food safetypersonal hygiene sanitation and drainage 20 to 50 eachnoisedomestic hygiene pests and refuseelectrical hazards

structural collapse and falling elements

water supplycarbon monoxide and fuel combustion productsposition and operability of amenities less thanexcess heat 20 eachlightinguncombusted fuel gasexplosions

any of the 15 hazards 4842

any of the 26 hazards 5039

Note For 2006 and 2007 the survey reported on 15 hazards only The 2008 EHS can provide estimates for 26 hazards - the additional hazards are marked with an asterisk The three remaining hazards not included in the survey are presence of asbestos biocides or volatile organic compounds For reporting purposes HHSRS and non-decent estimates will be based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with previous years and avoid a break in the time seriesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 45

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 4842 4925private rented 1449 1478all private 6291 6403

local authority 625 640housing association 444 464all social 1069 1104

all tenures 7360 7507

percentagesowner occupied 323 328private rented 440 448all private 344 350

local authority 315 323housing association 228 238all social 272 281

all tenures 331 338

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

46 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 hazards present (compariosn of estimates based on any one to the 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 3342 3452private rented 978 1013all private 4320 4465

local authority 298 326RSL 224 248all social 522 574

all tenures 4842 5039

percentagesowner occupied 223 230private rented 297 307all private 236 244

local authority 150 164RSL 115 127all social 133 146

all tenures 218 227

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 47

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all households

15 hazards 26 hazards

number (000s) percentage () number (000s) percentage ()

decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 1428 653 1413 646private rented 429 490 417 476all private vulnerable 1857 606 1830 597 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 8494 683 8425 677private rented 1246 588 1232 581all private non-vulnerable 9740 669 9657 663 all owner occupied 9922 678 9839 673all private rented 1675 559 1648 550all private 11597 658 11487 663all social 2798 740 2766 731

all households 14395 672 14253 666

non-decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 760 347 775 354private rented 447 510 459 524all private vulnerable 1207 394 1234 403 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 3946 317 4015 323private rented 874 412 888 419all private non-vulnerable 4820 331 4903 337 all owner occupied 4706 322 4790 327all private rented 1321 441 1347 450all private 6027 342 6137 348all social 985 260 1017 269

all households 7012 328 7154 334

Note For reporting purposes decent homes estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

48 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes1 by deprived and other districts by tenure 2006-2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsSocial NRF88 662 652 605Other districts 480 486 464 Private NRF88 2544 2621 2442Other districts 4013 3928 3849

percentages of dwellingsSocial NRF88 313 304 278Other districts 264 278 263 Private NRF88 381 380 361Other districts 353 344 333

Note NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving Neighbourhood Renewal Funding 2001-2006Source English House Condition Survey 2006-2007English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub sample)

Technical annex | 49

Technical annex

General description

The survey consists of three main elements an initial interview survey of 17700 households with a follow up physical inspection and a desk based market valuation of a sub-sample of 8000 of these dwellings including vacant dwellings The interview survey sample forms part of ONSrsquos Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the core questions from the IHS form part of the EHS questionnaire More information about the IHS is available from its webpage wwwstatisticsgovukCCInuggetaspID=936ampPos=1ampColRank=1ampRank=224

The EHS interview content covers the key topics included under the former SEH and EHCS The content of the physical and market value components remains very largely unchanged from the former EHCS

Sampling and grossing

2008-09 Sample1 The initial sample for 2008-09 consisted of 32100 addresses drawn as a systematic

random sample from the Postcode Address File (small users) Interviews were attempted at all of these addresses over the course of the survey year from April 2008 to March 2009 A proportion of addresses were found not to be valid residential properties (eg demolished properties secondholiday homes small businesses not yet built)

2 Of the 17691 addresses where interviews were achieved (the lsquofull household samplersquo) all social rented properties and a sub-sample of private properties were regarded as eligible for the physical survey and the respondentrsquos consent was sought A proportion of vacant properties were also sub-sampled Physical surveys were completed in 7972 cases and these cases contribute to the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo (see below)

3 The principal differences in sampling methodology between the EHS and its predecessors the SEH and EHCS are that

bull The EHS uses an unclustered sample This enables a smaller sample to be used with no loss of precision ie without sampling errors being increased The more scattered sample does however have some implications for fieldwork organisation

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 5: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

Acknowledgements | 5

Acknowledgements

The launch of the English Housing Survey (EHS) has been dependent on a number of people and organisations involved in the initial feasibility work and the surveyrsquos subsequent design management data collection processing and analysis Communities and Local Government would like to thank in particular

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) who undertook initial development work on the household questionnaire and sample design

ONS manages the EHS on behalf of the Department and undertakes the household interviews and the subsequent data validation and creation of derived analytical measures It also has responsibility for the sampling and weighting of the datasets and for the running of the Market Value Survey and is involved in the production of tables and analytical reports

ONS work in partnership with Miller Mitchell Burley Lane (MMBL) who undertake the visual inspection of the properties MMBL employ and manage a large field force of professional surveyors who work in close co-operation with the ONS interviewers to maximise response rates and deliver high quality data

The Building Research Establishment (BRE) which is the development partner of the Department for the EHS BRE helps develop the physical survey questionnaire and surveyor training materials and delivers the surveyor training sessions BRE has also had responsibility for developing and implementing a new automated data collection and validation process for the physical survey It is involved in analysing the data and developing and running models to create key measures and analytical variables for the survey and reporting the findings

The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) who provide market valuations for a sub-sample of the EHS properties and information on the local area and housing market

The interviewers and surveyors who collect information from households and carry out the visual inspection

The households who take part in the survey

Communities and Local Government staff who manage and work on the survey

6 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Introduction

1 In April 2008 the English House Condition Survey was integrated with the Survey of English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS) This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey

2 The report is split into two sections

Section 1Focuses on the profile of households including trends in tenures household type and economic status of households It also covers the buying aspirations of renters overcrowding and under-occupation recent movers and satisfaction with home and local area

Section 2Provides an overview of the housing stock in England including the age size and type of home and presents measures of living conditions This includes energy efficiency of the housing stock decent homes the Housing Health and Safety Rating System and homes affected by damp and mould

3 There are a number of additional tables presented in an annex which provide further detail to that covered in the main body of the report

4 More detailed results will be published in annual reporting later in the year A full technical report will also be made available

5 Results for households (not in relation to the physical condition of the home) are presented for 2008-09 and are based on fieldwork carried out between April 08 and March 09 of a sample of 17691 households This is referred to as the lsquofull household samplersquo throughout the report

6 Results which relate to the physical dwelling are presented for 2008 and are based on fieldwork carried out between April 2007 and March 2009 (a mid-point of April 2008) The sample comprises of 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where a physical inspection was carried out and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured This is referred to as the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo throughout the report More details on the samples underpinning the reportrsquos findings are provided in the Technical annex

7 Caution needs to be exercised in interpreting some details as differences may not always be statistically significant The text draws attention only to differences that are significantly different at the 95 confidence level

Introduction | 7

8 The EHS has three component surveys a household interview followed by a physical inspection and a market value survey of a sub sample of the properties The sampling and grossing design of the EHS differs in some ways from the surveys it replaced these changes are summarised in the Technical annex at the end of this report

9 Information on the English Housing Survey can be accessed via this link wwwcommunitiesgovukhousinghousingresearchhousingsurveys

10 Information and past reports on the Survey of English Housing and the English House Condition Survey can also be accessed via this link

11 If you have any queries about this report or would like any further information please contact ehscommunitiesgsigovuk

8 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Key findings

bull There was a decrease in the number of owner occupied households from a peak of 148 million in 2005 and 2006 to 146 million in 2008-09 In contrast the number of households renting privately rose by one million since 2001 from 21 million to 31 million in 2008-09

bull Couples with no dependent children were the most common type of household (36) and the most common type of owner occupiers (42) in 2008-09 Amongst renters one-person households were the most common 41 of social renters and 30 of private renters

bull Over half (59) of all private renters expected to eventually buy a home in the UK compared to only around a quarter (27) of social renters Of those who did expect to buy 24 of private renters and 10 of social renters expected to buy within the next two years

bull Overcrowding was highest in the rented sectors 67 of social rented households and 54 of private rented households were overcrowded as measured by the bedroom standard In contrast only 16 of owner occupiers were overcrowded

bull The energy efficiency of homes continued to improve with the average SAP rating increasing from 42 to 51 between 1996 and 2008 Not only were social sector homes more energy efficient than those in the private sector (59 and 49 respectively) but they have seen greatest improvement since 1996 with the average SAP rating increasing from 47 to 59

bull A potentially serious (Category 1) hazard as measured under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System was present in around 48 million homes in 2008 22 of the housing stock

bull Some 74 million homes (33) were non-decent in 2008 Overall social sector homes were in a better condition than private sector homes with 27 being non-decent compared to 34

bull In 2008 31 million lsquovulnerablersquo householdsrsquo1 were living in the private sector of which 12 million (39) were living in non-decent homes the remaining 19 million (61) were living in decent accommodation

1 Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

Section 1 Households | 9

Section 1Households

11 Results for households (not in relation to the physical condition of the home) are presented for 2008-09 and are based on fieldwork carried out between April 2008 and March 2009 of a sample of 17691 households This is referred to as the lsquofull household samplersquo throughout the report

Trends in tenure

12 In 2008-09 there were an estimated 215 million households in England Owner occupation was the largest tenure accounting for 679 of all households but this has declined from a high of 709 in 2003 Social renting was the second largest tenure in 2008-09 representing 178 of all households this share having remained stable over recent years The smallest tenure private renting has seen a surge in the past few years It accounted for 142 of households in 2008-09 compared to a share of only 10 in 2001

13 Table 1 shows the number and proportion of households by tenure since 2001 with estimates prior to 2008-09 based on Labour Force Survey data Labour Force Survey data has been used for the main tenure estimates and trends in recent years in all Survey of English Housing (SEH) reports and Live Tables This was because the LFS had a much larger sample size than the SEH and this provided more robust overall estimates of households by tenure The EHS grossing methodology uses the LFS tenure distribution and therefore there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution

14 Despite the significant fall in owner occupation as a proportion of all households 679 the actual number of owner occupiers in England has declined only slightly from 148 million in 2005 to 146 million in 2008-09 The number of households renting privately has risen by around one million since 2001 from 21 million to 31 million

10 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 1 Trends in tenure 2001 to 2008-09 England

all households

owner occupiers

ownoutright

buying witha mortgage

all owner occupiers

social renters

private renters

all households

thousands of households2001 5885 8473 14358 3983 2062 204032002 6019 8540 14559 3972 2131 206622003 6158 8542 14701 3804 2234 207392004 6288 8389 14677 3797 2284 207582005 6352 8440 14791 3696 2445 209322006 6425 8365 14790 3736 2566 210922007 6505 8228 14733 3755 2691 211782008 6653 7975 14628 3797 2982 21407 2008-09 6770 7851 14621 3842 3067 21530

percentages2001 288 415 704 195 101 1002002 291 413 705 192 103 1002003 297 412 709 183 108 1002004 303 404 707 183 110 1002005 303 403 707 177 117 1002006 305 397 701 177 122 1002007 307 389 696 177 127 1002008 311 373 683 177 139 100 2008-09 314 365 679 178 142 100

Note data for years prior to 2001 can be found in table S101 wwwcommunitiesgovukdocumentshousingxls139262xls Tenure trends based on SEH annual data for 1993-94 to 2007-08 are available in Fifteen years of the Survey of English Housingwwwcommunitiesgovukdocumentsstatisticspdf1346239pdfSources2001 to 2008 ONS Labour Force Survey2008-09 English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

15 Figure 1 shows the trend in tenure back to 1980 Owner occupation rose steadily throughout the 1980s and at a lesser rate throughout the 1990s The level of private renting saw little change throughout the 1980s and early 1990s but has since increased to around 31 million in 2008-09 In 1980 54 million households were social renters but by 2008-09 this had decreased to 38 million

Section 1 Households | 11

Figure 1 Trend in tenure 1980 to 2008ndash09

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

2008

-09

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

1997

1996

1995

1994

1993

1992

1991

1990

1989

1988

1987

1986

1985

1984

1983

1982

1981

1980

owner occupierssocial rentersprivate renters

mill

ion

ho

use

ho

lds

Source 1980 to 2008 ONS Labour Force Survey 2008ndash09 English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Household type

16 Couples with no dependent children were the most common type of household in 2008-09 (36) These households were also the most common type of owner occupiers Amongst renters one-person households were the most common 41 of social renters and 30 of private renters Although only 7 of households overall were lone parents with dependent children there was a noticeable difference by tenure 17 of social renters 11 of private renters and 3 of owner occupiers (see Table 2)

12 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 2 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent child(ren)1

couple with dependent child(ren)1

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)1

other multi-

person households 1 male 1 female

all household

types

thousands of householdsown outright 3538 424 103 396 769 1541 6770buying with mortgage 2670 2971 405 402 791 612 7851all owner occupiers 6208 3395 508 798 1560 2153 14621 local authority 333 287 331 177 342 417 1887housing association 352 299 341 151 354 458 1955all social renters 685 587 672 328 696 875 3842 private renters 764 535 333 514 582 339 3067 all tenures 7657 4516 1514 1640 2838 3366 21530

percentagesown outright 52 6 2 6 11 23 100buying with mortgage 34 38 5 5 10 8 100all owner occupiers 42 23 3 5 11 15 100 local authority 18 15 18 9 18 22 100housing association 18 15 17 8 18 23 100all social renters 18 15 17 9 18 23 100 private renters 25 17 11 17 19 11 100 all tenures 36 21 7 8 13 16 100

Note 1) These categories can also include non-dependent childrenSource English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

17 Figure 2 shows each household type split by tenure An estimated 66 of couples with dependent children were buying with a mortgage 13 were social renters 12 were private renters and 9 owned outright The tenure split for lone parents with dependent children was quite different with only 27 buying with a mortgage whilst 44 were social renters 22 were private renters and 7 owned outright

Section 1 Households | 13

Figure 2 Household type by tenure 2008-09p

erce

nta

ge

private renterssocial rentersbuying with mortgageown outright

allhousehold

types

allone-personhouseholds

othermulti-personhouseholds

lone parentwith

dependentchild(ren)

couple withdependentchild(ren)

couple nodependentchild(ren)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sampleNote underlying data is presented in annex table 1

Economic status

18 In 2008-09 91 of household reference persons (HRP)2 who were buying with a mortgage were working 85 full-time and 6 part-time Around 60 of outright owners were retired compared to only 9 of private renters In the social rented sector over half the household reference persons were economically inactive with 31 retired and 26 lsquoother inactiversquo (such as long-term sickness or disability or lone parent)

2 see glossary for definition

14 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 3 Economic status of household reference person by tenure 2008-09

all households

economic status of HRP

full time work

part-time work

un-employed retired

other inactive all

thousands of householdsown outright 1777 570 54 4079 290 6770buying with mortgage 6679 470 101 312 290 7851all owner occupiers 8456 1040 155 4390 580 14621 local authority 444 203 172 566 503 1887housing association 489 182 152 643 488 1955all social renters 933 385 324 1209 991 3842 all private renters 1874 262 143 274 514 3067 all tenures 11263 1687 622 5873 2085 21530

percentagesown outright 26 8 1 60 4 100buying with mortgage 85 6 1 4 4 100all owner occupiers 58 7 1 30 4 100 local authority 24 11 9 30 27 100housing association 25 9 8 33 25 100all social renters 24 10 8 31 26 100 all private renters 61 9 5 9 17 100 all tenures 52 8 3 27 10 100Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

19 Table 3 shows the economic status of all householders Figure 3 shows the economic status of those of working age ndash men aged under 65 and women aged under 60 Within this group 94 of those buying with a mortgage were working compared to only 49 of those who were social renters Unemployment was highest in the social rented sector 12 compared to 5 of private renters and only 1 of owner occupiers

110 There was also a much higher proportion of lsquoother inactiversquo amongst working age social renters than those in other tenures 37 compared to 19 of private renters 10 of outright owners and 4 of mortgagors

Section 1 Households | 15

Figure 3 Economic status of working age HRPs 2008-09

other inactiveretiredunemployedworking

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

alltenures

privaterenters

socialrenters

buying withmortgage

ownoutright

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sampleNote underlying data is presented in annex table 2

Age of household reference person by tenure

111 Owner occupation is the most common tenure in England In 2008-09 there were 68 million households that owned outright and 78 million buying with a mortgage Around three-quarters of mortgagors were aged between 35 and 64 with only 3 aged 65 or over Outright owners the majority of whom were likely to have once had a mortgage and paid it off were concentrated in the older age groups 6 were aged under 45 Overall 32 of owner occupiers were in the 16 to 44 age range

112 Around half (51) of householders aged 25 to 34 were owners 17 were social renters and 31 were private renters Within the 35 to 44 age group the proportions of social and private renters were very similar 17 and 16 respectively and 67 of householders in this age group were owners

113 Over 80 of private renters were aged under 55 with only 8 aged 65 or over By contrast 28 of owner occupiers and 29 of social renters were aged 65 or over

16 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 4 Age of household reference person by tenure 2008-09

all households

age of HRP

16 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54 55 - 64 65 or over all ages

thousands of householdsown outright 9 87 329 759 1752 3833 6770buying with mortgage 114 1562 2619 2237 1071 249 7851all owner occupiers 123 1649 2948 2996 2823 4082 14621 local authority 123 306 373 318 244 523 1887housing association 112 254 385 349 256 599 1955all social renters 235 560 757 667 501 1122 3842 private renters 497 995 686 380 252 257 3067 all tenures 855 3203 4392 4043 3576 5461 21530

percentage within tenureown outright 0 1 5 11 26 57 100buying with mortgage 1 20 33 28 14 3 100all owner occupiers 1 11 20 20 19 28 100 local authority 7 16 20 17 13 28 100housing association 6 13 20 18 13 31 100all social renters 6 15 20 17 13 29 100 private renters 16 32 22 12 8 8 100 all tenures 4 15 20 19 17 25 100

percentage within age groupown outright 1 3 7 19 49 70 31buying with mortgage 13 49 60 55 30 5 36all owner occupiers 14 51 67 74 79 75 68 local authority 14 10 8 8 7 10 9housing association 13 8 9 9 7 11 9all social renters 27 17 17 17 14 21 18 private renters 58 31 16 9 7 5 14 all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Section 1 Households | 17

Figure 4 Age of household reference person by tenure 2008ndash09

per

cen

tage

private renterssocial rentersbuying with mortgageown outright

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

65 or over 55ndash64 45ndash54 35ndash44

age of HRP

25ndash34 16ndash24

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Buying expectations of renters

114 In 2008-09 27 of social renters expected to eventually become homeowners compared to 59 of private renters Of those who did expect to buy 44 of social renters expected to buy their current accommodation compared to only 13 of private renters

18 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 5 Buying aspirations of social and private renters 2008-09

all renters

social renters private renters

percentagesWill eventually buy or share home in UK yes 27 59no 73 41All 100 100

Expect to buy current accommodation (all who expect to buy) yes 44 13no 56 87All 100 100

When expect to buy (all who expect to buy) Less than a yearrsquos time 3 81 year but less than 2 years 7 162 years but less than 5 years 25 345 years or more 65 42All 100 100

Note Expectations to buy include shared ownershipSource English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

115 An estimated 24 of private renters expecting to buy (14 of all private renters) thought that they would buy within the next two years This proportion had fallen from 34 in 2006-07 (see Figure 5) whilst the proportion expecting to buy in five or more yearsrsquo time had risen from 35 to 42 over this period These changes suggest that private renters now expect to rent for longer before being in a position to buy perhaps due to affordability issues

Figure 5 Trend in expected time to buying ndash private renters expecting to buy eventually

per

cen

tage

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

2008-09 2007-082006-07

5 years or more2 years but less than 5lt2 years

Note based on those private renters who expect to buy eventuallySource English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Section 1 Households | 19

Overcrowding and under-occupation

116 Levels of overcrowding are measured using the ldquobedroom standardrdquo (see definition in Glossary) Essentially this is the difference between the number of bedrooms needed to avoid undesirable sharing (given the number and ages of household members and their relationships to each other) and the number of bedrooms actually available to the household

117 The previous estimates of overcrowding were based on three-year moving averages from the Survey of English Housing for 2005-06 2006-07 and 2007-08 The reason for having to base estimates on a three-year average was that with fewer than 3 per cent of households overcrowded the sample size for a single year was too small to provide reliable annual estimates However for 2008-09 in addition to the EHS sample of 17700 households we have information from a further 95000 households that were interviewed for the ONS Labour Force Survey This combined sample was sufficiently large to deliver robust single year estimates for 2008-09 without the need to carry forward the three-year average series

Table 6 Overcrowding and under-occupation by tenure 2008-09

all households

difference from bedroom standard

overcrowded at standardone above

standardunder-

occupied total

thousands of householdsowner occupiers 231 2117 5416 6855 14620

social renters 258 2032 1121 430 3841

private renters 164 1312 1095 494 3066

all tenures 654 5462 7633 7779 21527

percentagesowner occupiers 16 145 370 469 100

social renters 67 529 292 112 100

private renters 54 428 357 161 100

all tenures 30 254 355 361 100

Notes Details of the bedroom standard can be found in the GlossarySource English Housing Survey - full household sample and ONS Labour Force Survey

118 The overall rate of overcrowding in England for 2008-09 was 30 (see Table 6) This compares to the previously published estimate of 28 (averaged over the period 2005-06 to 2007-08) There were around 654000 overcrowded households (compared to an average of 570000 over the period 2005-06 to 2007-08) Levels of overcrowding varied considerably by tenure and were lowest in the owner occupied sector at 16 up from 14 for the period 2005-06 to 2007-08 Around 67 of social renters were overcrowded and 54 of private renters compared to 59 and 49 respectively for 2005-06 to 2007-08

20 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

119 Although the overall rate of overcrowding has shown little change in recent years this is largely due to the relatively stable rate of overcrowding in the owner occupied sector the largest tenure Over the past decade overcrowding has been rising in both the rented sectors

Figure 6 Trend in overcrowding rates by tenure 1995-96 to 2008-09 (3 year moving average)

private renters social rentersowner occupiers all tenures

per

cen

tage

of

ho

use

ho

lds

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

2008

-09

2007

-08

2006

-07

2005

-06

2004

-05

2003

-04

2002

-03

2001

-02

2000

-01

1999

-00

1998

-99

1997

-98

1996

-97

1995

-96

Source Survey of English Housing to 2007-08 and combined English Housing Survey (full sample) plus Labour Force Survey for 2008-09 The estimates up to 2007-08 are three-year moving averages so the ldquo2007-08rdquo figure is actually the average of 2005-06 2006-07 and 2007-08 Since the 2008-09 estimates are for that year only a gap has been introduced to separate the three-year averages to 2007-08 from the annual estimates for 2008-09

120 Around 78 million households were estimated to be under-occupying their accommodation in 2008-09 that is they had at least two bedrooms more than they needed (see definition of bedroom standard in Glossary) Under-occupation was far more likely to be found in the owner occupied sector than in the rented sectors 47 of owner occupiers were under-occupying accommodation compared to 11 of social renters and 16 of private renters

Recent movers

121 In this section we look at those households that had been in their current accommodation for less than 12 months at the time of interview

Section 1 Households | 21

Table 7 Previous tenure by current tenure 2008-09

HRPs resident less than a year

previous tenure ndash continuing households

current tenurenew

householdowner

occupierssocial

rentersprivate renters all tenures

thousands of householdsoutright owners 4 83 0 12 99buying with mortgage 68 204 13 131 416all owner occupiers 72 287 13 144 515

local authority 20 13 76 20 129housing association 24 9 105 38 177all social renters 44 23 181 58 306

private renters 229 141 47 686 1103

all tenures 345 450 241 887 1924

percentageoutright owners 4 84 0 13 100buying with mortgage 16 49 3 32 100all owner occupiers 14 56 3 28 100

local authority 15 10 59 15 100housing association 14 5 59 22 100all social renters 15 7 59 19 100

private renters 21 13 4 62 100

all tenures 18 23 13 46 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

122 Around 18 of households that had moved into their accommodation in the previous year were new households Two thirds (66) of these new households were private renters and around one fifth (21) were owner occupiers Movement within tenure was more common than moves between tenures 62 of current private renters had previously been private renters 59 of social renters had moved from another social rented property and 56 of owner occupiers had owned their previous property Movement into the social rented sector for continuing households was more likely to be from private renting (19 of current social renters) than from owner occupation (7)

22 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Attitudes to home and local area

123 Around 90 of households in England were satisfied with their accommodation in 2008-09 The highest levels of satisfaction were expressed by outright owners 73 of whom said that they were very satisfied with their homes Over three quarters of social renters were satisfied with their homes but 9 were slightly dissatisfied and 7 were very dissatisfied Around 82 of private renters were very or fairly satisfied with their accommodation and only 3 said they were very dissatisfied

Table 8 Satisfaction with accommodation by tenure 2008-09

all households

very satisfied

fairly satisfied

neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

slightly dissatisfied

very dissatisfied Total

thousands of householdsoutright owners 4926 1535 111 100 36 6709buying with mortgage 4604 2719 232 200 55 7810all owneroccupiers 9530 4254 343 300 91 14519

local authority 697 736 98 192 142 1866housing association 842 700 116 159 117 1935all social renters 1539 1437 214 351 260 3801

private renters 1240 1211 193 227 102 2972

all tenures 12309 6901 751 878 452 21291

percentagesoutright owners 73 23 2 1 1 100buying with mortgage 59 35 3 3 1 100all owneroccupiers 66 29 2 2 1 100

local authority 37 39 5 10 8 100housing association 44 36 6 8 6 100all social renters 40 38 6 9 7 100

private renters 42 41 6 8 3 100

all tenures 58 32 4 4 2 100

Note This question is not asked of proxy respondents and a small proportion of respondents chose not to answer These exclusions are reflected in the overall total number of households in this table Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

124 A large majority of households are satisfied with the local area in which they live In 2008-09 just over half of all households in England were very satisfied with their local area and 87 were very or fairly satisfied Only 3 of households were very dissatisfied with their local area

Section 1 Households | 23

125 There were some differences by tenure 89 of owner occupiers were satisfied with their local area compared to 79 of social renters and 85 of private renters Whilst only two per cent of owner occupiers and private renters said that they were very dissatisfied with their local area seven per cent of social renters were very dissatisfied

Table 9 Satisfaction with local area by tenure 2008-09

all households

very satisfied

fairly satisfied

neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

slightly dissatisfied

very dissatisfied Total

thousands of householdsoutright owners 3999 2093 180 322 114 6708buying with mortgage 3919 2973 371 420 127 7810all owners 7918 5066 552 742 241 14518

local authority 754 712 122 159 122 1867housing association 861 679 116 150 129 1936all social renters 1615 1391 238 309 251 3803

private renters 1520 1001 183 194 73 2972

all tenures 11052 7458 972 1245 565 21293

percentagesoutright owners 60 31 3 5 2 100buying with mortgage 50 38 5 5 2 100all owners 55 35 4 5 2 100

local authority 40 38 7 9 7 100housing association 44 35 6 8 7 100all social renters 42 37 6 8 7 100

private renters 51 34 6 7 2 100

all tenures 52 35 5 6 3 100

Note This question is not asked of proxy respondents and a small proportion of respondents chose not to answer These exclusions are reflected in the overall total number of households in this table Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

24 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Section 2Housing stock

21 Results relating to the housing stock in this report are presented using two yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the English House Condition Survey (EHCS) For this transition year data from the last full year of the EHCS (2007-08) were combined with the first year of the EHS (2008-09)

22 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Stock profile

23 There were around 222 million dwellings in 2008 Table 10 Of these 183 million (82 of the stock) were in the private sector and comprised 150 million owner occupied homes and 33 million private rented homes There were 39 million social sector homes (18 of the stock) of which two million were owned by local authority and two million by housing associations

Section 2 Housing stock | 25

Table 10 Stock profile 2008

all dwellings

private sector social sector

owner occupied

private rented

all private sector

local authority

housing association

all social sector

all dwellings

in group

thousands of dwellingsdwelling agepre 1919 3194 1309 4503 86 170 257 47601919-44 2689 431 3120 336 187 522 36421945-64 2708 384 3092 760 511 1271 43631965-80 3146 536 3682 665 467 1132 48141981-90 1401 222 1624 107 223 330 1953post 1990 1869 415 2284 30 394 424 2708

dwelling typemid terrace 2638 820 3459 325 367 693 4151end terrance 1440 340 1779 199 222 421 2201small terraced house 1216 548 1764 192 217 408 2172mediumlarge terraced house 2862 612 3475 333 373 705 4180all terrace 4078 1160 5238 524 589 1114 6352semi-detached house 4515 556 5070 365 351 716 5786detached house 3575 267 3843 5 18 24 3867bungalow 1548 133 1681 176 236 412 2092converted flat 284 427 712 38 75 113 825purpose built flat low rise 926 704 1630 724 626 1349 2979purpose built flat high rise 81 49 130 152 56 208 338

floor arealess than 50 sqm 742 652 1394 550 536 1086 248050 to 69 sqm 2913 1028 3942 725 680 1405 534770 to 89 sqm 4361 890 5251 575 553 1127 637990 to 109 sqm 2632 322 2954 102 132 234 3188110 sqm or more 4359 403 4763 32 52 83 4846

type of areacity centre 295 262 558 72 75 147 704other urban centre 2263 967 3230 538 458 996 4227suburban residential 9204 1581 10785 1236 1171 2407 13192rural residential 2074 233 2307 105 190 295 2601village centre 647 110 756 26 47 72 829rural 524 144 668 7 11 19 687

deprived local areasmost deprived 10 773 325 1097 595 468 1064 21612-5th 5331 1518 6849 1121 1025 2145 89956-9th 7072 1188 8260 249 423 672 8932least deprived 1832 266 2097 19 36 54 2152

occupancy statusoccupied 14610 2858 17468 1896 1860 3755 21223vacant 398 438 836 88 92 180 1016

Total 15007 3296 18304 1984 1951 3935 22239

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

26 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

24 The large majority of dwellings were houses (181 million) most commonly terraced or semi-detached The remainder of the stock 41 million consisited of flats predominately purpose built low rise flats However types of housing vary markedly between tenures While 91 of owner occupied housing was made up of houses almost half (46) of local authority homes were flats Figure 7 Flats also accounted for over a third of private rented homes and housing association homes (36 and 39 respectively)

Figure 7 Dwelling type by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

purpose built flat high risepurpose built flat low riseconverted flatdetached houses and bungalowssemi-detached housemediumlarge terraced housesmall terraced house

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

25 England has a relatively old housing stock with some 84 million homes built before 1945 of which 48 million were built before 1919 A fifth of homes (47 million) have been built since 1980

26 Stock in different tenures have different age profiles It is noticeable that owner occupied homes are evenly distributed across the five age bands compared with other tenures Figure 8 In the private rented sector for example 40 (13 million homes) were built before 1919 significantly higher than other tenures Housing association homes were more likely to have been built during the 1980s and 1990s (32) compared to only 7 of local authority homes

Section 2 Housing stock | 27

Figure 8 Age of housing stock by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

post 19901981-901965-801945-641919-44pre 1919

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

27 Some 44 million (29) of owner occupied homes had a floor area greater than 110m2 including 18 million (12 of the sector) which were over 150m2 This reflects the proportion of semi-detached and detached owner occupied homes which tend to be large Social sector homes were most likely to have a floor area of less than 50m2 compared with those in the private sector (28 and 8 respectively)

28 Homes in England were most likely to be located in suburban residential areas and least likely to be found in rural areas (59 and 3 respectively)

Energy efficiency of the housing stock

Heating and insulation29 Key ways of increasing the energy efficiency of existing homes are

improvements to their heating systems and levels of insulation For heating the type of heating system boiler in use and the fuel used are all related to energy performance

210 Central heating is the predominant main heating system present in 199 million homes (89 of the housing stock) in 2008 see Annex Table 3 This was followed by storage heaters present in 16 million (7) of homes and room heaters in 700000 homes (3) Central heating is generally considered to be the most cost effective and relatively efficient method of heating whereas room heaters tend to be the least cost effective and relatively inefficient method of heating

28 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

211 In 2008 92 of owner occupied homes had central heating systems compared to 88 of social and 80 of private rented homes see Annex Table 4 In part this reflects the higher proportion of flats in the rented sectors compared with owner occupation with 23 of flats using storage heaters

212 Condensing boilers are generally the most efficient boiler type and are now mandatory for new and replacement boilers (for gas fired boilers since 2005 for oil fired boilers since 2007) However even prior to these requirements the less efficient standard and back boilers were decreasing in use with the growing popularity of standard combination types Figure 9 Recent years have seen rapidly expanding take up of condensing and particularly combination condensing boilers In 2008 37 million homes (17 of the stock) had one of the two types of condensing boilers

Figure 9 Boiler types 1996-2008

no boiler

condensing-combination boiler condensing boilercombination boilerback boiler (to fire or stove)standard boiler (floor or wall)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

20082007200620052004200320011996

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes underpinning data is presented in Annex Table 5Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

213 For a home to provide optimum energy performance a high level of thermal insulation needs to be present alongside an efficient heating system Standard insulation measures include cavity wall insulation loft insulation and double glazing which have all improved in the stock since 1996 Figure 10

214 In 2008 155 million homes (70) had external walls of cavity construction 74 million homes (33 of the stock) had cavity wall insulation 47 million homes (21) had 200mm or more of loft insulation and 157 million homes (71) had full double glazing with an additional 29 million homes (13) having more than half double glazed Figure 10

Section 2 Housing stock | 29

Figure 10 Insulation measures 1996-2008

20082007200620052004200320011996

entire housedouble glazing

200mm or moreof loft insulation

cavity walls withinsulation

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes1) Only 89 of dwellings have lofts and 70 of dwellings have cavity walls2) Underpinning data is presented in annex Table 7Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

215 In 2008 the social rented sector had the greatest proportion of homes with cavity wall insulation (local authority 42 housing association 44) 200mm or more of loft insulation (local authority 24 housing association 29) and full double glazing (local authority 75 housing association 83) whereas the private rented sector had the lowest proportion of all three standard insulation measures cavity wall insulation (17) 200mm or more of loft insulation (13) and full double glazing (61) Figure 11

30 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Figure 11 Percentage of dwellings with efficient insulation measures by tenure 2008

full double glazing200mm or moreloft insulation

cavity withinsulation

cavity wall

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

housing associationlocal authorityprivate rentedowner occupied0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Base all dwellingsSource English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

SAP Rating

216 The energy efficiency of the housing stock continued to improve between 1996 and 2008 the average SAP rating of a home increased by 9 SAP points from 42 to 51 Table 11 The social sector was on average more energy efficient than the private sector and saw the greatest improvement with the average SAP rating increasing by 12 SAP points from 47 to 59

Table 11 Energy efficiency average SAP rating by tenure 2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

owner occupied 411 444 450 456 461 469 481 496private rented 379 419 444 457 460 466 481 502all private 407 441 449 456 461 468 481 497

local authority 457 496 520 539 553 558 562 580housing association 509 564 567 573 589 593 595 603all social 468 519 539 553 569 574 578 592

all tenures 421 457 466 474 481 487 498 514

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Section 2 Housing stock | 31

217 There has been a significant increase in the proportion of homes achieving the highest Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands in 2008 10 (23 million) of homes achieved the highest (EER) Bands A to C3 compared with 7 (16 million) in 2006 Table 12 The number of homes in the lowest EER Bands (F and G) fell by a million over the same period The majority of homes (73) continue to be in the EER Bands D or E

Table 12 Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 35 35 77Band C (69-80) 1545 1710 2229Band D (55-68) 6555 7316 7865Band E (39-54) 9072 8859 8310Band F (21-38) 3838 3389 2972Band G (1-20) 943 881 786Total 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 02 02 03Band C (69-80) 70 77 100Band D (55-68) 298 330 354Band E (39-54) 413 399 374Band F (21-38) 175 153 134Band G (1-20) 43 40 35Total 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 2006 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Housing health and safety rating system

218 A potentially serious (Category 1) hazard as measured under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System was present in around 48 million homes in 2008 22 of the housing stock

2 EER Bands are used in the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) The Certificate provides among other indicators an energy efficiency rating for the home on a scale from A-G (where A is the most efficient and G the least efficient)

32 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Housing conditions

Housing Health and Safety Rating System219 There was no significant change in the proportion of homes with any Category

1 hazard between 2006 and 2008 Hazards tend to be more common in older housing stock for example stairs are more likely to be steep and narrow in older housing making lsquofalls on stairsrsquo more likely or heating and insulation measures tend to be less effective in older stock making lsquoexcess coldrsquo a more serious hazard Therefore it is not surprising that hazards are more common in the private sector where the older housing stock is concentrated Almost a quarter of housing in the private sector had at least one category 1 hazard in 2008 (24) compared to around 13 in the social sector Table 14 Privately rented homes were most likely to have Category 1 hazards present compared to housing association homes (31 and 13 respectively)

220 The most common type of hazard in all four tenures was falls (see annex Table 10 for details of which hazards are included in this category) Overall 13 of homes have at least one type of falls hazard present

Decent homes221 In 2008 74 million homes (33) were non-decent4 Table 13 Housing

association housing was the least likely to be non-decent (23) while private rented housing was in the worst condition with 44 of homes being non-decent Overall social sector homes were in a better condition than private sector homes with 27 being non-decent compared to 34

222 The number of non-decent homes fell from 77 million in 2006 to 74 million in 20085 Conditions in the social sector improved with the proportion of homes failing the standard falling by two percentage points from 29 in 2006 to 27 in 2008 Private sector homes also improved from 36 non-decent in 2006 to 34 non-decent in 2008

4 Estimates from the EHS are based soley on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors subject to any limitations of the information they collect The EHS estimates in this report do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property

5 In 2006 the Housing Health and Safety Rating System replaced the Fitness Standard as the statutory minimum standard for housing Earlier estimates based on the original definition are not comparable therefore any change in the number of decent homes can only be referenced back to 2006 Figures for decent homes prior to 2006 can be found in the 2006 English House Condition Survey Annual Report available at wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

Section 2 Housing stock | 33

Table 13 Non-decent homes by tenure 2006 ndash 2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5335 5304 4842private rented 1223 1244 1449all private 6558 6548 6291

local authority 676 652 625housing association 465 486 444all social 1142 1138 1069

all tenures 7700 7686 7360

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 346 341 323private rented 468 454 440all private 363 358 344

local authority 324 328 315housing association 252 255 228all social 290 292 272

all tenures 350 346 331

Notes1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties between 2007 and 2008 are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates See Annex Table 11Sources2006 ndash 2007 English House Condition Survey2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Reasons for failing decent homes223 Of the four components required to meet the decent homes standard the

presence of one or more category 1 hazards under the HHSRS was the most commonly failed Table 14 This is particularly the case for private sector homes where 24 of homes had one or more Category 1 hazards present compared to 13 of social sector homes

34 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 14 Homes failing decent homes criteria by tenure 2008

all dwellings

Category 1 hazard (HHSRS)

thermal comfort

modern facilities repair all non-decent

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 3342 1773 379 817 4842private rented 978 637 160 369 1449all private 4320 2411 539 1186 6291

local authority 298 227 138 146 625housing association 224 199 50 86 444all social 522 426 188 231 1069

all tenures 4842 2837 727 1417 7360

percentages

owner occupied 223 118 25 54 323private rented 297 193 49 112 440all private 236 132 29 65 344

local authority 150 115 70 74 315housing association 115 102 25 44 228all social 133 108 48 59 272

all tenures 218 128 33 64 331

Note The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoids a break in the time series See Annex Table 12 for estimate based on 26 hazardsSource English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

224 There was significant progress in the thermal comfort of homes between 2006 and 2008 The proportion of homes failing thermal comfort fell to 13 in 2008 from 16 in 2006 Improvement has been made across all tenures

Private sector vulnerable households225 In 2008 31 million lsquovulnerablersquo households6 were living in the private sector of

which 12 million (39) were living in non-decent homes the remaining 19 million (61) were living in decent accommodation Table 15 There has been no significant change since 2006

226 Vulnerable households who privately rent their accommodation were more likely to live in non-decent homes compared to social tenants (51 and 26 respectively) Table 15

6 Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

Section 2 Housing stock | 35

Table 15 Households living in decent homes 2006-2008

all dwellings

number (000s) percentage ()

2006 2007 2008 2006 2007 2008

decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 1543 1575 1428 630 649 653private rented 334 354 429 450 482 490all private vulnerable 1877 1929 1857 588 610 606

private non- vulnerableowner occupied 8418 8531 8494 664 667 683private rented 922 985 1246 567 566 588all private non-vulnerable 9340 9516 9740 653 655 669

all owner occupied 9961 10106 9922 658 664 678all private rented 1256 1339 1675 530 541 559all private 11217 11445 11597 641 647 658all social 2690 2649 2798 722 719 740all households 13907 14094 14395 655 659 672

non-decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 905 851 760 370 351 347private rented 408 380 447 550 518 510all private vulnerable 1313 1231 1207 412 390 394

private non-vulnerableowner occupied 4262 4264 3946 336 333 317private rented 704 754 874 433 434 412all private non-vulnerable 4966 5018 4820 347 345 331

all owner occupied 5167 5115 4706 342 336 322all private rented 1112 1134 1321 470 459 441all private 6279 6249 6027 359 353 342

all social 1034 1037 985 278 281 260all households 7313 7286 7012 345 341 328

Notes 1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoid a break in the time series See Annex Table 13 for further detailsSource English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

36 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Damp and mould growth227 The proportion of homes with damp problems has reduced from 13 in 1996

to 8 in 2008 Table 16

Table 16 Number and percentage of homes with damp problems in one or more rooms 1996-2008

all dwellings

rising damp

penetrating damp

condensation mould

any damp problems

thousands of dwellings1996 858 1271 1145 26012001 625 1032 860 20322003 740 1066 1003 22832004 750 1035 951 22512005 759 952 941 22102006 724 886 947 21582007 640 833 881 19162008 584 759 865 1746

percentage of dwellings1996 42 63 56 1282001 29 49 41 962003 34 50 47 1062004 35 48 44 1042005 35 44 43 1012006 33 40 43 982007 29 38 40 862008 26 34 39 78

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

228 Privately rented homes were more likely to experience damp problems compared to other tenures Figure 11 Privately rented homes were more likely to be older homes and experience problems with rising or penetrating damp due to defects in the damp proof course roof covering gutters and down pipes which would affect at least one room in the property

229 In the social sector damp problems were more likely to be caused by serious condensation and mould growth rather than by rising damp Figure 12

Section 2 Housing stock | 37

Figure 12 Percentage of homes with a damp problem by tenure 2008

rising damp penetrating damp condensationmould

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

alltenures

housingassociation

localauthority

privaterented

owneroccupied

per

cen

tage

of

ho

mes

wit

h d

amp

pro

ble

ms

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

38 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex tables

Households

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

Annex Table 2 Economic Status of working age HRP by tenure 2008-09

Energy efficiency

Annex Table 3 Heating Type 1996-2008

Annex Table 4 Main Heating System by tenure 2008

Annex Table 5 Boiler Types 1996-2008

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

Annex Table 8 Cavity Wall insulation by tenure 2008

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

Housing Health and Safety Rating System

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 HHSRS hazards present (comparison of estimates based on any one of 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Non-decent homes in deprived areas

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes in deprived areas by tenure 2006-2008

Annex tables | 39

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent

child(ren)

couple with dependent

child(ren)

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)

other multi-

person households

all one-person

households

all household

types

percentageown outright 46 9 7 24 37 31buying with mortgage 35 66 27 25 23 36social renters 9 13 44 20 25 18private renters 10 12 22 31 15 14

all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 2 Economic status of working age HRP by tenure

all households

working un-employed retired other inactive Total percentage

own outright 74 2 14 10 100buying with mortgage 94 1 1 4 100social renters 49 12 1 37 100private renters 75 5 1 19 100all tenures 80 4 3 13 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 3 Heating type 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingscentral heating 16178 18177 18604 18919 19179 19553 19862 19862storage heater 1643 1600 1587 1616 1609 1532 1552 1641fixed roomportable heater 2515 2001 1294 1078 993 904 776 736Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingscentral heating 796 860 866 875 881 889 895 893storage heater 81 76 74 75 74 70 70 74fixed roomportable heating heater 124 95 60 50 46 41 35 33Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

40 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 4 Main heating system by tenure 2008

all dwellings

central heating storage heaterfixed room

heatingportable

heating only all dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 13788 790 411 19 15007 private rented 2630 441 208 17 3296 all private 16418 1232 619 36 18304

local authority 1776 160 46 2 1984 housing association 1669 249 33 1 1951 all social 3445 409 79 3 3935

all tenures 19862 1641 698 38 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 919 53 27 01 1000 private rented 798 134 63 05 1000 all private 897 67 34 02 1000

local authority 895 80 23 01 1000 housing association 855 128 17 00 1000 all social 875 104 20 01 1000

all tenures 893 74 31 02 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 5 Boiler types 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsstandard boiler 10447 10338 9642 9635 9425 9014 8782 8072back boiler 2773 2759 2580 2409 2181 2131 1944 1688combination boiler 2810 4431 5492 5934 6254 6312 6287 6082condensing boiler ndash 155 154 202 300 460 698 948condensing-combination boiler ndash 318 373 417 727 1297 1837 2773no boiler 4305 3140 3244 3016 2894 2775 2642 2676Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsstandard boiler 514 489 449 446 433 410 396 363back boiler 136 130 120 111 100 97 88 76combination boiler 138 210 256 275 287 287 283 273condensing boiler 00 07 07 09 14 21 31 43condensing-combination boiler 00 15 17 19 33 59 83 125no boiler 212 149 151 140 133 126 119 120Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 41

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

all dwellings

standard boiler

back boiler

combination boiler

condensing boiler

condensing-combination

boilerno

boilerall

dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 6223 1045 3984 713 1756 1286 15007 private rented 817 149 1112 73 429 716 3296 all private 7040 1194 5096 787 2185 2002 18304

local authority 499 271 481 90 335 309 1984 housing association 533 223 505 72 254 365 1951 all social 1032 494 986 162 589 674 3935

all 8072 1688 6082 948 2773 2676 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 415 70 265 48 117 86 1000 private rented 248 45 337 22 130 217 1000 all private 385 65 278 43 119 109 1000

local authority 251 136 242 45 169 156 1000 housing association 273 114 259 37 130 187 1000 all social 262 125 250 41 150 171 1000

all 363 76 273 43 125 120 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 2853 5210 5334 5825 5974 6644 7267 7418200mm or more of loft insulation 583 1256 2034 2530 2919 3520 4258 4685entire house double glazing 6169 10753 11915 12846 13486 13924 14850 15747

all dwellings 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 140 246 248 270 274 302 327 334200mm or more of loft insulation 29 59 95 117 134 160 192 211entire house double glazing 303 509 555 594 619 633 669 708

all dwellings 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

42 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 8 Cavity wall insulation by tenure

all dwellings

cavity with insulation

cavity uninsulated other all

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5161 5483 4364 15007private rented 566 1213 1517 3296private 5727 6696 5882 18304

local authority 834 657 493 1984housing association 857 720 374 1951social 1691 1378 867 3935

total 7418 8073 6749 22239

percentage of dwellingsowner occupied 344 365 291 100private rented 172 368 460 100private 313 366 321 100

local authority 420 331 248 100housing association 439 369 192 100social 430 350 220 100

total 334 363 303 100

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 43

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

all dwellings

no loftno

insulationless than

50mm50 up to

99mm

100 up to

149mm

150 up to

199mm200mm or more

all dwellings

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 748 442 432 3009 5147 2007 3223 15007 private rented 672 175 66 857 813 281 434 3296 private 1420 617 497 3866 5960 2288 3657 18304

local authority 614 33 19 171 471 206 470 1984 housing association 467 20 16 143 482 265 558 1951 social 1081 53 35 314 953 471 1028 3935

total 2501 670 532 4179 6913 2759 4685 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 50 29 29 200 343 134 215 1000private rented 204 53 20 260 247 85 132 1000private 78 34 27 211 326 125 200 1000

local authority 309 17 10 86 237 104 237 1000housing association 239 10 08 73 247 136 286 1000social 275 14 09 80 242 120 261 1000

total 112 30 24 188 311 124 211 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

44 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

hazard presentnumber of homes (000s) each hazard is present in

falling on stairs 2025excess cold 1966falling on level surfaces 788falling between levels 443fire 318

entry by intruders

flames hot surfacesleaddamp and mould growth 50 to 100 eachcollision and entrapmentradiationfalls associated with baths

crowding and space

food safetypersonal hygiene sanitation and drainage 20 to 50 eachnoisedomestic hygiene pests and refuseelectrical hazards

structural collapse and falling elements

water supplycarbon monoxide and fuel combustion productsposition and operability of amenities less thanexcess heat 20 eachlightinguncombusted fuel gasexplosions

any of the 15 hazards 4842

any of the 26 hazards 5039

Note For 2006 and 2007 the survey reported on 15 hazards only The 2008 EHS can provide estimates for 26 hazards - the additional hazards are marked with an asterisk The three remaining hazards not included in the survey are presence of asbestos biocides or volatile organic compounds For reporting purposes HHSRS and non-decent estimates will be based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with previous years and avoid a break in the time seriesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 45

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 4842 4925private rented 1449 1478all private 6291 6403

local authority 625 640housing association 444 464all social 1069 1104

all tenures 7360 7507

percentagesowner occupied 323 328private rented 440 448all private 344 350

local authority 315 323housing association 228 238all social 272 281

all tenures 331 338

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

46 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 hazards present (compariosn of estimates based on any one to the 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 3342 3452private rented 978 1013all private 4320 4465

local authority 298 326RSL 224 248all social 522 574

all tenures 4842 5039

percentagesowner occupied 223 230private rented 297 307all private 236 244

local authority 150 164RSL 115 127all social 133 146

all tenures 218 227

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 47

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all households

15 hazards 26 hazards

number (000s) percentage () number (000s) percentage ()

decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 1428 653 1413 646private rented 429 490 417 476all private vulnerable 1857 606 1830 597 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 8494 683 8425 677private rented 1246 588 1232 581all private non-vulnerable 9740 669 9657 663 all owner occupied 9922 678 9839 673all private rented 1675 559 1648 550all private 11597 658 11487 663all social 2798 740 2766 731

all households 14395 672 14253 666

non-decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 760 347 775 354private rented 447 510 459 524all private vulnerable 1207 394 1234 403 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 3946 317 4015 323private rented 874 412 888 419all private non-vulnerable 4820 331 4903 337 all owner occupied 4706 322 4790 327all private rented 1321 441 1347 450all private 6027 342 6137 348all social 985 260 1017 269

all households 7012 328 7154 334

Note For reporting purposes decent homes estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

48 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes1 by deprived and other districts by tenure 2006-2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsSocial NRF88 662 652 605Other districts 480 486 464 Private NRF88 2544 2621 2442Other districts 4013 3928 3849

percentages of dwellingsSocial NRF88 313 304 278Other districts 264 278 263 Private NRF88 381 380 361Other districts 353 344 333

Note NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving Neighbourhood Renewal Funding 2001-2006Source English House Condition Survey 2006-2007English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub sample)

Technical annex | 49

Technical annex

General description

The survey consists of three main elements an initial interview survey of 17700 households with a follow up physical inspection and a desk based market valuation of a sub-sample of 8000 of these dwellings including vacant dwellings The interview survey sample forms part of ONSrsquos Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the core questions from the IHS form part of the EHS questionnaire More information about the IHS is available from its webpage wwwstatisticsgovukCCInuggetaspID=936ampPos=1ampColRank=1ampRank=224

The EHS interview content covers the key topics included under the former SEH and EHCS The content of the physical and market value components remains very largely unchanged from the former EHCS

Sampling and grossing

2008-09 Sample1 The initial sample for 2008-09 consisted of 32100 addresses drawn as a systematic

random sample from the Postcode Address File (small users) Interviews were attempted at all of these addresses over the course of the survey year from April 2008 to March 2009 A proportion of addresses were found not to be valid residential properties (eg demolished properties secondholiday homes small businesses not yet built)

2 Of the 17691 addresses where interviews were achieved (the lsquofull household samplersquo) all social rented properties and a sub-sample of private properties were regarded as eligible for the physical survey and the respondentrsquos consent was sought A proportion of vacant properties were also sub-sampled Physical surveys were completed in 7972 cases and these cases contribute to the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo (see below)

3 The principal differences in sampling methodology between the EHS and its predecessors the SEH and EHCS are that

bull The EHS uses an unclustered sample This enables a smaller sample to be used with no loss of precision ie without sampling errors being increased The more scattered sample does however have some implications for fieldwork organisation

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 6: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

6 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Introduction

1 In April 2008 the English House Condition Survey was integrated with the Survey of English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS) This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey

2 The report is split into two sections

Section 1Focuses on the profile of households including trends in tenures household type and economic status of households It also covers the buying aspirations of renters overcrowding and under-occupation recent movers and satisfaction with home and local area

Section 2Provides an overview of the housing stock in England including the age size and type of home and presents measures of living conditions This includes energy efficiency of the housing stock decent homes the Housing Health and Safety Rating System and homes affected by damp and mould

3 There are a number of additional tables presented in an annex which provide further detail to that covered in the main body of the report

4 More detailed results will be published in annual reporting later in the year A full technical report will also be made available

5 Results for households (not in relation to the physical condition of the home) are presented for 2008-09 and are based on fieldwork carried out between April 08 and March 09 of a sample of 17691 households This is referred to as the lsquofull household samplersquo throughout the report

6 Results which relate to the physical dwelling are presented for 2008 and are based on fieldwork carried out between April 2007 and March 2009 (a mid-point of April 2008) The sample comprises of 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where a physical inspection was carried out and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured This is referred to as the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo throughout the report More details on the samples underpinning the reportrsquos findings are provided in the Technical annex

7 Caution needs to be exercised in interpreting some details as differences may not always be statistically significant The text draws attention only to differences that are significantly different at the 95 confidence level

Introduction | 7

8 The EHS has three component surveys a household interview followed by a physical inspection and a market value survey of a sub sample of the properties The sampling and grossing design of the EHS differs in some ways from the surveys it replaced these changes are summarised in the Technical annex at the end of this report

9 Information on the English Housing Survey can be accessed via this link wwwcommunitiesgovukhousinghousingresearchhousingsurveys

10 Information and past reports on the Survey of English Housing and the English House Condition Survey can also be accessed via this link

11 If you have any queries about this report or would like any further information please contact ehscommunitiesgsigovuk

8 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Key findings

bull There was a decrease in the number of owner occupied households from a peak of 148 million in 2005 and 2006 to 146 million in 2008-09 In contrast the number of households renting privately rose by one million since 2001 from 21 million to 31 million in 2008-09

bull Couples with no dependent children were the most common type of household (36) and the most common type of owner occupiers (42) in 2008-09 Amongst renters one-person households were the most common 41 of social renters and 30 of private renters

bull Over half (59) of all private renters expected to eventually buy a home in the UK compared to only around a quarter (27) of social renters Of those who did expect to buy 24 of private renters and 10 of social renters expected to buy within the next two years

bull Overcrowding was highest in the rented sectors 67 of social rented households and 54 of private rented households were overcrowded as measured by the bedroom standard In contrast only 16 of owner occupiers were overcrowded

bull The energy efficiency of homes continued to improve with the average SAP rating increasing from 42 to 51 between 1996 and 2008 Not only were social sector homes more energy efficient than those in the private sector (59 and 49 respectively) but they have seen greatest improvement since 1996 with the average SAP rating increasing from 47 to 59

bull A potentially serious (Category 1) hazard as measured under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System was present in around 48 million homes in 2008 22 of the housing stock

bull Some 74 million homes (33) were non-decent in 2008 Overall social sector homes were in a better condition than private sector homes with 27 being non-decent compared to 34

bull In 2008 31 million lsquovulnerablersquo householdsrsquo1 were living in the private sector of which 12 million (39) were living in non-decent homes the remaining 19 million (61) were living in decent accommodation

1 Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

Section 1 Households | 9

Section 1Households

11 Results for households (not in relation to the physical condition of the home) are presented for 2008-09 and are based on fieldwork carried out between April 2008 and March 2009 of a sample of 17691 households This is referred to as the lsquofull household samplersquo throughout the report

Trends in tenure

12 In 2008-09 there were an estimated 215 million households in England Owner occupation was the largest tenure accounting for 679 of all households but this has declined from a high of 709 in 2003 Social renting was the second largest tenure in 2008-09 representing 178 of all households this share having remained stable over recent years The smallest tenure private renting has seen a surge in the past few years It accounted for 142 of households in 2008-09 compared to a share of only 10 in 2001

13 Table 1 shows the number and proportion of households by tenure since 2001 with estimates prior to 2008-09 based on Labour Force Survey data Labour Force Survey data has been used for the main tenure estimates and trends in recent years in all Survey of English Housing (SEH) reports and Live Tables This was because the LFS had a much larger sample size than the SEH and this provided more robust overall estimates of households by tenure The EHS grossing methodology uses the LFS tenure distribution and therefore there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution

14 Despite the significant fall in owner occupation as a proportion of all households 679 the actual number of owner occupiers in England has declined only slightly from 148 million in 2005 to 146 million in 2008-09 The number of households renting privately has risen by around one million since 2001 from 21 million to 31 million

10 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 1 Trends in tenure 2001 to 2008-09 England

all households

owner occupiers

ownoutright

buying witha mortgage

all owner occupiers

social renters

private renters

all households

thousands of households2001 5885 8473 14358 3983 2062 204032002 6019 8540 14559 3972 2131 206622003 6158 8542 14701 3804 2234 207392004 6288 8389 14677 3797 2284 207582005 6352 8440 14791 3696 2445 209322006 6425 8365 14790 3736 2566 210922007 6505 8228 14733 3755 2691 211782008 6653 7975 14628 3797 2982 21407 2008-09 6770 7851 14621 3842 3067 21530

percentages2001 288 415 704 195 101 1002002 291 413 705 192 103 1002003 297 412 709 183 108 1002004 303 404 707 183 110 1002005 303 403 707 177 117 1002006 305 397 701 177 122 1002007 307 389 696 177 127 1002008 311 373 683 177 139 100 2008-09 314 365 679 178 142 100

Note data for years prior to 2001 can be found in table S101 wwwcommunitiesgovukdocumentshousingxls139262xls Tenure trends based on SEH annual data for 1993-94 to 2007-08 are available in Fifteen years of the Survey of English Housingwwwcommunitiesgovukdocumentsstatisticspdf1346239pdfSources2001 to 2008 ONS Labour Force Survey2008-09 English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

15 Figure 1 shows the trend in tenure back to 1980 Owner occupation rose steadily throughout the 1980s and at a lesser rate throughout the 1990s The level of private renting saw little change throughout the 1980s and early 1990s but has since increased to around 31 million in 2008-09 In 1980 54 million households were social renters but by 2008-09 this had decreased to 38 million

Section 1 Households | 11

Figure 1 Trend in tenure 1980 to 2008ndash09

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

2008

-09

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

1997

1996

1995

1994

1993

1992

1991

1990

1989

1988

1987

1986

1985

1984

1983

1982

1981

1980

owner occupierssocial rentersprivate renters

mill

ion

ho

use

ho

lds

Source 1980 to 2008 ONS Labour Force Survey 2008ndash09 English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Household type

16 Couples with no dependent children were the most common type of household in 2008-09 (36) These households were also the most common type of owner occupiers Amongst renters one-person households were the most common 41 of social renters and 30 of private renters Although only 7 of households overall were lone parents with dependent children there was a noticeable difference by tenure 17 of social renters 11 of private renters and 3 of owner occupiers (see Table 2)

12 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 2 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent child(ren)1

couple with dependent child(ren)1

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)1

other multi-

person households 1 male 1 female

all household

types

thousands of householdsown outright 3538 424 103 396 769 1541 6770buying with mortgage 2670 2971 405 402 791 612 7851all owner occupiers 6208 3395 508 798 1560 2153 14621 local authority 333 287 331 177 342 417 1887housing association 352 299 341 151 354 458 1955all social renters 685 587 672 328 696 875 3842 private renters 764 535 333 514 582 339 3067 all tenures 7657 4516 1514 1640 2838 3366 21530

percentagesown outright 52 6 2 6 11 23 100buying with mortgage 34 38 5 5 10 8 100all owner occupiers 42 23 3 5 11 15 100 local authority 18 15 18 9 18 22 100housing association 18 15 17 8 18 23 100all social renters 18 15 17 9 18 23 100 private renters 25 17 11 17 19 11 100 all tenures 36 21 7 8 13 16 100

Note 1) These categories can also include non-dependent childrenSource English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

17 Figure 2 shows each household type split by tenure An estimated 66 of couples with dependent children were buying with a mortgage 13 were social renters 12 were private renters and 9 owned outright The tenure split for lone parents with dependent children was quite different with only 27 buying with a mortgage whilst 44 were social renters 22 were private renters and 7 owned outright

Section 1 Households | 13

Figure 2 Household type by tenure 2008-09p

erce

nta

ge

private renterssocial rentersbuying with mortgageown outright

allhousehold

types

allone-personhouseholds

othermulti-personhouseholds

lone parentwith

dependentchild(ren)

couple withdependentchild(ren)

couple nodependentchild(ren)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sampleNote underlying data is presented in annex table 1

Economic status

18 In 2008-09 91 of household reference persons (HRP)2 who were buying with a mortgage were working 85 full-time and 6 part-time Around 60 of outright owners were retired compared to only 9 of private renters In the social rented sector over half the household reference persons were economically inactive with 31 retired and 26 lsquoother inactiversquo (such as long-term sickness or disability or lone parent)

2 see glossary for definition

14 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 3 Economic status of household reference person by tenure 2008-09

all households

economic status of HRP

full time work

part-time work

un-employed retired

other inactive all

thousands of householdsown outright 1777 570 54 4079 290 6770buying with mortgage 6679 470 101 312 290 7851all owner occupiers 8456 1040 155 4390 580 14621 local authority 444 203 172 566 503 1887housing association 489 182 152 643 488 1955all social renters 933 385 324 1209 991 3842 all private renters 1874 262 143 274 514 3067 all tenures 11263 1687 622 5873 2085 21530

percentagesown outright 26 8 1 60 4 100buying with mortgage 85 6 1 4 4 100all owner occupiers 58 7 1 30 4 100 local authority 24 11 9 30 27 100housing association 25 9 8 33 25 100all social renters 24 10 8 31 26 100 all private renters 61 9 5 9 17 100 all tenures 52 8 3 27 10 100Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

19 Table 3 shows the economic status of all householders Figure 3 shows the economic status of those of working age ndash men aged under 65 and women aged under 60 Within this group 94 of those buying with a mortgage were working compared to only 49 of those who were social renters Unemployment was highest in the social rented sector 12 compared to 5 of private renters and only 1 of owner occupiers

110 There was also a much higher proportion of lsquoother inactiversquo amongst working age social renters than those in other tenures 37 compared to 19 of private renters 10 of outright owners and 4 of mortgagors

Section 1 Households | 15

Figure 3 Economic status of working age HRPs 2008-09

other inactiveretiredunemployedworking

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

alltenures

privaterenters

socialrenters

buying withmortgage

ownoutright

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sampleNote underlying data is presented in annex table 2

Age of household reference person by tenure

111 Owner occupation is the most common tenure in England In 2008-09 there were 68 million households that owned outright and 78 million buying with a mortgage Around three-quarters of mortgagors were aged between 35 and 64 with only 3 aged 65 or over Outright owners the majority of whom were likely to have once had a mortgage and paid it off were concentrated in the older age groups 6 were aged under 45 Overall 32 of owner occupiers were in the 16 to 44 age range

112 Around half (51) of householders aged 25 to 34 were owners 17 were social renters and 31 were private renters Within the 35 to 44 age group the proportions of social and private renters were very similar 17 and 16 respectively and 67 of householders in this age group were owners

113 Over 80 of private renters were aged under 55 with only 8 aged 65 or over By contrast 28 of owner occupiers and 29 of social renters were aged 65 or over

16 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 4 Age of household reference person by tenure 2008-09

all households

age of HRP

16 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54 55 - 64 65 or over all ages

thousands of householdsown outright 9 87 329 759 1752 3833 6770buying with mortgage 114 1562 2619 2237 1071 249 7851all owner occupiers 123 1649 2948 2996 2823 4082 14621 local authority 123 306 373 318 244 523 1887housing association 112 254 385 349 256 599 1955all social renters 235 560 757 667 501 1122 3842 private renters 497 995 686 380 252 257 3067 all tenures 855 3203 4392 4043 3576 5461 21530

percentage within tenureown outright 0 1 5 11 26 57 100buying with mortgage 1 20 33 28 14 3 100all owner occupiers 1 11 20 20 19 28 100 local authority 7 16 20 17 13 28 100housing association 6 13 20 18 13 31 100all social renters 6 15 20 17 13 29 100 private renters 16 32 22 12 8 8 100 all tenures 4 15 20 19 17 25 100

percentage within age groupown outright 1 3 7 19 49 70 31buying with mortgage 13 49 60 55 30 5 36all owner occupiers 14 51 67 74 79 75 68 local authority 14 10 8 8 7 10 9housing association 13 8 9 9 7 11 9all social renters 27 17 17 17 14 21 18 private renters 58 31 16 9 7 5 14 all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Section 1 Households | 17

Figure 4 Age of household reference person by tenure 2008ndash09

per

cen

tage

private renterssocial rentersbuying with mortgageown outright

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

65 or over 55ndash64 45ndash54 35ndash44

age of HRP

25ndash34 16ndash24

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Buying expectations of renters

114 In 2008-09 27 of social renters expected to eventually become homeowners compared to 59 of private renters Of those who did expect to buy 44 of social renters expected to buy their current accommodation compared to only 13 of private renters

18 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 5 Buying aspirations of social and private renters 2008-09

all renters

social renters private renters

percentagesWill eventually buy or share home in UK yes 27 59no 73 41All 100 100

Expect to buy current accommodation (all who expect to buy) yes 44 13no 56 87All 100 100

When expect to buy (all who expect to buy) Less than a yearrsquos time 3 81 year but less than 2 years 7 162 years but less than 5 years 25 345 years or more 65 42All 100 100

Note Expectations to buy include shared ownershipSource English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

115 An estimated 24 of private renters expecting to buy (14 of all private renters) thought that they would buy within the next two years This proportion had fallen from 34 in 2006-07 (see Figure 5) whilst the proportion expecting to buy in five or more yearsrsquo time had risen from 35 to 42 over this period These changes suggest that private renters now expect to rent for longer before being in a position to buy perhaps due to affordability issues

Figure 5 Trend in expected time to buying ndash private renters expecting to buy eventually

per

cen

tage

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

2008-09 2007-082006-07

5 years or more2 years but less than 5lt2 years

Note based on those private renters who expect to buy eventuallySource English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Section 1 Households | 19

Overcrowding and under-occupation

116 Levels of overcrowding are measured using the ldquobedroom standardrdquo (see definition in Glossary) Essentially this is the difference between the number of bedrooms needed to avoid undesirable sharing (given the number and ages of household members and their relationships to each other) and the number of bedrooms actually available to the household

117 The previous estimates of overcrowding were based on three-year moving averages from the Survey of English Housing for 2005-06 2006-07 and 2007-08 The reason for having to base estimates on a three-year average was that with fewer than 3 per cent of households overcrowded the sample size for a single year was too small to provide reliable annual estimates However for 2008-09 in addition to the EHS sample of 17700 households we have information from a further 95000 households that were interviewed for the ONS Labour Force Survey This combined sample was sufficiently large to deliver robust single year estimates for 2008-09 without the need to carry forward the three-year average series

Table 6 Overcrowding and under-occupation by tenure 2008-09

all households

difference from bedroom standard

overcrowded at standardone above

standardunder-

occupied total

thousands of householdsowner occupiers 231 2117 5416 6855 14620

social renters 258 2032 1121 430 3841

private renters 164 1312 1095 494 3066

all tenures 654 5462 7633 7779 21527

percentagesowner occupiers 16 145 370 469 100

social renters 67 529 292 112 100

private renters 54 428 357 161 100

all tenures 30 254 355 361 100

Notes Details of the bedroom standard can be found in the GlossarySource English Housing Survey - full household sample and ONS Labour Force Survey

118 The overall rate of overcrowding in England for 2008-09 was 30 (see Table 6) This compares to the previously published estimate of 28 (averaged over the period 2005-06 to 2007-08) There were around 654000 overcrowded households (compared to an average of 570000 over the period 2005-06 to 2007-08) Levels of overcrowding varied considerably by tenure and were lowest in the owner occupied sector at 16 up from 14 for the period 2005-06 to 2007-08 Around 67 of social renters were overcrowded and 54 of private renters compared to 59 and 49 respectively for 2005-06 to 2007-08

20 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

119 Although the overall rate of overcrowding has shown little change in recent years this is largely due to the relatively stable rate of overcrowding in the owner occupied sector the largest tenure Over the past decade overcrowding has been rising in both the rented sectors

Figure 6 Trend in overcrowding rates by tenure 1995-96 to 2008-09 (3 year moving average)

private renters social rentersowner occupiers all tenures

per

cen

tage

of

ho

use

ho

lds

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

2008

-09

2007

-08

2006

-07

2005

-06

2004

-05

2003

-04

2002

-03

2001

-02

2000

-01

1999

-00

1998

-99

1997

-98

1996

-97

1995

-96

Source Survey of English Housing to 2007-08 and combined English Housing Survey (full sample) plus Labour Force Survey for 2008-09 The estimates up to 2007-08 are three-year moving averages so the ldquo2007-08rdquo figure is actually the average of 2005-06 2006-07 and 2007-08 Since the 2008-09 estimates are for that year only a gap has been introduced to separate the three-year averages to 2007-08 from the annual estimates for 2008-09

120 Around 78 million households were estimated to be under-occupying their accommodation in 2008-09 that is they had at least two bedrooms more than they needed (see definition of bedroom standard in Glossary) Under-occupation was far more likely to be found in the owner occupied sector than in the rented sectors 47 of owner occupiers were under-occupying accommodation compared to 11 of social renters and 16 of private renters

Recent movers

121 In this section we look at those households that had been in their current accommodation for less than 12 months at the time of interview

Section 1 Households | 21

Table 7 Previous tenure by current tenure 2008-09

HRPs resident less than a year

previous tenure ndash continuing households

current tenurenew

householdowner

occupierssocial

rentersprivate renters all tenures

thousands of householdsoutright owners 4 83 0 12 99buying with mortgage 68 204 13 131 416all owner occupiers 72 287 13 144 515

local authority 20 13 76 20 129housing association 24 9 105 38 177all social renters 44 23 181 58 306

private renters 229 141 47 686 1103

all tenures 345 450 241 887 1924

percentageoutright owners 4 84 0 13 100buying with mortgage 16 49 3 32 100all owner occupiers 14 56 3 28 100

local authority 15 10 59 15 100housing association 14 5 59 22 100all social renters 15 7 59 19 100

private renters 21 13 4 62 100

all tenures 18 23 13 46 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

122 Around 18 of households that had moved into their accommodation in the previous year were new households Two thirds (66) of these new households were private renters and around one fifth (21) were owner occupiers Movement within tenure was more common than moves between tenures 62 of current private renters had previously been private renters 59 of social renters had moved from another social rented property and 56 of owner occupiers had owned their previous property Movement into the social rented sector for continuing households was more likely to be from private renting (19 of current social renters) than from owner occupation (7)

22 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Attitudes to home and local area

123 Around 90 of households in England were satisfied with their accommodation in 2008-09 The highest levels of satisfaction were expressed by outright owners 73 of whom said that they were very satisfied with their homes Over three quarters of social renters were satisfied with their homes but 9 were slightly dissatisfied and 7 were very dissatisfied Around 82 of private renters were very or fairly satisfied with their accommodation and only 3 said they were very dissatisfied

Table 8 Satisfaction with accommodation by tenure 2008-09

all households

very satisfied

fairly satisfied

neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

slightly dissatisfied

very dissatisfied Total

thousands of householdsoutright owners 4926 1535 111 100 36 6709buying with mortgage 4604 2719 232 200 55 7810all owneroccupiers 9530 4254 343 300 91 14519

local authority 697 736 98 192 142 1866housing association 842 700 116 159 117 1935all social renters 1539 1437 214 351 260 3801

private renters 1240 1211 193 227 102 2972

all tenures 12309 6901 751 878 452 21291

percentagesoutright owners 73 23 2 1 1 100buying with mortgage 59 35 3 3 1 100all owneroccupiers 66 29 2 2 1 100

local authority 37 39 5 10 8 100housing association 44 36 6 8 6 100all social renters 40 38 6 9 7 100

private renters 42 41 6 8 3 100

all tenures 58 32 4 4 2 100

Note This question is not asked of proxy respondents and a small proportion of respondents chose not to answer These exclusions are reflected in the overall total number of households in this table Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

124 A large majority of households are satisfied with the local area in which they live In 2008-09 just over half of all households in England were very satisfied with their local area and 87 were very or fairly satisfied Only 3 of households were very dissatisfied with their local area

Section 1 Households | 23

125 There were some differences by tenure 89 of owner occupiers were satisfied with their local area compared to 79 of social renters and 85 of private renters Whilst only two per cent of owner occupiers and private renters said that they were very dissatisfied with their local area seven per cent of social renters were very dissatisfied

Table 9 Satisfaction with local area by tenure 2008-09

all households

very satisfied

fairly satisfied

neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

slightly dissatisfied

very dissatisfied Total

thousands of householdsoutright owners 3999 2093 180 322 114 6708buying with mortgage 3919 2973 371 420 127 7810all owners 7918 5066 552 742 241 14518

local authority 754 712 122 159 122 1867housing association 861 679 116 150 129 1936all social renters 1615 1391 238 309 251 3803

private renters 1520 1001 183 194 73 2972

all tenures 11052 7458 972 1245 565 21293

percentagesoutright owners 60 31 3 5 2 100buying with mortgage 50 38 5 5 2 100all owners 55 35 4 5 2 100

local authority 40 38 7 9 7 100housing association 44 35 6 8 7 100all social renters 42 37 6 8 7 100

private renters 51 34 6 7 2 100

all tenures 52 35 5 6 3 100

Note This question is not asked of proxy respondents and a small proportion of respondents chose not to answer These exclusions are reflected in the overall total number of households in this table Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

24 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Section 2Housing stock

21 Results relating to the housing stock in this report are presented using two yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the English House Condition Survey (EHCS) For this transition year data from the last full year of the EHCS (2007-08) were combined with the first year of the EHS (2008-09)

22 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Stock profile

23 There were around 222 million dwellings in 2008 Table 10 Of these 183 million (82 of the stock) were in the private sector and comprised 150 million owner occupied homes and 33 million private rented homes There were 39 million social sector homes (18 of the stock) of which two million were owned by local authority and two million by housing associations

Section 2 Housing stock | 25

Table 10 Stock profile 2008

all dwellings

private sector social sector

owner occupied

private rented

all private sector

local authority

housing association

all social sector

all dwellings

in group

thousands of dwellingsdwelling agepre 1919 3194 1309 4503 86 170 257 47601919-44 2689 431 3120 336 187 522 36421945-64 2708 384 3092 760 511 1271 43631965-80 3146 536 3682 665 467 1132 48141981-90 1401 222 1624 107 223 330 1953post 1990 1869 415 2284 30 394 424 2708

dwelling typemid terrace 2638 820 3459 325 367 693 4151end terrance 1440 340 1779 199 222 421 2201small terraced house 1216 548 1764 192 217 408 2172mediumlarge terraced house 2862 612 3475 333 373 705 4180all terrace 4078 1160 5238 524 589 1114 6352semi-detached house 4515 556 5070 365 351 716 5786detached house 3575 267 3843 5 18 24 3867bungalow 1548 133 1681 176 236 412 2092converted flat 284 427 712 38 75 113 825purpose built flat low rise 926 704 1630 724 626 1349 2979purpose built flat high rise 81 49 130 152 56 208 338

floor arealess than 50 sqm 742 652 1394 550 536 1086 248050 to 69 sqm 2913 1028 3942 725 680 1405 534770 to 89 sqm 4361 890 5251 575 553 1127 637990 to 109 sqm 2632 322 2954 102 132 234 3188110 sqm or more 4359 403 4763 32 52 83 4846

type of areacity centre 295 262 558 72 75 147 704other urban centre 2263 967 3230 538 458 996 4227suburban residential 9204 1581 10785 1236 1171 2407 13192rural residential 2074 233 2307 105 190 295 2601village centre 647 110 756 26 47 72 829rural 524 144 668 7 11 19 687

deprived local areasmost deprived 10 773 325 1097 595 468 1064 21612-5th 5331 1518 6849 1121 1025 2145 89956-9th 7072 1188 8260 249 423 672 8932least deprived 1832 266 2097 19 36 54 2152

occupancy statusoccupied 14610 2858 17468 1896 1860 3755 21223vacant 398 438 836 88 92 180 1016

Total 15007 3296 18304 1984 1951 3935 22239

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

26 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

24 The large majority of dwellings were houses (181 million) most commonly terraced or semi-detached The remainder of the stock 41 million consisited of flats predominately purpose built low rise flats However types of housing vary markedly between tenures While 91 of owner occupied housing was made up of houses almost half (46) of local authority homes were flats Figure 7 Flats also accounted for over a third of private rented homes and housing association homes (36 and 39 respectively)

Figure 7 Dwelling type by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

purpose built flat high risepurpose built flat low riseconverted flatdetached houses and bungalowssemi-detached housemediumlarge terraced housesmall terraced house

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

25 England has a relatively old housing stock with some 84 million homes built before 1945 of which 48 million were built before 1919 A fifth of homes (47 million) have been built since 1980

26 Stock in different tenures have different age profiles It is noticeable that owner occupied homes are evenly distributed across the five age bands compared with other tenures Figure 8 In the private rented sector for example 40 (13 million homes) were built before 1919 significantly higher than other tenures Housing association homes were more likely to have been built during the 1980s and 1990s (32) compared to only 7 of local authority homes

Section 2 Housing stock | 27

Figure 8 Age of housing stock by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

post 19901981-901965-801945-641919-44pre 1919

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

27 Some 44 million (29) of owner occupied homes had a floor area greater than 110m2 including 18 million (12 of the sector) which were over 150m2 This reflects the proportion of semi-detached and detached owner occupied homes which tend to be large Social sector homes were most likely to have a floor area of less than 50m2 compared with those in the private sector (28 and 8 respectively)

28 Homes in England were most likely to be located in suburban residential areas and least likely to be found in rural areas (59 and 3 respectively)

Energy efficiency of the housing stock

Heating and insulation29 Key ways of increasing the energy efficiency of existing homes are

improvements to their heating systems and levels of insulation For heating the type of heating system boiler in use and the fuel used are all related to energy performance

210 Central heating is the predominant main heating system present in 199 million homes (89 of the housing stock) in 2008 see Annex Table 3 This was followed by storage heaters present in 16 million (7) of homes and room heaters in 700000 homes (3) Central heating is generally considered to be the most cost effective and relatively efficient method of heating whereas room heaters tend to be the least cost effective and relatively inefficient method of heating

28 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

211 In 2008 92 of owner occupied homes had central heating systems compared to 88 of social and 80 of private rented homes see Annex Table 4 In part this reflects the higher proportion of flats in the rented sectors compared with owner occupation with 23 of flats using storage heaters

212 Condensing boilers are generally the most efficient boiler type and are now mandatory for new and replacement boilers (for gas fired boilers since 2005 for oil fired boilers since 2007) However even prior to these requirements the less efficient standard and back boilers were decreasing in use with the growing popularity of standard combination types Figure 9 Recent years have seen rapidly expanding take up of condensing and particularly combination condensing boilers In 2008 37 million homes (17 of the stock) had one of the two types of condensing boilers

Figure 9 Boiler types 1996-2008

no boiler

condensing-combination boiler condensing boilercombination boilerback boiler (to fire or stove)standard boiler (floor or wall)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

20082007200620052004200320011996

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes underpinning data is presented in Annex Table 5Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

213 For a home to provide optimum energy performance a high level of thermal insulation needs to be present alongside an efficient heating system Standard insulation measures include cavity wall insulation loft insulation and double glazing which have all improved in the stock since 1996 Figure 10

214 In 2008 155 million homes (70) had external walls of cavity construction 74 million homes (33 of the stock) had cavity wall insulation 47 million homes (21) had 200mm or more of loft insulation and 157 million homes (71) had full double glazing with an additional 29 million homes (13) having more than half double glazed Figure 10

Section 2 Housing stock | 29

Figure 10 Insulation measures 1996-2008

20082007200620052004200320011996

entire housedouble glazing

200mm or moreof loft insulation

cavity walls withinsulation

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes1) Only 89 of dwellings have lofts and 70 of dwellings have cavity walls2) Underpinning data is presented in annex Table 7Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

215 In 2008 the social rented sector had the greatest proportion of homes with cavity wall insulation (local authority 42 housing association 44) 200mm or more of loft insulation (local authority 24 housing association 29) and full double glazing (local authority 75 housing association 83) whereas the private rented sector had the lowest proportion of all three standard insulation measures cavity wall insulation (17) 200mm or more of loft insulation (13) and full double glazing (61) Figure 11

30 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Figure 11 Percentage of dwellings with efficient insulation measures by tenure 2008

full double glazing200mm or moreloft insulation

cavity withinsulation

cavity wall

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

housing associationlocal authorityprivate rentedowner occupied0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Base all dwellingsSource English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

SAP Rating

216 The energy efficiency of the housing stock continued to improve between 1996 and 2008 the average SAP rating of a home increased by 9 SAP points from 42 to 51 Table 11 The social sector was on average more energy efficient than the private sector and saw the greatest improvement with the average SAP rating increasing by 12 SAP points from 47 to 59

Table 11 Energy efficiency average SAP rating by tenure 2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

owner occupied 411 444 450 456 461 469 481 496private rented 379 419 444 457 460 466 481 502all private 407 441 449 456 461 468 481 497

local authority 457 496 520 539 553 558 562 580housing association 509 564 567 573 589 593 595 603all social 468 519 539 553 569 574 578 592

all tenures 421 457 466 474 481 487 498 514

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Section 2 Housing stock | 31

217 There has been a significant increase in the proportion of homes achieving the highest Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands in 2008 10 (23 million) of homes achieved the highest (EER) Bands A to C3 compared with 7 (16 million) in 2006 Table 12 The number of homes in the lowest EER Bands (F and G) fell by a million over the same period The majority of homes (73) continue to be in the EER Bands D or E

Table 12 Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 35 35 77Band C (69-80) 1545 1710 2229Band D (55-68) 6555 7316 7865Band E (39-54) 9072 8859 8310Band F (21-38) 3838 3389 2972Band G (1-20) 943 881 786Total 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 02 02 03Band C (69-80) 70 77 100Band D (55-68) 298 330 354Band E (39-54) 413 399 374Band F (21-38) 175 153 134Band G (1-20) 43 40 35Total 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 2006 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Housing health and safety rating system

218 A potentially serious (Category 1) hazard as measured under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System was present in around 48 million homes in 2008 22 of the housing stock

2 EER Bands are used in the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) The Certificate provides among other indicators an energy efficiency rating for the home on a scale from A-G (where A is the most efficient and G the least efficient)

32 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Housing conditions

Housing Health and Safety Rating System219 There was no significant change in the proportion of homes with any Category

1 hazard between 2006 and 2008 Hazards tend to be more common in older housing stock for example stairs are more likely to be steep and narrow in older housing making lsquofalls on stairsrsquo more likely or heating and insulation measures tend to be less effective in older stock making lsquoexcess coldrsquo a more serious hazard Therefore it is not surprising that hazards are more common in the private sector where the older housing stock is concentrated Almost a quarter of housing in the private sector had at least one category 1 hazard in 2008 (24) compared to around 13 in the social sector Table 14 Privately rented homes were most likely to have Category 1 hazards present compared to housing association homes (31 and 13 respectively)

220 The most common type of hazard in all four tenures was falls (see annex Table 10 for details of which hazards are included in this category) Overall 13 of homes have at least one type of falls hazard present

Decent homes221 In 2008 74 million homes (33) were non-decent4 Table 13 Housing

association housing was the least likely to be non-decent (23) while private rented housing was in the worst condition with 44 of homes being non-decent Overall social sector homes were in a better condition than private sector homes with 27 being non-decent compared to 34

222 The number of non-decent homes fell from 77 million in 2006 to 74 million in 20085 Conditions in the social sector improved with the proportion of homes failing the standard falling by two percentage points from 29 in 2006 to 27 in 2008 Private sector homes also improved from 36 non-decent in 2006 to 34 non-decent in 2008

4 Estimates from the EHS are based soley on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors subject to any limitations of the information they collect The EHS estimates in this report do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property

5 In 2006 the Housing Health and Safety Rating System replaced the Fitness Standard as the statutory minimum standard for housing Earlier estimates based on the original definition are not comparable therefore any change in the number of decent homes can only be referenced back to 2006 Figures for decent homes prior to 2006 can be found in the 2006 English House Condition Survey Annual Report available at wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

Section 2 Housing stock | 33

Table 13 Non-decent homes by tenure 2006 ndash 2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5335 5304 4842private rented 1223 1244 1449all private 6558 6548 6291

local authority 676 652 625housing association 465 486 444all social 1142 1138 1069

all tenures 7700 7686 7360

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 346 341 323private rented 468 454 440all private 363 358 344

local authority 324 328 315housing association 252 255 228all social 290 292 272

all tenures 350 346 331

Notes1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties between 2007 and 2008 are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates See Annex Table 11Sources2006 ndash 2007 English House Condition Survey2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Reasons for failing decent homes223 Of the four components required to meet the decent homes standard the

presence of one or more category 1 hazards under the HHSRS was the most commonly failed Table 14 This is particularly the case for private sector homes where 24 of homes had one or more Category 1 hazards present compared to 13 of social sector homes

34 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 14 Homes failing decent homes criteria by tenure 2008

all dwellings

Category 1 hazard (HHSRS)

thermal comfort

modern facilities repair all non-decent

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 3342 1773 379 817 4842private rented 978 637 160 369 1449all private 4320 2411 539 1186 6291

local authority 298 227 138 146 625housing association 224 199 50 86 444all social 522 426 188 231 1069

all tenures 4842 2837 727 1417 7360

percentages

owner occupied 223 118 25 54 323private rented 297 193 49 112 440all private 236 132 29 65 344

local authority 150 115 70 74 315housing association 115 102 25 44 228all social 133 108 48 59 272

all tenures 218 128 33 64 331

Note The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoids a break in the time series See Annex Table 12 for estimate based on 26 hazardsSource English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

224 There was significant progress in the thermal comfort of homes between 2006 and 2008 The proportion of homes failing thermal comfort fell to 13 in 2008 from 16 in 2006 Improvement has been made across all tenures

Private sector vulnerable households225 In 2008 31 million lsquovulnerablersquo households6 were living in the private sector of

which 12 million (39) were living in non-decent homes the remaining 19 million (61) were living in decent accommodation Table 15 There has been no significant change since 2006

226 Vulnerable households who privately rent their accommodation were more likely to live in non-decent homes compared to social tenants (51 and 26 respectively) Table 15

6 Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

Section 2 Housing stock | 35

Table 15 Households living in decent homes 2006-2008

all dwellings

number (000s) percentage ()

2006 2007 2008 2006 2007 2008

decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 1543 1575 1428 630 649 653private rented 334 354 429 450 482 490all private vulnerable 1877 1929 1857 588 610 606

private non- vulnerableowner occupied 8418 8531 8494 664 667 683private rented 922 985 1246 567 566 588all private non-vulnerable 9340 9516 9740 653 655 669

all owner occupied 9961 10106 9922 658 664 678all private rented 1256 1339 1675 530 541 559all private 11217 11445 11597 641 647 658all social 2690 2649 2798 722 719 740all households 13907 14094 14395 655 659 672

non-decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 905 851 760 370 351 347private rented 408 380 447 550 518 510all private vulnerable 1313 1231 1207 412 390 394

private non-vulnerableowner occupied 4262 4264 3946 336 333 317private rented 704 754 874 433 434 412all private non-vulnerable 4966 5018 4820 347 345 331

all owner occupied 5167 5115 4706 342 336 322all private rented 1112 1134 1321 470 459 441all private 6279 6249 6027 359 353 342

all social 1034 1037 985 278 281 260all households 7313 7286 7012 345 341 328

Notes 1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoid a break in the time series See Annex Table 13 for further detailsSource English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

36 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Damp and mould growth227 The proportion of homes with damp problems has reduced from 13 in 1996

to 8 in 2008 Table 16

Table 16 Number and percentage of homes with damp problems in one or more rooms 1996-2008

all dwellings

rising damp

penetrating damp

condensation mould

any damp problems

thousands of dwellings1996 858 1271 1145 26012001 625 1032 860 20322003 740 1066 1003 22832004 750 1035 951 22512005 759 952 941 22102006 724 886 947 21582007 640 833 881 19162008 584 759 865 1746

percentage of dwellings1996 42 63 56 1282001 29 49 41 962003 34 50 47 1062004 35 48 44 1042005 35 44 43 1012006 33 40 43 982007 29 38 40 862008 26 34 39 78

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

228 Privately rented homes were more likely to experience damp problems compared to other tenures Figure 11 Privately rented homes were more likely to be older homes and experience problems with rising or penetrating damp due to defects in the damp proof course roof covering gutters and down pipes which would affect at least one room in the property

229 In the social sector damp problems were more likely to be caused by serious condensation and mould growth rather than by rising damp Figure 12

Section 2 Housing stock | 37

Figure 12 Percentage of homes with a damp problem by tenure 2008

rising damp penetrating damp condensationmould

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

alltenures

housingassociation

localauthority

privaterented

owneroccupied

per

cen

tage

of

ho

mes

wit

h d

amp

pro

ble

ms

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

38 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex tables

Households

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

Annex Table 2 Economic Status of working age HRP by tenure 2008-09

Energy efficiency

Annex Table 3 Heating Type 1996-2008

Annex Table 4 Main Heating System by tenure 2008

Annex Table 5 Boiler Types 1996-2008

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

Annex Table 8 Cavity Wall insulation by tenure 2008

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

Housing Health and Safety Rating System

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 HHSRS hazards present (comparison of estimates based on any one of 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Non-decent homes in deprived areas

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes in deprived areas by tenure 2006-2008

Annex tables | 39

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent

child(ren)

couple with dependent

child(ren)

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)

other multi-

person households

all one-person

households

all household

types

percentageown outright 46 9 7 24 37 31buying with mortgage 35 66 27 25 23 36social renters 9 13 44 20 25 18private renters 10 12 22 31 15 14

all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 2 Economic status of working age HRP by tenure

all households

working un-employed retired other inactive Total percentage

own outright 74 2 14 10 100buying with mortgage 94 1 1 4 100social renters 49 12 1 37 100private renters 75 5 1 19 100all tenures 80 4 3 13 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 3 Heating type 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingscentral heating 16178 18177 18604 18919 19179 19553 19862 19862storage heater 1643 1600 1587 1616 1609 1532 1552 1641fixed roomportable heater 2515 2001 1294 1078 993 904 776 736Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingscentral heating 796 860 866 875 881 889 895 893storage heater 81 76 74 75 74 70 70 74fixed roomportable heating heater 124 95 60 50 46 41 35 33Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

40 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 4 Main heating system by tenure 2008

all dwellings

central heating storage heaterfixed room

heatingportable

heating only all dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 13788 790 411 19 15007 private rented 2630 441 208 17 3296 all private 16418 1232 619 36 18304

local authority 1776 160 46 2 1984 housing association 1669 249 33 1 1951 all social 3445 409 79 3 3935

all tenures 19862 1641 698 38 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 919 53 27 01 1000 private rented 798 134 63 05 1000 all private 897 67 34 02 1000

local authority 895 80 23 01 1000 housing association 855 128 17 00 1000 all social 875 104 20 01 1000

all tenures 893 74 31 02 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 5 Boiler types 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsstandard boiler 10447 10338 9642 9635 9425 9014 8782 8072back boiler 2773 2759 2580 2409 2181 2131 1944 1688combination boiler 2810 4431 5492 5934 6254 6312 6287 6082condensing boiler ndash 155 154 202 300 460 698 948condensing-combination boiler ndash 318 373 417 727 1297 1837 2773no boiler 4305 3140 3244 3016 2894 2775 2642 2676Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsstandard boiler 514 489 449 446 433 410 396 363back boiler 136 130 120 111 100 97 88 76combination boiler 138 210 256 275 287 287 283 273condensing boiler 00 07 07 09 14 21 31 43condensing-combination boiler 00 15 17 19 33 59 83 125no boiler 212 149 151 140 133 126 119 120Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 41

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

all dwellings

standard boiler

back boiler

combination boiler

condensing boiler

condensing-combination

boilerno

boilerall

dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 6223 1045 3984 713 1756 1286 15007 private rented 817 149 1112 73 429 716 3296 all private 7040 1194 5096 787 2185 2002 18304

local authority 499 271 481 90 335 309 1984 housing association 533 223 505 72 254 365 1951 all social 1032 494 986 162 589 674 3935

all 8072 1688 6082 948 2773 2676 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 415 70 265 48 117 86 1000 private rented 248 45 337 22 130 217 1000 all private 385 65 278 43 119 109 1000

local authority 251 136 242 45 169 156 1000 housing association 273 114 259 37 130 187 1000 all social 262 125 250 41 150 171 1000

all 363 76 273 43 125 120 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 2853 5210 5334 5825 5974 6644 7267 7418200mm or more of loft insulation 583 1256 2034 2530 2919 3520 4258 4685entire house double glazing 6169 10753 11915 12846 13486 13924 14850 15747

all dwellings 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 140 246 248 270 274 302 327 334200mm or more of loft insulation 29 59 95 117 134 160 192 211entire house double glazing 303 509 555 594 619 633 669 708

all dwellings 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

42 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 8 Cavity wall insulation by tenure

all dwellings

cavity with insulation

cavity uninsulated other all

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5161 5483 4364 15007private rented 566 1213 1517 3296private 5727 6696 5882 18304

local authority 834 657 493 1984housing association 857 720 374 1951social 1691 1378 867 3935

total 7418 8073 6749 22239

percentage of dwellingsowner occupied 344 365 291 100private rented 172 368 460 100private 313 366 321 100

local authority 420 331 248 100housing association 439 369 192 100social 430 350 220 100

total 334 363 303 100

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 43

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

all dwellings

no loftno

insulationless than

50mm50 up to

99mm

100 up to

149mm

150 up to

199mm200mm or more

all dwellings

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 748 442 432 3009 5147 2007 3223 15007 private rented 672 175 66 857 813 281 434 3296 private 1420 617 497 3866 5960 2288 3657 18304

local authority 614 33 19 171 471 206 470 1984 housing association 467 20 16 143 482 265 558 1951 social 1081 53 35 314 953 471 1028 3935

total 2501 670 532 4179 6913 2759 4685 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 50 29 29 200 343 134 215 1000private rented 204 53 20 260 247 85 132 1000private 78 34 27 211 326 125 200 1000

local authority 309 17 10 86 237 104 237 1000housing association 239 10 08 73 247 136 286 1000social 275 14 09 80 242 120 261 1000

total 112 30 24 188 311 124 211 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

44 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

hazard presentnumber of homes (000s) each hazard is present in

falling on stairs 2025excess cold 1966falling on level surfaces 788falling between levels 443fire 318

entry by intruders

flames hot surfacesleaddamp and mould growth 50 to 100 eachcollision and entrapmentradiationfalls associated with baths

crowding and space

food safetypersonal hygiene sanitation and drainage 20 to 50 eachnoisedomestic hygiene pests and refuseelectrical hazards

structural collapse and falling elements

water supplycarbon monoxide and fuel combustion productsposition and operability of amenities less thanexcess heat 20 eachlightinguncombusted fuel gasexplosions

any of the 15 hazards 4842

any of the 26 hazards 5039

Note For 2006 and 2007 the survey reported on 15 hazards only The 2008 EHS can provide estimates for 26 hazards - the additional hazards are marked with an asterisk The three remaining hazards not included in the survey are presence of asbestos biocides or volatile organic compounds For reporting purposes HHSRS and non-decent estimates will be based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with previous years and avoid a break in the time seriesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 45

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 4842 4925private rented 1449 1478all private 6291 6403

local authority 625 640housing association 444 464all social 1069 1104

all tenures 7360 7507

percentagesowner occupied 323 328private rented 440 448all private 344 350

local authority 315 323housing association 228 238all social 272 281

all tenures 331 338

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

46 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 hazards present (compariosn of estimates based on any one to the 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 3342 3452private rented 978 1013all private 4320 4465

local authority 298 326RSL 224 248all social 522 574

all tenures 4842 5039

percentagesowner occupied 223 230private rented 297 307all private 236 244

local authority 150 164RSL 115 127all social 133 146

all tenures 218 227

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 47

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all households

15 hazards 26 hazards

number (000s) percentage () number (000s) percentage ()

decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 1428 653 1413 646private rented 429 490 417 476all private vulnerable 1857 606 1830 597 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 8494 683 8425 677private rented 1246 588 1232 581all private non-vulnerable 9740 669 9657 663 all owner occupied 9922 678 9839 673all private rented 1675 559 1648 550all private 11597 658 11487 663all social 2798 740 2766 731

all households 14395 672 14253 666

non-decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 760 347 775 354private rented 447 510 459 524all private vulnerable 1207 394 1234 403 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 3946 317 4015 323private rented 874 412 888 419all private non-vulnerable 4820 331 4903 337 all owner occupied 4706 322 4790 327all private rented 1321 441 1347 450all private 6027 342 6137 348all social 985 260 1017 269

all households 7012 328 7154 334

Note For reporting purposes decent homes estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

48 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes1 by deprived and other districts by tenure 2006-2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsSocial NRF88 662 652 605Other districts 480 486 464 Private NRF88 2544 2621 2442Other districts 4013 3928 3849

percentages of dwellingsSocial NRF88 313 304 278Other districts 264 278 263 Private NRF88 381 380 361Other districts 353 344 333

Note NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving Neighbourhood Renewal Funding 2001-2006Source English House Condition Survey 2006-2007English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub sample)

Technical annex | 49

Technical annex

General description

The survey consists of three main elements an initial interview survey of 17700 households with a follow up physical inspection and a desk based market valuation of a sub-sample of 8000 of these dwellings including vacant dwellings The interview survey sample forms part of ONSrsquos Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the core questions from the IHS form part of the EHS questionnaire More information about the IHS is available from its webpage wwwstatisticsgovukCCInuggetaspID=936ampPos=1ampColRank=1ampRank=224

The EHS interview content covers the key topics included under the former SEH and EHCS The content of the physical and market value components remains very largely unchanged from the former EHCS

Sampling and grossing

2008-09 Sample1 The initial sample for 2008-09 consisted of 32100 addresses drawn as a systematic

random sample from the Postcode Address File (small users) Interviews were attempted at all of these addresses over the course of the survey year from April 2008 to March 2009 A proportion of addresses were found not to be valid residential properties (eg demolished properties secondholiday homes small businesses not yet built)

2 Of the 17691 addresses where interviews were achieved (the lsquofull household samplersquo) all social rented properties and a sub-sample of private properties were regarded as eligible for the physical survey and the respondentrsquos consent was sought A proportion of vacant properties were also sub-sampled Physical surveys were completed in 7972 cases and these cases contribute to the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo (see below)

3 The principal differences in sampling methodology between the EHS and its predecessors the SEH and EHCS are that

bull The EHS uses an unclustered sample This enables a smaller sample to be used with no loss of precision ie without sampling errors being increased The more scattered sample does however have some implications for fieldwork organisation

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 7: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

Introduction | 7

8 The EHS has three component surveys a household interview followed by a physical inspection and a market value survey of a sub sample of the properties The sampling and grossing design of the EHS differs in some ways from the surveys it replaced these changes are summarised in the Technical annex at the end of this report

9 Information on the English Housing Survey can be accessed via this link wwwcommunitiesgovukhousinghousingresearchhousingsurveys

10 Information and past reports on the Survey of English Housing and the English House Condition Survey can also be accessed via this link

11 If you have any queries about this report or would like any further information please contact ehscommunitiesgsigovuk

8 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Key findings

bull There was a decrease in the number of owner occupied households from a peak of 148 million in 2005 and 2006 to 146 million in 2008-09 In contrast the number of households renting privately rose by one million since 2001 from 21 million to 31 million in 2008-09

bull Couples with no dependent children were the most common type of household (36) and the most common type of owner occupiers (42) in 2008-09 Amongst renters one-person households were the most common 41 of social renters and 30 of private renters

bull Over half (59) of all private renters expected to eventually buy a home in the UK compared to only around a quarter (27) of social renters Of those who did expect to buy 24 of private renters and 10 of social renters expected to buy within the next two years

bull Overcrowding was highest in the rented sectors 67 of social rented households and 54 of private rented households were overcrowded as measured by the bedroom standard In contrast only 16 of owner occupiers were overcrowded

bull The energy efficiency of homes continued to improve with the average SAP rating increasing from 42 to 51 between 1996 and 2008 Not only were social sector homes more energy efficient than those in the private sector (59 and 49 respectively) but they have seen greatest improvement since 1996 with the average SAP rating increasing from 47 to 59

bull A potentially serious (Category 1) hazard as measured under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System was present in around 48 million homes in 2008 22 of the housing stock

bull Some 74 million homes (33) were non-decent in 2008 Overall social sector homes were in a better condition than private sector homes with 27 being non-decent compared to 34

bull In 2008 31 million lsquovulnerablersquo householdsrsquo1 were living in the private sector of which 12 million (39) were living in non-decent homes the remaining 19 million (61) were living in decent accommodation

1 Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

Section 1 Households | 9

Section 1Households

11 Results for households (not in relation to the physical condition of the home) are presented for 2008-09 and are based on fieldwork carried out between April 2008 and March 2009 of a sample of 17691 households This is referred to as the lsquofull household samplersquo throughout the report

Trends in tenure

12 In 2008-09 there were an estimated 215 million households in England Owner occupation was the largest tenure accounting for 679 of all households but this has declined from a high of 709 in 2003 Social renting was the second largest tenure in 2008-09 representing 178 of all households this share having remained stable over recent years The smallest tenure private renting has seen a surge in the past few years It accounted for 142 of households in 2008-09 compared to a share of only 10 in 2001

13 Table 1 shows the number and proportion of households by tenure since 2001 with estimates prior to 2008-09 based on Labour Force Survey data Labour Force Survey data has been used for the main tenure estimates and trends in recent years in all Survey of English Housing (SEH) reports and Live Tables This was because the LFS had a much larger sample size than the SEH and this provided more robust overall estimates of households by tenure The EHS grossing methodology uses the LFS tenure distribution and therefore there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution

14 Despite the significant fall in owner occupation as a proportion of all households 679 the actual number of owner occupiers in England has declined only slightly from 148 million in 2005 to 146 million in 2008-09 The number of households renting privately has risen by around one million since 2001 from 21 million to 31 million

10 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 1 Trends in tenure 2001 to 2008-09 England

all households

owner occupiers

ownoutright

buying witha mortgage

all owner occupiers

social renters

private renters

all households

thousands of households2001 5885 8473 14358 3983 2062 204032002 6019 8540 14559 3972 2131 206622003 6158 8542 14701 3804 2234 207392004 6288 8389 14677 3797 2284 207582005 6352 8440 14791 3696 2445 209322006 6425 8365 14790 3736 2566 210922007 6505 8228 14733 3755 2691 211782008 6653 7975 14628 3797 2982 21407 2008-09 6770 7851 14621 3842 3067 21530

percentages2001 288 415 704 195 101 1002002 291 413 705 192 103 1002003 297 412 709 183 108 1002004 303 404 707 183 110 1002005 303 403 707 177 117 1002006 305 397 701 177 122 1002007 307 389 696 177 127 1002008 311 373 683 177 139 100 2008-09 314 365 679 178 142 100

Note data for years prior to 2001 can be found in table S101 wwwcommunitiesgovukdocumentshousingxls139262xls Tenure trends based on SEH annual data for 1993-94 to 2007-08 are available in Fifteen years of the Survey of English Housingwwwcommunitiesgovukdocumentsstatisticspdf1346239pdfSources2001 to 2008 ONS Labour Force Survey2008-09 English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

15 Figure 1 shows the trend in tenure back to 1980 Owner occupation rose steadily throughout the 1980s and at a lesser rate throughout the 1990s The level of private renting saw little change throughout the 1980s and early 1990s but has since increased to around 31 million in 2008-09 In 1980 54 million households were social renters but by 2008-09 this had decreased to 38 million

Section 1 Households | 11

Figure 1 Trend in tenure 1980 to 2008ndash09

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

2008

-09

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

1997

1996

1995

1994

1993

1992

1991

1990

1989

1988

1987

1986

1985

1984

1983

1982

1981

1980

owner occupierssocial rentersprivate renters

mill

ion

ho

use

ho

lds

Source 1980 to 2008 ONS Labour Force Survey 2008ndash09 English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Household type

16 Couples with no dependent children were the most common type of household in 2008-09 (36) These households were also the most common type of owner occupiers Amongst renters one-person households were the most common 41 of social renters and 30 of private renters Although only 7 of households overall were lone parents with dependent children there was a noticeable difference by tenure 17 of social renters 11 of private renters and 3 of owner occupiers (see Table 2)

12 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 2 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent child(ren)1

couple with dependent child(ren)1

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)1

other multi-

person households 1 male 1 female

all household

types

thousands of householdsown outright 3538 424 103 396 769 1541 6770buying with mortgage 2670 2971 405 402 791 612 7851all owner occupiers 6208 3395 508 798 1560 2153 14621 local authority 333 287 331 177 342 417 1887housing association 352 299 341 151 354 458 1955all social renters 685 587 672 328 696 875 3842 private renters 764 535 333 514 582 339 3067 all tenures 7657 4516 1514 1640 2838 3366 21530

percentagesown outright 52 6 2 6 11 23 100buying with mortgage 34 38 5 5 10 8 100all owner occupiers 42 23 3 5 11 15 100 local authority 18 15 18 9 18 22 100housing association 18 15 17 8 18 23 100all social renters 18 15 17 9 18 23 100 private renters 25 17 11 17 19 11 100 all tenures 36 21 7 8 13 16 100

Note 1) These categories can also include non-dependent childrenSource English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

17 Figure 2 shows each household type split by tenure An estimated 66 of couples with dependent children were buying with a mortgage 13 were social renters 12 were private renters and 9 owned outright The tenure split for lone parents with dependent children was quite different with only 27 buying with a mortgage whilst 44 were social renters 22 were private renters and 7 owned outright

Section 1 Households | 13

Figure 2 Household type by tenure 2008-09p

erce

nta

ge

private renterssocial rentersbuying with mortgageown outright

allhousehold

types

allone-personhouseholds

othermulti-personhouseholds

lone parentwith

dependentchild(ren)

couple withdependentchild(ren)

couple nodependentchild(ren)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sampleNote underlying data is presented in annex table 1

Economic status

18 In 2008-09 91 of household reference persons (HRP)2 who were buying with a mortgage were working 85 full-time and 6 part-time Around 60 of outright owners were retired compared to only 9 of private renters In the social rented sector over half the household reference persons were economically inactive with 31 retired and 26 lsquoother inactiversquo (such as long-term sickness or disability or lone parent)

2 see glossary for definition

14 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 3 Economic status of household reference person by tenure 2008-09

all households

economic status of HRP

full time work

part-time work

un-employed retired

other inactive all

thousands of householdsown outright 1777 570 54 4079 290 6770buying with mortgage 6679 470 101 312 290 7851all owner occupiers 8456 1040 155 4390 580 14621 local authority 444 203 172 566 503 1887housing association 489 182 152 643 488 1955all social renters 933 385 324 1209 991 3842 all private renters 1874 262 143 274 514 3067 all tenures 11263 1687 622 5873 2085 21530

percentagesown outright 26 8 1 60 4 100buying with mortgage 85 6 1 4 4 100all owner occupiers 58 7 1 30 4 100 local authority 24 11 9 30 27 100housing association 25 9 8 33 25 100all social renters 24 10 8 31 26 100 all private renters 61 9 5 9 17 100 all tenures 52 8 3 27 10 100Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

19 Table 3 shows the economic status of all householders Figure 3 shows the economic status of those of working age ndash men aged under 65 and women aged under 60 Within this group 94 of those buying with a mortgage were working compared to only 49 of those who were social renters Unemployment was highest in the social rented sector 12 compared to 5 of private renters and only 1 of owner occupiers

110 There was also a much higher proportion of lsquoother inactiversquo amongst working age social renters than those in other tenures 37 compared to 19 of private renters 10 of outright owners and 4 of mortgagors

Section 1 Households | 15

Figure 3 Economic status of working age HRPs 2008-09

other inactiveretiredunemployedworking

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

alltenures

privaterenters

socialrenters

buying withmortgage

ownoutright

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sampleNote underlying data is presented in annex table 2

Age of household reference person by tenure

111 Owner occupation is the most common tenure in England In 2008-09 there were 68 million households that owned outright and 78 million buying with a mortgage Around three-quarters of mortgagors were aged between 35 and 64 with only 3 aged 65 or over Outright owners the majority of whom were likely to have once had a mortgage and paid it off were concentrated in the older age groups 6 were aged under 45 Overall 32 of owner occupiers were in the 16 to 44 age range

112 Around half (51) of householders aged 25 to 34 were owners 17 were social renters and 31 were private renters Within the 35 to 44 age group the proportions of social and private renters were very similar 17 and 16 respectively and 67 of householders in this age group were owners

113 Over 80 of private renters were aged under 55 with only 8 aged 65 or over By contrast 28 of owner occupiers and 29 of social renters were aged 65 or over

16 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 4 Age of household reference person by tenure 2008-09

all households

age of HRP

16 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54 55 - 64 65 or over all ages

thousands of householdsown outright 9 87 329 759 1752 3833 6770buying with mortgage 114 1562 2619 2237 1071 249 7851all owner occupiers 123 1649 2948 2996 2823 4082 14621 local authority 123 306 373 318 244 523 1887housing association 112 254 385 349 256 599 1955all social renters 235 560 757 667 501 1122 3842 private renters 497 995 686 380 252 257 3067 all tenures 855 3203 4392 4043 3576 5461 21530

percentage within tenureown outright 0 1 5 11 26 57 100buying with mortgage 1 20 33 28 14 3 100all owner occupiers 1 11 20 20 19 28 100 local authority 7 16 20 17 13 28 100housing association 6 13 20 18 13 31 100all social renters 6 15 20 17 13 29 100 private renters 16 32 22 12 8 8 100 all tenures 4 15 20 19 17 25 100

percentage within age groupown outright 1 3 7 19 49 70 31buying with mortgage 13 49 60 55 30 5 36all owner occupiers 14 51 67 74 79 75 68 local authority 14 10 8 8 7 10 9housing association 13 8 9 9 7 11 9all social renters 27 17 17 17 14 21 18 private renters 58 31 16 9 7 5 14 all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Section 1 Households | 17

Figure 4 Age of household reference person by tenure 2008ndash09

per

cen

tage

private renterssocial rentersbuying with mortgageown outright

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

65 or over 55ndash64 45ndash54 35ndash44

age of HRP

25ndash34 16ndash24

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Buying expectations of renters

114 In 2008-09 27 of social renters expected to eventually become homeowners compared to 59 of private renters Of those who did expect to buy 44 of social renters expected to buy their current accommodation compared to only 13 of private renters

18 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 5 Buying aspirations of social and private renters 2008-09

all renters

social renters private renters

percentagesWill eventually buy or share home in UK yes 27 59no 73 41All 100 100

Expect to buy current accommodation (all who expect to buy) yes 44 13no 56 87All 100 100

When expect to buy (all who expect to buy) Less than a yearrsquos time 3 81 year but less than 2 years 7 162 years but less than 5 years 25 345 years or more 65 42All 100 100

Note Expectations to buy include shared ownershipSource English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

115 An estimated 24 of private renters expecting to buy (14 of all private renters) thought that they would buy within the next two years This proportion had fallen from 34 in 2006-07 (see Figure 5) whilst the proportion expecting to buy in five or more yearsrsquo time had risen from 35 to 42 over this period These changes suggest that private renters now expect to rent for longer before being in a position to buy perhaps due to affordability issues

Figure 5 Trend in expected time to buying ndash private renters expecting to buy eventually

per

cen

tage

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

2008-09 2007-082006-07

5 years or more2 years but less than 5lt2 years

Note based on those private renters who expect to buy eventuallySource English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Section 1 Households | 19

Overcrowding and under-occupation

116 Levels of overcrowding are measured using the ldquobedroom standardrdquo (see definition in Glossary) Essentially this is the difference between the number of bedrooms needed to avoid undesirable sharing (given the number and ages of household members and their relationships to each other) and the number of bedrooms actually available to the household

117 The previous estimates of overcrowding were based on three-year moving averages from the Survey of English Housing for 2005-06 2006-07 and 2007-08 The reason for having to base estimates on a three-year average was that with fewer than 3 per cent of households overcrowded the sample size for a single year was too small to provide reliable annual estimates However for 2008-09 in addition to the EHS sample of 17700 households we have information from a further 95000 households that were interviewed for the ONS Labour Force Survey This combined sample was sufficiently large to deliver robust single year estimates for 2008-09 without the need to carry forward the three-year average series

Table 6 Overcrowding and under-occupation by tenure 2008-09

all households

difference from bedroom standard

overcrowded at standardone above

standardunder-

occupied total

thousands of householdsowner occupiers 231 2117 5416 6855 14620

social renters 258 2032 1121 430 3841

private renters 164 1312 1095 494 3066

all tenures 654 5462 7633 7779 21527

percentagesowner occupiers 16 145 370 469 100

social renters 67 529 292 112 100

private renters 54 428 357 161 100

all tenures 30 254 355 361 100

Notes Details of the bedroom standard can be found in the GlossarySource English Housing Survey - full household sample and ONS Labour Force Survey

118 The overall rate of overcrowding in England for 2008-09 was 30 (see Table 6) This compares to the previously published estimate of 28 (averaged over the period 2005-06 to 2007-08) There were around 654000 overcrowded households (compared to an average of 570000 over the period 2005-06 to 2007-08) Levels of overcrowding varied considerably by tenure and were lowest in the owner occupied sector at 16 up from 14 for the period 2005-06 to 2007-08 Around 67 of social renters were overcrowded and 54 of private renters compared to 59 and 49 respectively for 2005-06 to 2007-08

20 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

119 Although the overall rate of overcrowding has shown little change in recent years this is largely due to the relatively stable rate of overcrowding in the owner occupied sector the largest tenure Over the past decade overcrowding has been rising in both the rented sectors

Figure 6 Trend in overcrowding rates by tenure 1995-96 to 2008-09 (3 year moving average)

private renters social rentersowner occupiers all tenures

per

cen

tage

of

ho

use

ho

lds

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

2008

-09

2007

-08

2006

-07

2005

-06

2004

-05

2003

-04

2002

-03

2001

-02

2000

-01

1999

-00

1998

-99

1997

-98

1996

-97

1995

-96

Source Survey of English Housing to 2007-08 and combined English Housing Survey (full sample) plus Labour Force Survey for 2008-09 The estimates up to 2007-08 are three-year moving averages so the ldquo2007-08rdquo figure is actually the average of 2005-06 2006-07 and 2007-08 Since the 2008-09 estimates are for that year only a gap has been introduced to separate the three-year averages to 2007-08 from the annual estimates for 2008-09

120 Around 78 million households were estimated to be under-occupying their accommodation in 2008-09 that is they had at least two bedrooms more than they needed (see definition of bedroom standard in Glossary) Under-occupation was far more likely to be found in the owner occupied sector than in the rented sectors 47 of owner occupiers were under-occupying accommodation compared to 11 of social renters and 16 of private renters

Recent movers

121 In this section we look at those households that had been in their current accommodation for less than 12 months at the time of interview

Section 1 Households | 21

Table 7 Previous tenure by current tenure 2008-09

HRPs resident less than a year

previous tenure ndash continuing households

current tenurenew

householdowner

occupierssocial

rentersprivate renters all tenures

thousands of householdsoutright owners 4 83 0 12 99buying with mortgage 68 204 13 131 416all owner occupiers 72 287 13 144 515

local authority 20 13 76 20 129housing association 24 9 105 38 177all social renters 44 23 181 58 306

private renters 229 141 47 686 1103

all tenures 345 450 241 887 1924

percentageoutright owners 4 84 0 13 100buying with mortgage 16 49 3 32 100all owner occupiers 14 56 3 28 100

local authority 15 10 59 15 100housing association 14 5 59 22 100all social renters 15 7 59 19 100

private renters 21 13 4 62 100

all tenures 18 23 13 46 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

122 Around 18 of households that had moved into their accommodation in the previous year were new households Two thirds (66) of these new households were private renters and around one fifth (21) were owner occupiers Movement within tenure was more common than moves between tenures 62 of current private renters had previously been private renters 59 of social renters had moved from another social rented property and 56 of owner occupiers had owned their previous property Movement into the social rented sector for continuing households was more likely to be from private renting (19 of current social renters) than from owner occupation (7)

22 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Attitudes to home and local area

123 Around 90 of households in England were satisfied with their accommodation in 2008-09 The highest levels of satisfaction were expressed by outright owners 73 of whom said that they were very satisfied with their homes Over three quarters of social renters were satisfied with their homes but 9 were slightly dissatisfied and 7 were very dissatisfied Around 82 of private renters were very or fairly satisfied with their accommodation and only 3 said they were very dissatisfied

Table 8 Satisfaction with accommodation by tenure 2008-09

all households

very satisfied

fairly satisfied

neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

slightly dissatisfied

very dissatisfied Total

thousands of householdsoutright owners 4926 1535 111 100 36 6709buying with mortgage 4604 2719 232 200 55 7810all owneroccupiers 9530 4254 343 300 91 14519

local authority 697 736 98 192 142 1866housing association 842 700 116 159 117 1935all social renters 1539 1437 214 351 260 3801

private renters 1240 1211 193 227 102 2972

all tenures 12309 6901 751 878 452 21291

percentagesoutright owners 73 23 2 1 1 100buying with mortgage 59 35 3 3 1 100all owneroccupiers 66 29 2 2 1 100

local authority 37 39 5 10 8 100housing association 44 36 6 8 6 100all social renters 40 38 6 9 7 100

private renters 42 41 6 8 3 100

all tenures 58 32 4 4 2 100

Note This question is not asked of proxy respondents and a small proportion of respondents chose not to answer These exclusions are reflected in the overall total number of households in this table Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

124 A large majority of households are satisfied with the local area in which they live In 2008-09 just over half of all households in England were very satisfied with their local area and 87 were very or fairly satisfied Only 3 of households were very dissatisfied with their local area

Section 1 Households | 23

125 There were some differences by tenure 89 of owner occupiers were satisfied with their local area compared to 79 of social renters and 85 of private renters Whilst only two per cent of owner occupiers and private renters said that they were very dissatisfied with their local area seven per cent of social renters were very dissatisfied

Table 9 Satisfaction with local area by tenure 2008-09

all households

very satisfied

fairly satisfied

neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

slightly dissatisfied

very dissatisfied Total

thousands of householdsoutright owners 3999 2093 180 322 114 6708buying with mortgage 3919 2973 371 420 127 7810all owners 7918 5066 552 742 241 14518

local authority 754 712 122 159 122 1867housing association 861 679 116 150 129 1936all social renters 1615 1391 238 309 251 3803

private renters 1520 1001 183 194 73 2972

all tenures 11052 7458 972 1245 565 21293

percentagesoutright owners 60 31 3 5 2 100buying with mortgage 50 38 5 5 2 100all owners 55 35 4 5 2 100

local authority 40 38 7 9 7 100housing association 44 35 6 8 7 100all social renters 42 37 6 8 7 100

private renters 51 34 6 7 2 100

all tenures 52 35 5 6 3 100

Note This question is not asked of proxy respondents and a small proportion of respondents chose not to answer These exclusions are reflected in the overall total number of households in this table Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

24 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Section 2Housing stock

21 Results relating to the housing stock in this report are presented using two yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the English House Condition Survey (EHCS) For this transition year data from the last full year of the EHCS (2007-08) were combined with the first year of the EHS (2008-09)

22 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Stock profile

23 There were around 222 million dwellings in 2008 Table 10 Of these 183 million (82 of the stock) were in the private sector and comprised 150 million owner occupied homes and 33 million private rented homes There were 39 million social sector homes (18 of the stock) of which two million were owned by local authority and two million by housing associations

Section 2 Housing stock | 25

Table 10 Stock profile 2008

all dwellings

private sector social sector

owner occupied

private rented

all private sector

local authority

housing association

all social sector

all dwellings

in group

thousands of dwellingsdwelling agepre 1919 3194 1309 4503 86 170 257 47601919-44 2689 431 3120 336 187 522 36421945-64 2708 384 3092 760 511 1271 43631965-80 3146 536 3682 665 467 1132 48141981-90 1401 222 1624 107 223 330 1953post 1990 1869 415 2284 30 394 424 2708

dwelling typemid terrace 2638 820 3459 325 367 693 4151end terrance 1440 340 1779 199 222 421 2201small terraced house 1216 548 1764 192 217 408 2172mediumlarge terraced house 2862 612 3475 333 373 705 4180all terrace 4078 1160 5238 524 589 1114 6352semi-detached house 4515 556 5070 365 351 716 5786detached house 3575 267 3843 5 18 24 3867bungalow 1548 133 1681 176 236 412 2092converted flat 284 427 712 38 75 113 825purpose built flat low rise 926 704 1630 724 626 1349 2979purpose built flat high rise 81 49 130 152 56 208 338

floor arealess than 50 sqm 742 652 1394 550 536 1086 248050 to 69 sqm 2913 1028 3942 725 680 1405 534770 to 89 sqm 4361 890 5251 575 553 1127 637990 to 109 sqm 2632 322 2954 102 132 234 3188110 sqm or more 4359 403 4763 32 52 83 4846

type of areacity centre 295 262 558 72 75 147 704other urban centre 2263 967 3230 538 458 996 4227suburban residential 9204 1581 10785 1236 1171 2407 13192rural residential 2074 233 2307 105 190 295 2601village centre 647 110 756 26 47 72 829rural 524 144 668 7 11 19 687

deprived local areasmost deprived 10 773 325 1097 595 468 1064 21612-5th 5331 1518 6849 1121 1025 2145 89956-9th 7072 1188 8260 249 423 672 8932least deprived 1832 266 2097 19 36 54 2152

occupancy statusoccupied 14610 2858 17468 1896 1860 3755 21223vacant 398 438 836 88 92 180 1016

Total 15007 3296 18304 1984 1951 3935 22239

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

26 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

24 The large majority of dwellings were houses (181 million) most commonly terraced or semi-detached The remainder of the stock 41 million consisited of flats predominately purpose built low rise flats However types of housing vary markedly between tenures While 91 of owner occupied housing was made up of houses almost half (46) of local authority homes were flats Figure 7 Flats also accounted for over a third of private rented homes and housing association homes (36 and 39 respectively)

Figure 7 Dwelling type by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

purpose built flat high risepurpose built flat low riseconverted flatdetached houses and bungalowssemi-detached housemediumlarge terraced housesmall terraced house

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

25 England has a relatively old housing stock with some 84 million homes built before 1945 of which 48 million were built before 1919 A fifth of homes (47 million) have been built since 1980

26 Stock in different tenures have different age profiles It is noticeable that owner occupied homes are evenly distributed across the five age bands compared with other tenures Figure 8 In the private rented sector for example 40 (13 million homes) were built before 1919 significantly higher than other tenures Housing association homes were more likely to have been built during the 1980s and 1990s (32) compared to only 7 of local authority homes

Section 2 Housing stock | 27

Figure 8 Age of housing stock by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

post 19901981-901965-801945-641919-44pre 1919

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

27 Some 44 million (29) of owner occupied homes had a floor area greater than 110m2 including 18 million (12 of the sector) which were over 150m2 This reflects the proportion of semi-detached and detached owner occupied homes which tend to be large Social sector homes were most likely to have a floor area of less than 50m2 compared with those in the private sector (28 and 8 respectively)

28 Homes in England were most likely to be located in suburban residential areas and least likely to be found in rural areas (59 and 3 respectively)

Energy efficiency of the housing stock

Heating and insulation29 Key ways of increasing the energy efficiency of existing homes are

improvements to their heating systems and levels of insulation For heating the type of heating system boiler in use and the fuel used are all related to energy performance

210 Central heating is the predominant main heating system present in 199 million homes (89 of the housing stock) in 2008 see Annex Table 3 This was followed by storage heaters present in 16 million (7) of homes and room heaters in 700000 homes (3) Central heating is generally considered to be the most cost effective and relatively efficient method of heating whereas room heaters tend to be the least cost effective and relatively inefficient method of heating

28 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

211 In 2008 92 of owner occupied homes had central heating systems compared to 88 of social and 80 of private rented homes see Annex Table 4 In part this reflects the higher proportion of flats in the rented sectors compared with owner occupation with 23 of flats using storage heaters

212 Condensing boilers are generally the most efficient boiler type and are now mandatory for new and replacement boilers (for gas fired boilers since 2005 for oil fired boilers since 2007) However even prior to these requirements the less efficient standard and back boilers were decreasing in use with the growing popularity of standard combination types Figure 9 Recent years have seen rapidly expanding take up of condensing and particularly combination condensing boilers In 2008 37 million homes (17 of the stock) had one of the two types of condensing boilers

Figure 9 Boiler types 1996-2008

no boiler

condensing-combination boiler condensing boilercombination boilerback boiler (to fire or stove)standard boiler (floor or wall)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

20082007200620052004200320011996

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes underpinning data is presented in Annex Table 5Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

213 For a home to provide optimum energy performance a high level of thermal insulation needs to be present alongside an efficient heating system Standard insulation measures include cavity wall insulation loft insulation and double glazing which have all improved in the stock since 1996 Figure 10

214 In 2008 155 million homes (70) had external walls of cavity construction 74 million homes (33 of the stock) had cavity wall insulation 47 million homes (21) had 200mm or more of loft insulation and 157 million homes (71) had full double glazing with an additional 29 million homes (13) having more than half double glazed Figure 10

Section 2 Housing stock | 29

Figure 10 Insulation measures 1996-2008

20082007200620052004200320011996

entire housedouble glazing

200mm or moreof loft insulation

cavity walls withinsulation

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes1) Only 89 of dwellings have lofts and 70 of dwellings have cavity walls2) Underpinning data is presented in annex Table 7Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

215 In 2008 the social rented sector had the greatest proportion of homes with cavity wall insulation (local authority 42 housing association 44) 200mm or more of loft insulation (local authority 24 housing association 29) and full double glazing (local authority 75 housing association 83) whereas the private rented sector had the lowest proportion of all three standard insulation measures cavity wall insulation (17) 200mm or more of loft insulation (13) and full double glazing (61) Figure 11

30 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Figure 11 Percentage of dwellings with efficient insulation measures by tenure 2008

full double glazing200mm or moreloft insulation

cavity withinsulation

cavity wall

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

housing associationlocal authorityprivate rentedowner occupied0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Base all dwellingsSource English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

SAP Rating

216 The energy efficiency of the housing stock continued to improve between 1996 and 2008 the average SAP rating of a home increased by 9 SAP points from 42 to 51 Table 11 The social sector was on average more energy efficient than the private sector and saw the greatest improvement with the average SAP rating increasing by 12 SAP points from 47 to 59

Table 11 Energy efficiency average SAP rating by tenure 2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

owner occupied 411 444 450 456 461 469 481 496private rented 379 419 444 457 460 466 481 502all private 407 441 449 456 461 468 481 497

local authority 457 496 520 539 553 558 562 580housing association 509 564 567 573 589 593 595 603all social 468 519 539 553 569 574 578 592

all tenures 421 457 466 474 481 487 498 514

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Section 2 Housing stock | 31

217 There has been a significant increase in the proportion of homes achieving the highest Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands in 2008 10 (23 million) of homes achieved the highest (EER) Bands A to C3 compared with 7 (16 million) in 2006 Table 12 The number of homes in the lowest EER Bands (F and G) fell by a million over the same period The majority of homes (73) continue to be in the EER Bands D or E

Table 12 Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 35 35 77Band C (69-80) 1545 1710 2229Band D (55-68) 6555 7316 7865Band E (39-54) 9072 8859 8310Band F (21-38) 3838 3389 2972Band G (1-20) 943 881 786Total 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 02 02 03Band C (69-80) 70 77 100Band D (55-68) 298 330 354Band E (39-54) 413 399 374Band F (21-38) 175 153 134Band G (1-20) 43 40 35Total 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 2006 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Housing health and safety rating system

218 A potentially serious (Category 1) hazard as measured under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System was present in around 48 million homes in 2008 22 of the housing stock

2 EER Bands are used in the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) The Certificate provides among other indicators an energy efficiency rating for the home on a scale from A-G (where A is the most efficient and G the least efficient)

32 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Housing conditions

Housing Health and Safety Rating System219 There was no significant change in the proportion of homes with any Category

1 hazard between 2006 and 2008 Hazards tend to be more common in older housing stock for example stairs are more likely to be steep and narrow in older housing making lsquofalls on stairsrsquo more likely or heating and insulation measures tend to be less effective in older stock making lsquoexcess coldrsquo a more serious hazard Therefore it is not surprising that hazards are more common in the private sector where the older housing stock is concentrated Almost a quarter of housing in the private sector had at least one category 1 hazard in 2008 (24) compared to around 13 in the social sector Table 14 Privately rented homes were most likely to have Category 1 hazards present compared to housing association homes (31 and 13 respectively)

220 The most common type of hazard in all four tenures was falls (see annex Table 10 for details of which hazards are included in this category) Overall 13 of homes have at least one type of falls hazard present

Decent homes221 In 2008 74 million homes (33) were non-decent4 Table 13 Housing

association housing was the least likely to be non-decent (23) while private rented housing was in the worst condition with 44 of homes being non-decent Overall social sector homes were in a better condition than private sector homes with 27 being non-decent compared to 34

222 The number of non-decent homes fell from 77 million in 2006 to 74 million in 20085 Conditions in the social sector improved with the proportion of homes failing the standard falling by two percentage points from 29 in 2006 to 27 in 2008 Private sector homes also improved from 36 non-decent in 2006 to 34 non-decent in 2008

4 Estimates from the EHS are based soley on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors subject to any limitations of the information they collect The EHS estimates in this report do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property

5 In 2006 the Housing Health and Safety Rating System replaced the Fitness Standard as the statutory minimum standard for housing Earlier estimates based on the original definition are not comparable therefore any change in the number of decent homes can only be referenced back to 2006 Figures for decent homes prior to 2006 can be found in the 2006 English House Condition Survey Annual Report available at wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

Section 2 Housing stock | 33

Table 13 Non-decent homes by tenure 2006 ndash 2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5335 5304 4842private rented 1223 1244 1449all private 6558 6548 6291

local authority 676 652 625housing association 465 486 444all social 1142 1138 1069

all tenures 7700 7686 7360

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 346 341 323private rented 468 454 440all private 363 358 344

local authority 324 328 315housing association 252 255 228all social 290 292 272

all tenures 350 346 331

Notes1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties between 2007 and 2008 are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates See Annex Table 11Sources2006 ndash 2007 English House Condition Survey2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Reasons for failing decent homes223 Of the four components required to meet the decent homes standard the

presence of one or more category 1 hazards under the HHSRS was the most commonly failed Table 14 This is particularly the case for private sector homes where 24 of homes had one or more Category 1 hazards present compared to 13 of social sector homes

34 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 14 Homes failing decent homes criteria by tenure 2008

all dwellings

Category 1 hazard (HHSRS)

thermal comfort

modern facilities repair all non-decent

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 3342 1773 379 817 4842private rented 978 637 160 369 1449all private 4320 2411 539 1186 6291

local authority 298 227 138 146 625housing association 224 199 50 86 444all social 522 426 188 231 1069

all tenures 4842 2837 727 1417 7360

percentages

owner occupied 223 118 25 54 323private rented 297 193 49 112 440all private 236 132 29 65 344

local authority 150 115 70 74 315housing association 115 102 25 44 228all social 133 108 48 59 272

all tenures 218 128 33 64 331

Note The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoids a break in the time series See Annex Table 12 for estimate based on 26 hazardsSource English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

224 There was significant progress in the thermal comfort of homes between 2006 and 2008 The proportion of homes failing thermal comfort fell to 13 in 2008 from 16 in 2006 Improvement has been made across all tenures

Private sector vulnerable households225 In 2008 31 million lsquovulnerablersquo households6 were living in the private sector of

which 12 million (39) were living in non-decent homes the remaining 19 million (61) were living in decent accommodation Table 15 There has been no significant change since 2006

226 Vulnerable households who privately rent their accommodation were more likely to live in non-decent homes compared to social tenants (51 and 26 respectively) Table 15

6 Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

Section 2 Housing stock | 35

Table 15 Households living in decent homes 2006-2008

all dwellings

number (000s) percentage ()

2006 2007 2008 2006 2007 2008

decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 1543 1575 1428 630 649 653private rented 334 354 429 450 482 490all private vulnerable 1877 1929 1857 588 610 606

private non- vulnerableowner occupied 8418 8531 8494 664 667 683private rented 922 985 1246 567 566 588all private non-vulnerable 9340 9516 9740 653 655 669

all owner occupied 9961 10106 9922 658 664 678all private rented 1256 1339 1675 530 541 559all private 11217 11445 11597 641 647 658all social 2690 2649 2798 722 719 740all households 13907 14094 14395 655 659 672

non-decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 905 851 760 370 351 347private rented 408 380 447 550 518 510all private vulnerable 1313 1231 1207 412 390 394

private non-vulnerableowner occupied 4262 4264 3946 336 333 317private rented 704 754 874 433 434 412all private non-vulnerable 4966 5018 4820 347 345 331

all owner occupied 5167 5115 4706 342 336 322all private rented 1112 1134 1321 470 459 441all private 6279 6249 6027 359 353 342

all social 1034 1037 985 278 281 260all households 7313 7286 7012 345 341 328

Notes 1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoid a break in the time series See Annex Table 13 for further detailsSource English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

36 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Damp and mould growth227 The proportion of homes with damp problems has reduced from 13 in 1996

to 8 in 2008 Table 16

Table 16 Number and percentage of homes with damp problems in one or more rooms 1996-2008

all dwellings

rising damp

penetrating damp

condensation mould

any damp problems

thousands of dwellings1996 858 1271 1145 26012001 625 1032 860 20322003 740 1066 1003 22832004 750 1035 951 22512005 759 952 941 22102006 724 886 947 21582007 640 833 881 19162008 584 759 865 1746

percentage of dwellings1996 42 63 56 1282001 29 49 41 962003 34 50 47 1062004 35 48 44 1042005 35 44 43 1012006 33 40 43 982007 29 38 40 862008 26 34 39 78

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

228 Privately rented homes were more likely to experience damp problems compared to other tenures Figure 11 Privately rented homes were more likely to be older homes and experience problems with rising or penetrating damp due to defects in the damp proof course roof covering gutters and down pipes which would affect at least one room in the property

229 In the social sector damp problems were more likely to be caused by serious condensation and mould growth rather than by rising damp Figure 12

Section 2 Housing stock | 37

Figure 12 Percentage of homes with a damp problem by tenure 2008

rising damp penetrating damp condensationmould

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

alltenures

housingassociation

localauthority

privaterented

owneroccupied

per

cen

tage

of

ho

mes

wit

h d

amp

pro

ble

ms

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

38 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex tables

Households

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

Annex Table 2 Economic Status of working age HRP by tenure 2008-09

Energy efficiency

Annex Table 3 Heating Type 1996-2008

Annex Table 4 Main Heating System by tenure 2008

Annex Table 5 Boiler Types 1996-2008

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

Annex Table 8 Cavity Wall insulation by tenure 2008

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

Housing Health and Safety Rating System

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 HHSRS hazards present (comparison of estimates based on any one of 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Non-decent homes in deprived areas

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes in deprived areas by tenure 2006-2008

Annex tables | 39

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent

child(ren)

couple with dependent

child(ren)

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)

other multi-

person households

all one-person

households

all household

types

percentageown outright 46 9 7 24 37 31buying with mortgage 35 66 27 25 23 36social renters 9 13 44 20 25 18private renters 10 12 22 31 15 14

all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 2 Economic status of working age HRP by tenure

all households

working un-employed retired other inactive Total percentage

own outright 74 2 14 10 100buying with mortgage 94 1 1 4 100social renters 49 12 1 37 100private renters 75 5 1 19 100all tenures 80 4 3 13 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 3 Heating type 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingscentral heating 16178 18177 18604 18919 19179 19553 19862 19862storage heater 1643 1600 1587 1616 1609 1532 1552 1641fixed roomportable heater 2515 2001 1294 1078 993 904 776 736Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingscentral heating 796 860 866 875 881 889 895 893storage heater 81 76 74 75 74 70 70 74fixed roomportable heating heater 124 95 60 50 46 41 35 33Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

40 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 4 Main heating system by tenure 2008

all dwellings

central heating storage heaterfixed room

heatingportable

heating only all dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 13788 790 411 19 15007 private rented 2630 441 208 17 3296 all private 16418 1232 619 36 18304

local authority 1776 160 46 2 1984 housing association 1669 249 33 1 1951 all social 3445 409 79 3 3935

all tenures 19862 1641 698 38 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 919 53 27 01 1000 private rented 798 134 63 05 1000 all private 897 67 34 02 1000

local authority 895 80 23 01 1000 housing association 855 128 17 00 1000 all social 875 104 20 01 1000

all tenures 893 74 31 02 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 5 Boiler types 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsstandard boiler 10447 10338 9642 9635 9425 9014 8782 8072back boiler 2773 2759 2580 2409 2181 2131 1944 1688combination boiler 2810 4431 5492 5934 6254 6312 6287 6082condensing boiler ndash 155 154 202 300 460 698 948condensing-combination boiler ndash 318 373 417 727 1297 1837 2773no boiler 4305 3140 3244 3016 2894 2775 2642 2676Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsstandard boiler 514 489 449 446 433 410 396 363back boiler 136 130 120 111 100 97 88 76combination boiler 138 210 256 275 287 287 283 273condensing boiler 00 07 07 09 14 21 31 43condensing-combination boiler 00 15 17 19 33 59 83 125no boiler 212 149 151 140 133 126 119 120Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 41

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

all dwellings

standard boiler

back boiler

combination boiler

condensing boiler

condensing-combination

boilerno

boilerall

dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 6223 1045 3984 713 1756 1286 15007 private rented 817 149 1112 73 429 716 3296 all private 7040 1194 5096 787 2185 2002 18304

local authority 499 271 481 90 335 309 1984 housing association 533 223 505 72 254 365 1951 all social 1032 494 986 162 589 674 3935

all 8072 1688 6082 948 2773 2676 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 415 70 265 48 117 86 1000 private rented 248 45 337 22 130 217 1000 all private 385 65 278 43 119 109 1000

local authority 251 136 242 45 169 156 1000 housing association 273 114 259 37 130 187 1000 all social 262 125 250 41 150 171 1000

all 363 76 273 43 125 120 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 2853 5210 5334 5825 5974 6644 7267 7418200mm or more of loft insulation 583 1256 2034 2530 2919 3520 4258 4685entire house double glazing 6169 10753 11915 12846 13486 13924 14850 15747

all dwellings 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 140 246 248 270 274 302 327 334200mm or more of loft insulation 29 59 95 117 134 160 192 211entire house double glazing 303 509 555 594 619 633 669 708

all dwellings 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

42 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 8 Cavity wall insulation by tenure

all dwellings

cavity with insulation

cavity uninsulated other all

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5161 5483 4364 15007private rented 566 1213 1517 3296private 5727 6696 5882 18304

local authority 834 657 493 1984housing association 857 720 374 1951social 1691 1378 867 3935

total 7418 8073 6749 22239

percentage of dwellingsowner occupied 344 365 291 100private rented 172 368 460 100private 313 366 321 100

local authority 420 331 248 100housing association 439 369 192 100social 430 350 220 100

total 334 363 303 100

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 43

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

all dwellings

no loftno

insulationless than

50mm50 up to

99mm

100 up to

149mm

150 up to

199mm200mm or more

all dwellings

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 748 442 432 3009 5147 2007 3223 15007 private rented 672 175 66 857 813 281 434 3296 private 1420 617 497 3866 5960 2288 3657 18304

local authority 614 33 19 171 471 206 470 1984 housing association 467 20 16 143 482 265 558 1951 social 1081 53 35 314 953 471 1028 3935

total 2501 670 532 4179 6913 2759 4685 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 50 29 29 200 343 134 215 1000private rented 204 53 20 260 247 85 132 1000private 78 34 27 211 326 125 200 1000

local authority 309 17 10 86 237 104 237 1000housing association 239 10 08 73 247 136 286 1000social 275 14 09 80 242 120 261 1000

total 112 30 24 188 311 124 211 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

44 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

hazard presentnumber of homes (000s) each hazard is present in

falling on stairs 2025excess cold 1966falling on level surfaces 788falling between levels 443fire 318

entry by intruders

flames hot surfacesleaddamp and mould growth 50 to 100 eachcollision and entrapmentradiationfalls associated with baths

crowding and space

food safetypersonal hygiene sanitation and drainage 20 to 50 eachnoisedomestic hygiene pests and refuseelectrical hazards

structural collapse and falling elements

water supplycarbon monoxide and fuel combustion productsposition and operability of amenities less thanexcess heat 20 eachlightinguncombusted fuel gasexplosions

any of the 15 hazards 4842

any of the 26 hazards 5039

Note For 2006 and 2007 the survey reported on 15 hazards only The 2008 EHS can provide estimates for 26 hazards - the additional hazards are marked with an asterisk The three remaining hazards not included in the survey are presence of asbestos biocides or volatile organic compounds For reporting purposes HHSRS and non-decent estimates will be based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with previous years and avoid a break in the time seriesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 45

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 4842 4925private rented 1449 1478all private 6291 6403

local authority 625 640housing association 444 464all social 1069 1104

all tenures 7360 7507

percentagesowner occupied 323 328private rented 440 448all private 344 350

local authority 315 323housing association 228 238all social 272 281

all tenures 331 338

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

46 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 hazards present (compariosn of estimates based on any one to the 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 3342 3452private rented 978 1013all private 4320 4465

local authority 298 326RSL 224 248all social 522 574

all tenures 4842 5039

percentagesowner occupied 223 230private rented 297 307all private 236 244

local authority 150 164RSL 115 127all social 133 146

all tenures 218 227

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 47

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all households

15 hazards 26 hazards

number (000s) percentage () number (000s) percentage ()

decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 1428 653 1413 646private rented 429 490 417 476all private vulnerable 1857 606 1830 597 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 8494 683 8425 677private rented 1246 588 1232 581all private non-vulnerable 9740 669 9657 663 all owner occupied 9922 678 9839 673all private rented 1675 559 1648 550all private 11597 658 11487 663all social 2798 740 2766 731

all households 14395 672 14253 666

non-decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 760 347 775 354private rented 447 510 459 524all private vulnerable 1207 394 1234 403 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 3946 317 4015 323private rented 874 412 888 419all private non-vulnerable 4820 331 4903 337 all owner occupied 4706 322 4790 327all private rented 1321 441 1347 450all private 6027 342 6137 348all social 985 260 1017 269

all households 7012 328 7154 334

Note For reporting purposes decent homes estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

48 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes1 by deprived and other districts by tenure 2006-2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsSocial NRF88 662 652 605Other districts 480 486 464 Private NRF88 2544 2621 2442Other districts 4013 3928 3849

percentages of dwellingsSocial NRF88 313 304 278Other districts 264 278 263 Private NRF88 381 380 361Other districts 353 344 333

Note NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving Neighbourhood Renewal Funding 2001-2006Source English House Condition Survey 2006-2007English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub sample)

Technical annex | 49

Technical annex

General description

The survey consists of three main elements an initial interview survey of 17700 households with a follow up physical inspection and a desk based market valuation of a sub-sample of 8000 of these dwellings including vacant dwellings The interview survey sample forms part of ONSrsquos Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the core questions from the IHS form part of the EHS questionnaire More information about the IHS is available from its webpage wwwstatisticsgovukCCInuggetaspID=936ampPos=1ampColRank=1ampRank=224

The EHS interview content covers the key topics included under the former SEH and EHCS The content of the physical and market value components remains very largely unchanged from the former EHCS

Sampling and grossing

2008-09 Sample1 The initial sample for 2008-09 consisted of 32100 addresses drawn as a systematic

random sample from the Postcode Address File (small users) Interviews were attempted at all of these addresses over the course of the survey year from April 2008 to March 2009 A proportion of addresses were found not to be valid residential properties (eg demolished properties secondholiday homes small businesses not yet built)

2 Of the 17691 addresses where interviews were achieved (the lsquofull household samplersquo) all social rented properties and a sub-sample of private properties were regarded as eligible for the physical survey and the respondentrsquos consent was sought A proportion of vacant properties were also sub-sampled Physical surveys were completed in 7972 cases and these cases contribute to the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo (see below)

3 The principal differences in sampling methodology between the EHS and its predecessors the SEH and EHCS are that

bull The EHS uses an unclustered sample This enables a smaller sample to be used with no loss of precision ie without sampling errors being increased The more scattered sample does however have some implications for fieldwork organisation

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 8: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

8 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Key findings

bull There was a decrease in the number of owner occupied households from a peak of 148 million in 2005 and 2006 to 146 million in 2008-09 In contrast the number of households renting privately rose by one million since 2001 from 21 million to 31 million in 2008-09

bull Couples with no dependent children were the most common type of household (36) and the most common type of owner occupiers (42) in 2008-09 Amongst renters one-person households were the most common 41 of social renters and 30 of private renters

bull Over half (59) of all private renters expected to eventually buy a home in the UK compared to only around a quarter (27) of social renters Of those who did expect to buy 24 of private renters and 10 of social renters expected to buy within the next two years

bull Overcrowding was highest in the rented sectors 67 of social rented households and 54 of private rented households were overcrowded as measured by the bedroom standard In contrast only 16 of owner occupiers were overcrowded

bull The energy efficiency of homes continued to improve with the average SAP rating increasing from 42 to 51 between 1996 and 2008 Not only were social sector homes more energy efficient than those in the private sector (59 and 49 respectively) but they have seen greatest improvement since 1996 with the average SAP rating increasing from 47 to 59

bull A potentially serious (Category 1) hazard as measured under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System was present in around 48 million homes in 2008 22 of the housing stock

bull Some 74 million homes (33) were non-decent in 2008 Overall social sector homes were in a better condition than private sector homes with 27 being non-decent compared to 34

bull In 2008 31 million lsquovulnerablersquo householdsrsquo1 were living in the private sector of which 12 million (39) were living in non-decent homes the remaining 19 million (61) were living in decent accommodation

1 Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

Section 1 Households | 9

Section 1Households

11 Results for households (not in relation to the physical condition of the home) are presented for 2008-09 and are based on fieldwork carried out between April 2008 and March 2009 of a sample of 17691 households This is referred to as the lsquofull household samplersquo throughout the report

Trends in tenure

12 In 2008-09 there were an estimated 215 million households in England Owner occupation was the largest tenure accounting for 679 of all households but this has declined from a high of 709 in 2003 Social renting was the second largest tenure in 2008-09 representing 178 of all households this share having remained stable over recent years The smallest tenure private renting has seen a surge in the past few years It accounted for 142 of households in 2008-09 compared to a share of only 10 in 2001

13 Table 1 shows the number and proportion of households by tenure since 2001 with estimates prior to 2008-09 based on Labour Force Survey data Labour Force Survey data has been used for the main tenure estimates and trends in recent years in all Survey of English Housing (SEH) reports and Live Tables This was because the LFS had a much larger sample size than the SEH and this provided more robust overall estimates of households by tenure The EHS grossing methodology uses the LFS tenure distribution and therefore there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution

14 Despite the significant fall in owner occupation as a proportion of all households 679 the actual number of owner occupiers in England has declined only slightly from 148 million in 2005 to 146 million in 2008-09 The number of households renting privately has risen by around one million since 2001 from 21 million to 31 million

10 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 1 Trends in tenure 2001 to 2008-09 England

all households

owner occupiers

ownoutright

buying witha mortgage

all owner occupiers

social renters

private renters

all households

thousands of households2001 5885 8473 14358 3983 2062 204032002 6019 8540 14559 3972 2131 206622003 6158 8542 14701 3804 2234 207392004 6288 8389 14677 3797 2284 207582005 6352 8440 14791 3696 2445 209322006 6425 8365 14790 3736 2566 210922007 6505 8228 14733 3755 2691 211782008 6653 7975 14628 3797 2982 21407 2008-09 6770 7851 14621 3842 3067 21530

percentages2001 288 415 704 195 101 1002002 291 413 705 192 103 1002003 297 412 709 183 108 1002004 303 404 707 183 110 1002005 303 403 707 177 117 1002006 305 397 701 177 122 1002007 307 389 696 177 127 1002008 311 373 683 177 139 100 2008-09 314 365 679 178 142 100

Note data for years prior to 2001 can be found in table S101 wwwcommunitiesgovukdocumentshousingxls139262xls Tenure trends based on SEH annual data for 1993-94 to 2007-08 are available in Fifteen years of the Survey of English Housingwwwcommunitiesgovukdocumentsstatisticspdf1346239pdfSources2001 to 2008 ONS Labour Force Survey2008-09 English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

15 Figure 1 shows the trend in tenure back to 1980 Owner occupation rose steadily throughout the 1980s and at a lesser rate throughout the 1990s The level of private renting saw little change throughout the 1980s and early 1990s but has since increased to around 31 million in 2008-09 In 1980 54 million households were social renters but by 2008-09 this had decreased to 38 million

Section 1 Households | 11

Figure 1 Trend in tenure 1980 to 2008ndash09

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

2008

-09

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

1997

1996

1995

1994

1993

1992

1991

1990

1989

1988

1987

1986

1985

1984

1983

1982

1981

1980

owner occupierssocial rentersprivate renters

mill

ion

ho

use

ho

lds

Source 1980 to 2008 ONS Labour Force Survey 2008ndash09 English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Household type

16 Couples with no dependent children were the most common type of household in 2008-09 (36) These households were also the most common type of owner occupiers Amongst renters one-person households were the most common 41 of social renters and 30 of private renters Although only 7 of households overall were lone parents with dependent children there was a noticeable difference by tenure 17 of social renters 11 of private renters and 3 of owner occupiers (see Table 2)

12 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 2 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent child(ren)1

couple with dependent child(ren)1

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)1

other multi-

person households 1 male 1 female

all household

types

thousands of householdsown outright 3538 424 103 396 769 1541 6770buying with mortgage 2670 2971 405 402 791 612 7851all owner occupiers 6208 3395 508 798 1560 2153 14621 local authority 333 287 331 177 342 417 1887housing association 352 299 341 151 354 458 1955all social renters 685 587 672 328 696 875 3842 private renters 764 535 333 514 582 339 3067 all tenures 7657 4516 1514 1640 2838 3366 21530

percentagesown outright 52 6 2 6 11 23 100buying with mortgage 34 38 5 5 10 8 100all owner occupiers 42 23 3 5 11 15 100 local authority 18 15 18 9 18 22 100housing association 18 15 17 8 18 23 100all social renters 18 15 17 9 18 23 100 private renters 25 17 11 17 19 11 100 all tenures 36 21 7 8 13 16 100

Note 1) These categories can also include non-dependent childrenSource English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

17 Figure 2 shows each household type split by tenure An estimated 66 of couples with dependent children were buying with a mortgage 13 were social renters 12 were private renters and 9 owned outright The tenure split for lone parents with dependent children was quite different with only 27 buying with a mortgage whilst 44 were social renters 22 were private renters and 7 owned outright

Section 1 Households | 13

Figure 2 Household type by tenure 2008-09p

erce

nta

ge

private renterssocial rentersbuying with mortgageown outright

allhousehold

types

allone-personhouseholds

othermulti-personhouseholds

lone parentwith

dependentchild(ren)

couple withdependentchild(ren)

couple nodependentchild(ren)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sampleNote underlying data is presented in annex table 1

Economic status

18 In 2008-09 91 of household reference persons (HRP)2 who were buying with a mortgage were working 85 full-time and 6 part-time Around 60 of outright owners were retired compared to only 9 of private renters In the social rented sector over half the household reference persons were economically inactive with 31 retired and 26 lsquoother inactiversquo (such as long-term sickness or disability or lone parent)

2 see glossary for definition

14 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 3 Economic status of household reference person by tenure 2008-09

all households

economic status of HRP

full time work

part-time work

un-employed retired

other inactive all

thousands of householdsown outright 1777 570 54 4079 290 6770buying with mortgage 6679 470 101 312 290 7851all owner occupiers 8456 1040 155 4390 580 14621 local authority 444 203 172 566 503 1887housing association 489 182 152 643 488 1955all social renters 933 385 324 1209 991 3842 all private renters 1874 262 143 274 514 3067 all tenures 11263 1687 622 5873 2085 21530

percentagesown outright 26 8 1 60 4 100buying with mortgage 85 6 1 4 4 100all owner occupiers 58 7 1 30 4 100 local authority 24 11 9 30 27 100housing association 25 9 8 33 25 100all social renters 24 10 8 31 26 100 all private renters 61 9 5 9 17 100 all tenures 52 8 3 27 10 100Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

19 Table 3 shows the economic status of all householders Figure 3 shows the economic status of those of working age ndash men aged under 65 and women aged under 60 Within this group 94 of those buying with a mortgage were working compared to only 49 of those who were social renters Unemployment was highest in the social rented sector 12 compared to 5 of private renters and only 1 of owner occupiers

110 There was also a much higher proportion of lsquoother inactiversquo amongst working age social renters than those in other tenures 37 compared to 19 of private renters 10 of outright owners and 4 of mortgagors

Section 1 Households | 15

Figure 3 Economic status of working age HRPs 2008-09

other inactiveretiredunemployedworking

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

alltenures

privaterenters

socialrenters

buying withmortgage

ownoutright

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sampleNote underlying data is presented in annex table 2

Age of household reference person by tenure

111 Owner occupation is the most common tenure in England In 2008-09 there were 68 million households that owned outright and 78 million buying with a mortgage Around three-quarters of mortgagors were aged between 35 and 64 with only 3 aged 65 or over Outright owners the majority of whom were likely to have once had a mortgage and paid it off were concentrated in the older age groups 6 were aged under 45 Overall 32 of owner occupiers were in the 16 to 44 age range

112 Around half (51) of householders aged 25 to 34 were owners 17 were social renters and 31 were private renters Within the 35 to 44 age group the proportions of social and private renters were very similar 17 and 16 respectively and 67 of householders in this age group were owners

113 Over 80 of private renters were aged under 55 with only 8 aged 65 or over By contrast 28 of owner occupiers and 29 of social renters were aged 65 or over

16 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 4 Age of household reference person by tenure 2008-09

all households

age of HRP

16 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54 55 - 64 65 or over all ages

thousands of householdsown outright 9 87 329 759 1752 3833 6770buying with mortgage 114 1562 2619 2237 1071 249 7851all owner occupiers 123 1649 2948 2996 2823 4082 14621 local authority 123 306 373 318 244 523 1887housing association 112 254 385 349 256 599 1955all social renters 235 560 757 667 501 1122 3842 private renters 497 995 686 380 252 257 3067 all tenures 855 3203 4392 4043 3576 5461 21530

percentage within tenureown outright 0 1 5 11 26 57 100buying with mortgage 1 20 33 28 14 3 100all owner occupiers 1 11 20 20 19 28 100 local authority 7 16 20 17 13 28 100housing association 6 13 20 18 13 31 100all social renters 6 15 20 17 13 29 100 private renters 16 32 22 12 8 8 100 all tenures 4 15 20 19 17 25 100

percentage within age groupown outright 1 3 7 19 49 70 31buying with mortgage 13 49 60 55 30 5 36all owner occupiers 14 51 67 74 79 75 68 local authority 14 10 8 8 7 10 9housing association 13 8 9 9 7 11 9all social renters 27 17 17 17 14 21 18 private renters 58 31 16 9 7 5 14 all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Section 1 Households | 17

Figure 4 Age of household reference person by tenure 2008ndash09

per

cen

tage

private renterssocial rentersbuying with mortgageown outright

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

65 or over 55ndash64 45ndash54 35ndash44

age of HRP

25ndash34 16ndash24

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Buying expectations of renters

114 In 2008-09 27 of social renters expected to eventually become homeowners compared to 59 of private renters Of those who did expect to buy 44 of social renters expected to buy their current accommodation compared to only 13 of private renters

18 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 5 Buying aspirations of social and private renters 2008-09

all renters

social renters private renters

percentagesWill eventually buy or share home in UK yes 27 59no 73 41All 100 100

Expect to buy current accommodation (all who expect to buy) yes 44 13no 56 87All 100 100

When expect to buy (all who expect to buy) Less than a yearrsquos time 3 81 year but less than 2 years 7 162 years but less than 5 years 25 345 years or more 65 42All 100 100

Note Expectations to buy include shared ownershipSource English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

115 An estimated 24 of private renters expecting to buy (14 of all private renters) thought that they would buy within the next two years This proportion had fallen from 34 in 2006-07 (see Figure 5) whilst the proportion expecting to buy in five or more yearsrsquo time had risen from 35 to 42 over this period These changes suggest that private renters now expect to rent for longer before being in a position to buy perhaps due to affordability issues

Figure 5 Trend in expected time to buying ndash private renters expecting to buy eventually

per

cen

tage

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

2008-09 2007-082006-07

5 years or more2 years but less than 5lt2 years

Note based on those private renters who expect to buy eventuallySource English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Section 1 Households | 19

Overcrowding and under-occupation

116 Levels of overcrowding are measured using the ldquobedroom standardrdquo (see definition in Glossary) Essentially this is the difference between the number of bedrooms needed to avoid undesirable sharing (given the number and ages of household members and their relationships to each other) and the number of bedrooms actually available to the household

117 The previous estimates of overcrowding were based on three-year moving averages from the Survey of English Housing for 2005-06 2006-07 and 2007-08 The reason for having to base estimates on a three-year average was that with fewer than 3 per cent of households overcrowded the sample size for a single year was too small to provide reliable annual estimates However for 2008-09 in addition to the EHS sample of 17700 households we have information from a further 95000 households that were interviewed for the ONS Labour Force Survey This combined sample was sufficiently large to deliver robust single year estimates for 2008-09 without the need to carry forward the three-year average series

Table 6 Overcrowding and under-occupation by tenure 2008-09

all households

difference from bedroom standard

overcrowded at standardone above

standardunder-

occupied total

thousands of householdsowner occupiers 231 2117 5416 6855 14620

social renters 258 2032 1121 430 3841

private renters 164 1312 1095 494 3066

all tenures 654 5462 7633 7779 21527

percentagesowner occupiers 16 145 370 469 100

social renters 67 529 292 112 100

private renters 54 428 357 161 100

all tenures 30 254 355 361 100

Notes Details of the bedroom standard can be found in the GlossarySource English Housing Survey - full household sample and ONS Labour Force Survey

118 The overall rate of overcrowding in England for 2008-09 was 30 (see Table 6) This compares to the previously published estimate of 28 (averaged over the period 2005-06 to 2007-08) There were around 654000 overcrowded households (compared to an average of 570000 over the period 2005-06 to 2007-08) Levels of overcrowding varied considerably by tenure and were lowest in the owner occupied sector at 16 up from 14 for the period 2005-06 to 2007-08 Around 67 of social renters were overcrowded and 54 of private renters compared to 59 and 49 respectively for 2005-06 to 2007-08

20 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

119 Although the overall rate of overcrowding has shown little change in recent years this is largely due to the relatively stable rate of overcrowding in the owner occupied sector the largest tenure Over the past decade overcrowding has been rising in both the rented sectors

Figure 6 Trend in overcrowding rates by tenure 1995-96 to 2008-09 (3 year moving average)

private renters social rentersowner occupiers all tenures

per

cen

tage

of

ho

use

ho

lds

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

2008

-09

2007

-08

2006

-07

2005

-06

2004

-05

2003

-04

2002

-03

2001

-02

2000

-01

1999

-00

1998

-99

1997

-98

1996

-97

1995

-96

Source Survey of English Housing to 2007-08 and combined English Housing Survey (full sample) plus Labour Force Survey for 2008-09 The estimates up to 2007-08 are three-year moving averages so the ldquo2007-08rdquo figure is actually the average of 2005-06 2006-07 and 2007-08 Since the 2008-09 estimates are for that year only a gap has been introduced to separate the three-year averages to 2007-08 from the annual estimates for 2008-09

120 Around 78 million households were estimated to be under-occupying their accommodation in 2008-09 that is they had at least two bedrooms more than they needed (see definition of bedroom standard in Glossary) Under-occupation was far more likely to be found in the owner occupied sector than in the rented sectors 47 of owner occupiers were under-occupying accommodation compared to 11 of social renters and 16 of private renters

Recent movers

121 In this section we look at those households that had been in their current accommodation for less than 12 months at the time of interview

Section 1 Households | 21

Table 7 Previous tenure by current tenure 2008-09

HRPs resident less than a year

previous tenure ndash continuing households

current tenurenew

householdowner

occupierssocial

rentersprivate renters all tenures

thousands of householdsoutright owners 4 83 0 12 99buying with mortgage 68 204 13 131 416all owner occupiers 72 287 13 144 515

local authority 20 13 76 20 129housing association 24 9 105 38 177all social renters 44 23 181 58 306

private renters 229 141 47 686 1103

all tenures 345 450 241 887 1924

percentageoutright owners 4 84 0 13 100buying with mortgage 16 49 3 32 100all owner occupiers 14 56 3 28 100

local authority 15 10 59 15 100housing association 14 5 59 22 100all social renters 15 7 59 19 100

private renters 21 13 4 62 100

all tenures 18 23 13 46 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

122 Around 18 of households that had moved into their accommodation in the previous year were new households Two thirds (66) of these new households were private renters and around one fifth (21) were owner occupiers Movement within tenure was more common than moves between tenures 62 of current private renters had previously been private renters 59 of social renters had moved from another social rented property and 56 of owner occupiers had owned their previous property Movement into the social rented sector for continuing households was more likely to be from private renting (19 of current social renters) than from owner occupation (7)

22 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Attitudes to home and local area

123 Around 90 of households in England were satisfied with their accommodation in 2008-09 The highest levels of satisfaction were expressed by outright owners 73 of whom said that they were very satisfied with their homes Over three quarters of social renters were satisfied with their homes but 9 were slightly dissatisfied and 7 were very dissatisfied Around 82 of private renters were very or fairly satisfied with their accommodation and only 3 said they were very dissatisfied

Table 8 Satisfaction with accommodation by tenure 2008-09

all households

very satisfied

fairly satisfied

neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

slightly dissatisfied

very dissatisfied Total

thousands of householdsoutright owners 4926 1535 111 100 36 6709buying with mortgage 4604 2719 232 200 55 7810all owneroccupiers 9530 4254 343 300 91 14519

local authority 697 736 98 192 142 1866housing association 842 700 116 159 117 1935all social renters 1539 1437 214 351 260 3801

private renters 1240 1211 193 227 102 2972

all tenures 12309 6901 751 878 452 21291

percentagesoutright owners 73 23 2 1 1 100buying with mortgage 59 35 3 3 1 100all owneroccupiers 66 29 2 2 1 100

local authority 37 39 5 10 8 100housing association 44 36 6 8 6 100all social renters 40 38 6 9 7 100

private renters 42 41 6 8 3 100

all tenures 58 32 4 4 2 100

Note This question is not asked of proxy respondents and a small proportion of respondents chose not to answer These exclusions are reflected in the overall total number of households in this table Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

124 A large majority of households are satisfied with the local area in which they live In 2008-09 just over half of all households in England were very satisfied with their local area and 87 were very or fairly satisfied Only 3 of households were very dissatisfied with their local area

Section 1 Households | 23

125 There were some differences by tenure 89 of owner occupiers were satisfied with their local area compared to 79 of social renters and 85 of private renters Whilst only two per cent of owner occupiers and private renters said that they were very dissatisfied with their local area seven per cent of social renters were very dissatisfied

Table 9 Satisfaction with local area by tenure 2008-09

all households

very satisfied

fairly satisfied

neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

slightly dissatisfied

very dissatisfied Total

thousands of householdsoutright owners 3999 2093 180 322 114 6708buying with mortgage 3919 2973 371 420 127 7810all owners 7918 5066 552 742 241 14518

local authority 754 712 122 159 122 1867housing association 861 679 116 150 129 1936all social renters 1615 1391 238 309 251 3803

private renters 1520 1001 183 194 73 2972

all tenures 11052 7458 972 1245 565 21293

percentagesoutright owners 60 31 3 5 2 100buying with mortgage 50 38 5 5 2 100all owners 55 35 4 5 2 100

local authority 40 38 7 9 7 100housing association 44 35 6 8 7 100all social renters 42 37 6 8 7 100

private renters 51 34 6 7 2 100

all tenures 52 35 5 6 3 100

Note This question is not asked of proxy respondents and a small proportion of respondents chose not to answer These exclusions are reflected in the overall total number of households in this table Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

24 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Section 2Housing stock

21 Results relating to the housing stock in this report are presented using two yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the English House Condition Survey (EHCS) For this transition year data from the last full year of the EHCS (2007-08) were combined with the first year of the EHS (2008-09)

22 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Stock profile

23 There were around 222 million dwellings in 2008 Table 10 Of these 183 million (82 of the stock) were in the private sector and comprised 150 million owner occupied homes and 33 million private rented homes There were 39 million social sector homes (18 of the stock) of which two million were owned by local authority and two million by housing associations

Section 2 Housing stock | 25

Table 10 Stock profile 2008

all dwellings

private sector social sector

owner occupied

private rented

all private sector

local authority

housing association

all social sector

all dwellings

in group

thousands of dwellingsdwelling agepre 1919 3194 1309 4503 86 170 257 47601919-44 2689 431 3120 336 187 522 36421945-64 2708 384 3092 760 511 1271 43631965-80 3146 536 3682 665 467 1132 48141981-90 1401 222 1624 107 223 330 1953post 1990 1869 415 2284 30 394 424 2708

dwelling typemid terrace 2638 820 3459 325 367 693 4151end terrance 1440 340 1779 199 222 421 2201small terraced house 1216 548 1764 192 217 408 2172mediumlarge terraced house 2862 612 3475 333 373 705 4180all terrace 4078 1160 5238 524 589 1114 6352semi-detached house 4515 556 5070 365 351 716 5786detached house 3575 267 3843 5 18 24 3867bungalow 1548 133 1681 176 236 412 2092converted flat 284 427 712 38 75 113 825purpose built flat low rise 926 704 1630 724 626 1349 2979purpose built flat high rise 81 49 130 152 56 208 338

floor arealess than 50 sqm 742 652 1394 550 536 1086 248050 to 69 sqm 2913 1028 3942 725 680 1405 534770 to 89 sqm 4361 890 5251 575 553 1127 637990 to 109 sqm 2632 322 2954 102 132 234 3188110 sqm or more 4359 403 4763 32 52 83 4846

type of areacity centre 295 262 558 72 75 147 704other urban centre 2263 967 3230 538 458 996 4227suburban residential 9204 1581 10785 1236 1171 2407 13192rural residential 2074 233 2307 105 190 295 2601village centre 647 110 756 26 47 72 829rural 524 144 668 7 11 19 687

deprived local areasmost deprived 10 773 325 1097 595 468 1064 21612-5th 5331 1518 6849 1121 1025 2145 89956-9th 7072 1188 8260 249 423 672 8932least deprived 1832 266 2097 19 36 54 2152

occupancy statusoccupied 14610 2858 17468 1896 1860 3755 21223vacant 398 438 836 88 92 180 1016

Total 15007 3296 18304 1984 1951 3935 22239

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

26 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

24 The large majority of dwellings were houses (181 million) most commonly terraced or semi-detached The remainder of the stock 41 million consisited of flats predominately purpose built low rise flats However types of housing vary markedly between tenures While 91 of owner occupied housing was made up of houses almost half (46) of local authority homes were flats Figure 7 Flats also accounted for over a third of private rented homes and housing association homes (36 and 39 respectively)

Figure 7 Dwelling type by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

purpose built flat high risepurpose built flat low riseconverted flatdetached houses and bungalowssemi-detached housemediumlarge terraced housesmall terraced house

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

25 England has a relatively old housing stock with some 84 million homes built before 1945 of which 48 million were built before 1919 A fifth of homes (47 million) have been built since 1980

26 Stock in different tenures have different age profiles It is noticeable that owner occupied homes are evenly distributed across the five age bands compared with other tenures Figure 8 In the private rented sector for example 40 (13 million homes) were built before 1919 significantly higher than other tenures Housing association homes were more likely to have been built during the 1980s and 1990s (32) compared to only 7 of local authority homes

Section 2 Housing stock | 27

Figure 8 Age of housing stock by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

post 19901981-901965-801945-641919-44pre 1919

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

27 Some 44 million (29) of owner occupied homes had a floor area greater than 110m2 including 18 million (12 of the sector) which were over 150m2 This reflects the proportion of semi-detached and detached owner occupied homes which tend to be large Social sector homes were most likely to have a floor area of less than 50m2 compared with those in the private sector (28 and 8 respectively)

28 Homes in England were most likely to be located in suburban residential areas and least likely to be found in rural areas (59 and 3 respectively)

Energy efficiency of the housing stock

Heating and insulation29 Key ways of increasing the energy efficiency of existing homes are

improvements to their heating systems and levels of insulation For heating the type of heating system boiler in use and the fuel used are all related to energy performance

210 Central heating is the predominant main heating system present in 199 million homes (89 of the housing stock) in 2008 see Annex Table 3 This was followed by storage heaters present in 16 million (7) of homes and room heaters in 700000 homes (3) Central heating is generally considered to be the most cost effective and relatively efficient method of heating whereas room heaters tend to be the least cost effective and relatively inefficient method of heating

28 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

211 In 2008 92 of owner occupied homes had central heating systems compared to 88 of social and 80 of private rented homes see Annex Table 4 In part this reflects the higher proportion of flats in the rented sectors compared with owner occupation with 23 of flats using storage heaters

212 Condensing boilers are generally the most efficient boiler type and are now mandatory for new and replacement boilers (for gas fired boilers since 2005 for oil fired boilers since 2007) However even prior to these requirements the less efficient standard and back boilers were decreasing in use with the growing popularity of standard combination types Figure 9 Recent years have seen rapidly expanding take up of condensing and particularly combination condensing boilers In 2008 37 million homes (17 of the stock) had one of the two types of condensing boilers

Figure 9 Boiler types 1996-2008

no boiler

condensing-combination boiler condensing boilercombination boilerback boiler (to fire or stove)standard boiler (floor or wall)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

20082007200620052004200320011996

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes underpinning data is presented in Annex Table 5Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

213 For a home to provide optimum energy performance a high level of thermal insulation needs to be present alongside an efficient heating system Standard insulation measures include cavity wall insulation loft insulation and double glazing which have all improved in the stock since 1996 Figure 10

214 In 2008 155 million homes (70) had external walls of cavity construction 74 million homes (33 of the stock) had cavity wall insulation 47 million homes (21) had 200mm or more of loft insulation and 157 million homes (71) had full double glazing with an additional 29 million homes (13) having more than half double glazed Figure 10

Section 2 Housing stock | 29

Figure 10 Insulation measures 1996-2008

20082007200620052004200320011996

entire housedouble glazing

200mm or moreof loft insulation

cavity walls withinsulation

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes1) Only 89 of dwellings have lofts and 70 of dwellings have cavity walls2) Underpinning data is presented in annex Table 7Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

215 In 2008 the social rented sector had the greatest proportion of homes with cavity wall insulation (local authority 42 housing association 44) 200mm or more of loft insulation (local authority 24 housing association 29) and full double glazing (local authority 75 housing association 83) whereas the private rented sector had the lowest proportion of all three standard insulation measures cavity wall insulation (17) 200mm or more of loft insulation (13) and full double glazing (61) Figure 11

30 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Figure 11 Percentage of dwellings with efficient insulation measures by tenure 2008

full double glazing200mm or moreloft insulation

cavity withinsulation

cavity wall

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

housing associationlocal authorityprivate rentedowner occupied0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Base all dwellingsSource English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

SAP Rating

216 The energy efficiency of the housing stock continued to improve between 1996 and 2008 the average SAP rating of a home increased by 9 SAP points from 42 to 51 Table 11 The social sector was on average more energy efficient than the private sector and saw the greatest improvement with the average SAP rating increasing by 12 SAP points from 47 to 59

Table 11 Energy efficiency average SAP rating by tenure 2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

owner occupied 411 444 450 456 461 469 481 496private rented 379 419 444 457 460 466 481 502all private 407 441 449 456 461 468 481 497

local authority 457 496 520 539 553 558 562 580housing association 509 564 567 573 589 593 595 603all social 468 519 539 553 569 574 578 592

all tenures 421 457 466 474 481 487 498 514

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Section 2 Housing stock | 31

217 There has been a significant increase in the proportion of homes achieving the highest Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands in 2008 10 (23 million) of homes achieved the highest (EER) Bands A to C3 compared with 7 (16 million) in 2006 Table 12 The number of homes in the lowest EER Bands (F and G) fell by a million over the same period The majority of homes (73) continue to be in the EER Bands D or E

Table 12 Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 35 35 77Band C (69-80) 1545 1710 2229Band D (55-68) 6555 7316 7865Band E (39-54) 9072 8859 8310Band F (21-38) 3838 3389 2972Band G (1-20) 943 881 786Total 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 02 02 03Band C (69-80) 70 77 100Band D (55-68) 298 330 354Band E (39-54) 413 399 374Band F (21-38) 175 153 134Band G (1-20) 43 40 35Total 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 2006 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Housing health and safety rating system

218 A potentially serious (Category 1) hazard as measured under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System was present in around 48 million homes in 2008 22 of the housing stock

2 EER Bands are used in the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) The Certificate provides among other indicators an energy efficiency rating for the home on a scale from A-G (where A is the most efficient and G the least efficient)

32 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Housing conditions

Housing Health and Safety Rating System219 There was no significant change in the proportion of homes with any Category

1 hazard between 2006 and 2008 Hazards tend to be more common in older housing stock for example stairs are more likely to be steep and narrow in older housing making lsquofalls on stairsrsquo more likely or heating and insulation measures tend to be less effective in older stock making lsquoexcess coldrsquo a more serious hazard Therefore it is not surprising that hazards are more common in the private sector where the older housing stock is concentrated Almost a quarter of housing in the private sector had at least one category 1 hazard in 2008 (24) compared to around 13 in the social sector Table 14 Privately rented homes were most likely to have Category 1 hazards present compared to housing association homes (31 and 13 respectively)

220 The most common type of hazard in all four tenures was falls (see annex Table 10 for details of which hazards are included in this category) Overall 13 of homes have at least one type of falls hazard present

Decent homes221 In 2008 74 million homes (33) were non-decent4 Table 13 Housing

association housing was the least likely to be non-decent (23) while private rented housing was in the worst condition with 44 of homes being non-decent Overall social sector homes were in a better condition than private sector homes with 27 being non-decent compared to 34

222 The number of non-decent homes fell from 77 million in 2006 to 74 million in 20085 Conditions in the social sector improved with the proportion of homes failing the standard falling by two percentage points from 29 in 2006 to 27 in 2008 Private sector homes also improved from 36 non-decent in 2006 to 34 non-decent in 2008

4 Estimates from the EHS are based soley on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors subject to any limitations of the information they collect The EHS estimates in this report do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property

5 In 2006 the Housing Health and Safety Rating System replaced the Fitness Standard as the statutory minimum standard for housing Earlier estimates based on the original definition are not comparable therefore any change in the number of decent homes can only be referenced back to 2006 Figures for decent homes prior to 2006 can be found in the 2006 English House Condition Survey Annual Report available at wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

Section 2 Housing stock | 33

Table 13 Non-decent homes by tenure 2006 ndash 2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5335 5304 4842private rented 1223 1244 1449all private 6558 6548 6291

local authority 676 652 625housing association 465 486 444all social 1142 1138 1069

all tenures 7700 7686 7360

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 346 341 323private rented 468 454 440all private 363 358 344

local authority 324 328 315housing association 252 255 228all social 290 292 272

all tenures 350 346 331

Notes1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties between 2007 and 2008 are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates See Annex Table 11Sources2006 ndash 2007 English House Condition Survey2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Reasons for failing decent homes223 Of the four components required to meet the decent homes standard the

presence of one or more category 1 hazards under the HHSRS was the most commonly failed Table 14 This is particularly the case for private sector homes where 24 of homes had one or more Category 1 hazards present compared to 13 of social sector homes

34 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 14 Homes failing decent homes criteria by tenure 2008

all dwellings

Category 1 hazard (HHSRS)

thermal comfort

modern facilities repair all non-decent

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 3342 1773 379 817 4842private rented 978 637 160 369 1449all private 4320 2411 539 1186 6291

local authority 298 227 138 146 625housing association 224 199 50 86 444all social 522 426 188 231 1069

all tenures 4842 2837 727 1417 7360

percentages

owner occupied 223 118 25 54 323private rented 297 193 49 112 440all private 236 132 29 65 344

local authority 150 115 70 74 315housing association 115 102 25 44 228all social 133 108 48 59 272

all tenures 218 128 33 64 331

Note The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoids a break in the time series See Annex Table 12 for estimate based on 26 hazardsSource English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

224 There was significant progress in the thermal comfort of homes between 2006 and 2008 The proportion of homes failing thermal comfort fell to 13 in 2008 from 16 in 2006 Improvement has been made across all tenures

Private sector vulnerable households225 In 2008 31 million lsquovulnerablersquo households6 were living in the private sector of

which 12 million (39) were living in non-decent homes the remaining 19 million (61) were living in decent accommodation Table 15 There has been no significant change since 2006

226 Vulnerable households who privately rent their accommodation were more likely to live in non-decent homes compared to social tenants (51 and 26 respectively) Table 15

6 Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

Section 2 Housing stock | 35

Table 15 Households living in decent homes 2006-2008

all dwellings

number (000s) percentage ()

2006 2007 2008 2006 2007 2008

decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 1543 1575 1428 630 649 653private rented 334 354 429 450 482 490all private vulnerable 1877 1929 1857 588 610 606

private non- vulnerableowner occupied 8418 8531 8494 664 667 683private rented 922 985 1246 567 566 588all private non-vulnerable 9340 9516 9740 653 655 669

all owner occupied 9961 10106 9922 658 664 678all private rented 1256 1339 1675 530 541 559all private 11217 11445 11597 641 647 658all social 2690 2649 2798 722 719 740all households 13907 14094 14395 655 659 672

non-decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 905 851 760 370 351 347private rented 408 380 447 550 518 510all private vulnerable 1313 1231 1207 412 390 394

private non-vulnerableowner occupied 4262 4264 3946 336 333 317private rented 704 754 874 433 434 412all private non-vulnerable 4966 5018 4820 347 345 331

all owner occupied 5167 5115 4706 342 336 322all private rented 1112 1134 1321 470 459 441all private 6279 6249 6027 359 353 342

all social 1034 1037 985 278 281 260all households 7313 7286 7012 345 341 328

Notes 1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoid a break in the time series See Annex Table 13 for further detailsSource English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

36 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Damp and mould growth227 The proportion of homes with damp problems has reduced from 13 in 1996

to 8 in 2008 Table 16

Table 16 Number and percentage of homes with damp problems in one or more rooms 1996-2008

all dwellings

rising damp

penetrating damp

condensation mould

any damp problems

thousands of dwellings1996 858 1271 1145 26012001 625 1032 860 20322003 740 1066 1003 22832004 750 1035 951 22512005 759 952 941 22102006 724 886 947 21582007 640 833 881 19162008 584 759 865 1746

percentage of dwellings1996 42 63 56 1282001 29 49 41 962003 34 50 47 1062004 35 48 44 1042005 35 44 43 1012006 33 40 43 982007 29 38 40 862008 26 34 39 78

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

228 Privately rented homes were more likely to experience damp problems compared to other tenures Figure 11 Privately rented homes were more likely to be older homes and experience problems with rising or penetrating damp due to defects in the damp proof course roof covering gutters and down pipes which would affect at least one room in the property

229 In the social sector damp problems were more likely to be caused by serious condensation and mould growth rather than by rising damp Figure 12

Section 2 Housing stock | 37

Figure 12 Percentage of homes with a damp problem by tenure 2008

rising damp penetrating damp condensationmould

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

alltenures

housingassociation

localauthority

privaterented

owneroccupied

per

cen

tage

of

ho

mes

wit

h d

amp

pro

ble

ms

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

38 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex tables

Households

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

Annex Table 2 Economic Status of working age HRP by tenure 2008-09

Energy efficiency

Annex Table 3 Heating Type 1996-2008

Annex Table 4 Main Heating System by tenure 2008

Annex Table 5 Boiler Types 1996-2008

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

Annex Table 8 Cavity Wall insulation by tenure 2008

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

Housing Health and Safety Rating System

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 HHSRS hazards present (comparison of estimates based on any one of 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Non-decent homes in deprived areas

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes in deprived areas by tenure 2006-2008

Annex tables | 39

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent

child(ren)

couple with dependent

child(ren)

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)

other multi-

person households

all one-person

households

all household

types

percentageown outright 46 9 7 24 37 31buying with mortgage 35 66 27 25 23 36social renters 9 13 44 20 25 18private renters 10 12 22 31 15 14

all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 2 Economic status of working age HRP by tenure

all households

working un-employed retired other inactive Total percentage

own outright 74 2 14 10 100buying with mortgage 94 1 1 4 100social renters 49 12 1 37 100private renters 75 5 1 19 100all tenures 80 4 3 13 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 3 Heating type 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingscentral heating 16178 18177 18604 18919 19179 19553 19862 19862storage heater 1643 1600 1587 1616 1609 1532 1552 1641fixed roomportable heater 2515 2001 1294 1078 993 904 776 736Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingscentral heating 796 860 866 875 881 889 895 893storage heater 81 76 74 75 74 70 70 74fixed roomportable heating heater 124 95 60 50 46 41 35 33Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

40 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 4 Main heating system by tenure 2008

all dwellings

central heating storage heaterfixed room

heatingportable

heating only all dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 13788 790 411 19 15007 private rented 2630 441 208 17 3296 all private 16418 1232 619 36 18304

local authority 1776 160 46 2 1984 housing association 1669 249 33 1 1951 all social 3445 409 79 3 3935

all tenures 19862 1641 698 38 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 919 53 27 01 1000 private rented 798 134 63 05 1000 all private 897 67 34 02 1000

local authority 895 80 23 01 1000 housing association 855 128 17 00 1000 all social 875 104 20 01 1000

all tenures 893 74 31 02 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 5 Boiler types 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsstandard boiler 10447 10338 9642 9635 9425 9014 8782 8072back boiler 2773 2759 2580 2409 2181 2131 1944 1688combination boiler 2810 4431 5492 5934 6254 6312 6287 6082condensing boiler ndash 155 154 202 300 460 698 948condensing-combination boiler ndash 318 373 417 727 1297 1837 2773no boiler 4305 3140 3244 3016 2894 2775 2642 2676Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsstandard boiler 514 489 449 446 433 410 396 363back boiler 136 130 120 111 100 97 88 76combination boiler 138 210 256 275 287 287 283 273condensing boiler 00 07 07 09 14 21 31 43condensing-combination boiler 00 15 17 19 33 59 83 125no boiler 212 149 151 140 133 126 119 120Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 41

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

all dwellings

standard boiler

back boiler

combination boiler

condensing boiler

condensing-combination

boilerno

boilerall

dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 6223 1045 3984 713 1756 1286 15007 private rented 817 149 1112 73 429 716 3296 all private 7040 1194 5096 787 2185 2002 18304

local authority 499 271 481 90 335 309 1984 housing association 533 223 505 72 254 365 1951 all social 1032 494 986 162 589 674 3935

all 8072 1688 6082 948 2773 2676 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 415 70 265 48 117 86 1000 private rented 248 45 337 22 130 217 1000 all private 385 65 278 43 119 109 1000

local authority 251 136 242 45 169 156 1000 housing association 273 114 259 37 130 187 1000 all social 262 125 250 41 150 171 1000

all 363 76 273 43 125 120 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 2853 5210 5334 5825 5974 6644 7267 7418200mm or more of loft insulation 583 1256 2034 2530 2919 3520 4258 4685entire house double glazing 6169 10753 11915 12846 13486 13924 14850 15747

all dwellings 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 140 246 248 270 274 302 327 334200mm or more of loft insulation 29 59 95 117 134 160 192 211entire house double glazing 303 509 555 594 619 633 669 708

all dwellings 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

42 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 8 Cavity wall insulation by tenure

all dwellings

cavity with insulation

cavity uninsulated other all

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5161 5483 4364 15007private rented 566 1213 1517 3296private 5727 6696 5882 18304

local authority 834 657 493 1984housing association 857 720 374 1951social 1691 1378 867 3935

total 7418 8073 6749 22239

percentage of dwellingsowner occupied 344 365 291 100private rented 172 368 460 100private 313 366 321 100

local authority 420 331 248 100housing association 439 369 192 100social 430 350 220 100

total 334 363 303 100

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 43

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

all dwellings

no loftno

insulationless than

50mm50 up to

99mm

100 up to

149mm

150 up to

199mm200mm or more

all dwellings

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 748 442 432 3009 5147 2007 3223 15007 private rented 672 175 66 857 813 281 434 3296 private 1420 617 497 3866 5960 2288 3657 18304

local authority 614 33 19 171 471 206 470 1984 housing association 467 20 16 143 482 265 558 1951 social 1081 53 35 314 953 471 1028 3935

total 2501 670 532 4179 6913 2759 4685 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 50 29 29 200 343 134 215 1000private rented 204 53 20 260 247 85 132 1000private 78 34 27 211 326 125 200 1000

local authority 309 17 10 86 237 104 237 1000housing association 239 10 08 73 247 136 286 1000social 275 14 09 80 242 120 261 1000

total 112 30 24 188 311 124 211 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

44 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

hazard presentnumber of homes (000s) each hazard is present in

falling on stairs 2025excess cold 1966falling on level surfaces 788falling between levels 443fire 318

entry by intruders

flames hot surfacesleaddamp and mould growth 50 to 100 eachcollision and entrapmentradiationfalls associated with baths

crowding and space

food safetypersonal hygiene sanitation and drainage 20 to 50 eachnoisedomestic hygiene pests and refuseelectrical hazards

structural collapse and falling elements

water supplycarbon monoxide and fuel combustion productsposition and operability of amenities less thanexcess heat 20 eachlightinguncombusted fuel gasexplosions

any of the 15 hazards 4842

any of the 26 hazards 5039

Note For 2006 and 2007 the survey reported on 15 hazards only The 2008 EHS can provide estimates for 26 hazards - the additional hazards are marked with an asterisk The three remaining hazards not included in the survey are presence of asbestos biocides or volatile organic compounds For reporting purposes HHSRS and non-decent estimates will be based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with previous years and avoid a break in the time seriesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 45

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 4842 4925private rented 1449 1478all private 6291 6403

local authority 625 640housing association 444 464all social 1069 1104

all tenures 7360 7507

percentagesowner occupied 323 328private rented 440 448all private 344 350

local authority 315 323housing association 228 238all social 272 281

all tenures 331 338

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

46 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 hazards present (compariosn of estimates based on any one to the 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 3342 3452private rented 978 1013all private 4320 4465

local authority 298 326RSL 224 248all social 522 574

all tenures 4842 5039

percentagesowner occupied 223 230private rented 297 307all private 236 244

local authority 150 164RSL 115 127all social 133 146

all tenures 218 227

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 47

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all households

15 hazards 26 hazards

number (000s) percentage () number (000s) percentage ()

decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 1428 653 1413 646private rented 429 490 417 476all private vulnerable 1857 606 1830 597 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 8494 683 8425 677private rented 1246 588 1232 581all private non-vulnerable 9740 669 9657 663 all owner occupied 9922 678 9839 673all private rented 1675 559 1648 550all private 11597 658 11487 663all social 2798 740 2766 731

all households 14395 672 14253 666

non-decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 760 347 775 354private rented 447 510 459 524all private vulnerable 1207 394 1234 403 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 3946 317 4015 323private rented 874 412 888 419all private non-vulnerable 4820 331 4903 337 all owner occupied 4706 322 4790 327all private rented 1321 441 1347 450all private 6027 342 6137 348all social 985 260 1017 269

all households 7012 328 7154 334

Note For reporting purposes decent homes estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

48 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes1 by deprived and other districts by tenure 2006-2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsSocial NRF88 662 652 605Other districts 480 486 464 Private NRF88 2544 2621 2442Other districts 4013 3928 3849

percentages of dwellingsSocial NRF88 313 304 278Other districts 264 278 263 Private NRF88 381 380 361Other districts 353 344 333

Note NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving Neighbourhood Renewal Funding 2001-2006Source English House Condition Survey 2006-2007English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub sample)

Technical annex | 49

Technical annex

General description

The survey consists of three main elements an initial interview survey of 17700 households with a follow up physical inspection and a desk based market valuation of a sub-sample of 8000 of these dwellings including vacant dwellings The interview survey sample forms part of ONSrsquos Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the core questions from the IHS form part of the EHS questionnaire More information about the IHS is available from its webpage wwwstatisticsgovukCCInuggetaspID=936ampPos=1ampColRank=1ampRank=224

The EHS interview content covers the key topics included under the former SEH and EHCS The content of the physical and market value components remains very largely unchanged from the former EHCS

Sampling and grossing

2008-09 Sample1 The initial sample for 2008-09 consisted of 32100 addresses drawn as a systematic

random sample from the Postcode Address File (small users) Interviews were attempted at all of these addresses over the course of the survey year from April 2008 to March 2009 A proportion of addresses were found not to be valid residential properties (eg demolished properties secondholiday homes small businesses not yet built)

2 Of the 17691 addresses where interviews were achieved (the lsquofull household samplersquo) all social rented properties and a sub-sample of private properties were regarded as eligible for the physical survey and the respondentrsquos consent was sought A proportion of vacant properties were also sub-sampled Physical surveys were completed in 7972 cases and these cases contribute to the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo (see below)

3 The principal differences in sampling methodology between the EHS and its predecessors the SEH and EHCS are that

bull The EHS uses an unclustered sample This enables a smaller sample to be used with no loss of precision ie without sampling errors being increased The more scattered sample does however have some implications for fieldwork organisation

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 9: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

Section 1 Households | 9

Section 1Households

11 Results for households (not in relation to the physical condition of the home) are presented for 2008-09 and are based on fieldwork carried out between April 2008 and March 2009 of a sample of 17691 households This is referred to as the lsquofull household samplersquo throughout the report

Trends in tenure

12 In 2008-09 there were an estimated 215 million households in England Owner occupation was the largest tenure accounting for 679 of all households but this has declined from a high of 709 in 2003 Social renting was the second largest tenure in 2008-09 representing 178 of all households this share having remained stable over recent years The smallest tenure private renting has seen a surge in the past few years It accounted for 142 of households in 2008-09 compared to a share of only 10 in 2001

13 Table 1 shows the number and proportion of households by tenure since 2001 with estimates prior to 2008-09 based on Labour Force Survey data Labour Force Survey data has been used for the main tenure estimates and trends in recent years in all Survey of English Housing (SEH) reports and Live Tables This was because the LFS had a much larger sample size than the SEH and this provided more robust overall estimates of households by tenure The EHS grossing methodology uses the LFS tenure distribution and therefore there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution

14 Despite the significant fall in owner occupation as a proportion of all households 679 the actual number of owner occupiers in England has declined only slightly from 148 million in 2005 to 146 million in 2008-09 The number of households renting privately has risen by around one million since 2001 from 21 million to 31 million

10 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 1 Trends in tenure 2001 to 2008-09 England

all households

owner occupiers

ownoutright

buying witha mortgage

all owner occupiers

social renters

private renters

all households

thousands of households2001 5885 8473 14358 3983 2062 204032002 6019 8540 14559 3972 2131 206622003 6158 8542 14701 3804 2234 207392004 6288 8389 14677 3797 2284 207582005 6352 8440 14791 3696 2445 209322006 6425 8365 14790 3736 2566 210922007 6505 8228 14733 3755 2691 211782008 6653 7975 14628 3797 2982 21407 2008-09 6770 7851 14621 3842 3067 21530

percentages2001 288 415 704 195 101 1002002 291 413 705 192 103 1002003 297 412 709 183 108 1002004 303 404 707 183 110 1002005 303 403 707 177 117 1002006 305 397 701 177 122 1002007 307 389 696 177 127 1002008 311 373 683 177 139 100 2008-09 314 365 679 178 142 100

Note data for years prior to 2001 can be found in table S101 wwwcommunitiesgovukdocumentshousingxls139262xls Tenure trends based on SEH annual data for 1993-94 to 2007-08 are available in Fifteen years of the Survey of English Housingwwwcommunitiesgovukdocumentsstatisticspdf1346239pdfSources2001 to 2008 ONS Labour Force Survey2008-09 English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

15 Figure 1 shows the trend in tenure back to 1980 Owner occupation rose steadily throughout the 1980s and at a lesser rate throughout the 1990s The level of private renting saw little change throughout the 1980s and early 1990s but has since increased to around 31 million in 2008-09 In 1980 54 million households were social renters but by 2008-09 this had decreased to 38 million

Section 1 Households | 11

Figure 1 Trend in tenure 1980 to 2008ndash09

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

2008

-09

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

1997

1996

1995

1994

1993

1992

1991

1990

1989

1988

1987

1986

1985

1984

1983

1982

1981

1980

owner occupierssocial rentersprivate renters

mill

ion

ho

use

ho

lds

Source 1980 to 2008 ONS Labour Force Survey 2008ndash09 English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Household type

16 Couples with no dependent children were the most common type of household in 2008-09 (36) These households were also the most common type of owner occupiers Amongst renters one-person households were the most common 41 of social renters and 30 of private renters Although only 7 of households overall were lone parents with dependent children there was a noticeable difference by tenure 17 of social renters 11 of private renters and 3 of owner occupiers (see Table 2)

12 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 2 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent child(ren)1

couple with dependent child(ren)1

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)1

other multi-

person households 1 male 1 female

all household

types

thousands of householdsown outright 3538 424 103 396 769 1541 6770buying with mortgage 2670 2971 405 402 791 612 7851all owner occupiers 6208 3395 508 798 1560 2153 14621 local authority 333 287 331 177 342 417 1887housing association 352 299 341 151 354 458 1955all social renters 685 587 672 328 696 875 3842 private renters 764 535 333 514 582 339 3067 all tenures 7657 4516 1514 1640 2838 3366 21530

percentagesown outright 52 6 2 6 11 23 100buying with mortgage 34 38 5 5 10 8 100all owner occupiers 42 23 3 5 11 15 100 local authority 18 15 18 9 18 22 100housing association 18 15 17 8 18 23 100all social renters 18 15 17 9 18 23 100 private renters 25 17 11 17 19 11 100 all tenures 36 21 7 8 13 16 100

Note 1) These categories can also include non-dependent childrenSource English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

17 Figure 2 shows each household type split by tenure An estimated 66 of couples with dependent children were buying with a mortgage 13 were social renters 12 were private renters and 9 owned outright The tenure split for lone parents with dependent children was quite different with only 27 buying with a mortgage whilst 44 were social renters 22 were private renters and 7 owned outright

Section 1 Households | 13

Figure 2 Household type by tenure 2008-09p

erce

nta

ge

private renterssocial rentersbuying with mortgageown outright

allhousehold

types

allone-personhouseholds

othermulti-personhouseholds

lone parentwith

dependentchild(ren)

couple withdependentchild(ren)

couple nodependentchild(ren)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sampleNote underlying data is presented in annex table 1

Economic status

18 In 2008-09 91 of household reference persons (HRP)2 who were buying with a mortgage were working 85 full-time and 6 part-time Around 60 of outright owners were retired compared to only 9 of private renters In the social rented sector over half the household reference persons were economically inactive with 31 retired and 26 lsquoother inactiversquo (such as long-term sickness or disability or lone parent)

2 see glossary for definition

14 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 3 Economic status of household reference person by tenure 2008-09

all households

economic status of HRP

full time work

part-time work

un-employed retired

other inactive all

thousands of householdsown outright 1777 570 54 4079 290 6770buying with mortgage 6679 470 101 312 290 7851all owner occupiers 8456 1040 155 4390 580 14621 local authority 444 203 172 566 503 1887housing association 489 182 152 643 488 1955all social renters 933 385 324 1209 991 3842 all private renters 1874 262 143 274 514 3067 all tenures 11263 1687 622 5873 2085 21530

percentagesown outright 26 8 1 60 4 100buying with mortgage 85 6 1 4 4 100all owner occupiers 58 7 1 30 4 100 local authority 24 11 9 30 27 100housing association 25 9 8 33 25 100all social renters 24 10 8 31 26 100 all private renters 61 9 5 9 17 100 all tenures 52 8 3 27 10 100Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

19 Table 3 shows the economic status of all householders Figure 3 shows the economic status of those of working age ndash men aged under 65 and women aged under 60 Within this group 94 of those buying with a mortgage were working compared to only 49 of those who were social renters Unemployment was highest in the social rented sector 12 compared to 5 of private renters and only 1 of owner occupiers

110 There was also a much higher proportion of lsquoother inactiversquo amongst working age social renters than those in other tenures 37 compared to 19 of private renters 10 of outright owners and 4 of mortgagors

Section 1 Households | 15

Figure 3 Economic status of working age HRPs 2008-09

other inactiveretiredunemployedworking

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

alltenures

privaterenters

socialrenters

buying withmortgage

ownoutright

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sampleNote underlying data is presented in annex table 2

Age of household reference person by tenure

111 Owner occupation is the most common tenure in England In 2008-09 there were 68 million households that owned outright and 78 million buying with a mortgage Around three-quarters of mortgagors were aged between 35 and 64 with only 3 aged 65 or over Outright owners the majority of whom were likely to have once had a mortgage and paid it off were concentrated in the older age groups 6 were aged under 45 Overall 32 of owner occupiers were in the 16 to 44 age range

112 Around half (51) of householders aged 25 to 34 were owners 17 were social renters and 31 were private renters Within the 35 to 44 age group the proportions of social and private renters were very similar 17 and 16 respectively and 67 of householders in this age group were owners

113 Over 80 of private renters were aged under 55 with only 8 aged 65 or over By contrast 28 of owner occupiers and 29 of social renters were aged 65 or over

16 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 4 Age of household reference person by tenure 2008-09

all households

age of HRP

16 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54 55 - 64 65 or over all ages

thousands of householdsown outright 9 87 329 759 1752 3833 6770buying with mortgage 114 1562 2619 2237 1071 249 7851all owner occupiers 123 1649 2948 2996 2823 4082 14621 local authority 123 306 373 318 244 523 1887housing association 112 254 385 349 256 599 1955all social renters 235 560 757 667 501 1122 3842 private renters 497 995 686 380 252 257 3067 all tenures 855 3203 4392 4043 3576 5461 21530

percentage within tenureown outright 0 1 5 11 26 57 100buying with mortgage 1 20 33 28 14 3 100all owner occupiers 1 11 20 20 19 28 100 local authority 7 16 20 17 13 28 100housing association 6 13 20 18 13 31 100all social renters 6 15 20 17 13 29 100 private renters 16 32 22 12 8 8 100 all tenures 4 15 20 19 17 25 100

percentage within age groupown outright 1 3 7 19 49 70 31buying with mortgage 13 49 60 55 30 5 36all owner occupiers 14 51 67 74 79 75 68 local authority 14 10 8 8 7 10 9housing association 13 8 9 9 7 11 9all social renters 27 17 17 17 14 21 18 private renters 58 31 16 9 7 5 14 all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Section 1 Households | 17

Figure 4 Age of household reference person by tenure 2008ndash09

per

cen

tage

private renterssocial rentersbuying with mortgageown outright

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

65 or over 55ndash64 45ndash54 35ndash44

age of HRP

25ndash34 16ndash24

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Buying expectations of renters

114 In 2008-09 27 of social renters expected to eventually become homeowners compared to 59 of private renters Of those who did expect to buy 44 of social renters expected to buy their current accommodation compared to only 13 of private renters

18 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 5 Buying aspirations of social and private renters 2008-09

all renters

social renters private renters

percentagesWill eventually buy or share home in UK yes 27 59no 73 41All 100 100

Expect to buy current accommodation (all who expect to buy) yes 44 13no 56 87All 100 100

When expect to buy (all who expect to buy) Less than a yearrsquos time 3 81 year but less than 2 years 7 162 years but less than 5 years 25 345 years or more 65 42All 100 100

Note Expectations to buy include shared ownershipSource English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

115 An estimated 24 of private renters expecting to buy (14 of all private renters) thought that they would buy within the next two years This proportion had fallen from 34 in 2006-07 (see Figure 5) whilst the proportion expecting to buy in five or more yearsrsquo time had risen from 35 to 42 over this period These changes suggest that private renters now expect to rent for longer before being in a position to buy perhaps due to affordability issues

Figure 5 Trend in expected time to buying ndash private renters expecting to buy eventually

per

cen

tage

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

2008-09 2007-082006-07

5 years or more2 years but less than 5lt2 years

Note based on those private renters who expect to buy eventuallySource English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Section 1 Households | 19

Overcrowding and under-occupation

116 Levels of overcrowding are measured using the ldquobedroom standardrdquo (see definition in Glossary) Essentially this is the difference between the number of bedrooms needed to avoid undesirable sharing (given the number and ages of household members and their relationships to each other) and the number of bedrooms actually available to the household

117 The previous estimates of overcrowding were based on three-year moving averages from the Survey of English Housing for 2005-06 2006-07 and 2007-08 The reason for having to base estimates on a three-year average was that with fewer than 3 per cent of households overcrowded the sample size for a single year was too small to provide reliable annual estimates However for 2008-09 in addition to the EHS sample of 17700 households we have information from a further 95000 households that were interviewed for the ONS Labour Force Survey This combined sample was sufficiently large to deliver robust single year estimates for 2008-09 without the need to carry forward the three-year average series

Table 6 Overcrowding and under-occupation by tenure 2008-09

all households

difference from bedroom standard

overcrowded at standardone above

standardunder-

occupied total

thousands of householdsowner occupiers 231 2117 5416 6855 14620

social renters 258 2032 1121 430 3841

private renters 164 1312 1095 494 3066

all tenures 654 5462 7633 7779 21527

percentagesowner occupiers 16 145 370 469 100

social renters 67 529 292 112 100

private renters 54 428 357 161 100

all tenures 30 254 355 361 100

Notes Details of the bedroom standard can be found in the GlossarySource English Housing Survey - full household sample and ONS Labour Force Survey

118 The overall rate of overcrowding in England for 2008-09 was 30 (see Table 6) This compares to the previously published estimate of 28 (averaged over the period 2005-06 to 2007-08) There were around 654000 overcrowded households (compared to an average of 570000 over the period 2005-06 to 2007-08) Levels of overcrowding varied considerably by tenure and were lowest in the owner occupied sector at 16 up from 14 for the period 2005-06 to 2007-08 Around 67 of social renters were overcrowded and 54 of private renters compared to 59 and 49 respectively for 2005-06 to 2007-08

20 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

119 Although the overall rate of overcrowding has shown little change in recent years this is largely due to the relatively stable rate of overcrowding in the owner occupied sector the largest tenure Over the past decade overcrowding has been rising in both the rented sectors

Figure 6 Trend in overcrowding rates by tenure 1995-96 to 2008-09 (3 year moving average)

private renters social rentersowner occupiers all tenures

per

cen

tage

of

ho

use

ho

lds

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

2008

-09

2007

-08

2006

-07

2005

-06

2004

-05

2003

-04

2002

-03

2001

-02

2000

-01

1999

-00

1998

-99

1997

-98

1996

-97

1995

-96

Source Survey of English Housing to 2007-08 and combined English Housing Survey (full sample) plus Labour Force Survey for 2008-09 The estimates up to 2007-08 are three-year moving averages so the ldquo2007-08rdquo figure is actually the average of 2005-06 2006-07 and 2007-08 Since the 2008-09 estimates are for that year only a gap has been introduced to separate the three-year averages to 2007-08 from the annual estimates for 2008-09

120 Around 78 million households were estimated to be under-occupying their accommodation in 2008-09 that is they had at least two bedrooms more than they needed (see definition of bedroom standard in Glossary) Under-occupation was far more likely to be found in the owner occupied sector than in the rented sectors 47 of owner occupiers were under-occupying accommodation compared to 11 of social renters and 16 of private renters

Recent movers

121 In this section we look at those households that had been in their current accommodation for less than 12 months at the time of interview

Section 1 Households | 21

Table 7 Previous tenure by current tenure 2008-09

HRPs resident less than a year

previous tenure ndash continuing households

current tenurenew

householdowner

occupierssocial

rentersprivate renters all tenures

thousands of householdsoutright owners 4 83 0 12 99buying with mortgage 68 204 13 131 416all owner occupiers 72 287 13 144 515

local authority 20 13 76 20 129housing association 24 9 105 38 177all social renters 44 23 181 58 306

private renters 229 141 47 686 1103

all tenures 345 450 241 887 1924

percentageoutright owners 4 84 0 13 100buying with mortgage 16 49 3 32 100all owner occupiers 14 56 3 28 100

local authority 15 10 59 15 100housing association 14 5 59 22 100all social renters 15 7 59 19 100

private renters 21 13 4 62 100

all tenures 18 23 13 46 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

122 Around 18 of households that had moved into their accommodation in the previous year were new households Two thirds (66) of these new households were private renters and around one fifth (21) were owner occupiers Movement within tenure was more common than moves between tenures 62 of current private renters had previously been private renters 59 of social renters had moved from another social rented property and 56 of owner occupiers had owned their previous property Movement into the social rented sector for continuing households was more likely to be from private renting (19 of current social renters) than from owner occupation (7)

22 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Attitudes to home and local area

123 Around 90 of households in England were satisfied with their accommodation in 2008-09 The highest levels of satisfaction were expressed by outright owners 73 of whom said that they were very satisfied with their homes Over three quarters of social renters were satisfied with their homes but 9 were slightly dissatisfied and 7 were very dissatisfied Around 82 of private renters were very or fairly satisfied with their accommodation and only 3 said they were very dissatisfied

Table 8 Satisfaction with accommodation by tenure 2008-09

all households

very satisfied

fairly satisfied

neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

slightly dissatisfied

very dissatisfied Total

thousands of householdsoutright owners 4926 1535 111 100 36 6709buying with mortgage 4604 2719 232 200 55 7810all owneroccupiers 9530 4254 343 300 91 14519

local authority 697 736 98 192 142 1866housing association 842 700 116 159 117 1935all social renters 1539 1437 214 351 260 3801

private renters 1240 1211 193 227 102 2972

all tenures 12309 6901 751 878 452 21291

percentagesoutright owners 73 23 2 1 1 100buying with mortgage 59 35 3 3 1 100all owneroccupiers 66 29 2 2 1 100

local authority 37 39 5 10 8 100housing association 44 36 6 8 6 100all social renters 40 38 6 9 7 100

private renters 42 41 6 8 3 100

all tenures 58 32 4 4 2 100

Note This question is not asked of proxy respondents and a small proportion of respondents chose not to answer These exclusions are reflected in the overall total number of households in this table Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

124 A large majority of households are satisfied with the local area in which they live In 2008-09 just over half of all households in England were very satisfied with their local area and 87 were very or fairly satisfied Only 3 of households were very dissatisfied with their local area

Section 1 Households | 23

125 There were some differences by tenure 89 of owner occupiers were satisfied with their local area compared to 79 of social renters and 85 of private renters Whilst only two per cent of owner occupiers and private renters said that they were very dissatisfied with their local area seven per cent of social renters were very dissatisfied

Table 9 Satisfaction with local area by tenure 2008-09

all households

very satisfied

fairly satisfied

neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

slightly dissatisfied

very dissatisfied Total

thousands of householdsoutright owners 3999 2093 180 322 114 6708buying with mortgage 3919 2973 371 420 127 7810all owners 7918 5066 552 742 241 14518

local authority 754 712 122 159 122 1867housing association 861 679 116 150 129 1936all social renters 1615 1391 238 309 251 3803

private renters 1520 1001 183 194 73 2972

all tenures 11052 7458 972 1245 565 21293

percentagesoutright owners 60 31 3 5 2 100buying with mortgage 50 38 5 5 2 100all owners 55 35 4 5 2 100

local authority 40 38 7 9 7 100housing association 44 35 6 8 7 100all social renters 42 37 6 8 7 100

private renters 51 34 6 7 2 100

all tenures 52 35 5 6 3 100

Note This question is not asked of proxy respondents and a small proportion of respondents chose not to answer These exclusions are reflected in the overall total number of households in this table Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

24 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Section 2Housing stock

21 Results relating to the housing stock in this report are presented using two yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the English House Condition Survey (EHCS) For this transition year data from the last full year of the EHCS (2007-08) were combined with the first year of the EHS (2008-09)

22 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Stock profile

23 There were around 222 million dwellings in 2008 Table 10 Of these 183 million (82 of the stock) were in the private sector and comprised 150 million owner occupied homes and 33 million private rented homes There were 39 million social sector homes (18 of the stock) of which two million were owned by local authority and two million by housing associations

Section 2 Housing stock | 25

Table 10 Stock profile 2008

all dwellings

private sector social sector

owner occupied

private rented

all private sector

local authority

housing association

all social sector

all dwellings

in group

thousands of dwellingsdwelling agepre 1919 3194 1309 4503 86 170 257 47601919-44 2689 431 3120 336 187 522 36421945-64 2708 384 3092 760 511 1271 43631965-80 3146 536 3682 665 467 1132 48141981-90 1401 222 1624 107 223 330 1953post 1990 1869 415 2284 30 394 424 2708

dwelling typemid terrace 2638 820 3459 325 367 693 4151end terrance 1440 340 1779 199 222 421 2201small terraced house 1216 548 1764 192 217 408 2172mediumlarge terraced house 2862 612 3475 333 373 705 4180all terrace 4078 1160 5238 524 589 1114 6352semi-detached house 4515 556 5070 365 351 716 5786detached house 3575 267 3843 5 18 24 3867bungalow 1548 133 1681 176 236 412 2092converted flat 284 427 712 38 75 113 825purpose built flat low rise 926 704 1630 724 626 1349 2979purpose built flat high rise 81 49 130 152 56 208 338

floor arealess than 50 sqm 742 652 1394 550 536 1086 248050 to 69 sqm 2913 1028 3942 725 680 1405 534770 to 89 sqm 4361 890 5251 575 553 1127 637990 to 109 sqm 2632 322 2954 102 132 234 3188110 sqm or more 4359 403 4763 32 52 83 4846

type of areacity centre 295 262 558 72 75 147 704other urban centre 2263 967 3230 538 458 996 4227suburban residential 9204 1581 10785 1236 1171 2407 13192rural residential 2074 233 2307 105 190 295 2601village centre 647 110 756 26 47 72 829rural 524 144 668 7 11 19 687

deprived local areasmost deprived 10 773 325 1097 595 468 1064 21612-5th 5331 1518 6849 1121 1025 2145 89956-9th 7072 1188 8260 249 423 672 8932least deprived 1832 266 2097 19 36 54 2152

occupancy statusoccupied 14610 2858 17468 1896 1860 3755 21223vacant 398 438 836 88 92 180 1016

Total 15007 3296 18304 1984 1951 3935 22239

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

26 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

24 The large majority of dwellings were houses (181 million) most commonly terraced or semi-detached The remainder of the stock 41 million consisited of flats predominately purpose built low rise flats However types of housing vary markedly between tenures While 91 of owner occupied housing was made up of houses almost half (46) of local authority homes were flats Figure 7 Flats also accounted for over a third of private rented homes and housing association homes (36 and 39 respectively)

Figure 7 Dwelling type by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

purpose built flat high risepurpose built flat low riseconverted flatdetached houses and bungalowssemi-detached housemediumlarge terraced housesmall terraced house

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

25 England has a relatively old housing stock with some 84 million homes built before 1945 of which 48 million were built before 1919 A fifth of homes (47 million) have been built since 1980

26 Stock in different tenures have different age profiles It is noticeable that owner occupied homes are evenly distributed across the five age bands compared with other tenures Figure 8 In the private rented sector for example 40 (13 million homes) were built before 1919 significantly higher than other tenures Housing association homes were more likely to have been built during the 1980s and 1990s (32) compared to only 7 of local authority homes

Section 2 Housing stock | 27

Figure 8 Age of housing stock by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

post 19901981-901965-801945-641919-44pre 1919

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

27 Some 44 million (29) of owner occupied homes had a floor area greater than 110m2 including 18 million (12 of the sector) which were over 150m2 This reflects the proportion of semi-detached and detached owner occupied homes which tend to be large Social sector homes were most likely to have a floor area of less than 50m2 compared with those in the private sector (28 and 8 respectively)

28 Homes in England were most likely to be located in suburban residential areas and least likely to be found in rural areas (59 and 3 respectively)

Energy efficiency of the housing stock

Heating and insulation29 Key ways of increasing the energy efficiency of existing homes are

improvements to their heating systems and levels of insulation For heating the type of heating system boiler in use and the fuel used are all related to energy performance

210 Central heating is the predominant main heating system present in 199 million homes (89 of the housing stock) in 2008 see Annex Table 3 This was followed by storage heaters present in 16 million (7) of homes and room heaters in 700000 homes (3) Central heating is generally considered to be the most cost effective and relatively efficient method of heating whereas room heaters tend to be the least cost effective and relatively inefficient method of heating

28 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

211 In 2008 92 of owner occupied homes had central heating systems compared to 88 of social and 80 of private rented homes see Annex Table 4 In part this reflects the higher proportion of flats in the rented sectors compared with owner occupation with 23 of flats using storage heaters

212 Condensing boilers are generally the most efficient boiler type and are now mandatory for new and replacement boilers (for gas fired boilers since 2005 for oil fired boilers since 2007) However even prior to these requirements the less efficient standard and back boilers were decreasing in use with the growing popularity of standard combination types Figure 9 Recent years have seen rapidly expanding take up of condensing and particularly combination condensing boilers In 2008 37 million homes (17 of the stock) had one of the two types of condensing boilers

Figure 9 Boiler types 1996-2008

no boiler

condensing-combination boiler condensing boilercombination boilerback boiler (to fire or stove)standard boiler (floor or wall)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

20082007200620052004200320011996

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes underpinning data is presented in Annex Table 5Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

213 For a home to provide optimum energy performance a high level of thermal insulation needs to be present alongside an efficient heating system Standard insulation measures include cavity wall insulation loft insulation and double glazing which have all improved in the stock since 1996 Figure 10

214 In 2008 155 million homes (70) had external walls of cavity construction 74 million homes (33 of the stock) had cavity wall insulation 47 million homes (21) had 200mm or more of loft insulation and 157 million homes (71) had full double glazing with an additional 29 million homes (13) having more than half double glazed Figure 10

Section 2 Housing stock | 29

Figure 10 Insulation measures 1996-2008

20082007200620052004200320011996

entire housedouble glazing

200mm or moreof loft insulation

cavity walls withinsulation

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes1) Only 89 of dwellings have lofts and 70 of dwellings have cavity walls2) Underpinning data is presented in annex Table 7Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

215 In 2008 the social rented sector had the greatest proportion of homes with cavity wall insulation (local authority 42 housing association 44) 200mm or more of loft insulation (local authority 24 housing association 29) and full double glazing (local authority 75 housing association 83) whereas the private rented sector had the lowest proportion of all three standard insulation measures cavity wall insulation (17) 200mm or more of loft insulation (13) and full double glazing (61) Figure 11

30 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Figure 11 Percentage of dwellings with efficient insulation measures by tenure 2008

full double glazing200mm or moreloft insulation

cavity withinsulation

cavity wall

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

housing associationlocal authorityprivate rentedowner occupied0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Base all dwellingsSource English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

SAP Rating

216 The energy efficiency of the housing stock continued to improve between 1996 and 2008 the average SAP rating of a home increased by 9 SAP points from 42 to 51 Table 11 The social sector was on average more energy efficient than the private sector and saw the greatest improvement with the average SAP rating increasing by 12 SAP points from 47 to 59

Table 11 Energy efficiency average SAP rating by tenure 2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

owner occupied 411 444 450 456 461 469 481 496private rented 379 419 444 457 460 466 481 502all private 407 441 449 456 461 468 481 497

local authority 457 496 520 539 553 558 562 580housing association 509 564 567 573 589 593 595 603all social 468 519 539 553 569 574 578 592

all tenures 421 457 466 474 481 487 498 514

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Section 2 Housing stock | 31

217 There has been a significant increase in the proportion of homes achieving the highest Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands in 2008 10 (23 million) of homes achieved the highest (EER) Bands A to C3 compared with 7 (16 million) in 2006 Table 12 The number of homes in the lowest EER Bands (F and G) fell by a million over the same period The majority of homes (73) continue to be in the EER Bands D or E

Table 12 Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 35 35 77Band C (69-80) 1545 1710 2229Band D (55-68) 6555 7316 7865Band E (39-54) 9072 8859 8310Band F (21-38) 3838 3389 2972Band G (1-20) 943 881 786Total 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 02 02 03Band C (69-80) 70 77 100Band D (55-68) 298 330 354Band E (39-54) 413 399 374Band F (21-38) 175 153 134Band G (1-20) 43 40 35Total 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 2006 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Housing health and safety rating system

218 A potentially serious (Category 1) hazard as measured under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System was present in around 48 million homes in 2008 22 of the housing stock

2 EER Bands are used in the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) The Certificate provides among other indicators an energy efficiency rating for the home on a scale from A-G (where A is the most efficient and G the least efficient)

32 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Housing conditions

Housing Health and Safety Rating System219 There was no significant change in the proportion of homes with any Category

1 hazard between 2006 and 2008 Hazards tend to be more common in older housing stock for example stairs are more likely to be steep and narrow in older housing making lsquofalls on stairsrsquo more likely or heating and insulation measures tend to be less effective in older stock making lsquoexcess coldrsquo a more serious hazard Therefore it is not surprising that hazards are more common in the private sector where the older housing stock is concentrated Almost a quarter of housing in the private sector had at least one category 1 hazard in 2008 (24) compared to around 13 in the social sector Table 14 Privately rented homes were most likely to have Category 1 hazards present compared to housing association homes (31 and 13 respectively)

220 The most common type of hazard in all four tenures was falls (see annex Table 10 for details of which hazards are included in this category) Overall 13 of homes have at least one type of falls hazard present

Decent homes221 In 2008 74 million homes (33) were non-decent4 Table 13 Housing

association housing was the least likely to be non-decent (23) while private rented housing was in the worst condition with 44 of homes being non-decent Overall social sector homes were in a better condition than private sector homes with 27 being non-decent compared to 34

222 The number of non-decent homes fell from 77 million in 2006 to 74 million in 20085 Conditions in the social sector improved with the proportion of homes failing the standard falling by two percentage points from 29 in 2006 to 27 in 2008 Private sector homes also improved from 36 non-decent in 2006 to 34 non-decent in 2008

4 Estimates from the EHS are based soley on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors subject to any limitations of the information they collect The EHS estimates in this report do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property

5 In 2006 the Housing Health and Safety Rating System replaced the Fitness Standard as the statutory minimum standard for housing Earlier estimates based on the original definition are not comparable therefore any change in the number of decent homes can only be referenced back to 2006 Figures for decent homes prior to 2006 can be found in the 2006 English House Condition Survey Annual Report available at wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

Section 2 Housing stock | 33

Table 13 Non-decent homes by tenure 2006 ndash 2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5335 5304 4842private rented 1223 1244 1449all private 6558 6548 6291

local authority 676 652 625housing association 465 486 444all social 1142 1138 1069

all tenures 7700 7686 7360

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 346 341 323private rented 468 454 440all private 363 358 344

local authority 324 328 315housing association 252 255 228all social 290 292 272

all tenures 350 346 331

Notes1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties between 2007 and 2008 are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates See Annex Table 11Sources2006 ndash 2007 English House Condition Survey2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Reasons for failing decent homes223 Of the four components required to meet the decent homes standard the

presence of one or more category 1 hazards under the HHSRS was the most commonly failed Table 14 This is particularly the case for private sector homes where 24 of homes had one or more Category 1 hazards present compared to 13 of social sector homes

34 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 14 Homes failing decent homes criteria by tenure 2008

all dwellings

Category 1 hazard (HHSRS)

thermal comfort

modern facilities repair all non-decent

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 3342 1773 379 817 4842private rented 978 637 160 369 1449all private 4320 2411 539 1186 6291

local authority 298 227 138 146 625housing association 224 199 50 86 444all social 522 426 188 231 1069

all tenures 4842 2837 727 1417 7360

percentages

owner occupied 223 118 25 54 323private rented 297 193 49 112 440all private 236 132 29 65 344

local authority 150 115 70 74 315housing association 115 102 25 44 228all social 133 108 48 59 272

all tenures 218 128 33 64 331

Note The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoids a break in the time series See Annex Table 12 for estimate based on 26 hazardsSource English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

224 There was significant progress in the thermal comfort of homes between 2006 and 2008 The proportion of homes failing thermal comfort fell to 13 in 2008 from 16 in 2006 Improvement has been made across all tenures

Private sector vulnerable households225 In 2008 31 million lsquovulnerablersquo households6 were living in the private sector of

which 12 million (39) were living in non-decent homes the remaining 19 million (61) were living in decent accommodation Table 15 There has been no significant change since 2006

226 Vulnerable households who privately rent their accommodation were more likely to live in non-decent homes compared to social tenants (51 and 26 respectively) Table 15

6 Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

Section 2 Housing stock | 35

Table 15 Households living in decent homes 2006-2008

all dwellings

number (000s) percentage ()

2006 2007 2008 2006 2007 2008

decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 1543 1575 1428 630 649 653private rented 334 354 429 450 482 490all private vulnerable 1877 1929 1857 588 610 606

private non- vulnerableowner occupied 8418 8531 8494 664 667 683private rented 922 985 1246 567 566 588all private non-vulnerable 9340 9516 9740 653 655 669

all owner occupied 9961 10106 9922 658 664 678all private rented 1256 1339 1675 530 541 559all private 11217 11445 11597 641 647 658all social 2690 2649 2798 722 719 740all households 13907 14094 14395 655 659 672

non-decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 905 851 760 370 351 347private rented 408 380 447 550 518 510all private vulnerable 1313 1231 1207 412 390 394

private non-vulnerableowner occupied 4262 4264 3946 336 333 317private rented 704 754 874 433 434 412all private non-vulnerable 4966 5018 4820 347 345 331

all owner occupied 5167 5115 4706 342 336 322all private rented 1112 1134 1321 470 459 441all private 6279 6249 6027 359 353 342

all social 1034 1037 985 278 281 260all households 7313 7286 7012 345 341 328

Notes 1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoid a break in the time series See Annex Table 13 for further detailsSource English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

36 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Damp and mould growth227 The proportion of homes with damp problems has reduced from 13 in 1996

to 8 in 2008 Table 16

Table 16 Number and percentage of homes with damp problems in one or more rooms 1996-2008

all dwellings

rising damp

penetrating damp

condensation mould

any damp problems

thousands of dwellings1996 858 1271 1145 26012001 625 1032 860 20322003 740 1066 1003 22832004 750 1035 951 22512005 759 952 941 22102006 724 886 947 21582007 640 833 881 19162008 584 759 865 1746

percentage of dwellings1996 42 63 56 1282001 29 49 41 962003 34 50 47 1062004 35 48 44 1042005 35 44 43 1012006 33 40 43 982007 29 38 40 862008 26 34 39 78

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

228 Privately rented homes were more likely to experience damp problems compared to other tenures Figure 11 Privately rented homes were more likely to be older homes and experience problems with rising or penetrating damp due to defects in the damp proof course roof covering gutters and down pipes which would affect at least one room in the property

229 In the social sector damp problems were more likely to be caused by serious condensation and mould growth rather than by rising damp Figure 12

Section 2 Housing stock | 37

Figure 12 Percentage of homes with a damp problem by tenure 2008

rising damp penetrating damp condensationmould

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

alltenures

housingassociation

localauthority

privaterented

owneroccupied

per

cen

tage

of

ho

mes

wit

h d

amp

pro

ble

ms

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

38 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex tables

Households

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

Annex Table 2 Economic Status of working age HRP by tenure 2008-09

Energy efficiency

Annex Table 3 Heating Type 1996-2008

Annex Table 4 Main Heating System by tenure 2008

Annex Table 5 Boiler Types 1996-2008

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

Annex Table 8 Cavity Wall insulation by tenure 2008

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

Housing Health and Safety Rating System

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 HHSRS hazards present (comparison of estimates based on any one of 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Non-decent homes in deprived areas

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes in deprived areas by tenure 2006-2008

Annex tables | 39

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent

child(ren)

couple with dependent

child(ren)

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)

other multi-

person households

all one-person

households

all household

types

percentageown outright 46 9 7 24 37 31buying with mortgage 35 66 27 25 23 36social renters 9 13 44 20 25 18private renters 10 12 22 31 15 14

all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 2 Economic status of working age HRP by tenure

all households

working un-employed retired other inactive Total percentage

own outright 74 2 14 10 100buying with mortgage 94 1 1 4 100social renters 49 12 1 37 100private renters 75 5 1 19 100all tenures 80 4 3 13 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 3 Heating type 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingscentral heating 16178 18177 18604 18919 19179 19553 19862 19862storage heater 1643 1600 1587 1616 1609 1532 1552 1641fixed roomportable heater 2515 2001 1294 1078 993 904 776 736Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingscentral heating 796 860 866 875 881 889 895 893storage heater 81 76 74 75 74 70 70 74fixed roomportable heating heater 124 95 60 50 46 41 35 33Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

40 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 4 Main heating system by tenure 2008

all dwellings

central heating storage heaterfixed room

heatingportable

heating only all dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 13788 790 411 19 15007 private rented 2630 441 208 17 3296 all private 16418 1232 619 36 18304

local authority 1776 160 46 2 1984 housing association 1669 249 33 1 1951 all social 3445 409 79 3 3935

all tenures 19862 1641 698 38 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 919 53 27 01 1000 private rented 798 134 63 05 1000 all private 897 67 34 02 1000

local authority 895 80 23 01 1000 housing association 855 128 17 00 1000 all social 875 104 20 01 1000

all tenures 893 74 31 02 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 5 Boiler types 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsstandard boiler 10447 10338 9642 9635 9425 9014 8782 8072back boiler 2773 2759 2580 2409 2181 2131 1944 1688combination boiler 2810 4431 5492 5934 6254 6312 6287 6082condensing boiler ndash 155 154 202 300 460 698 948condensing-combination boiler ndash 318 373 417 727 1297 1837 2773no boiler 4305 3140 3244 3016 2894 2775 2642 2676Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsstandard boiler 514 489 449 446 433 410 396 363back boiler 136 130 120 111 100 97 88 76combination boiler 138 210 256 275 287 287 283 273condensing boiler 00 07 07 09 14 21 31 43condensing-combination boiler 00 15 17 19 33 59 83 125no boiler 212 149 151 140 133 126 119 120Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 41

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

all dwellings

standard boiler

back boiler

combination boiler

condensing boiler

condensing-combination

boilerno

boilerall

dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 6223 1045 3984 713 1756 1286 15007 private rented 817 149 1112 73 429 716 3296 all private 7040 1194 5096 787 2185 2002 18304

local authority 499 271 481 90 335 309 1984 housing association 533 223 505 72 254 365 1951 all social 1032 494 986 162 589 674 3935

all 8072 1688 6082 948 2773 2676 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 415 70 265 48 117 86 1000 private rented 248 45 337 22 130 217 1000 all private 385 65 278 43 119 109 1000

local authority 251 136 242 45 169 156 1000 housing association 273 114 259 37 130 187 1000 all social 262 125 250 41 150 171 1000

all 363 76 273 43 125 120 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 2853 5210 5334 5825 5974 6644 7267 7418200mm or more of loft insulation 583 1256 2034 2530 2919 3520 4258 4685entire house double glazing 6169 10753 11915 12846 13486 13924 14850 15747

all dwellings 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 140 246 248 270 274 302 327 334200mm or more of loft insulation 29 59 95 117 134 160 192 211entire house double glazing 303 509 555 594 619 633 669 708

all dwellings 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

42 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 8 Cavity wall insulation by tenure

all dwellings

cavity with insulation

cavity uninsulated other all

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5161 5483 4364 15007private rented 566 1213 1517 3296private 5727 6696 5882 18304

local authority 834 657 493 1984housing association 857 720 374 1951social 1691 1378 867 3935

total 7418 8073 6749 22239

percentage of dwellingsowner occupied 344 365 291 100private rented 172 368 460 100private 313 366 321 100

local authority 420 331 248 100housing association 439 369 192 100social 430 350 220 100

total 334 363 303 100

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 43

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

all dwellings

no loftno

insulationless than

50mm50 up to

99mm

100 up to

149mm

150 up to

199mm200mm or more

all dwellings

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 748 442 432 3009 5147 2007 3223 15007 private rented 672 175 66 857 813 281 434 3296 private 1420 617 497 3866 5960 2288 3657 18304

local authority 614 33 19 171 471 206 470 1984 housing association 467 20 16 143 482 265 558 1951 social 1081 53 35 314 953 471 1028 3935

total 2501 670 532 4179 6913 2759 4685 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 50 29 29 200 343 134 215 1000private rented 204 53 20 260 247 85 132 1000private 78 34 27 211 326 125 200 1000

local authority 309 17 10 86 237 104 237 1000housing association 239 10 08 73 247 136 286 1000social 275 14 09 80 242 120 261 1000

total 112 30 24 188 311 124 211 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

44 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

hazard presentnumber of homes (000s) each hazard is present in

falling on stairs 2025excess cold 1966falling on level surfaces 788falling between levels 443fire 318

entry by intruders

flames hot surfacesleaddamp and mould growth 50 to 100 eachcollision and entrapmentradiationfalls associated with baths

crowding and space

food safetypersonal hygiene sanitation and drainage 20 to 50 eachnoisedomestic hygiene pests and refuseelectrical hazards

structural collapse and falling elements

water supplycarbon monoxide and fuel combustion productsposition and operability of amenities less thanexcess heat 20 eachlightinguncombusted fuel gasexplosions

any of the 15 hazards 4842

any of the 26 hazards 5039

Note For 2006 and 2007 the survey reported on 15 hazards only The 2008 EHS can provide estimates for 26 hazards - the additional hazards are marked with an asterisk The three remaining hazards not included in the survey are presence of asbestos biocides or volatile organic compounds For reporting purposes HHSRS and non-decent estimates will be based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with previous years and avoid a break in the time seriesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 45

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 4842 4925private rented 1449 1478all private 6291 6403

local authority 625 640housing association 444 464all social 1069 1104

all tenures 7360 7507

percentagesowner occupied 323 328private rented 440 448all private 344 350

local authority 315 323housing association 228 238all social 272 281

all tenures 331 338

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

46 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 hazards present (compariosn of estimates based on any one to the 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 3342 3452private rented 978 1013all private 4320 4465

local authority 298 326RSL 224 248all social 522 574

all tenures 4842 5039

percentagesowner occupied 223 230private rented 297 307all private 236 244

local authority 150 164RSL 115 127all social 133 146

all tenures 218 227

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 47

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all households

15 hazards 26 hazards

number (000s) percentage () number (000s) percentage ()

decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 1428 653 1413 646private rented 429 490 417 476all private vulnerable 1857 606 1830 597 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 8494 683 8425 677private rented 1246 588 1232 581all private non-vulnerable 9740 669 9657 663 all owner occupied 9922 678 9839 673all private rented 1675 559 1648 550all private 11597 658 11487 663all social 2798 740 2766 731

all households 14395 672 14253 666

non-decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 760 347 775 354private rented 447 510 459 524all private vulnerable 1207 394 1234 403 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 3946 317 4015 323private rented 874 412 888 419all private non-vulnerable 4820 331 4903 337 all owner occupied 4706 322 4790 327all private rented 1321 441 1347 450all private 6027 342 6137 348all social 985 260 1017 269

all households 7012 328 7154 334

Note For reporting purposes decent homes estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

48 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes1 by deprived and other districts by tenure 2006-2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsSocial NRF88 662 652 605Other districts 480 486 464 Private NRF88 2544 2621 2442Other districts 4013 3928 3849

percentages of dwellingsSocial NRF88 313 304 278Other districts 264 278 263 Private NRF88 381 380 361Other districts 353 344 333

Note NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving Neighbourhood Renewal Funding 2001-2006Source English House Condition Survey 2006-2007English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub sample)

Technical annex | 49

Technical annex

General description

The survey consists of three main elements an initial interview survey of 17700 households with a follow up physical inspection and a desk based market valuation of a sub-sample of 8000 of these dwellings including vacant dwellings The interview survey sample forms part of ONSrsquos Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the core questions from the IHS form part of the EHS questionnaire More information about the IHS is available from its webpage wwwstatisticsgovukCCInuggetaspID=936ampPos=1ampColRank=1ampRank=224

The EHS interview content covers the key topics included under the former SEH and EHCS The content of the physical and market value components remains very largely unchanged from the former EHCS

Sampling and grossing

2008-09 Sample1 The initial sample for 2008-09 consisted of 32100 addresses drawn as a systematic

random sample from the Postcode Address File (small users) Interviews were attempted at all of these addresses over the course of the survey year from April 2008 to March 2009 A proportion of addresses were found not to be valid residential properties (eg demolished properties secondholiday homes small businesses not yet built)

2 Of the 17691 addresses where interviews were achieved (the lsquofull household samplersquo) all social rented properties and a sub-sample of private properties were regarded as eligible for the physical survey and the respondentrsquos consent was sought A proportion of vacant properties were also sub-sampled Physical surveys were completed in 7972 cases and these cases contribute to the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo (see below)

3 The principal differences in sampling methodology between the EHS and its predecessors the SEH and EHCS are that

bull The EHS uses an unclustered sample This enables a smaller sample to be used with no loss of precision ie without sampling errors being increased The more scattered sample does however have some implications for fieldwork organisation

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 10: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

10 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 1 Trends in tenure 2001 to 2008-09 England

all households

owner occupiers

ownoutright

buying witha mortgage

all owner occupiers

social renters

private renters

all households

thousands of households2001 5885 8473 14358 3983 2062 204032002 6019 8540 14559 3972 2131 206622003 6158 8542 14701 3804 2234 207392004 6288 8389 14677 3797 2284 207582005 6352 8440 14791 3696 2445 209322006 6425 8365 14790 3736 2566 210922007 6505 8228 14733 3755 2691 211782008 6653 7975 14628 3797 2982 21407 2008-09 6770 7851 14621 3842 3067 21530

percentages2001 288 415 704 195 101 1002002 291 413 705 192 103 1002003 297 412 709 183 108 1002004 303 404 707 183 110 1002005 303 403 707 177 117 1002006 305 397 701 177 122 1002007 307 389 696 177 127 1002008 311 373 683 177 139 100 2008-09 314 365 679 178 142 100

Note data for years prior to 2001 can be found in table S101 wwwcommunitiesgovukdocumentshousingxls139262xls Tenure trends based on SEH annual data for 1993-94 to 2007-08 are available in Fifteen years of the Survey of English Housingwwwcommunitiesgovukdocumentsstatisticspdf1346239pdfSources2001 to 2008 ONS Labour Force Survey2008-09 English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

15 Figure 1 shows the trend in tenure back to 1980 Owner occupation rose steadily throughout the 1980s and at a lesser rate throughout the 1990s The level of private renting saw little change throughout the 1980s and early 1990s but has since increased to around 31 million in 2008-09 In 1980 54 million households were social renters but by 2008-09 this had decreased to 38 million

Section 1 Households | 11

Figure 1 Trend in tenure 1980 to 2008ndash09

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

2008

-09

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

1997

1996

1995

1994

1993

1992

1991

1990

1989

1988

1987

1986

1985

1984

1983

1982

1981

1980

owner occupierssocial rentersprivate renters

mill

ion

ho

use

ho

lds

Source 1980 to 2008 ONS Labour Force Survey 2008ndash09 English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Household type

16 Couples with no dependent children were the most common type of household in 2008-09 (36) These households were also the most common type of owner occupiers Amongst renters one-person households were the most common 41 of social renters and 30 of private renters Although only 7 of households overall were lone parents with dependent children there was a noticeable difference by tenure 17 of social renters 11 of private renters and 3 of owner occupiers (see Table 2)

12 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 2 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent child(ren)1

couple with dependent child(ren)1

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)1

other multi-

person households 1 male 1 female

all household

types

thousands of householdsown outright 3538 424 103 396 769 1541 6770buying with mortgage 2670 2971 405 402 791 612 7851all owner occupiers 6208 3395 508 798 1560 2153 14621 local authority 333 287 331 177 342 417 1887housing association 352 299 341 151 354 458 1955all social renters 685 587 672 328 696 875 3842 private renters 764 535 333 514 582 339 3067 all tenures 7657 4516 1514 1640 2838 3366 21530

percentagesown outright 52 6 2 6 11 23 100buying with mortgage 34 38 5 5 10 8 100all owner occupiers 42 23 3 5 11 15 100 local authority 18 15 18 9 18 22 100housing association 18 15 17 8 18 23 100all social renters 18 15 17 9 18 23 100 private renters 25 17 11 17 19 11 100 all tenures 36 21 7 8 13 16 100

Note 1) These categories can also include non-dependent childrenSource English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

17 Figure 2 shows each household type split by tenure An estimated 66 of couples with dependent children were buying with a mortgage 13 were social renters 12 were private renters and 9 owned outright The tenure split for lone parents with dependent children was quite different with only 27 buying with a mortgage whilst 44 were social renters 22 were private renters and 7 owned outright

Section 1 Households | 13

Figure 2 Household type by tenure 2008-09p

erce

nta

ge

private renterssocial rentersbuying with mortgageown outright

allhousehold

types

allone-personhouseholds

othermulti-personhouseholds

lone parentwith

dependentchild(ren)

couple withdependentchild(ren)

couple nodependentchild(ren)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sampleNote underlying data is presented in annex table 1

Economic status

18 In 2008-09 91 of household reference persons (HRP)2 who were buying with a mortgage were working 85 full-time and 6 part-time Around 60 of outright owners were retired compared to only 9 of private renters In the social rented sector over half the household reference persons were economically inactive with 31 retired and 26 lsquoother inactiversquo (such as long-term sickness or disability or lone parent)

2 see glossary for definition

14 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 3 Economic status of household reference person by tenure 2008-09

all households

economic status of HRP

full time work

part-time work

un-employed retired

other inactive all

thousands of householdsown outright 1777 570 54 4079 290 6770buying with mortgage 6679 470 101 312 290 7851all owner occupiers 8456 1040 155 4390 580 14621 local authority 444 203 172 566 503 1887housing association 489 182 152 643 488 1955all social renters 933 385 324 1209 991 3842 all private renters 1874 262 143 274 514 3067 all tenures 11263 1687 622 5873 2085 21530

percentagesown outright 26 8 1 60 4 100buying with mortgage 85 6 1 4 4 100all owner occupiers 58 7 1 30 4 100 local authority 24 11 9 30 27 100housing association 25 9 8 33 25 100all social renters 24 10 8 31 26 100 all private renters 61 9 5 9 17 100 all tenures 52 8 3 27 10 100Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

19 Table 3 shows the economic status of all householders Figure 3 shows the economic status of those of working age ndash men aged under 65 and women aged under 60 Within this group 94 of those buying with a mortgage were working compared to only 49 of those who were social renters Unemployment was highest in the social rented sector 12 compared to 5 of private renters and only 1 of owner occupiers

110 There was also a much higher proportion of lsquoother inactiversquo amongst working age social renters than those in other tenures 37 compared to 19 of private renters 10 of outright owners and 4 of mortgagors

Section 1 Households | 15

Figure 3 Economic status of working age HRPs 2008-09

other inactiveretiredunemployedworking

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

alltenures

privaterenters

socialrenters

buying withmortgage

ownoutright

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sampleNote underlying data is presented in annex table 2

Age of household reference person by tenure

111 Owner occupation is the most common tenure in England In 2008-09 there were 68 million households that owned outright and 78 million buying with a mortgage Around three-quarters of mortgagors were aged between 35 and 64 with only 3 aged 65 or over Outright owners the majority of whom were likely to have once had a mortgage and paid it off were concentrated in the older age groups 6 were aged under 45 Overall 32 of owner occupiers were in the 16 to 44 age range

112 Around half (51) of householders aged 25 to 34 were owners 17 were social renters and 31 were private renters Within the 35 to 44 age group the proportions of social and private renters were very similar 17 and 16 respectively and 67 of householders in this age group were owners

113 Over 80 of private renters were aged under 55 with only 8 aged 65 or over By contrast 28 of owner occupiers and 29 of social renters were aged 65 or over

16 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 4 Age of household reference person by tenure 2008-09

all households

age of HRP

16 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54 55 - 64 65 or over all ages

thousands of householdsown outright 9 87 329 759 1752 3833 6770buying with mortgage 114 1562 2619 2237 1071 249 7851all owner occupiers 123 1649 2948 2996 2823 4082 14621 local authority 123 306 373 318 244 523 1887housing association 112 254 385 349 256 599 1955all social renters 235 560 757 667 501 1122 3842 private renters 497 995 686 380 252 257 3067 all tenures 855 3203 4392 4043 3576 5461 21530

percentage within tenureown outright 0 1 5 11 26 57 100buying with mortgage 1 20 33 28 14 3 100all owner occupiers 1 11 20 20 19 28 100 local authority 7 16 20 17 13 28 100housing association 6 13 20 18 13 31 100all social renters 6 15 20 17 13 29 100 private renters 16 32 22 12 8 8 100 all tenures 4 15 20 19 17 25 100

percentage within age groupown outright 1 3 7 19 49 70 31buying with mortgage 13 49 60 55 30 5 36all owner occupiers 14 51 67 74 79 75 68 local authority 14 10 8 8 7 10 9housing association 13 8 9 9 7 11 9all social renters 27 17 17 17 14 21 18 private renters 58 31 16 9 7 5 14 all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Section 1 Households | 17

Figure 4 Age of household reference person by tenure 2008ndash09

per

cen

tage

private renterssocial rentersbuying with mortgageown outright

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

65 or over 55ndash64 45ndash54 35ndash44

age of HRP

25ndash34 16ndash24

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Buying expectations of renters

114 In 2008-09 27 of social renters expected to eventually become homeowners compared to 59 of private renters Of those who did expect to buy 44 of social renters expected to buy their current accommodation compared to only 13 of private renters

18 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 5 Buying aspirations of social and private renters 2008-09

all renters

social renters private renters

percentagesWill eventually buy or share home in UK yes 27 59no 73 41All 100 100

Expect to buy current accommodation (all who expect to buy) yes 44 13no 56 87All 100 100

When expect to buy (all who expect to buy) Less than a yearrsquos time 3 81 year but less than 2 years 7 162 years but less than 5 years 25 345 years or more 65 42All 100 100

Note Expectations to buy include shared ownershipSource English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

115 An estimated 24 of private renters expecting to buy (14 of all private renters) thought that they would buy within the next two years This proportion had fallen from 34 in 2006-07 (see Figure 5) whilst the proportion expecting to buy in five or more yearsrsquo time had risen from 35 to 42 over this period These changes suggest that private renters now expect to rent for longer before being in a position to buy perhaps due to affordability issues

Figure 5 Trend in expected time to buying ndash private renters expecting to buy eventually

per

cen

tage

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

2008-09 2007-082006-07

5 years or more2 years but less than 5lt2 years

Note based on those private renters who expect to buy eventuallySource English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Section 1 Households | 19

Overcrowding and under-occupation

116 Levels of overcrowding are measured using the ldquobedroom standardrdquo (see definition in Glossary) Essentially this is the difference between the number of bedrooms needed to avoid undesirable sharing (given the number and ages of household members and their relationships to each other) and the number of bedrooms actually available to the household

117 The previous estimates of overcrowding were based on three-year moving averages from the Survey of English Housing for 2005-06 2006-07 and 2007-08 The reason for having to base estimates on a three-year average was that with fewer than 3 per cent of households overcrowded the sample size for a single year was too small to provide reliable annual estimates However for 2008-09 in addition to the EHS sample of 17700 households we have information from a further 95000 households that were interviewed for the ONS Labour Force Survey This combined sample was sufficiently large to deliver robust single year estimates for 2008-09 without the need to carry forward the three-year average series

Table 6 Overcrowding and under-occupation by tenure 2008-09

all households

difference from bedroom standard

overcrowded at standardone above

standardunder-

occupied total

thousands of householdsowner occupiers 231 2117 5416 6855 14620

social renters 258 2032 1121 430 3841

private renters 164 1312 1095 494 3066

all tenures 654 5462 7633 7779 21527

percentagesowner occupiers 16 145 370 469 100

social renters 67 529 292 112 100

private renters 54 428 357 161 100

all tenures 30 254 355 361 100

Notes Details of the bedroom standard can be found in the GlossarySource English Housing Survey - full household sample and ONS Labour Force Survey

118 The overall rate of overcrowding in England for 2008-09 was 30 (see Table 6) This compares to the previously published estimate of 28 (averaged over the period 2005-06 to 2007-08) There were around 654000 overcrowded households (compared to an average of 570000 over the period 2005-06 to 2007-08) Levels of overcrowding varied considerably by tenure and were lowest in the owner occupied sector at 16 up from 14 for the period 2005-06 to 2007-08 Around 67 of social renters were overcrowded and 54 of private renters compared to 59 and 49 respectively for 2005-06 to 2007-08

20 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

119 Although the overall rate of overcrowding has shown little change in recent years this is largely due to the relatively stable rate of overcrowding in the owner occupied sector the largest tenure Over the past decade overcrowding has been rising in both the rented sectors

Figure 6 Trend in overcrowding rates by tenure 1995-96 to 2008-09 (3 year moving average)

private renters social rentersowner occupiers all tenures

per

cen

tage

of

ho

use

ho

lds

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

2008

-09

2007

-08

2006

-07

2005

-06

2004

-05

2003

-04

2002

-03

2001

-02

2000

-01

1999

-00

1998

-99

1997

-98

1996

-97

1995

-96

Source Survey of English Housing to 2007-08 and combined English Housing Survey (full sample) plus Labour Force Survey for 2008-09 The estimates up to 2007-08 are three-year moving averages so the ldquo2007-08rdquo figure is actually the average of 2005-06 2006-07 and 2007-08 Since the 2008-09 estimates are for that year only a gap has been introduced to separate the three-year averages to 2007-08 from the annual estimates for 2008-09

120 Around 78 million households were estimated to be under-occupying their accommodation in 2008-09 that is they had at least two bedrooms more than they needed (see definition of bedroom standard in Glossary) Under-occupation was far more likely to be found in the owner occupied sector than in the rented sectors 47 of owner occupiers were under-occupying accommodation compared to 11 of social renters and 16 of private renters

Recent movers

121 In this section we look at those households that had been in their current accommodation for less than 12 months at the time of interview

Section 1 Households | 21

Table 7 Previous tenure by current tenure 2008-09

HRPs resident less than a year

previous tenure ndash continuing households

current tenurenew

householdowner

occupierssocial

rentersprivate renters all tenures

thousands of householdsoutright owners 4 83 0 12 99buying with mortgage 68 204 13 131 416all owner occupiers 72 287 13 144 515

local authority 20 13 76 20 129housing association 24 9 105 38 177all social renters 44 23 181 58 306

private renters 229 141 47 686 1103

all tenures 345 450 241 887 1924

percentageoutright owners 4 84 0 13 100buying with mortgage 16 49 3 32 100all owner occupiers 14 56 3 28 100

local authority 15 10 59 15 100housing association 14 5 59 22 100all social renters 15 7 59 19 100

private renters 21 13 4 62 100

all tenures 18 23 13 46 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

122 Around 18 of households that had moved into their accommodation in the previous year were new households Two thirds (66) of these new households were private renters and around one fifth (21) were owner occupiers Movement within tenure was more common than moves between tenures 62 of current private renters had previously been private renters 59 of social renters had moved from another social rented property and 56 of owner occupiers had owned their previous property Movement into the social rented sector for continuing households was more likely to be from private renting (19 of current social renters) than from owner occupation (7)

22 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Attitudes to home and local area

123 Around 90 of households in England were satisfied with their accommodation in 2008-09 The highest levels of satisfaction were expressed by outright owners 73 of whom said that they were very satisfied with their homes Over three quarters of social renters were satisfied with their homes but 9 were slightly dissatisfied and 7 were very dissatisfied Around 82 of private renters were very or fairly satisfied with their accommodation and only 3 said they were very dissatisfied

Table 8 Satisfaction with accommodation by tenure 2008-09

all households

very satisfied

fairly satisfied

neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

slightly dissatisfied

very dissatisfied Total

thousands of householdsoutright owners 4926 1535 111 100 36 6709buying with mortgage 4604 2719 232 200 55 7810all owneroccupiers 9530 4254 343 300 91 14519

local authority 697 736 98 192 142 1866housing association 842 700 116 159 117 1935all social renters 1539 1437 214 351 260 3801

private renters 1240 1211 193 227 102 2972

all tenures 12309 6901 751 878 452 21291

percentagesoutright owners 73 23 2 1 1 100buying with mortgage 59 35 3 3 1 100all owneroccupiers 66 29 2 2 1 100

local authority 37 39 5 10 8 100housing association 44 36 6 8 6 100all social renters 40 38 6 9 7 100

private renters 42 41 6 8 3 100

all tenures 58 32 4 4 2 100

Note This question is not asked of proxy respondents and a small proportion of respondents chose not to answer These exclusions are reflected in the overall total number of households in this table Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

124 A large majority of households are satisfied with the local area in which they live In 2008-09 just over half of all households in England were very satisfied with their local area and 87 were very or fairly satisfied Only 3 of households were very dissatisfied with their local area

Section 1 Households | 23

125 There were some differences by tenure 89 of owner occupiers were satisfied with their local area compared to 79 of social renters and 85 of private renters Whilst only two per cent of owner occupiers and private renters said that they were very dissatisfied with their local area seven per cent of social renters were very dissatisfied

Table 9 Satisfaction with local area by tenure 2008-09

all households

very satisfied

fairly satisfied

neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

slightly dissatisfied

very dissatisfied Total

thousands of householdsoutright owners 3999 2093 180 322 114 6708buying with mortgage 3919 2973 371 420 127 7810all owners 7918 5066 552 742 241 14518

local authority 754 712 122 159 122 1867housing association 861 679 116 150 129 1936all social renters 1615 1391 238 309 251 3803

private renters 1520 1001 183 194 73 2972

all tenures 11052 7458 972 1245 565 21293

percentagesoutright owners 60 31 3 5 2 100buying with mortgage 50 38 5 5 2 100all owners 55 35 4 5 2 100

local authority 40 38 7 9 7 100housing association 44 35 6 8 7 100all social renters 42 37 6 8 7 100

private renters 51 34 6 7 2 100

all tenures 52 35 5 6 3 100

Note This question is not asked of proxy respondents and a small proportion of respondents chose not to answer These exclusions are reflected in the overall total number of households in this table Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

24 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Section 2Housing stock

21 Results relating to the housing stock in this report are presented using two yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the English House Condition Survey (EHCS) For this transition year data from the last full year of the EHCS (2007-08) were combined with the first year of the EHS (2008-09)

22 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Stock profile

23 There were around 222 million dwellings in 2008 Table 10 Of these 183 million (82 of the stock) were in the private sector and comprised 150 million owner occupied homes and 33 million private rented homes There were 39 million social sector homes (18 of the stock) of which two million were owned by local authority and two million by housing associations

Section 2 Housing stock | 25

Table 10 Stock profile 2008

all dwellings

private sector social sector

owner occupied

private rented

all private sector

local authority

housing association

all social sector

all dwellings

in group

thousands of dwellingsdwelling agepre 1919 3194 1309 4503 86 170 257 47601919-44 2689 431 3120 336 187 522 36421945-64 2708 384 3092 760 511 1271 43631965-80 3146 536 3682 665 467 1132 48141981-90 1401 222 1624 107 223 330 1953post 1990 1869 415 2284 30 394 424 2708

dwelling typemid terrace 2638 820 3459 325 367 693 4151end terrance 1440 340 1779 199 222 421 2201small terraced house 1216 548 1764 192 217 408 2172mediumlarge terraced house 2862 612 3475 333 373 705 4180all terrace 4078 1160 5238 524 589 1114 6352semi-detached house 4515 556 5070 365 351 716 5786detached house 3575 267 3843 5 18 24 3867bungalow 1548 133 1681 176 236 412 2092converted flat 284 427 712 38 75 113 825purpose built flat low rise 926 704 1630 724 626 1349 2979purpose built flat high rise 81 49 130 152 56 208 338

floor arealess than 50 sqm 742 652 1394 550 536 1086 248050 to 69 sqm 2913 1028 3942 725 680 1405 534770 to 89 sqm 4361 890 5251 575 553 1127 637990 to 109 sqm 2632 322 2954 102 132 234 3188110 sqm or more 4359 403 4763 32 52 83 4846

type of areacity centre 295 262 558 72 75 147 704other urban centre 2263 967 3230 538 458 996 4227suburban residential 9204 1581 10785 1236 1171 2407 13192rural residential 2074 233 2307 105 190 295 2601village centre 647 110 756 26 47 72 829rural 524 144 668 7 11 19 687

deprived local areasmost deprived 10 773 325 1097 595 468 1064 21612-5th 5331 1518 6849 1121 1025 2145 89956-9th 7072 1188 8260 249 423 672 8932least deprived 1832 266 2097 19 36 54 2152

occupancy statusoccupied 14610 2858 17468 1896 1860 3755 21223vacant 398 438 836 88 92 180 1016

Total 15007 3296 18304 1984 1951 3935 22239

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

26 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

24 The large majority of dwellings were houses (181 million) most commonly terraced or semi-detached The remainder of the stock 41 million consisited of flats predominately purpose built low rise flats However types of housing vary markedly between tenures While 91 of owner occupied housing was made up of houses almost half (46) of local authority homes were flats Figure 7 Flats also accounted for over a third of private rented homes and housing association homes (36 and 39 respectively)

Figure 7 Dwelling type by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

purpose built flat high risepurpose built flat low riseconverted flatdetached houses and bungalowssemi-detached housemediumlarge terraced housesmall terraced house

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

25 England has a relatively old housing stock with some 84 million homes built before 1945 of which 48 million were built before 1919 A fifth of homes (47 million) have been built since 1980

26 Stock in different tenures have different age profiles It is noticeable that owner occupied homes are evenly distributed across the five age bands compared with other tenures Figure 8 In the private rented sector for example 40 (13 million homes) were built before 1919 significantly higher than other tenures Housing association homes were more likely to have been built during the 1980s and 1990s (32) compared to only 7 of local authority homes

Section 2 Housing stock | 27

Figure 8 Age of housing stock by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

post 19901981-901965-801945-641919-44pre 1919

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

27 Some 44 million (29) of owner occupied homes had a floor area greater than 110m2 including 18 million (12 of the sector) which were over 150m2 This reflects the proportion of semi-detached and detached owner occupied homes which tend to be large Social sector homes were most likely to have a floor area of less than 50m2 compared with those in the private sector (28 and 8 respectively)

28 Homes in England were most likely to be located in suburban residential areas and least likely to be found in rural areas (59 and 3 respectively)

Energy efficiency of the housing stock

Heating and insulation29 Key ways of increasing the energy efficiency of existing homes are

improvements to their heating systems and levels of insulation For heating the type of heating system boiler in use and the fuel used are all related to energy performance

210 Central heating is the predominant main heating system present in 199 million homes (89 of the housing stock) in 2008 see Annex Table 3 This was followed by storage heaters present in 16 million (7) of homes and room heaters in 700000 homes (3) Central heating is generally considered to be the most cost effective and relatively efficient method of heating whereas room heaters tend to be the least cost effective and relatively inefficient method of heating

28 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

211 In 2008 92 of owner occupied homes had central heating systems compared to 88 of social and 80 of private rented homes see Annex Table 4 In part this reflects the higher proportion of flats in the rented sectors compared with owner occupation with 23 of flats using storage heaters

212 Condensing boilers are generally the most efficient boiler type and are now mandatory for new and replacement boilers (for gas fired boilers since 2005 for oil fired boilers since 2007) However even prior to these requirements the less efficient standard and back boilers were decreasing in use with the growing popularity of standard combination types Figure 9 Recent years have seen rapidly expanding take up of condensing and particularly combination condensing boilers In 2008 37 million homes (17 of the stock) had one of the two types of condensing boilers

Figure 9 Boiler types 1996-2008

no boiler

condensing-combination boiler condensing boilercombination boilerback boiler (to fire or stove)standard boiler (floor or wall)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

20082007200620052004200320011996

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes underpinning data is presented in Annex Table 5Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

213 For a home to provide optimum energy performance a high level of thermal insulation needs to be present alongside an efficient heating system Standard insulation measures include cavity wall insulation loft insulation and double glazing which have all improved in the stock since 1996 Figure 10

214 In 2008 155 million homes (70) had external walls of cavity construction 74 million homes (33 of the stock) had cavity wall insulation 47 million homes (21) had 200mm or more of loft insulation and 157 million homes (71) had full double glazing with an additional 29 million homes (13) having more than half double glazed Figure 10

Section 2 Housing stock | 29

Figure 10 Insulation measures 1996-2008

20082007200620052004200320011996

entire housedouble glazing

200mm or moreof loft insulation

cavity walls withinsulation

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes1) Only 89 of dwellings have lofts and 70 of dwellings have cavity walls2) Underpinning data is presented in annex Table 7Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

215 In 2008 the social rented sector had the greatest proportion of homes with cavity wall insulation (local authority 42 housing association 44) 200mm or more of loft insulation (local authority 24 housing association 29) and full double glazing (local authority 75 housing association 83) whereas the private rented sector had the lowest proportion of all three standard insulation measures cavity wall insulation (17) 200mm or more of loft insulation (13) and full double glazing (61) Figure 11

30 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Figure 11 Percentage of dwellings with efficient insulation measures by tenure 2008

full double glazing200mm or moreloft insulation

cavity withinsulation

cavity wall

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

housing associationlocal authorityprivate rentedowner occupied0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Base all dwellingsSource English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

SAP Rating

216 The energy efficiency of the housing stock continued to improve between 1996 and 2008 the average SAP rating of a home increased by 9 SAP points from 42 to 51 Table 11 The social sector was on average more energy efficient than the private sector and saw the greatest improvement with the average SAP rating increasing by 12 SAP points from 47 to 59

Table 11 Energy efficiency average SAP rating by tenure 2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

owner occupied 411 444 450 456 461 469 481 496private rented 379 419 444 457 460 466 481 502all private 407 441 449 456 461 468 481 497

local authority 457 496 520 539 553 558 562 580housing association 509 564 567 573 589 593 595 603all social 468 519 539 553 569 574 578 592

all tenures 421 457 466 474 481 487 498 514

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Section 2 Housing stock | 31

217 There has been a significant increase in the proportion of homes achieving the highest Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands in 2008 10 (23 million) of homes achieved the highest (EER) Bands A to C3 compared with 7 (16 million) in 2006 Table 12 The number of homes in the lowest EER Bands (F and G) fell by a million over the same period The majority of homes (73) continue to be in the EER Bands D or E

Table 12 Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 35 35 77Band C (69-80) 1545 1710 2229Band D (55-68) 6555 7316 7865Band E (39-54) 9072 8859 8310Band F (21-38) 3838 3389 2972Band G (1-20) 943 881 786Total 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 02 02 03Band C (69-80) 70 77 100Band D (55-68) 298 330 354Band E (39-54) 413 399 374Band F (21-38) 175 153 134Band G (1-20) 43 40 35Total 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 2006 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Housing health and safety rating system

218 A potentially serious (Category 1) hazard as measured under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System was present in around 48 million homes in 2008 22 of the housing stock

2 EER Bands are used in the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) The Certificate provides among other indicators an energy efficiency rating for the home on a scale from A-G (where A is the most efficient and G the least efficient)

32 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Housing conditions

Housing Health and Safety Rating System219 There was no significant change in the proportion of homes with any Category

1 hazard between 2006 and 2008 Hazards tend to be more common in older housing stock for example stairs are more likely to be steep and narrow in older housing making lsquofalls on stairsrsquo more likely or heating and insulation measures tend to be less effective in older stock making lsquoexcess coldrsquo a more serious hazard Therefore it is not surprising that hazards are more common in the private sector where the older housing stock is concentrated Almost a quarter of housing in the private sector had at least one category 1 hazard in 2008 (24) compared to around 13 in the social sector Table 14 Privately rented homes were most likely to have Category 1 hazards present compared to housing association homes (31 and 13 respectively)

220 The most common type of hazard in all four tenures was falls (see annex Table 10 for details of which hazards are included in this category) Overall 13 of homes have at least one type of falls hazard present

Decent homes221 In 2008 74 million homes (33) were non-decent4 Table 13 Housing

association housing was the least likely to be non-decent (23) while private rented housing was in the worst condition with 44 of homes being non-decent Overall social sector homes were in a better condition than private sector homes with 27 being non-decent compared to 34

222 The number of non-decent homes fell from 77 million in 2006 to 74 million in 20085 Conditions in the social sector improved with the proportion of homes failing the standard falling by two percentage points from 29 in 2006 to 27 in 2008 Private sector homes also improved from 36 non-decent in 2006 to 34 non-decent in 2008

4 Estimates from the EHS are based soley on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors subject to any limitations of the information they collect The EHS estimates in this report do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property

5 In 2006 the Housing Health and Safety Rating System replaced the Fitness Standard as the statutory minimum standard for housing Earlier estimates based on the original definition are not comparable therefore any change in the number of decent homes can only be referenced back to 2006 Figures for decent homes prior to 2006 can be found in the 2006 English House Condition Survey Annual Report available at wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

Section 2 Housing stock | 33

Table 13 Non-decent homes by tenure 2006 ndash 2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5335 5304 4842private rented 1223 1244 1449all private 6558 6548 6291

local authority 676 652 625housing association 465 486 444all social 1142 1138 1069

all tenures 7700 7686 7360

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 346 341 323private rented 468 454 440all private 363 358 344

local authority 324 328 315housing association 252 255 228all social 290 292 272

all tenures 350 346 331

Notes1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties between 2007 and 2008 are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates See Annex Table 11Sources2006 ndash 2007 English House Condition Survey2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Reasons for failing decent homes223 Of the four components required to meet the decent homes standard the

presence of one or more category 1 hazards under the HHSRS was the most commonly failed Table 14 This is particularly the case for private sector homes where 24 of homes had one or more Category 1 hazards present compared to 13 of social sector homes

34 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 14 Homes failing decent homes criteria by tenure 2008

all dwellings

Category 1 hazard (HHSRS)

thermal comfort

modern facilities repair all non-decent

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 3342 1773 379 817 4842private rented 978 637 160 369 1449all private 4320 2411 539 1186 6291

local authority 298 227 138 146 625housing association 224 199 50 86 444all social 522 426 188 231 1069

all tenures 4842 2837 727 1417 7360

percentages

owner occupied 223 118 25 54 323private rented 297 193 49 112 440all private 236 132 29 65 344

local authority 150 115 70 74 315housing association 115 102 25 44 228all social 133 108 48 59 272

all tenures 218 128 33 64 331

Note The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoids a break in the time series See Annex Table 12 for estimate based on 26 hazardsSource English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

224 There was significant progress in the thermal comfort of homes between 2006 and 2008 The proportion of homes failing thermal comfort fell to 13 in 2008 from 16 in 2006 Improvement has been made across all tenures

Private sector vulnerable households225 In 2008 31 million lsquovulnerablersquo households6 were living in the private sector of

which 12 million (39) were living in non-decent homes the remaining 19 million (61) were living in decent accommodation Table 15 There has been no significant change since 2006

226 Vulnerable households who privately rent their accommodation were more likely to live in non-decent homes compared to social tenants (51 and 26 respectively) Table 15

6 Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

Section 2 Housing stock | 35

Table 15 Households living in decent homes 2006-2008

all dwellings

number (000s) percentage ()

2006 2007 2008 2006 2007 2008

decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 1543 1575 1428 630 649 653private rented 334 354 429 450 482 490all private vulnerable 1877 1929 1857 588 610 606

private non- vulnerableowner occupied 8418 8531 8494 664 667 683private rented 922 985 1246 567 566 588all private non-vulnerable 9340 9516 9740 653 655 669

all owner occupied 9961 10106 9922 658 664 678all private rented 1256 1339 1675 530 541 559all private 11217 11445 11597 641 647 658all social 2690 2649 2798 722 719 740all households 13907 14094 14395 655 659 672

non-decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 905 851 760 370 351 347private rented 408 380 447 550 518 510all private vulnerable 1313 1231 1207 412 390 394

private non-vulnerableowner occupied 4262 4264 3946 336 333 317private rented 704 754 874 433 434 412all private non-vulnerable 4966 5018 4820 347 345 331

all owner occupied 5167 5115 4706 342 336 322all private rented 1112 1134 1321 470 459 441all private 6279 6249 6027 359 353 342

all social 1034 1037 985 278 281 260all households 7313 7286 7012 345 341 328

Notes 1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoid a break in the time series See Annex Table 13 for further detailsSource English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

36 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Damp and mould growth227 The proportion of homes with damp problems has reduced from 13 in 1996

to 8 in 2008 Table 16

Table 16 Number and percentage of homes with damp problems in one or more rooms 1996-2008

all dwellings

rising damp

penetrating damp

condensation mould

any damp problems

thousands of dwellings1996 858 1271 1145 26012001 625 1032 860 20322003 740 1066 1003 22832004 750 1035 951 22512005 759 952 941 22102006 724 886 947 21582007 640 833 881 19162008 584 759 865 1746

percentage of dwellings1996 42 63 56 1282001 29 49 41 962003 34 50 47 1062004 35 48 44 1042005 35 44 43 1012006 33 40 43 982007 29 38 40 862008 26 34 39 78

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

228 Privately rented homes were more likely to experience damp problems compared to other tenures Figure 11 Privately rented homes were more likely to be older homes and experience problems with rising or penetrating damp due to defects in the damp proof course roof covering gutters and down pipes which would affect at least one room in the property

229 In the social sector damp problems were more likely to be caused by serious condensation and mould growth rather than by rising damp Figure 12

Section 2 Housing stock | 37

Figure 12 Percentage of homes with a damp problem by tenure 2008

rising damp penetrating damp condensationmould

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

alltenures

housingassociation

localauthority

privaterented

owneroccupied

per

cen

tage

of

ho

mes

wit

h d

amp

pro

ble

ms

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

38 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex tables

Households

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

Annex Table 2 Economic Status of working age HRP by tenure 2008-09

Energy efficiency

Annex Table 3 Heating Type 1996-2008

Annex Table 4 Main Heating System by tenure 2008

Annex Table 5 Boiler Types 1996-2008

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

Annex Table 8 Cavity Wall insulation by tenure 2008

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

Housing Health and Safety Rating System

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 HHSRS hazards present (comparison of estimates based on any one of 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Non-decent homes in deprived areas

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes in deprived areas by tenure 2006-2008

Annex tables | 39

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent

child(ren)

couple with dependent

child(ren)

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)

other multi-

person households

all one-person

households

all household

types

percentageown outright 46 9 7 24 37 31buying with mortgage 35 66 27 25 23 36social renters 9 13 44 20 25 18private renters 10 12 22 31 15 14

all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 2 Economic status of working age HRP by tenure

all households

working un-employed retired other inactive Total percentage

own outright 74 2 14 10 100buying with mortgage 94 1 1 4 100social renters 49 12 1 37 100private renters 75 5 1 19 100all tenures 80 4 3 13 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 3 Heating type 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingscentral heating 16178 18177 18604 18919 19179 19553 19862 19862storage heater 1643 1600 1587 1616 1609 1532 1552 1641fixed roomportable heater 2515 2001 1294 1078 993 904 776 736Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingscentral heating 796 860 866 875 881 889 895 893storage heater 81 76 74 75 74 70 70 74fixed roomportable heating heater 124 95 60 50 46 41 35 33Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

40 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 4 Main heating system by tenure 2008

all dwellings

central heating storage heaterfixed room

heatingportable

heating only all dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 13788 790 411 19 15007 private rented 2630 441 208 17 3296 all private 16418 1232 619 36 18304

local authority 1776 160 46 2 1984 housing association 1669 249 33 1 1951 all social 3445 409 79 3 3935

all tenures 19862 1641 698 38 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 919 53 27 01 1000 private rented 798 134 63 05 1000 all private 897 67 34 02 1000

local authority 895 80 23 01 1000 housing association 855 128 17 00 1000 all social 875 104 20 01 1000

all tenures 893 74 31 02 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 5 Boiler types 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsstandard boiler 10447 10338 9642 9635 9425 9014 8782 8072back boiler 2773 2759 2580 2409 2181 2131 1944 1688combination boiler 2810 4431 5492 5934 6254 6312 6287 6082condensing boiler ndash 155 154 202 300 460 698 948condensing-combination boiler ndash 318 373 417 727 1297 1837 2773no boiler 4305 3140 3244 3016 2894 2775 2642 2676Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsstandard boiler 514 489 449 446 433 410 396 363back boiler 136 130 120 111 100 97 88 76combination boiler 138 210 256 275 287 287 283 273condensing boiler 00 07 07 09 14 21 31 43condensing-combination boiler 00 15 17 19 33 59 83 125no boiler 212 149 151 140 133 126 119 120Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 41

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

all dwellings

standard boiler

back boiler

combination boiler

condensing boiler

condensing-combination

boilerno

boilerall

dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 6223 1045 3984 713 1756 1286 15007 private rented 817 149 1112 73 429 716 3296 all private 7040 1194 5096 787 2185 2002 18304

local authority 499 271 481 90 335 309 1984 housing association 533 223 505 72 254 365 1951 all social 1032 494 986 162 589 674 3935

all 8072 1688 6082 948 2773 2676 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 415 70 265 48 117 86 1000 private rented 248 45 337 22 130 217 1000 all private 385 65 278 43 119 109 1000

local authority 251 136 242 45 169 156 1000 housing association 273 114 259 37 130 187 1000 all social 262 125 250 41 150 171 1000

all 363 76 273 43 125 120 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 2853 5210 5334 5825 5974 6644 7267 7418200mm or more of loft insulation 583 1256 2034 2530 2919 3520 4258 4685entire house double glazing 6169 10753 11915 12846 13486 13924 14850 15747

all dwellings 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 140 246 248 270 274 302 327 334200mm or more of loft insulation 29 59 95 117 134 160 192 211entire house double glazing 303 509 555 594 619 633 669 708

all dwellings 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

42 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 8 Cavity wall insulation by tenure

all dwellings

cavity with insulation

cavity uninsulated other all

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5161 5483 4364 15007private rented 566 1213 1517 3296private 5727 6696 5882 18304

local authority 834 657 493 1984housing association 857 720 374 1951social 1691 1378 867 3935

total 7418 8073 6749 22239

percentage of dwellingsowner occupied 344 365 291 100private rented 172 368 460 100private 313 366 321 100

local authority 420 331 248 100housing association 439 369 192 100social 430 350 220 100

total 334 363 303 100

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 43

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

all dwellings

no loftno

insulationless than

50mm50 up to

99mm

100 up to

149mm

150 up to

199mm200mm or more

all dwellings

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 748 442 432 3009 5147 2007 3223 15007 private rented 672 175 66 857 813 281 434 3296 private 1420 617 497 3866 5960 2288 3657 18304

local authority 614 33 19 171 471 206 470 1984 housing association 467 20 16 143 482 265 558 1951 social 1081 53 35 314 953 471 1028 3935

total 2501 670 532 4179 6913 2759 4685 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 50 29 29 200 343 134 215 1000private rented 204 53 20 260 247 85 132 1000private 78 34 27 211 326 125 200 1000

local authority 309 17 10 86 237 104 237 1000housing association 239 10 08 73 247 136 286 1000social 275 14 09 80 242 120 261 1000

total 112 30 24 188 311 124 211 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

44 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

hazard presentnumber of homes (000s) each hazard is present in

falling on stairs 2025excess cold 1966falling on level surfaces 788falling between levels 443fire 318

entry by intruders

flames hot surfacesleaddamp and mould growth 50 to 100 eachcollision and entrapmentradiationfalls associated with baths

crowding and space

food safetypersonal hygiene sanitation and drainage 20 to 50 eachnoisedomestic hygiene pests and refuseelectrical hazards

structural collapse and falling elements

water supplycarbon monoxide and fuel combustion productsposition and operability of amenities less thanexcess heat 20 eachlightinguncombusted fuel gasexplosions

any of the 15 hazards 4842

any of the 26 hazards 5039

Note For 2006 and 2007 the survey reported on 15 hazards only The 2008 EHS can provide estimates for 26 hazards - the additional hazards are marked with an asterisk The three remaining hazards not included in the survey are presence of asbestos biocides or volatile organic compounds For reporting purposes HHSRS and non-decent estimates will be based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with previous years and avoid a break in the time seriesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 45

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 4842 4925private rented 1449 1478all private 6291 6403

local authority 625 640housing association 444 464all social 1069 1104

all tenures 7360 7507

percentagesowner occupied 323 328private rented 440 448all private 344 350

local authority 315 323housing association 228 238all social 272 281

all tenures 331 338

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

46 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 hazards present (compariosn of estimates based on any one to the 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 3342 3452private rented 978 1013all private 4320 4465

local authority 298 326RSL 224 248all social 522 574

all tenures 4842 5039

percentagesowner occupied 223 230private rented 297 307all private 236 244

local authority 150 164RSL 115 127all social 133 146

all tenures 218 227

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 47

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all households

15 hazards 26 hazards

number (000s) percentage () number (000s) percentage ()

decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 1428 653 1413 646private rented 429 490 417 476all private vulnerable 1857 606 1830 597 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 8494 683 8425 677private rented 1246 588 1232 581all private non-vulnerable 9740 669 9657 663 all owner occupied 9922 678 9839 673all private rented 1675 559 1648 550all private 11597 658 11487 663all social 2798 740 2766 731

all households 14395 672 14253 666

non-decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 760 347 775 354private rented 447 510 459 524all private vulnerable 1207 394 1234 403 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 3946 317 4015 323private rented 874 412 888 419all private non-vulnerable 4820 331 4903 337 all owner occupied 4706 322 4790 327all private rented 1321 441 1347 450all private 6027 342 6137 348all social 985 260 1017 269

all households 7012 328 7154 334

Note For reporting purposes decent homes estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

48 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes1 by deprived and other districts by tenure 2006-2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsSocial NRF88 662 652 605Other districts 480 486 464 Private NRF88 2544 2621 2442Other districts 4013 3928 3849

percentages of dwellingsSocial NRF88 313 304 278Other districts 264 278 263 Private NRF88 381 380 361Other districts 353 344 333

Note NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving Neighbourhood Renewal Funding 2001-2006Source English House Condition Survey 2006-2007English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub sample)

Technical annex | 49

Technical annex

General description

The survey consists of three main elements an initial interview survey of 17700 households with a follow up physical inspection and a desk based market valuation of a sub-sample of 8000 of these dwellings including vacant dwellings The interview survey sample forms part of ONSrsquos Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the core questions from the IHS form part of the EHS questionnaire More information about the IHS is available from its webpage wwwstatisticsgovukCCInuggetaspID=936ampPos=1ampColRank=1ampRank=224

The EHS interview content covers the key topics included under the former SEH and EHCS The content of the physical and market value components remains very largely unchanged from the former EHCS

Sampling and grossing

2008-09 Sample1 The initial sample for 2008-09 consisted of 32100 addresses drawn as a systematic

random sample from the Postcode Address File (small users) Interviews were attempted at all of these addresses over the course of the survey year from April 2008 to March 2009 A proportion of addresses were found not to be valid residential properties (eg demolished properties secondholiday homes small businesses not yet built)

2 Of the 17691 addresses where interviews were achieved (the lsquofull household samplersquo) all social rented properties and a sub-sample of private properties were regarded as eligible for the physical survey and the respondentrsquos consent was sought A proportion of vacant properties were also sub-sampled Physical surveys were completed in 7972 cases and these cases contribute to the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo (see below)

3 The principal differences in sampling methodology between the EHS and its predecessors the SEH and EHCS are that

bull The EHS uses an unclustered sample This enables a smaller sample to be used with no loss of precision ie without sampling errors being increased The more scattered sample does however have some implications for fieldwork organisation

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 11: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

Section 1 Households | 11

Figure 1 Trend in tenure 1980 to 2008ndash09

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

2008

-09

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

1997

1996

1995

1994

1993

1992

1991

1990

1989

1988

1987

1986

1985

1984

1983

1982

1981

1980

owner occupierssocial rentersprivate renters

mill

ion

ho

use

ho

lds

Source 1980 to 2008 ONS Labour Force Survey 2008ndash09 English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Household type

16 Couples with no dependent children were the most common type of household in 2008-09 (36) These households were also the most common type of owner occupiers Amongst renters one-person households were the most common 41 of social renters and 30 of private renters Although only 7 of households overall were lone parents with dependent children there was a noticeable difference by tenure 17 of social renters 11 of private renters and 3 of owner occupiers (see Table 2)

12 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 2 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent child(ren)1

couple with dependent child(ren)1

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)1

other multi-

person households 1 male 1 female

all household

types

thousands of householdsown outright 3538 424 103 396 769 1541 6770buying with mortgage 2670 2971 405 402 791 612 7851all owner occupiers 6208 3395 508 798 1560 2153 14621 local authority 333 287 331 177 342 417 1887housing association 352 299 341 151 354 458 1955all social renters 685 587 672 328 696 875 3842 private renters 764 535 333 514 582 339 3067 all tenures 7657 4516 1514 1640 2838 3366 21530

percentagesown outright 52 6 2 6 11 23 100buying with mortgage 34 38 5 5 10 8 100all owner occupiers 42 23 3 5 11 15 100 local authority 18 15 18 9 18 22 100housing association 18 15 17 8 18 23 100all social renters 18 15 17 9 18 23 100 private renters 25 17 11 17 19 11 100 all tenures 36 21 7 8 13 16 100

Note 1) These categories can also include non-dependent childrenSource English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

17 Figure 2 shows each household type split by tenure An estimated 66 of couples with dependent children were buying with a mortgage 13 were social renters 12 were private renters and 9 owned outright The tenure split for lone parents with dependent children was quite different with only 27 buying with a mortgage whilst 44 were social renters 22 were private renters and 7 owned outright

Section 1 Households | 13

Figure 2 Household type by tenure 2008-09p

erce

nta

ge

private renterssocial rentersbuying with mortgageown outright

allhousehold

types

allone-personhouseholds

othermulti-personhouseholds

lone parentwith

dependentchild(ren)

couple withdependentchild(ren)

couple nodependentchild(ren)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sampleNote underlying data is presented in annex table 1

Economic status

18 In 2008-09 91 of household reference persons (HRP)2 who were buying with a mortgage were working 85 full-time and 6 part-time Around 60 of outright owners were retired compared to only 9 of private renters In the social rented sector over half the household reference persons were economically inactive with 31 retired and 26 lsquoother inactiversquo (such as long-term sickness or disability or lone parent)

2 see glossary for definition

14 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 3 Economic status of household reference person by tenure 2008-09

all households

economic status of HRP

full time work

part-time work

un-employed retired

other inactive all

thousands of householdsown outright 1777 570 54 4079 290 6770buying with mortgage 6679 470 101 312 290 7851all owner occupiers 8456 1040 155 4390 580 14621 local authority 444 203 172 566 503 1887housing association 489 182 152 643 488 1955all social renters 933 385 324 1209 991 3842 all private renters 1874 262 143 274 514 3067 all tenures 11263 1687 622 5873 2085 21530

percentagesown outright 26 8 1 60 4 100buying with mortgage 85 6 1 4 4 100all owner occupiers 58 7 1 30 4 100 local authority 24 11 9 30 27 100housing association 25 9 8 33 25 100all social renters 24 10 8 31 26 100 all private renters 61 9 5 9 17 100 all tenures 52 8 3 27 10 100Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

19 Table 3 shows the economic status of all householders Figure 3 shows the economic status of those of working age ndash men aged under 65 and women aged under 60 Within this group 94 of those buying with a mortgage were working compared to only 49 of those who were social renters Unemployment was highest in the social rented sector 12 compared to 5 of private renters and only 1 of owner occupiers

110 There was also a much higher proportion of lsquoother inactiversquo amongst working age social renters than those in other tenures 37 compared to 19 of private renters 10 of outright owners and 4 of mortgagors

Section 1 Households | 15

Figure 3 Economic status of working age HRPs 2008-09

other inactiveretiredunemployedworking

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

alltenures

privaterenters

socialrenters

buying withmortgage

ownoutright

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sampleNote underlying data is presented in annex table 2

Age of household reference person by tenure

111 Owner occupation is the most common tenure in England In 2008-09 there were 68 million households that owned outright and 78 million buying with a mortgage Around three-quarters of mortgagors were aged between 35 and 64 with only 3 aged 65 or over Outright owners the majority of whom were likely to have once had a mortgage and paid it off were concentrated in the older age groups 6 were aged under 45 Overall 32 of owner occupiers were in the 16 to 44 age range

112 Around half (51) of householders aged 25 to 34 were owners 17 were social renters and 31 were private renters Within the 35 to 44 age group the proportions of social and private renters were very similar 17 and 16 respectively and 67 of householders in this age group were owners

113 Over 80 of private renters were aged under 55 with only 8 aged 65 or over By contrast 28 of owner occupiers and 29 of social renters were aged 65 or over

16 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 4 Age of household reference person by tenure 2008-09

all households

age of HRP

16 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54 55 - 64 65 or over all ages

thousands of householdsown outright 9 87 329 759 1752 3833 6770buying with mortgage 114 1562 2619 2237 1071 249 7851all owner occupiers 123 1649 2948 2996 2823 4082 14621 local authority 123 306 373 318 244 523 1887housing association 112 254 385 349 256 599 1955all social renters 235 560 757 667 501 1122 3842 private renters 497 995 686 380 252 257 3067 all tenures 855 3203 4392 4043 3576 5461 21530

percentage within tenureown outright 0 1 5 11 26 57 100buying with mortgage 1 20 33 28 14 3 100all owner occupiers 1 11 20 20 19 28 100 local authority 7 16 20 17 13 28 100housing association 6 13 20 18 13 31 100all social renters 6 15 20 17 13 29 100 private renters 16 32 22 12 8 8 100 all tenures 4 15 20 19 17 25 100

percentage within age groupown outright 1 3 7 19 49 70 31buying with mortgage 13 49 60 55 30 5 36all owner occupiers 14 51 67 74 79 75 68 local authority 14 10 8 8 7 10 9housing association 13 8 9 9 7 11 9all social renters 27 17 17 17 14 21 18 private renters 58 31 16 9 7 5 14 all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Section 1 Households | 17

Figure 4 Age of household reference person by tenure 2008ndash09

per

cen

tage

private renterssocial rentersbuying with mortgageown outright

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

65 or over 55ndash64 45ndash54 35ndash44

age of HRP

25ndash34 16ndash24

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Buying expectations of renters

114 In 2008-09 27 of social renters expected to eventually become homeowners compared to 59 of private renters Of those who did expect to buy 44 of social renters expected to buy their current accommodation compared to only 13 of private renters

18 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 5 Buying aspirations of social and private renters 2008-09

all renters

social renters private renters

percentagesWill eventually buy or share home in UK yes 27 59no 73 41All 100 100

Expect to buy current accommodation (all who expect to buy) yes 44 13no 56 87All 100 100

When expect to buy (all who expect to buy) Less than a yearrsquos time 3 81 year but less than 2 years 7 162 years but less than 5 years 25 345 years or more 65 42All 100 100

Note Expectations to buy include shared ownershipSource English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

115 An estimated 24 of private renters expecting to buy (14 of all private renters) thought that they would buy within the next two years This proportion had fallen from 34 in 2006-07 (see Figure 5) whilst the proportion expecting to buy in five or more yearsrsquo time had risen from 35 to 42 over this period These changes suggest that private renters now expect to rent for longer before being in a position to buy perhaps due to affordability issues

Figure 5 Trend in expected time to buying ndash private renters expecting to buy eventually

per

cen

tage

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

2008-09 2007-082006-07

5 years or more2 years but less than 5lt2 years

Note based on those private renters who expect to buy eventuallySource English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Section 1 Households | 19

Overcrowding and under-occupation

116 Levels of overcrowding are measured using the ldquobedroom standardrdquo (see definition in Glossary) Essentially this is the difference between the number of bedrooms needed to avoid undesirable sharing (given the number and ages of household members and their relationships to each other) and the number of bedrooms actually available to the household

117 The previous estimates of overcrowding were based on three-year moving averages from the Survey of English Housing for 2005-06 2006-07 and 2007-08 The reason for having to base estimates on a three-year average was that with fewer than 3 per cent of households overcrowded the sample size for a single year was too small to provide reliable annual estimates However for 2008-09 in addition to the EHS sample of 17700 households we have information from a further 95000 households that were interviewed for the ONS Labour Force Survey This combined sample was sufficiently large to deliver robust single year estimates for 2008-09 without the need to carry forward the three-year average series

Table 6 Overcrowding and under-occupation by tenure 2008-09

all households

difference from bedroom standard

overcrowded at standardone above

standardunder-

occupied total

thousands of householdsowner occupiers 231 2117 5416 6855 14620

social renters 258 2032 1121 430 3841

private renters 164 1312 1095 494 3066

all tenures 654 5462 7633 7779 21527

percentagesowner occupiers 16 145 370 469 100

social renters 67 529 292 112 100

private renters 54 428 357 161 100

all tenures 30 254 355 361 100

Notes Details of the bedroom standard can be found in the GlossarySource English Housing Survey - full household sample and ONS Labour Force Survey

118 The overall rate of overcrowding in England for 2008-09 was 30 (see Table 6) This compares to the previously published estimate of 28 (averaged over the period 2005-06 to 2007-08) There were around 654000 overcrowded households (compared to an average of 570000 over the period 2005-06 to 2007-08) Levels of overcrowding varied considerably by tenure and were lowest in the owner occupied sector at 16 up from 14 for the period 2005-06 to 2007-08 Around 67 of social renters were overcrowded and 54 of private renters compared to 59 and 49 respectively for 2005-06 to 2007-08

20 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

119 Although the overall rate of overcrowding has shown little change in recent years this is largely due to the relatively stable rate of overcrowding in the owner occupied sector the largest tenure Over the past decade overcrowding has been rising in both the rented sectors

Figure 6 Trend in overcrowding rates by tenure 1995-96 to 2008-09 (3 year moving average)

private renters social rentersowner occupiers all tenures

per

cen

tage

of

ho

use

ho

lds

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

2008

-09

2007

-08

2006

-07

2005

-06

2004

-05

2003

-04

2002

-03

2001

-02

2000

-01

1999

-00

1998

-99

1997

-98

1996

-97

1995

-96

Source Survey of English Housing to 2007-08 and combined English Housing Survey (full sample) plus Labour Force Survey for 2008-09 The estimates up to 2007-08 are three-year moving averages so the ldquo2007-08rdquo figure is actually the average of 2005-06 2006-07 and 2007-08 Since the 2008-09 estimates are for that year only a gap has been introduced to separate the three-year averages to 2007-08 from the annual estimates for 2008-09

120 Around 78 million households were estimated to be under-occupying their accommodation in 2008-09 that is they had at least two bedrooms more than they needed (see definition of bedroom standard in Glossary) Under-occupation was far more likely to be found in the owner occupied sector than in the rented sectors 47 of owner occupiers were under-occupying accommodation compared to 11 of social renters and 16 of private renters

Recent movers

121 In this section we look at those households that had been in their current accommodation for less than 12 months at the time of interview

Section 1 Households | 21

Table 7 Previous tenure by current tenure 2008-09

HRPs resident less than a year

previous tenure ndash continuing households

current tenurenew

householdowner

occupierssocial

rentersprivate renters all tenures

thousands of householdsoutright owners 4 83 0 12 99buying with mortgage 68 204 13 131 416all owner occupiers 72 287 13 144 515

local authority 20 13 76 20 129housing association 24 9 105 38 177all social renters 44 23 181 58 306

private renters 229 141 47 686 1103

all tenures 345 450 241 887 1924

percentageoutright owners 4 84 0 13 100buying with mortgage 16 49 3 32 100all owner occupiers 14 56 3 28 100

local authority 15 10 59 15 100housing association 14 5 59 22 100all social renters 15 7 59 19 100

private renters 21 13 4 62 100

all tenures 18 23 13 46 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

122 Around 18 of households that had moved into their accommodation in the previous year were new households Two thirds (66) of these new households were private renters and around one fifth (21) were owner occupiers Movement within tenure was more common than moves between tenures 62 of current private renters had previously been private renters 59 of social renters had moved from another social rented property and 56 of owner occupiers had owned their previous property Movement into the social rented sector for continuing households was more likely to be from private renting (19 of current social renters) than from owner occupation (7)

22 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Attitudes to home and local area

123 Around 90 of households in England were satisfied with their accommodation in 2008-09 The highest levels of satisfaction were expressed by outright owners 73 of whom said that they were very satisfied with their homes Over three quarters of social renters were satisfied with their homes but 9 were slightly dissatisfied and 7 were very dissatisfied Around 82 of private renters were very or fairly satisfied with their accommodation and only 3 said they were very dissatisfied

Table 8 Satisfaction with accommodation by tenure 2008-09

all households

very satisfied

fairly satisfied

neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

slightly dissatisfied

very dissatisfied Total

thousands of householdsoutright owners 4926 1535 111 100 36 6709buying with mortgage 4604 2719 232 200 55 7810all owneroccupiers 9530 4254 343 300 91 14519

local authority 697 736 98 192 142 1866housing association 842 700 116 159 117 1935all social renters 1539 1437 214 351 260 3801

private renters 1240 1211 193 227 102 2972

all tenures 12309 6901 751 878 452 21291

percentagesoutright owners 73 23 2 1 1 100buying with mortgage 59 35 3 3 1 100all owneroccupiers 66 29 2 2 1 100

local authority 37 39 5 10 8 100housing association 44 36 6 8 6 100all social renters 40 38 6 9 7 100

private renters 42 41 6 8 3 100

all tenures 58 32 4 4 2 100

Note This question is not asked of proxy respondents and a small proportion of respondents chose not to answer These exclusions are reflected in the overall total number of households in this table Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

124 A large majority of households are satisfied with the local area in which they live In 2008-09 just over half of all households in England were very satisfied with their local area and 87 were very or fairly satisfied Only 3 of households were very dissatisfied with their local area

Section 1 Households | 23

125 There were some differences by tenure 89 of owner occupiers were satisfied with their local area compared to 79 of social renters and 85 of private renters Whilst only two per cent of owner occupiers and private renters said that they were very dissatisfied with their local area seven per cent of social renters were very dissatisfied

Table 9 Satisfaction with local area by tenure 2008-09

all households

very satisfied

fairly satisfied

neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

slightly dissatisfied

very dissatisfied Total

thousands of householdsoutright owners 3999 2093 180 322 114 6708buying with mortgage 3919 2973 371 420 127 7810all owners 7918 5066 552 742 241 14518

local authority 754 712 122 159 122 1867housing association 861 679 116 150 129 1936all social renters 1615 1391 238 309 251 3803

private renters 1520 1001 183 194 73 2972

all tenures 11052 7458 972 1245 565 21293

percentagesoutright owners 60 31 3 5 2 100buying with mortgage 50 38 5 5 2 100all owners 55 35 4 5 2 100

local authority 40 38 7 9 7 100housing association 44 35 6 8 7 100all social renters 42 37 6 8 7 100

private renters 51 34 6 7 2 100

all tenures 52 35 5 6 3 100

Note This question is not asked of proxy respondents and a small proportion of respondents chose not to answer These exclusions are reflected in the overall total number of households in this table Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

24 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Section 2Housing stock

21 Results relating to the housing stock in this report are presented using two yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the English House Condition Survey (EHCS) For this transition year data from the last full year of the EHCS (2007-08) were combined with the first year of the EHS (2008-09)

22 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Stock profile

23 There were around 222 million dwellings in 2008 Table 10 Of these 183 million (82 of the stock) were in the private sector and comprised 150 million owner occupied homes and 33 million private rented homes There were 39 million social sector homes (18 of the stock) of which two million were owned by local authority and two million by housing associations

Section 2 Housing stock | 25

Table 10 Stock profile 2008

all dwellings

private sector social sector

owner occupied

private rented

all private sector

local authority

housing association

all social sector

all dwellings

in group

thousands of dwellingsdwelling agepre 1919 3194 1309 4503 86 170 257 47601919-44 2689 431 3120 336 187 522 36421945-64 2708 384 3092 760 511 1271 43631965-80 3146 536 3682 665 467 1132 48141981-90 1401 222 1624 107 223 330 1953post 1990 1869 415 2284 30 394 424 2708

dwelling typemid terrace 2638 820 3459 325 367 693 4151end terrance 1440 340 1779 199 222 421 2201small terraced house 1216 548 1764 192 217 408 2172mediumlarge terraced house 2862 612 3475 333 373 705 4180all terrace 4078 1160 5238 524 589 1114 6352semi-detached house 4515 556 5070 365 351 716 5786detached house 3575 267 3843 5 18 24 3867bungalow 1548 133 1681 176 236 412 2092converted flat 284 427 712 38 75 113 825purpose built flat low rise 926 704 1630 724 626 1349 2979purpose built flat high rise 81 49 130 152 56 208 338

floor arealess than 50 sqm 742 652 1394 550 536 1086 248050 to 69 sqm 2913 1028 3942 725 680 1405 534770 to 89 sqm 4361 890 5251 575 553 1127 637990 to 109 sqm 2632 322 2954 102 132 234 3188110 sqm or more 4359 403 4763 32 52 83 4846

type of areacity centre 295 262 558 72 75 147 704other urban centre 2263 967 3230 538 458 996 4227suburban residential 9204 1581 10785 1236 1171 2407 13192rural residential 2074 233 2307 105 190 295 2601village centre 647 110 756 26 47 72 829rural 524 144 668 7 11 19 687

deprived local areasmost deprived 10 773 325 1097 595 468 1064 21612-5th 5331 1518 6849 1121 1025 2145 89956-9th 7072 1188 8260 249 423 672 8932least deprived 1832 266 2097 19 36 54 2152

occupancy statusoccupied 14610 2858 17468 1896 1860 3755 21223vacant 398 438 836 88 92 180 1016

Total 15007 3296 18304 1984 1951 3935 22239

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

26 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

24 The large majority of dwellings were houses (181 million) most commonly terraced or semi-detached The remainder of the stock 41 million consisited of flats predominately purpose built low rise flats However types of housing vary markedly between tenures While 91 of owner occupied housing was made up of houses almost half (46) of local authority homes were flats Figure 7 Flats also accounted for over a third of private rented homes and housing association homes (36 and 39 respectively)

Figure 7 Dwelling type by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

purpose built flat high risepurpose built flat low riseconverted flatdetached houses and bungalowssemi-detached housemediumlarge terraced housesmall terraced house

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

25 England has a relatively old housing stock with some 84 million homes built before 1945 of which 48 million were built before 1919 A fifth of homes (47 million) have been built since 1980

26 Stock in different tenures have different age profiles It is noticeable that owner occupied homes are evenly distributed across the five age bands compared with other tenures Figure 8 In the private rented sector for example 40 (13 million homes) were built before 1919 significantly higher than other tenures Housing association homes were more likely to have been built during the 1980s and 1990s (32) compared to only 7 of local authority homes

Section 2 Housing stock | 27

Figure 8 Age of housing stock by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

post 19901981-901965-801945-641919-44pre 1919

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

27 Some 44 million (29) of owner occupied homes had a floor area greater than 110m2 including 18 million (12 of the sector) which were over 150m2 This reflects the proportion of semi-detached and detached owner occupied homes which tend to be large Social sector homes were most likely to have a floor area of less than 50m2 compared with those in the private sector (28 and 8 respectively)

28 Homes in England were most likely to be located in suburban residential areas and least likely to be found in rural areas (59 and 3 respectively)

Energy efficiency of the housing stock

Heating and insulation29 Key ways of increasing the energy efficiency of existing homes are

improvements to their heating systems and levels of insulation For heating the type of heating system boiler in use and the fuel used are all related to energy performance

210 Central heating is the predominant main heating system present in 199 million homes (89 of the housing stock) in 2008 see Annex Table 3 This was followed by storage heaters present in 16 million (7) of homes and room heaters in 700000 homes (3) Central heating is generally considered to be the most cost effective and relatively efficient method of heating whereas room heaters tend to be the least cost effective and relatively inefficient method of heating

28 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

211 In 2008 92 of owner occupied homes had central heating systems compared to 88 of social and 80 of private rented homes see Annex Table 4 In part this reflects the higher proportion of flats in the rented sectors compared with owner occupation with 23 of flats using storage heaters

212 Condensing boilers are generally the most efficient boiler type and are now mandatory for new and replacement boilers (for gas fired boilers since 2005 for oil fired boilers since 2007) However even prior to these requirements the less efficient standard and back boilers were decreasing in use with the growing popularity of standard combination types Figure 9 Recent years have seen rapidly expanding take up of condensing and particularly combination condensing boilers In 2008 37 million homes (17 of the stock) had one of the two types of condensing boilers

Figure 9 Boiler types 1996-2008

no boiler

condensing-combination boiler condensing boilercombination boilerback boiler (to fire or stove)standard boiler (floor or wall)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

20082007200620052004200320011996

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes underpinning data is presented in Annex Table 5Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

213 For a home to provide optimum energy performance a high level of thermal insulation needs to be present alongside an efficient heating system Standard insulation measures include cavity wall insulation loft insulation and double glazing which have all improved in the stock since 1996 Figure 10

214 In 2008 155 million homes (70) had external walls of cavity construction 74 million homes (33 of the stock) had cavity wall insulation 47 million homes (21) had 200mm or more of loft insulation and 157 million homes (71) had full double glazing with an additional 29 million homes (13) having more than half double glazed Figure 10

Section 2 Housing stock | 29

Figure 10 Insulation measures 1996-2008

20082007200620052004200320011996

entire housedouble glazing

200mm or moreof loft insulation

cavity walls withinsulation

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes1) Only 89 of dwellings have lofts and 70 of dwellings have cavity walls2) Underpinning data is presented in annex Table 7Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

215 In 2008 the social rented sector had the greatest proportion of homes with cavity wall insulation (local authority 42 housing association 44) 200mm or more of loft insulation (local authority 24 housing association 29) and full double glazing (local authority 75 housing association 83) whereas the private rented sector had the lowest proportion of all three standard insulation measures cavity wall insulation (17) 200mm or more of loft insulation (13) and full double glazing (61) Figure 11

30 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Figure 11 Percentage of dwellings with efficient insulation measures by tenure 2008

full double glazing200mm or moreloft insulation

cavity withinsulation

cavity wall

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

housing associationlocal authorityprivate rentedowner occupied0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Base all dwellingsSource English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

SAP Rating

216 The energy efficiency of the housing stock continued to improve between 1996 and 2008 the average SAP rating of a home increased by 9 SAP points from 42 to 51 Table 11 The social sector was on average more energy efficient than the private sector and saw the greatest improvement with the average SAP rating increasing by 12 SAP points from 47 to 59

Table 11 Energy efficiency average SAP rating by tenure 2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

owner occupied 411 444 450 456 461 469 481 496private rented 379 419 444 457 460 466 481 502all private 407 441 449 456 461 468 481 497

local authority 457 496 520 539 553 558 562 580housing association 509 564 567 573 589 593 595 603all social 468 519 539 553 569 574 578 592

all tenures 421 457 466 474 481 487 498 514

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Section 2 Housing stock | 31

217 There has been a significant increase in the proportion of homes achieving the highest Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands in 2008 10 (23 million) of homes achieved the highest (EER) Bands A to C3 compared with 7 (16 million) in 2006 Table 12 The number of homes in the lowest EER Bands (F and G) fell by a million over the same period The majority of homes (73) continue to be in the EER Bands D or E

Table 12 Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 35 35 77Band C (69-80) 1545 1710 2229Band D (55-68) 6555 7316 7865Band E (39-54) 9072 8859 8310Band F (21-38) 3838 3389 2972Band G (1-20) 943 881 786Total 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 02 02 03Band C (69-80) 70 77 100Band D (55-68) 298 330 354Band E (39-54) 413 399 374Band F (21-38) 175 153 134Band G (1-20) 43 40 35Total 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 2006 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Housing health and safety rating system

218 A potentially serious (Category 1) hazard as measured under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System was present in around 48 million homes in 2008 22 of the housing stock

2 EER Bands are used in the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) The Certificate provides among other indicators an energy efficiency rating for the home on a scale from A-G (where A is the most efficient and G the least efficient)

32 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Housing conditions

Housing Health and Safety Rating System219 There was no significant change in the proportion of homes with any Category

1 hazard between 2006 and 2008 Hazards tend to be more common in older housing stock for example stairs are more likely to be steep and narrow in older housing making lsquofalls on stairsrsquo more likely or heating and insulation measures tend to be less effective in older stock making lsquoexcess coldrsquo a more serious hazard Therefore it is not surprising that hazards are more common in the private sector where the older housing stock is concentrated Almost a quarter of housing in the private sector had at least one category 1 hazard in 2008 (24) compared to around 13 in the social sector Table 14 Privately rented homes were most likely to have Category 1 hazards present compared to housing association homes (31 and 13 respectively)

220 The most common type of hazard in all four tenures was falls (see annex Table 10 for details of which hazards are included in this category) Overall 13 of homes have at least one type of falls hazard present

Decent homes221 In 2008 74 million homes (33) were non-decent4 Table 13 Housing

association housing was the least likely to be non-decent (23) while private rented housing was in the worst condition with 44 of homes being non-decent Overall social sector homes were in a better condition than private sector homes with 27 being non-decent compared to 34

222 The number of non-decent homes fell from 77 million in 2006 to 74 million in 20085 Conditions in the social sector improved with the proportion of homes failing the standard falling by two percentage points from 29 in 2006 to 27 in 2008 Private sector homes also improved from 36 non-decent in 2006 to 34 non-decent in 2008

4 Estimates from the EHS are based soley on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors subject to any limitations of the information they collect The EHS estimates in this report do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property

5 In 2006 the Housing Health and Safety Rating System replaced the Fitness Standard as the statutory minimum standard for housing Earlier estimates based on the original definition are not comparable therefore any change in the number of decent homes can only be referenced back to 2006 Figures for decent homes prior to 2006 can be found in the 2006 English House Condition Survey Annual Report available at wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

Section 2 Housing stock | 33

Table 13 Non-decent homes by tenure 2006 ndash 2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5335 5304 4842private rented 1223 1244 1449all private 6558 6548 6291

local authority 676 652 625housing association 465 486 444all social 1142 1138 1069

all tenures 7700 7686 7360

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 346 341 323private rented 468 454 440all private 363 358 344

local authority 324 328 315housing association 252 255 228all social 290 292 272

all tenures 350 346 331

Notes1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties between 2007 and 2008 are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates See Annex Table 11Sources2006 ndash 2007 English House Condition Survey2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Reasons for failing decent homes223 Of the four components required to meet the decent homes standard the

presence of one or more category 1 hazards under the HHSRS was the most commonly failed Table 14 This is particularly the case for private sector homes where 24 of homes had one or more Category 1 hazards present compared to 13 of social sector homes

34 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 14 Homes failing decent homes criteria by tenure 2008

all dwellings

Category 1 hazard (HHSRS)

thermal comfort

modern facilities repair all non-decent

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 3342 1773 379 817 4842private rented 978 637 160 369 1449all private 4320 2411 539 1186 6291

local authority 298 227 138 146 625housing association 224 199 50 86 444all social 522 426 188 231 1069

all tenures 4842 2837 727 1417 7360

percentages

owner occupied 223 118 25 54 323private rented 297 193 49 112 440all private 236 132 29 65 344

local authority 150 115 70 74 315housing association 115 102 25 44 228all social 133 108 48 59 272

all tenures 218 128 33 64 331

Note The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoids a break in the time series See Annex Table 12 for estimate based on 26 hazardsSource English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

224 There was significant progress in the thermal comfort of homes between 2006 and 2008 The proportion of homes failing thermal comfort fell to 13 in 2008 from 16 in 2006 Improvement has been made across all tenures

Private sector vulnerable households225 In 2008 31 million lsquovulnerablersquo households6 were living in the private sector of

which 12 million (39) were living in non-decent homes the remaining 19 million (61) were living in decent accommodation Table 15 There has been no significant change since 2006

226 Vulnerable households who privately rent their accommodation were more likely to live in non-decent homes compared to social tenants (51 and 26 respectively) Table 15

6 Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

Section 2 Housing stock | 35

Table 15 Households living in decent homes 2006-2008

all dwellings

number (000s) percentage ()

2006 2007 2008 2006 2007 2008

decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 1543 1575 1428 630 649 653private rented 334 354 429 450 482 490all private vulnerable 1877 1929 1857 588 610 606

private non- vulnerableowner occupied 8418 8531 8494 664 667 683private rented 922 985 1246 567 566 588all private non-vulnerable 9340 9516 9740 653 655 669

all owner occupied 9961 10106 9922 658 664 678all private rented 1256 1339 1675 530 541 559all private 11217 11445 11597 641 647 658all social 2690 2649 2798 722 719 740all households 13907 14094 14395 655 659 672

non-decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 905 851 760 370 351 347private rented 408 380 447 550 518 510all private vulnerable 1313 1231 1207 412 390 394

private non-vulnerableowner occupied 4262 4264 3946 336 333 317private rented 704 754 874 433 434 412all private non-vulnerable 4966 5018 4820 347 345 331

all owner occupied 5167 5115 4706 342 336 322all private rented 1112 1134 1321 470 459 441all private 6279 6249 6027 359 353 342

all social 1034 1037 985 278 281 260all households 7313 7286 7012 345 341 328

Notes 1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoid a break in the time series See Annex Table 13 for further detailsSource English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

36 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Damp and mould growth227 The proportion of homes with damp problems has reduced from 13 in 1996

to 8 in 2008 Table 16

Table 16 Number and percentage of homes with damp problems in one or more rooms 1996-2008

all dwellings

rising damp

penetrating damp

condensation mould

any damp problems

thousands of dwellings1996 858 1271 1145 26012001 625 1032 860 20322003 740 1066 1003 22832004 750 1035 951 22512005 759 952 941 22102006 724 886 947 21582007 640 833 881 19162008 584 759 865 1746

percentage of dwellings1996 42 63 56 1282001 29 49 41 962003 34 50 47 1062004 35 48 44 1042005 35 44 43 1012006 33 40 43 982007 29 38 40 862008 26 34 39 78

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

228 Privately rented homes were more likely to experience damp problems compared to other tenures Figure 11 Privately rented homes were more likely to be older homes and experience problems with rising or penetrating damp due to defects in the damp proof course roof covering gutters and down pipes which would affect at least one room in the property

229 In the social sector damp problems were more likely to be caused by serious condensation and mould growth rather than by rising damp Figure 12

Section 2 Housing stock | 37

Figure 12 Percentage of homes with a damp problem by tenure 2008

rising damp penetrating damp condensationmould

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

alltenures

housingassociation

localauthority

privaterented

owneroccupied

per

cen

tage

of

ho

mes

wit

h d

amp

pro

ble

ms

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

38 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex tables

Households

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

Annex Table 2 Economic Status of working age HRP by tenure 2008-09

Energy efficiency

Annex Table 3 Heating Type 1996-2008

Annex Table 4 Main Heating System by tenure 2008

Annex Table 5 Boiler Types 1996-2008

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

Annex Table 8 Cavity Wall insulation by tenure 2008

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

Housing Health and Safety Rating System

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 HHSRS hazards present (comparison of estimates based on any one of 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Non-decent homes in deprived areas

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes in deprived areas by tenure 2006-2008

Annex tables | 39

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent

child(ren)

couple with dependent

child(ren)

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)

other multi-

person households

all one-person

households

all household

types

percentageown outright 46 9 7 24 37 31buying with mortgage 35 66 27 25 23 36social renters 9 13 44 20 25 18private renters 10 12 22 31 15 14

all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 2 Economic status of working age HRP by tenure

all households

working un-employed retired other inactive Total percentage

own outright 74 2 14 10 100buying with mortgage 94 1 1 4 100social renters 49 12 1 37 100private renters 75 5 1 19 100all tenures 80 4 3 13 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 3 Heating type 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingscentral heating 16178 18177 18604 18919 19179 19553 19862 19862storage heater 1643 1600 1587 1616 1609 1532 1552 1641fixed roomportable heater 2515 2001 1294 1078 993 904 776 736Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingscentral heating 796 860 866 875 881 889 895 893storage heater 81 76 74 75 74 70 70 74fixed roomportable heating heater 124 95 60 50 46 41 35 33Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

40 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 4 Main heating system by tenure 2008

all dwellings

central heating storage heaterfixed room

heatingportable

heating only all dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 13788 790 411 19 15007 private rented 2630 441 208 17 3296 all private 16418 1232 619 36 18304

local authority 1776 160 46 2 1984 housing association 1669 249 33 1 1951 all social 3445 409 79 3 3935

all tenures 19862 1641 698 38 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 919 53 27 01 1000 private rented 798 134 63 05 1000 all private 897 67 34 02 1000

local authority 895 80 23 01 1000 housing association 855 128 17 00 1000 all social 875 104 20 01 1000

all tenures 893 74 31 02 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 5 Boiler types 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsstandard boiler 10447 10338 9642 9635 9425 9014 8782 8072back boiler 2773 2759 2580 2409 2181 2131 1944 1688combination boiler 2810 4431 5492 5934 6254 6312 6287 6082condensing boiler ndash 155 154 202 300 460 698 948condensing-combination boiler ndash 318 373 417 727 1297 1837 2773no boiler 4305 3140 3244 3016 2894 2775 2642 2676Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsstandard boiler 514 489 449 446 433 410 396 363back boiler 136 130 120 111 100 97 88 76combination boiler 138 210 256 275 287 287 283 273condensing boiler 00 07 07 09 14 21 31 43condensing-combination boiler 00 15 17 19 33 59 83 125no boiler 212 149 151 140 133 126 119 120Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 41

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

all dwellings

standard boiler

back boiler

combination boiler

condensing boiler

condensing-combination

boilerno

boilerall

dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 6223 1045 3984 713 1756 1286 15007 private rented 817 149 1112 73 429 716 3296 all private 7040 1194 5096 787 2185 2002 18304

local authority 499 271 481 90 335 309 1984 housing association 533 223 505 72 254 365 1951 all social 1032 494 986 162 589 674 3935

all 8072 1688 6082 948 2773 2676 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 415 70 265 48 117 86 1000 private rented 248 45 337 22 130 217 1000 all private 385 65 278 43 119 109 1000

local authority 251 136 242 45 169 156 1000 housing association 273 114 259 37 130 187 1000 all social 262 125 250 41 150 171 1000

all 363 76 273 43 125 120 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 2853 5210 5334 5825 5974 6644 7267 7418200mm or more of loft insulation 583 1256 2034 2530 2919 3520 4258 4685entire house double glazing 6169 10753 11915 12846 13486 13924 14850 15747

all dwellings 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 140 246 248 270 274 302 327 334200mm or more of loft insulation 29 59 95 117 134 160 192 211entire house double glazing 303 509 555 594 619 633 669 708

all dwellings 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

42 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 8 Cavity wall insulation by tenure

all dwellings

cavity with insulation

cavity uninsulated other all

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5161 5483 4364 15007private rented 566 1213 1517 3296private 5727 6696 5882 18304

local authority 834 657 493 1984housing association 857 720 374 1951social 1691 1378 867 3935

total 7418 8073 6749 22239

percentage of dwellingsowner occupied 344 365 291 100private rented 172 368 460 100private 313 366 321 100

local authority 420 331 248 100housing association 439 369 192 100social 430 350 220 100

total 334 363 303 100

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 43

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

all dwellings

no loftno

insulationless than

50mm50 up to

99mm

100 up to

149mm

150 up to

199mm200mm or more

all dwellings

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 748 442 432 3009 5147 2007 3223 15007 private rented 672 175 66 857 813 281 434 3296 private 1420 617 497 3866 5960 2288 3657 18304

local authority 614 33 19 171 471 206 470 1984 housing association 467 20 16 143 482 265 558 1951 social 1081 53 35 314 953 471 1028 3935

total 2501 670 532 4179 6913 2759 4685 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 50 29 29 200 343 134 215 1000private rented 204 53 20 260 247 85 132 1000private 78 34 27 211 326 125 200 1000

local authority 309 17 10 86 237 104 237 1000housing association 239 10 08 73 247 136 286 1000social 275 14 09 80 242 120 261 1000

total 112 30 24 188 311 124 211 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

44 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

hazard presentnumber of homes (000s) each hazard is present in

falling on stairs 2025excess cold 1966falling on level surfaces 788falling between levels 443fire 318

entry by intruders

flames hot surfacesleaddamp and mould growth 50 to 100 eachcollision and entrapmentradiationfalls associated with baths

crowding and space

food safetypersonal hygiene sanitation and drainage 20 to 50 eachnoisedomestic hygiene pests and refuseelectrical hazards

structural collapse and falling elements

water supplycarbon monoxide and fuel combustion productsposition and operability of amenities less thanexcess heat 20 eachlightinguncombusted fuel gasexplosions

any of the 15 hazards 4842

any of the 26 hazards 5039

Note For 2006 and 2007 the survey reported on 15 hazards only The 2008 EHS can provide estimates for 26 hazards - the additional hazards are marked with an asterisk The three remaining hazards not included in the survey are presence of asbestos biocides or volatile organic compounds For reporting purposes HHSRS and non-decent estimates will be based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with previous years and avoid a break in the time seriesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 45

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 4842 4925private rented 1449 1478all private 6291 6403

local authority 625 640housing association 444 464all social 1069 1104

all tenures 7360 7507

percentagesowner occupied 323 328private rented 440 448all private 344 350

local authority 315 323housing association 228 238all social 272 281

all tenures 331 338

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

46 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 hazards present (compariosn of estimates based on any one to the 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 3342 3452private rented 978 1013all private 4320 4465

local authority 298 326RSL 224 248all social 522 574

all tenures 4842 5039

percentagesowner occupied 223 230private rented 297 307all private 236 244

local authority 150 164RSL 115 127all social 133 146

all tenures 218 227

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 47

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all households

15 hazards 26 hazards

number (000s) percentage () number (000s) percentage ()

decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 1428 653 1413 646private rented 429 490 417 476all private vulnerable 1857 606 1830 597 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 8494 683 8425 677private rented 1246 588 1232 581all private non-vulnerable 9740 669 9657 663 all owner occupied 9922 678 9839 673all private rented 1675 559 1648 550all private 11597 658 11487 663all social 2798 740 2766 731

all households 14395 672 14253 666

non-decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 760 347 775 354private rented 447 510 459 524all private vulnerable 1207 394 1234 403 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 3946 317 4015 323private rented 874 412 888 419all private non-vulnerable 4820 331 4903 337 all owner occupied 4706 322 4790 327all private rented 1321 441 1347 450all private 6027 342 6137 348all social 985 260 1017 269

all households 7012 328 7154 334

Note For reporting purposes decent homes estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

48 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes1 by deprived and other districts by tenure 2006-2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsSocial NRF88 662 652 605Other districts 480 486 464 Private NRF88 2544 2621 2442Other districts 4013 3928 3849

percentages of dwellingsSocial NRF88 313 304 278Other districts 264 278 263 Private NRF88 381 380 361Other districts 353 344 333

Note NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving Neighbourhood Renewal Funding 2001-2006Source English House Condition Survey 2006-2007English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub sample)

Technical annex | 49

Technical annex

General description

The survey consists of three main elements an initial interview survey of 17700 households with a follow up physical inspection and a desk based market valuation of a sub-sample of 8000 of these dwellings including vacant dwellings The interview survey sample forms part of ONSrsquos Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the core questions from the IHS form part of the EHS questionnaire More information about the IHS is available from its webpage wwwstatisticsgovukCCInuggetaspID=936ampPos=1ampColRank=1ampRank=224

The EHS interview content covers the key topics included under the former SEH and EHCS The content of the physical and market value components remains very largely unchanged from the former EHCS

Sampling and grossing

2008-09 Sample1 The initial sample for 2008-09 consisted of 32100 addresses drawn as a systematic

random sample from the Postcode Address File (small users) Interviews were attempted at all of these addresses over the course of the survey year from April 2008 to March 2009 A proportion of addresses were found not to be valid residential properties (eg demolished properties secondholiday homes small businesses not yet built)

2 Of the 17691 addresses where interviews were achieved (the lsquofull household samplersquo) all social rented properties and a sub-sample of private properties were regarded as eligible for the physical survey and the respondentrsquos consent was sought A proportion of vacant properties were also sub-sampled Physical surveys were completed in 7972 cases and these cases contribute to the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo (see below)

3 The principal differences in sampling methodology between the EHS and its predecessors the SEH and EHCS are that

bull The EHS uses an unclustered sample This enables a smaller sample to be used with no loss of precision ie without sampling errors being increased The more scattered sample does however have some implications for fieldwork organisation

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 12: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

12 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 2 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent child(ren)1

couple with dependent child(ren)1

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)1

other multi-

person households 1 male 1 female

all household

types

thousands of householdsown outright 3538 424 103 396 769 1541 6770buying with mortgage 2670 2971 405 402 791 612 7851all owner occupiers 6208 3395 508 798 1560 2153 14621 local authority 333 287 331 177 342 417 1887housing association 352 299 341 151 354 458 1955all social renters 685 587 672 328 696 875 3842 private renters 764 535 333 514 582 339 3067 all tenures 7657 4516 1514 1640 2838 3366 21530

percentagesown outright 52 6 2 6 11 23 100buying with mortgage 34 38 5 5 10 8 100all owner occupiers 42 23 3 5 11 15 100 local authority 18 15 18 9 18 22 100housing association 18 15 17 8 18 23 100all social renters 18 15 17 9 18 23 100 private renters 25 17 11 17 19 11 100 all tenures 36 21 7 8 13 16 100

Note 1) These categories can also include non-dependent childrenSource English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

17 Figure 2 shows each household type split by tenure An estimated 66 of couples with dependent children were buying with a mortgage 13 were social renters 12 were private renters and 9 owned outright The tenure split for lone parents with dependent children was quite different with only 27 buying with a mortgage whilst 44 were social renters 22 were private renters and 7 owned outright

Section 1 Households | 13

Figure 2 Household type by tenure 2008-09p

erce

nta

ge

private renterssocial rentersbuying with mortgageown outright

allhousehold

types

allone-personhouseholds

othermulti-personhouseholds

lone parentwith

dependentchild(ren)

couple withdependentchild(ren)

couple nodependentchild(ren)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sampleNote underlying data is presented in annex table 1

Economic status

18 In 2008-09 91 of household reference persons (HRP)2 who were buying with a mortgage were working 85 full-time and 6 part-time Around 60 of outright owners were retired compared to only 9 of private renters In the social rented sector over half the household reference persons were economically inactive with 31 retired and 26 lsquoother inactiversquo (such as long-term sickness or disability or lone parent)

2 see glossary for definition

14 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 3 Economic status of household reference person by tenure 2008-09

all households

economic status of HRP

full time work

part-time work

un-employed retired

other inactive all

thousands of householdsown outright 1777 570 54 4079 290 6770buying with mortgage 6679 470 101 312 290 7851all owner occupiers 8456 1040 155 4390 580 14621 local authority 444 203 172 566 503 1887housing association 489 182 152 643 488 1955all social renters 933 385 324 1209 991 3842 all private renters 1874 262 143 274 514 3067 all tenures 11263 1687 622 5873 2085 21530

percentagesown outright 26 8 1 60 4 100buying with mortgage 85 6 1 4 4 100all owner occupiers 58 7 1 30 4 100 local authority 24 11 9 30 27 100housing association 25 9 8 33 25 100all social renters 24 10 8 31 26 100 all private renters 61 9 5 9 17 100 all tenures 52 8 3 27 10 100Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

19 Table 3 shows the economic status of all householders Figure 3 shows the economic status of those of working age ndash men aged under 65 and women aged under 60 Within this group 94 of those buying with a mortgage were working compared to only 49 of those who were social renters Unemployment was highest in the social rented sector 12 compared to 5 of private renters and only 1 of owner occupiers

110 There was also a much higher proportion of lsquoother inactiversquo amongst working age social renters than those in other tenures 37 compared to 19 of private renters 10 of outright owners and 4 of mortgagors

Section 1 Households | 15

Figure 3 Economic status of working age HRPs 2008-09

other inactiveretiredunemployedworking

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

alltenures

privaterenters

socialrenters

buying withmortgage

ownoutright

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sampleNote underlying data is presented in annex table 2

Age of household reference person by tenure

111 Owner occupation is the most common tenure in England In 2008-09 there were 68 million households that owned outright and 78 million buying with a mortgage Around three-quarters of mortgagors were aged between 35 and 64 with only 3 aged 65 or over Outright owners the majority of whom were likely to have once had a mortgage and paid it off were concentrated in the older age groups 6 were aged under 45 Overall 32 of owner occupiers were in the 16 to 44 age range

112 Around half (51) of householders aged 25 to 34 were owners 17 were social renters and 31 were private renters Within the 35 to 44 age group the proportions of social and private renters were very similar 17 and 16 respectively and 67 of householders in this age group were owners

113 Over 80 of private renters were aged under 55 with only 8 aged 65 or over By contrast 28 of owner occupiers and 29 of social renters were aged 65 or over

16 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 4 Age of household reference person by tenure 2008-09

all households

age of HRP

16 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54 55 - 64 65 or over all ages

thousands of householdsown outright 9 87 329 759 1752 3833 6770buying with mortgage 114 1562 2619 2237 1071 249 7851all owner occupiers 123 1649 2948 2996 2823 4082 14621 local authority 123 306 373 318 244 523 1887housing association 112 254 385 349 256 599 1955all social renters 235 560 757 667 501 1122 3842 private renters 497 995 686 380 252 257 3067 all tenures 855 3203 4392 4043 3576 5461 21530

percentage within tenureown outright 0 1 5 11 26 57 100buying with mortgage 1 20 33 28 14 3 100all owner occupiers 1 11 20 20 19 28 100 local authority 7 16 20 17 13 28 100housing association 6 13 20 18 13 31 100all social renters 6 15 20 17 13 29 100 private renters 16 32 22 12 8 8 100 all tenures 4 15 20 19 17 25 100

percentage within age groupown outright 1 3 7 19 49 70 31buying with mortgage 13 49 60 55 30 5 36all owner occupiers 14 51 67 74 79 75 68 local authority 14 10 8 8 7 10 9housing association 13 8 9 9 7 11 9all social renters 27 17 17 17 14 21 18 private renters 58 31 16 9 7 5 14 all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Section 1 Households | 17

Figure 4 Age of household reference person by tenure 2008ndash09

per

cen

tage

private renterssocial rentersbuying with mortgageown outright

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

65 or over 55ndash64 45ndash54 35ndash44

age of HRP

25ndash34 16ndash24

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Buying expectations of renters

114 In 2008-09 27 of social renters expected to eventually become homeowners compared to 59 of private renters Of those who did expect to buy 44 of social renters expected to buy their current accommodation compared to only 13 of private renters

18 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 5 Buying aspirations of social and private renters 2008-09

all renters

social renters private renters

percentagesWill eventually buy or share home in UK yes 27 59no 73 41All 100 100

Expect to buy current accommodation (all who expect to buy) yes 44 13no 56 87All 100 100

When expect to buy (all who expect to buy) Less than a yearrsquos time 3 81 year but less than 2 years 7 162 years but less than 5 years 25 345 years or more 65 42All 100 100

Note Expectations to buy include shared ownershipSource English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

115 An estimated 24 of private renters expecting to buy (14 of all private renters) thought that they would buy within the next two years This proportion had fallen from 34 in 2006-07 (see Figure 5) whilst the proportion expecting to buy in five or more yearsrsquo time had risen from 35 to 42 over this period These changes suggest that private renters now expect to rent for longer before being in a position to buy perhaps due to affordability issues

Figure 5 Trend in expected time to buying ndash private renters expecting to buy eventually

per

cen

tage

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

2008-09 2007-082006-07

5 years or more2 years but less than 5lt2 years

Note based on those private renters who expect to buy eventuallySource English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Section 1 Households | 19

Overcrowding and under-occupation

116 Levels of overcrowding are measured using the ldquobedroom standardrdquo (see definition in Glossary) Essentially this is the difference between the number of bedrooms needed to avoid undesirable sharing (given the number and ages of household members and their relationships to each other) and the number of bedrooms actually available to the household

117 The previous estimates of overcrowding were based on three-year moving averages from the Survey of English Housing for 2005-06 2006-07 and 2007-08 The reason for having to base estimates on a three-year average was that with fewer than 3 per cent of households overcrowded the sample size for a single year was too small to provide reliable annual estimates However for 2008-09 in addition to the EHS sample of 17700 households we have information from a further 95000 households that were interviewed for the ONS Labour Force Survey This combined sample was sufficiently large to deliver robust single year estimates for 2008-09 without the need to carry forward the three-year average series

Table 6 Overcrowding and under-occupation by tenure 2008-09

all households

difference from bedroom standard

overcrowded at standardone above

standardunder-

occupied total

thousands of householdsowner occupiers 231 2117 5416 6855 14620

social renters 258 2032 1121 430 3841

private renters 164 1312 1095 494 3066

all tenures 654 5462 7633 7779 21527

percentagesowner occupiers 16 145 370 469 100

social renters 67 529 292 112 100

private renters 54 428 357 161 100

all tenures 30 254 355 361 100

Notes Details of the bedroom standard can be found in the GlossarySource English Housing Survey - full household sample and ONS Labour Force Survey

118 The overall rate of overcrowding in England for 2008-09 was 30 (see Table 6) This compares to the previously published estimate of 28 (averaged over the period 2005-06 to 2007-08) There were around 654000 overcrowded households (compared to an average of 570000 over the period 2005-06 to 2007-08) Levels of overcrowding varied considerably by tenure and were lowest in the owner occupied sector at 16 up from 14 for the period 2005-06 to 2007-08 Around 67 of social renters were overcrowded and 54 of private renters compared to 59 and 49 respectively for 2005-06 to 2007-08

20 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

119 Although the overall rate of overcrowding has shown little change in recent years this is largely due to the relatively stable rate of overcrowding in the owner occupied sector the largest tenure Over the past decade overcrowding has been rising in both the rented sectors

Figure 6 Trend in overcrowding rates by tenure 1995-96 to 2008-09 (3 year moving average)

private renters social rentersowner occupiers all tenures

per

cen

tage

of

ho

use

ho

lds

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

2008

-09

2007

-08

2006

-07

2005

-06

2004

-05

2003

-04

2002

-03

2001

-02

2000

-01

1999

-00

1998

-99

1997

-98

1996

-97

1995

-96

Source Survey of English Housing to 2007-08 and combined English Housing Survey (full sample) plus Labour Force Survey for 2008-09 The estimates up to 2007-08 are three-year moving averages so the ldquo2007-08rdquo figure is actually the average of 2005-06 2006-07 and 2007-08 Since the 2008-09 estimates are for that year only a gap has been introduced to separate the three-year averages to 2007-08 from the annual estimates for 2008-09

120 Around 78 million households were estimated to be under-occupying their accommodation in 2008-09 that is they had at least two bedrooms more than they needed (see definition of bedroom standard in Glossary) Under-occupation was far more likely to be found in the owner occupied sector than in the rented sectors 47 of owner occupiers were under-occupying accommodation compared to 11 of social renters and 16 of private renters

Recent movers

121 In this section we look at those households that had been in their current accommodation for less than 12 months at the time of interview

Section 1 Households | 21

Table 7 Previous tenure by current tenure 2008-09

HRPs resident less than a year

previous tenure ndash continuing households

current tenurenew

householdowner

occupierssocial

rentersprivate renters all tenures

thousands of householdsoutright owners 4 83 0 12 99buying with mortgage 68 204 13 131 416all owner occupiers 72 287 13 144 515

local authority 20 13 76 20 129housing association 24 9 105 38 177all social renters 44 23 181 58 306

private renters 229 141 47 686 1103

all tenures 345 450 241 887 1924

percentageoutright owners 4 84 0 13 100buying with mortgage 16 49 3 32 100all owner occupiers 14 56 3 28 100

local authority 15 10 59 15 100housing association 14 5 59 22 100all social renters 15 7 59 19 100

private renters 21 13 4 62 100

all tenures 18 23 13 46 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

122 Around 18 of households that had moved into their accommodation in the previous year were new households Two thirds (66) of these new households were private renters and around one fifth (21) were owner occupiers Movement within tenure was more common than moves between tenures 62 of current private renters had previously been private renters 59 of social renters had moved from another social rented property and 56 of owner occupiers had owned their previous property Movement into the social rented sector for continuing households was more likely to be from private renting (19 of current social renters) than from owner occupation (7)

22 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Attitudes to home and local area

123 Around 90 of households in England were satisfied with their accommodation in 2008-09 The highest levels of satisfaction were expressed by outright owners 73 of whom said that they were very satisfied with their homes Over three quarters of social renters were satisfied with their homes but 9 were slightly dissatisfied and 7 were very dissatisfied Around 82 of private renters were very or fairly satisfied with their accommodation and only 3 said they were very dissatisfied

Table 8 Satisfaction with accommodation by tenure 2008-09

all households

very satisfied

fairly satisfied

neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

slightly dissatisfied

very dissatisfied Total

thousands of householdsoutright owners 4926 1535 111 100 36 6709buying with mortgage 4604 2719 232 200 55 7810all owneroccupiers 9530 4254 343 300 91 14519

local authority 697 736 98 192 142 1866housing association 842 700 116 159 117 1935all social renters 1539 1437 214 351 260 3801

private renters 1240 1211 193 227 102 2972

all tenures 12309 6901 751 878 452 21291

percentagesoutright owners 73 23 2 1 1 100buying with mortgage 59 35 3 3 1 100all owneroccupiers 66 29 2 2 1 100

local authority 37 39 5 10 8 100housing association 44 36 6 8 6 100all social renters 40 38 6 9 7 100

private renters 42 41 6 8 3 100

all tenures 58 32 4 4 2 100

Note This question is not asked of proxy respondents and a small proportion of respondents chose not to answer These exclusions are reflected in the overall total number of households in this table Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

124 A large majority of households are satisfied with the local area in which they live In 2008-09 just over half of all households in England were very satisfied with their local area and 87 were very or fairly satisfied Only 3 of households were very dissatisfied with their local area

Section 1 Households | 23

125 There were some differences by tenure 89 of owner occupiers were satisfied with their local area compared to 79 of social renters and 85 of private renters Whilst only two per cent of owner occupiers and private renters said that they were very dissatisfied with their local area seven per cent of social renters were very dissatisfied

Table 9 Satisfaction with local area by tenure 2008-09

all households

very satisfied

fairly satisfied

neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

slightly dissatisfied

very dissatisfied Total

thousands of householdsoutright owners 3999 2093 180 322 114 6708buying with mortgage 3919 2973 371 420 127 7810all owners 7918 5066 552 742 241 14518

local authority 754 712 122 159 122 1867housing association 861 679 116 150 129 1936all social renters 1615 1391 238 309 251 3803

private renters 1520 1001 183 194 73 2972

all tenures 11052 7458 972 1245 565 21293

percentagesoutright owners 60 31 3 5 2 100buying with mortgage 50 38 5 5 2 100all owners 55 35 4 5 2 100

local authority 40 38 7 9 7 100housing association 44 35 6 8 7 100all social renters 42 37 6 8 7 100

private renters 51 34 6 7 2 100

all tenures 52 35 5 6 3 100

Note This question is not asked of proxy respondents and a small proportion of respondents chose not to answer These exclusions are reflected in the overall total number of households in this table Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

24 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Section 2Housing stock

21 Results relating to the housing stock in this report are presented using two yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the English House Condition Survey (EHCS) For this transition year data from the last full year of the EHCS (2007-08) were combined with the first year of the EHS (2008-09)

22 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Stock profile

23 There were around 222 million dwellings in 2008 Table 10 Of these 183 million (82 of the stock) were in the private sector and comprised 150 million owner occupied homes and 33 million private rented homes There were 39 million social sector homes (18 of the stock) of which two million were owned by local authority and two million by housing associations

Section 2 Housing stock | 25

Table 10 Stock profile 2008

all dwellings

private sector social sector

owner occupied

private rented

all private sector

local authority

housing association

all social sector

all dwellings

in group

thousands of dwellingsdwelling agepre 1919 3194 1309 4503 86 170 257 47601919-44 2689 431 3120 336 187 522 36421945-64 2708 384 3092 760 511 1271 43631965-80 3146 536 3682 665 467 1132 48141981-90 1401 222 1624 107 223 330 1953post 1990 1869 415 2284 30 394 424 2708

dwelling typemid terrace 2638 820 3459 325 367 693 4151end terrance 1440 340 1779 199 222 421 2201small terraced house 1216 548 1764 192 217 408 2172mediumlarge terraced house 2862 612 3475 333 373 705 4180all terrace 4078 1160 5238 524 589 1114 6352semi-detached house 4515 556 5070 365 351 716 5786detached house 3575 267 3843 5 18 24 3867bungalow 1548 133 1681 176 236 412 2092converted flat 284 427 712 38 75 113 825purpose built flat low rise 926 704 1630 724 626 1349 2979purpose built flat high rise 81 49 130 152 56 208 338

floor arealess than 50 sqm 742 652 1394 550 536 1086 248050 to 69 sqm 2913 1028 3942 725 680 1405 534770 to 89 sqm 4361 890 5251 575 553 1127 637990 to 109 sqm 2632 322 2954 102 132 234 3188110 sqm or more 4359 403 4763 32 52 83 4846

type of areacity centre 295 262 558 72 75 147 704other urban centre 2263 967 3230 538 458 996 4227suburban residential 9204 1581 10785 1236 1171 2407 13192rural residential 2074 233 2307 105 190 295 2601village centre 647 110 756 26 47 72 829rural 524 144 668 7 11 19 687

deprived local areasmost deprived 10 773 325 1097 595 468 1064 21612-5th 5331 1518 6849 1121 1025 2145 89956-9th 7072 1188 8260 249 423 672 8932least deprived 1832 266 2097 19 36 54 2152

occupancy statusoccupied 14610 2858 17468 1896 1860 3755 21223vacant 398 438 836 88 92 180 1016

Total 15007 3296 18304 1984 1951 3935 22239

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

26 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

24 The large majority of dwellings were houses (181 million) most commonly terraced or semi-detached The remainder of the stock 41 million consisited of flats predominately purpose built low rise flats However types of housing vary markedly between tenures While 91 of owner occupied housing was made up of houses almost half (46) of local authority homes were flats Figure 7 Flats also accounted for over a third of private rented homes and housing association homes (36 and 39 respectively)

Figure 7 Dwelling type by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

purpose built flat high risepurpose built flat low riseconverted flatdetached houses and bungalowssemi-detached housemediumlarge terraced housesmall terraced house

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

25 England has a relatively old housing stock with some 84 million homes built before 1945 of which 48 million were built before 1919 A fifth of homes (47 million) have been built since 1980

26 Stock in different tenures have different age profiles It is noticeable that owner occupied homes are evenly distributed across the five age bands compared with other tenures Figure 8 In the private rented sector for example 40 (13 million homes) were built before 1919 significantly higher than other tenures Housing association homes were more likely to have been built during the 1980s and 1990s (32) compared to only 7 of local authority homes

Section 2 Housing stock | 27

Figure 8 Age of housing stock by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

post 19901981-901965-801945-641919-44pre 1919

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

27 Some 44 million (29) of owner occupied homes had a floor area greater than 110m2 including 18 million (12 of the sector) which were over 150m2 This reflects the proportion of semi-detached and detached owner occupied homes which tend to be large Social sector homes were most likely to have a floor area of less than 50m2 compared with those in the private sector (28 and 8 respectively)

28 Homes in England were most likely to be located in suburban residential areas and least likely to be found in rural areas (59 and 3 respectively)

Energy efficiency of the housing stock

Heating and insulation29 Key ways of increasing the energy efficiency of existing homes are

improvements to their heating systems and levels of insulation For heating the type of heating system boiler in use and the fuel used are all related to energy performance

210 Central heating is the predominant main heating system present in 199 million homes (89 of the housing stock) in 2008 see Annex Table 3 This was followed by storage heaters present in 16 million (7) of homes and room heaters in 700000 homes (3) Central heating is generally considered to be the most cost effective and relatively efficient method of heating whereas room heaters tend to be the least cost effective and relatively inefficient method of heating

28 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

211 In 2008 92 of owner occupied homes had central heating systems compared to 88 of social and 80 of private rented homes see Annex Table 4 In part this reflects the higher proportion of flats in the rented sectors compared with owner occupation with 23 of flats using storage heaters

212 Condensing boilers are generally the most efficient boiler type and are now mandatory for new and replacement boilers (for gas fired boilers since 2005 for oil fired boilers since 2007) However even prior to these requirements the less efficient standard and back boilers were decreasing in use with the growing popularity of standard combination types Figure 9 Recent years have seen rapidly expanding take up of condensing and particularly combination condensing boilers In 2008 37 million homes (17 of the stock) had one of the two types of condensing boilers

Figure 9 Boiler types 1996-2008

no boiler

condensing-combination boiler condensing boilercombination boilerback boiler (to fire or stove)standard boiler (floor or wall)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

20082007200620052004200320011996

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes underpinning data is presented in Annex Table 5Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

213 For a home to provide optimum energy performance a high level of thermal insulation needs to be present alongside an efficient heating system Standard insulation measures include cavity wall insulation loft insulation and double glazing which have all improved in the stock since 1996 Figure 10

214 In 2008 155 million homes (70) had external walls of cavity construction 74 million homes (33 of the stock) had cavity wall insulation 47 million homes (21) had 200mm or more of loft insulation and 157 million homes (71) had full double glazing with an additional 29 million homes (13) having more than half double glazed Figure 10

Section 2 Housing stock | 29

Figure 10 Insulation measures 1996-2008

20082007200620052004200320011996

entire housedouble glazing

200mm or moreof loft insulation

cavity walls withinsulation

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes1) Only 89 of dwellings have lofts and 70 of dwellings have cavity walls2) Underpinning data is presented in annex Table 7Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

215 In 2008 the social rented sector had the greatest proportion of homes with cavity wall insulation (local authority 42 housing association 44) 200mm or more of loft insulation (local authority 24 housing association 29) and full double glazing (local authority 75 housing association 83) whereas the private rented sector had the lowest proportion of all three standard insulation measures cavity wall insulation (17) 200mm or more of loft insulation (13) and full double glazing (61) Figure 11

30 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Figure 11 Percentage of dwellings with efficient insulation measures by tenure 2008

full double glazing200mm or moreloft insulation

cavity withinsulation

cavity wall

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

housing associationlocal authorityprivate rentedowner occupied0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Base all dwellingsSource English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

SAP Rating

216 The energy efficiency of the housing stock continued to improve between 1996 and 2008 the average SAP rating of a home increased by 9 SAP points from 42 to 51 Table 11 The social sector was on average more energy efficient than the private sector and saw the greatest improvement with the average SAP rating increasing by 12 SAP points from 47 to 59

Table 11 Energy efficiency average SAP rating by tenure 2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

owner occupied 411 444 450 456 461 469 481 496private rented 379 419 444 457 460 466 481 502all private 407 441 449 456 461 468 481 497

local authority 457 496 520 539 553 558 562 580housing association 509 564 567 573 589 593 595 603all social 468 519 539 553 569 574 578 592

all tenures 421 457 466 474 481 487 498 514

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Section 2 Housing stock | 31

217 There has been a significant increase in the proportion of homes achieving the highest Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands in 2008 10 (23 million) of homes achieved the highest (EER) Bands A to C3 compared with 7 (16 million) in 2006 Table 12 The number of homes in the lowest EER Bands (F and G) fell by a million over the same period The majority of homes (73) continue to be in the EER Bands D or E

Table 12 Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 35 35 77Band C (69-80) 1545 1710 2229Band D (55-68) 6555 7316 7865Band E (39-54) 9072 8859 8310Band F (21-38) 3838 3389 2972Band G (1-20) 943 881 786Total 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 02 02 03Band C (69-80) 70 77 100Band D (55-68) 298 330 354Band E (39-54) 413 399 374Band F (21-38) 175 153 134Band G (1-20) 43 40 35Total 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 2006 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Housing health and safety rating system

218 A potentially serious (Category 1) hazard as measured under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System was present in around 48 million homes in 2008 22 of the housing stock

2 EER Bands are used in the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) The Certificate provides among other indicators an energy efficiency rating for the home on a scale from A-G (where A is the most efficient and G the least efficient)

32 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Housing conditions

Housing Health and Safety Rating System219 There was no significant change in the proportion of homes with any Category

1 hazard between 2006 and 2008 Hazards tend to be more common in older housing stock for example stairs are more likely to be steep and narrow in older housing making lsquofalls on stairsrsquo more likely or heating and insulation measures tend to be less effective in older stock making lsquoexcess coldrsquo a more serious hazard Therefore it is not surprising that hazards are more common in the private sector where the older housing stock is concentrated Almost a quarter of housing in the private sector had at least one category 1 hazard in 2008 (24) compared to around 13 in the social sector Table 14 Privately rented homes were most likely to have Category 1 hazards present compared to housing association homes (31 and 13 respectively)

220 The most common type of hazard in all four tenures was falls (see annex Table 10 for details of which hazards are included in this category) Overall 13 of homes have at least one type of falls hazard present

Decent homes221 In 2008 74 million homes (33) were non-decent4 Table 13 Housing

association housing was the least likely to be non-decent (23) while private rented housing was in the worst condition with 44 of homes being non-decent Overall social sector homes were in a better condition than private sector homes with 27 being non-decent compared to 34

222 The number of non-decent homes fell from 77 million in 2006 to 74 million in 20085 Conditions in the social sector improved with the proportion of homes failing the standard falling by two percentage points from 29 in 2006 to 27 in 2008 Private sector homes also improved from 36 non-decent in 2006 to 34 non-decent in 2008

4 Estimates from the EHS are based soley on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors subject to any limitations of the information they collect The EHS estimates in this report do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property

5 In 2006 the Housing Health and Safety Rating System replaced the Fitness Standard as the statutory minimum standard for housing Earlier estimates based on the original definition are not comparable therefore any change in the number of decent homes can only be referenced back to 2006 Figures for decent homes prior to 2006 can be found in the 2006 English House Condition Survey Annual Report available at wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

Section 2 Housing stock | 33

Table 13 Non-decent homes by tenure 2006 ndash 2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5335 5304 4842private rented 1223 1244 1449all private 6558 6548 6291

local authority 676 652 625housing association 465 486 444all social 1142 1138 1069

all tenures 7700 7686 7360

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 346 341 323private rented 468 454 440all private 363 358 344

local authority 324 328 315housing association 252 255 228all social 290 292 272

all tenures 350 346 331

Notes1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties between 2007 and 2008 are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates See Annex Table 11Sources2006 ndash 2007 English House Condition Survey2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Reasons for failing decent homes223 Of the four components required to meet the decent homes standard the

presence of one or more category 1 hazards under the HHSRS was the most commonly failed Table 14 This is particularly the case for private sector homes where 24 of homes had one or more Category 1 hazards present compared to 13 of social sector homes

34 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 14 Homes failing decent homes criteria by tenure 2008

all dwellings

Category 1 hazard (HHSRS)

thermal comfort

modern facilities repair all non-decent

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 3342 1773 379 817 4842private rented 978 637 160 369 1449all private 4320 2411 539 1186 6291

local authority 298 227 138 146 625housing association 224 199 50 86 444all social 522 426 188 231 1069

all tenures 4842 2837 727 1417 7360

percentages

owner occupied 223 118 25 54 323private rented 297 193 49 112 440all private 236 132 29 65 344

local authority 150 115 70 74 315housing association 115 102 25 44 228all social 133 108 48 59 272

all tenures 218 128 33 64 331

Note The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoids a break in the time series See Annex Table 12 for estimate based on 26 hazardsSource English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

224 There was significant progress in the thermal comfort of homes between 2006 and 2008 The proportion of homes failing thermal comfort fell to 13 in 2008 from 16 in 2006 Improvement has been made across all tenures

Private sector vulnerable households225 In 2008 31 million lsquovulnerablersquo households6 were living in the private sector of

which 12 million (39) were living in non-decent homes the remaining 19 million (61) were living in decent accommodation Table 15 There has been no significant change since 2006

226 Vulnerable households who privately rent their accommodation were more likely to live in non-decent homes compared to social tenants (51 and 26 respectively) Table 15

6 Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

Section 2 Housing stock | 35

Table 15 Households living in decent homes 2006-2008

all dwellings

number (000s) percentage ()

2006 2007 2008 2006 2007 2008

decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 1543 1575 1428 630 649 653private rented 334 354 429 450 482 490all private vulnerable 1877 1929 1857 588 610 606

private non- vulnerableowner occupied 8418 8531 8494 664 667 683private rented 922 985 1246 567 566 588all private non-vulnerable 9340 9516 9740 653 655 669

all owner occupied 9961 10106 9922 658 664 678all private rented 1256 1339 1675 530 541 559all private 11217 11445 11597 641 647 658all social 2690 2649 2798 722 719 740all households 13907 14094 14395 655 659 672

non-decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 905 851 760 370 351 347private rented 408 380 447 550 518 510all private vulnerable 1313 1231 1207 412 390 394

private non-vulnerableowner occupied 4262 4264 3946 336 333 317private rented 704 754 874 433 434 412all private non-vulnerable 4966 5018 4820 347 345 331

all owner occupied 5167 5115 4706 342 336 322all private rented 1112 1134 1321 470 459 441all private 6279 6249 6027 359 353 342

all social 1034 1037 985 278 281 260all households 7313 7286 7012 345 341 328

Notes 1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoid a break in the time series See Annex Table 13 for further detailsSource English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

36 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Damp and mould growth227 The proportion of homes with damp problems has reduced from 13 in 1996

to 8 in 2008 Table 16

Table 16 Number and percentage of homes with damp problems in one or more rooms 1996-2008

all dwellings

rising damp

penetrating damp

condensation mould

any damp problems

thousands of dwellings1996 858 1271 1145 26012001 625 1032 860 20322003 740 1066 1003 22832004 750 1035 951 22512005 759 952 941 22102006 724 886 947 21582007 640 833 881 19162008 584 759 865 1746

percentage of dwellings1996 42 63 56 1282001 29 49 41 962003 34 50 47 1062004 35 48 44 1042005 35 44 43 1012006 33 40 43 982007 29 38 40 862008 26 34 39 78

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

228 Privately rented homes were more likely to experience damp problems compared to other tenures Figure 11 Privately rented homes were more likely to be older homes and experience problems with rising or penetrating damp due to defects in the damp proof course roof covering gutters and down pipes which would affect at least one room in the property

229 In the social sector damp problems were more likely to be caused by serious condensation and mould growth rather than by rising damp Figure 12

Section 2 Housing stock | 37

Figure 12 Percentage of homes with a damp problem by tenure 2008

rising damp penetrating damp condensationmould

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

alltenures

housingassociation

localauthority

privaterented

owneroccupied

per

cen

tage

of

ho

mes

wit

h d

amp

pro

ble

ms

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

38 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex tables

Households

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

Annex Table 2 Economic Status of working age HRP by tenure 2008-09

Energy efficiency

Annex Table 3 Heating Type 1996-2008

Annex Table 4 Main Heating System by tenure 2008

Annex Table 5 Boiler Types 1996-2008

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

Annex Table 8 Cavity Wall insulation by tenure 2008

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

Housing Health and Safety Rating System

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 HHSRS hazards present (comparison of estimates based on any one of 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Non-decent homes in deprived areas

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes in deprived areas by tenure 2006-2008

Annex tables | 39

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent

child(ren)

couple with dependent

child(ren)

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)

other multi-

person households

all one-person

households

all household

types

percentageown outright 46 9 7 24 37 31buying with mortgage 35 66 27 25 23 36social renters 9 13 44 20 25 18private renters 10 12 22 31 15 14

all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 2 Economic status of working age HRP by tenure

all households

working un-employed retired other inactive Total percentage

own outright 74 2 14 10 100buying with mortgage 94 1 1 4 100social renters 49 12 1 37 100private renters 75 5 1 19 100all tenures 80 4 3 13 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 3 Heating type 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingscentral heating 16178 18177 18604 18919 19179 19553 19862 19862storage heater 1643 1600 1587 1616 1609 1532 1552 1641fixed roomportable heater 2515 2001 1294 1078 993 904 776 736Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingscentral heating 796 860 866 875 881 889 895 893storage heater 81 76 74 75 74 70 70 74fixed roomportable heating heater 124 95 60 50 46 41 35 33Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

40 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 4 Main heating system by tenure 2008

all dwellings

central heating storage heaterfixed room

heatingportable

heating only all dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 13788 790 411 19 15007 private rented 2630 441 208 17 3296 all private 16418 1232 619 36 18304

local authority 1776 160 46 2 1984 housing association 1669 249 33 1 1951 all social 3445 409 79 3 3935

all tenures 19862 1641 698 38 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 919 53 27 01 1000 private rented 798 134 63 05 1000 all private 897 67 34 02 1000

local authority 895 80 23 01 1000 housing association 855 128 17 00 1000 all social 875 104 20 01 1000

all tenures 893 74 31 02 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 5 Boiler types 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsstandard boiler 10447 10338 9642 9635 9425 9014 8782 8072back boiler 2773 2759 2580 2409 2181 2131 1944 1688combination boiler 2810 4431 5492 5934 6254 6312 6287 6082condensing boiler ndash 155 154 202 300 460 698 948condensing-combination boiler ndash 318 373 417 727 1297 1837 2773no boiler 4305 3140 3244 3016 2894 2775 2642 2676Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsstandard boiler 514 489 449 446 433 410 396 363back boiler 136 130 120 111 100 97 88 76combination boiler 138 210 256 275 287 287 283 273condensing boiler 00 07 07 09 14 21 31 43condensing-combination boiler 00 15 17 19 33 59 83 125no boiler 212 149 151 140 133 126 119 120Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 41

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

all dwellings

standard boiler

back boiler

combination boiler

condensing boiler

condensing-combination

boilerno

boilerall

dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 6223 1045 3984 713 1756 1286 15007 private rented 817 149 1112 73 429 716 3296 all private 7040 1194 5096 787 2185 2002 18304

local authority 499 271 481 90 335 309 1984 housing association 533 223 505 72 254 365 1951 all social 1032 494 986 162 589 674 3935

all 8072 1688 6082 948 2773 2676 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 415 70 265 48 117 86 1000 private rented 248 45 337 22 130 217 1000 all private 385 65 278 43 119 109 1000

local authority 251 136 242 45 169 156 1000 housing association 273 114 259 37 130 187 1000 all social 262 125 250 41 150 171 1000

all 363 76 273 43 125 120 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 2853 5210 5334 5825 5974 6644 7267 7418200mm or more of loft insulation 583 1256 2034 2530 2919 3520 4258 4685entire house double glazing 6169 10753 11915 12846 13486 13924 14850 15747

all dwellings 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 140 246 248 270 274 302 327 334200mm or more of loft insulation 29 59 95 117 134 160 192 211entire house double glazing 303 509 555 594 619 633 669 708

all dwellings 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

42 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 8 Cavity wall insulation by tenure

all dwellings

cavity with insulation

cavity uninsulated other all

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5161 5483 4364 15007private rented 566 1213 1517 3296private 5727 6696 5882 18304

local authority 834 657 493 1984housing association 857 720 374 1951social 1691 1378 867 3935

total 7418 8073 6749 22239

percentage of dwellingsowner occupied 344 365 291 100private rented 172 368 460 100private 313 366 321 100

local authority 420 331 248 100housing association 439 369 192 100social 430 350 220 100

total 334 363 303 100

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 43

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

all dwellings

no loftno

insulationless than

50mm50 up to

99mm

100 up to

149mm

150 up to

199mm200mm or more

all dwellings

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 748 442 432 3009 5147 2007 3223 15007 private rented 672 175 66 857 813 281 434 3296 private 1420 617 497 3866 5960 2288 3657 18304

local authority 614 33 19 171 471 206 470 1984 housing association 467 20 16 143 482 265 558 1951 social 1081 53 35 314 953 471 1028 3935

total 2501 670 532 4179 6913 2759 4685 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 50 29 29 200 343 134 215 1000private rented 204 53 20 260 247 85 132 1000private 78 34 27 211 326 125 200 1000

local authority 309 17 10 86 237 104 237 1000housing association 239 10 08 73 247 136 286 1000social 275 14 09 80 242 120 261 1000

total 112 30 24 188 311 124 211 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

44 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

hazard presentnumber of homes (000s) each hazard is present in

falling on stairs 2025excess cold 1966falling on level surfaces 788falling between levels 443fire 318

entry by intruders

flames hot surfacesleaddamp and mould growth 50 to 100 eachcollision and entrapmentradiationfalls associated with baths

crowding and space

food safetypersonal hygiene sanitation and drainage 20 to 50 eachnoisedomestic hygiene pests and refuseelectrical hazards

structural collapse and falling elements

water supplycarbon monoxide and fuel combustion productsposition and operability of amenities less thanexcess heat 20 eachlightinguncombusted fuel gasexplosions

any of the 15 hazards 4842

any of the 26 hazards 5039

Note For 2006 and 2007 the survey reported on 15 hazards only The 2008 EHS can provide estimates for 26 hazards - the additional hazards are marked with an asterisk The three remaining hazards not included in the survey are presence of asbestos biocides or volatile organic compounds For reporting purposes HHSRS and non-decent estimates will be based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with previous years and avoid a break in the time seriesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 45

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 4842 4925private rented 1449 1478all private 6291 6403

local authority 625 640housing association 444 464all social 1069 1104

all tenures 7360 7507

percentagesowner occupied 323 328private rented 440 448all private 344 350

local authority 315 323housing association 228 238all social 272 281

all tenures 331 338

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

46 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 hazards present (compariosn of estimates based on any one to the 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 3342 3452private rented 978 1013all private 4320 4465

local authority 298 326RSL 224 248all social 522 574

all tenures 4842 5039

percentagesowner occupied 223 230private rented 297 307all private 236 244

local authority 150 164RSL 115 127all social 133 146

all tenures 218 227

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 47

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all households

15 hazards 26 hazards

number (000s) percentage () number (000s) percentage ()

decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 1428 653 1413 646private rented 429 490 417 476all private vulnerable 1857 606 1830 597 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 8494 683 8425 677private rented 1246 588 1232 581all private non-vulnerable 9740 669 9657 663 all owner occupied 9922 678 9839 673all private rented 1675 559 1648 550all private 11597 658 11487 663all social 2798 740 2766 731

all households 14395 672 14253 666

non-decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 760 347 775 354private rented 447 510 459 524all private vulnerable 1207 394 1234 403 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 3946 317 4015 323private rented 874 412 888 419all private non-vulnerable 4820 331 4903 337 all owner occupied 4706 322 4790 327all private rented 1321 441 1347 450all private 6027 342 6137 348all social 985 260 1017 269

all households 7012 328 7154 334

Note For reporting purposes decent homes estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

48 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes1 by deprived and other districts by tenure 2006-2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsSocial NRF88 662 652 605Other districts 480 486 464 Private NRF88 2544 2621 2442Other districts 4013 3928 3849

percentages of dwellingsSocial NRF88 313 304 278Other districts 264 278 263 Private NRF88 381 380 361Other districts 353 344 333

Note NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving Neighbourhood Renewal Funding 2001-2006Source English House Condition Survey 2006-2007English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub sample)

Technical annex | 49

Technical annex

General description

The survey consists of three main elements an initial interview survey of 17700 households with a follow up physical inspection and a desk based market valuation of a sub-sample of 8000 of these dwellings including vacant dwellings The interview survey sample forms part of ONSrsquos Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the core questions from the IHS form part of the EHS questionnaire More information about the IHS is available from its webpage wwwstatisticsgovukCCInuggetaspID=936ampPos=1ampColRank=1ampRank=224

The EHS interview content covers the key topics included under the former SEH and EHCS The content of the physical and market value components remains very largely unchanged from the former EHCS

Sampling and grossing

2008-09 Sample1 The initial sample for 2008-09 consisted of 32100 addresses drawn as a systematic

random sample from the Postcode Address File (small users) Interviews were attempted at all of these addresses over the course of the survey year from April 2008 to March 2009 A proportion of addresses were found not to be valid residential properties (eg demolished properties secondholiday homes small businesses not yet built)

2 Of the 17691 addresses where interviews were achieved (the lsquofull household samplersquo) all social rented properties and a sub-sample of private properties were regarded as eligible for the physical survey and the respondentrsquos consent was sought A proportion of vacant properties were also sub-sampled Physical surveys were completed in 7972 cases and these cases contribute to the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo (see below)

3 The principal differences in sampling methodology between the EHS and its predecessors the SEH and EHCS are that

bull The EHS uses an unclustered sample This enables a smaller sample to be used with no loss of precision ie without sampling errors being increased The more scattered sample does however have some implications for fieldwork organisation

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 13: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

Section 1 Households | 13

Figure 2 Household type by tenure 2008-09p

erce

nta

ge

private renterssocial rentersbuying with mortgageown outright

allhousehold

types

allone-personhouseholds

othermulti-personhouseholds

lone parentwith

dependentchild(ren)

couple withdependentchild(ren)

couple nodependentchild(ren)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sampleNote underlying data is presented in annex table 1

Economic status

18 In 2008-09 91 of household reference persons (HRP)2 who were buying with a mortgage were working 85 full-time and 6 part-time Around 60 of outright owners were retired compared to only 9 of private renters In the social rented sector over half the household reference persons were economically inactive with 31 retired and 26 lsquoother inactiversquo (such as long-term sickness or disability or lone parent)

2 see glossary for definition

14 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 3 Economic status of household reference person by tenure 2008-09

all households

economic status of HRP

full time work

part-time work

un-employed retired

other inactive all

thousands of householdsown outright 1777 570 54 4079 290 6770buying with mortgage 6679 470 101 312 290 7851all owner occupiers 8456 1040 155 4390 580 14621 local authority 444 203 172 566 503 1887housing association 489 182 152 643 488 1955all social renters 933 385 324 1209 991 3842 all private renters 1874 262 143 274 514 3067 all tenures 11263 1687 622 5873 2085 21530

percentagesown outright 26 8 1 60 4 100buying with mortgage 85 6 1 4 4 100all owner occupiers 58 7 1 30 4 100 local authority 24 11 9 30 27 100housing association 25 9 8 33 25 100all social renters 24 10 8 31 26 100 all private renters 61 9 5 9 17 100 all tenures 52 8 3 27 10 100Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

19 Table 3 shows the economic status of all householders Figure 3 shows the economic status of those of working age ndash men aged under 65 and women aged under 60 Within this group 94 of those buying with a mortgage were working compared to only 49 of those who were social renters Unemployment was highest in the social rented sector 12 compared to 5 of private renters and only 1 of owner occupiers

110 There was also a much higher proportion of lsquoother inactiversquo amongst working age social renters than those in other tenures 37 compared to 19 of private renters 10 of outright owners and 4 of mortgagors

Section 1 Households | 15

Figure 3 Economic status of working age HRPs 2008-09

other inactiveretiredunemployedworking

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

alltenures

privaterenters

socialrenters

buying withmortgage

ownoutright

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sampleNote underlying data is presented in annex table 2

Age of household reference person by tenure

111 Owner occupation is the most common tenure in England In 2008-09 there were 68 million households that owned outright and 78 million buying with a mortgage Around three-quarters of mortgagors were aged between 35 and 64 with only 3 aged 65 or over Outright owners the majority of whom were likely to have once had a mortgage and paid it off were concentrated in the older age groups 6 were aged under 45 Overall 32 of owner occupiers were in the 16 to 44 age range

112 Around half (51) of householders aged 25 to 34 were owners 17 were social renters and 31 were private renters Within the 35 to 44 age group the proportions of social and private renters were very similar 17 and 16 respectively and 67 of householders in this age group were owners

113 Over 80 of private renters were aged under 55 with only 8 aged 65 or over By contrast 28 of owner occupiers and 29 of social renters were aged 65 or over

16 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 4 Age of household reference person by tenure 2008-09

all households

age of HRP

16 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54 55 - 64 65 or over all ages

thousands of householdsown outright 9 87 329 759 1752 3833 6770buying with mortgage 114 1562 2619 2237 1071 249 7851all owner occupiers 123 1649 2948 2996 2823 4082 14621 local authority 123 306 373 318 244 523 1887housing association 112 254 385 349 256 599 1955all social renters 235 560 757 667 501 1122 3842 private renters 497 995 686 380 252 257 3067 all tenures 855 3203 4392 4043 3576 5461 21530

percentage within tenureown outright 0 1 5 11 26 57 100buying with mortgage 1 20 33 28 14 3 100all owner occupiers 1 11 20 20 19 28 100 local authority 7 16 20 17 13 28 100housing association 6 13 20 18 13 31 100all social renters 6 15 20 17 13 29 100 private renters 16 32 22 12 8 8 100 all tenures 4 15 20 19 17 25 100

percentage within age groupown outright 1 3 7 19 49 70 31buying with mortgage 13 49 60 55 30 5 36all owner occupiers 14 51 67 74 79 75 68 local authority 14 10 8 8 7 10 9housing association 13 8 9 9 7 11 9all social renters 27 17 17 17 14 21 18 private renters 58 31 16 9 7 5 14 all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Section 1 Households | 17

Figure 4 Age of household reference person by tenure 2008ndash09

per

cen

tage

private renterssocial rentersbuying with mortgageown outright

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

65 or over 55ndash64 45ndash54 35ndash44

age of HRP

25ndash34 16ndash24

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Buying expectations of renters

114 In 2008-09 27 of social renters expected to eventually become homeowners compared to 59 of private renters Of those who did expect to buy 44 of social renters expected to buy their current accommodation compared to only 13 of private renters

18 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 5 Buying aspirations of social and private renters 2008-09

all renters

social renters private renters

percentagesWill eventually buy or share home in UK yes 27 59no 73 41All 100 100

Expect to buy current accommodation (all who expect to buy) yes 44 13no 56 87All 100 100

When expect to buy (all who expect to buy) Less than a yearrsquos time 3 81 year but less than 2 years 7 162 years but less than 5 years 25 345 years or more 65 42All 100 100

Note Expectations to buy include shared ownershipSource English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

115 An estimated 24 of private renters expecting to buy (14 of all private renters) thought that they would buy within the next two years This proportion had fallen from 34 in 2006-07 (see Figure 5) whilst the proportion expecting to buy in five or more yearsrsquo time had risen from 35 to 42 over this period These changes suggest that private renters now expect to rent for longer before being in a position to buy perhaps due to affordability issues

Figure 5 Trend in expected time to buying ndash private renters expecting to buy eventually

per

cen

tage

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

2008-09 2007-082006-07

5 years or more2 years but less than 5lt2 years

Note based on those private renters who expect to buy eventuallySource English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Section 1 Households | 19

Overcrowding and under-occupation

116 Levels of overcrowding are measured using the ldquobedroom standardrdquo (see definition in Glossary) Essentially this is the difference between the number of bedrooms needed to avoid undesirable sharing (given the number and ages of household members and their relationships to each other) and the number of bedrooms actually available to the household

117 The previous estimates of overcrowding were based on three-year moving averages from the Survey of English Housing for 2005-06 2006-07 and 2007-08 The reason for having to base estimates on a three-year average was that with fewer than 3 per cent of households overcrowded the sample size for a single year was too small to provide reliable annual estimates However for 2008-09 in addition to the EHS sample of 17700 households we have information from a further 95000 households that were interviewed for the ONS Labour Force Survey This combined sample was sufficiently large to deliver robust single year estimates for 2008-09 without the need to carry forward the three-year average series

Table 6 Overcrowding and under-occupation by tenure 2008-09

all households

difference from bedroom standard

overcrowded at standardone above

standardunder-

occupied total

thousands of householdsowner occupiers 231 2117 5416 6855 14620

social renters 258 2032 1121 430 3841

private renters 164 1312 1095 494 3066

all tenures 654 5462 7633 7779 21527

percentagesowner occupiers 16 145 370 469 100

social renters 67 529 292 112 100

private renters 54 428 357 161 100

all tenures 30 254 355 361 100

Notes Details of the bedroom standard can be found in the GlossarySource English Housing Survey - full household sample and ONS Labour Force Survey

118 The overall rate of overcrowding in England for 2008-09 was 30 (see Table 6) This compares to the previously published estimate of 28 (averaged over the period 2005-06 to 2007-08) There were around 654000 overcrowded households (compared to an average of 570000 over the period 2005-06 to 2007-08) Levels of overcrowding varied considerably by tenure and were lowest in the owner occupied sector at 16 up from 14 for the period 2005-06 to 2007-08 Around 67 of social renters were overcrowded and 54 of private renters compared to 59 and 49 respectively for 2005-06 to 2007-08

20 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

119 Although the overall rate of overcrowding has shown little change in recent years this is largely due to the relatively stable rate of overcrowding in the owner occupied sector the largest tenure Over the past decade overcrowding has been rising in both the rented sectors

Figure 6 Trend in overcrowding rates by tenure 1995-96 to 2008-09 (3 year moving average)

private renters social rentersowner occupiers all tenures

per

cen

tage

of

ho

use

ho

lds

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

2008

-09

2007

-08

2006

-07

2005

-06

2004

-05

2003

-04

2002

-03

2001

-02

2000

-01

1999

-00

1998

-99

1997

-98

1996

-97

1995

-96

Source Survey of English Housing to 2007-08 and combined English Housing Survey (full sample) plus Labour Force Survey for 2008-09 The estimates up to 2007-08 are three-year moving averages so the ldquo2007-08rdquo figure is actually the average of 2005-06 2006-07 and 2007-08 Since the 2008-09 estimates are for that year only a gap has been introduced to separate the three-year averages to 2007-08 from the annual estimates for 2008-09

120 Around 78 million households were estimated to be under-occupying their accommodation in 2008-09 that is they had at least two bedrooms more than they needed (see definition of bedroom standard in Glossary) Under-occupation was far more likely to be found in the owner occupied sector than in the rented sectors 47 of owner occupiers were under-occupying accommodation compared to 11 of social renters and 16 of private renters

Recent movers

121 In this section we look at those households that had been in their current accommodation for less than 12 months at the time of interview

Section 1 Households | 21

Table 7 Previous tenure by current tenure 2008-09

HRPs resident less than a year

previous tenure ndash continuing households

current tenurenew

householdowner

occupierssocial

rentersprivate renters all tenures

thousands of householdsoutright owners 4 83 0 12 99buying with mortgage 68 204 13 131 416all owner occupiers 72 287 13 144 515

local authority 20 13 76 20 129housing association 24 9 105 38 177all social renters 44 23 181 58 306

private renters 229 141 47 686 1103

all tenures 345 450 241 887 1924

percentageoutright owners 4 84 0 13 100buying with mortgage 16 49 3 32 100all owner occupiers 14 56 3 28 100

local authority 15 10 59 15 100housing association 14 5 59 22 100all social renters 15 7 59 19 100

private renters 21 13 4 62 100

all tenures 18 23 13 46 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

122 Around 18 of households that had moved into their accommodation in the previous year were new households Two thirds (66) of these new households were private renters and around one fifth (21) were owner occupiers Movement within tenure was more common than moves between tenures 62 of current private renters had previously been private renters 59 of social renters had moved from another social rented property and 56 of owner occupiers had owned their previous property Movement into the social rented sector for continuing households was more likely to be from private renting (19 of current social renters) than from owner occupation (7)

22 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Attitudes to home and local area

123 Around 90 of households in England were satisfied with their accommodation in 2008-09 The highest levels of satisfaction were expressed by outright owners 73 of whom said that they were very satisfied with their homes Over three quarters of social renters were satisfied with their homes but 9 were slightly dissatisfied and 7 were very dissatisfied Around 82 of private renters were very or fairly satisfied with their accommodation and only 3 said they were very dissatisfied

Table 8 Satisfaction with accommodation by tenure 2008-09

all households

very satisfied

fairly satisfied

neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

slightly dissatisfied

very dissatisfied Total

thousands of householdsoutright owners 4926 1535 111 100 36 6709buying with mortgage 4604 2719 232 200 55 7810all owneroccupiers 9530 4254 343 300 91 14519

local authority 697 736 98 192 142 1866housing association 842 700 116 159 117 1935all social renters 1539 1437 214 351 260 3801

private renters 1240 1211 193 227 102 2972

all tenures 12309 6901 751 878 452 21291

percentagesoutright owners 73 23 2 1 1 100buying with mortgage 59 35 3 3 1 100all owneroccupiers 66 29 2 2 1 100

local authority 37 39 5 10 8 100housing association 44 36 6 8 6 100all social renters 40 38 6 9 7 100

private renters 42 41 6 8 3 100

all tenures 58 32 4 4 2 100

Note This question is not asked of proxy respondents and a small proportion of respondents chose not to answer These exclusions are reflected in the overall total number of households in this table Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

124 A large majority of households are satisfied with the local area in which they live In 2008-09 just over half of all households in England were very satisfied with their local area and 87 were very or fairly satisfied Only 3 of households were very dissatisfied with their local area

Section 1 Households | 23

125 There were some differences by tenure 89 of owner occupiers were satisfied with their local area compared to 79 of social renters and 85 of private renters Whilst only two per cent of owner occupiers and private renters said that they were very dissatisfied with their local area seven per cent of social renters were very dissatisfied

Table 9 Satisfaction with local area by tenure 2008-09

all households

very satisfied

fairly satisfied

neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

slightly dissatisfied

very dissatisfied Total

thousands of householdsoutright owners 3999 2093 180 322 114 6708buying with mortgage 3919 2973 371 420 127 7810all owners 7918 5066 552 742 241 14518

local authority 754 712 122 159 122 1867housing association 861 679 116 150 129 1936all social renters 1615 1391 238 309 251 3803

private renters 1520 1001 183 194 73 2972

all tenures 11052 7458 972 1245 565 21293

percentagesoutright owners 60 31 3 5 2 100buying with mortgage 50 38 5 5 2 100all owners 55 35 4 5 2 100

local authority 40 38 7 9 7 100housing association 44 35 6 8 7 100all social renters 42 37 6 8 7 100

private renters 51 34 6 7 2 100

all tenures 52 35 5 6 3 100

Note This question is not asked of proxy respondents and a small proportion of respondents chose not to answer These exclusions are reflected in the overall total number of households in this table Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

24 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Section 2Housing stock

21 Results relating to the housing stock in this report are presented using two yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the English House Condition Survey (EHCS) For this transition year data from the last full year of the EHCS (2007-08) were combined with the first year of the EHS (2008-09)

22 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Stock profile

23 There were around 222 million dwellings in 2008 Table 10 Of these 183 million (82 of the stock) were in the private sector and comprised 150 million owner occupied homes and 33 million private rented homes There were 39 million social sector homes (18 of the stock) of which two million were owned by local authority and two million by housing associations

Section 2 Housing stock | 25

Table 10 Stock profile 2008

all dwellings

private sector social sector

owner occupied

private rented

all private sector

local authority

housing association

all social sector

all dwellings

in group

thousands of dwellingsdwelling agepre 1919 3194 1309 4503 86 170 257 47601919-44 2689 431 3120 336 187 522 36421945-64 2708 384 3092 760 511 1271 43631965-80 3146 536 3682 665 467 1132 48141981-90 1401 222 1624 107 223 330 1953post 1990 1869 415 2284 30 394 424 2708

dwelling typemid terrace 2638 820 3459 325 367 693 4151end terrance 1440 340 1779 199 222 421 2201small terraced house 1216 548 1764 192 217 408 2172mediumlarge terraced house 2862 612 3475 333 373 705 4180all terrace 4078 1160 5238 524 589 1114 6352semi-detached house 4515 556 5070 365 351 716 5786detached house 3575 267 3843 5 18 24 3867bungalow 1548 133 1681 176 236 412 2092converted flat 284 427 712 38 75 113 825purpose built flat low rise 926 704 1630 724 626 1349 2979purpose built flat high rise 81 49 130 152 56 208 338

floor arealess than 50 sqm 742 652 1394 550 536 1086 248050 to 69 sqm 2913 1028 3942 725 680 1405 534770 to 89 sqm 4361 890 5251 575 553 1127 637990 to 109 sqm 2632 322 2954 102 132 234 3188110 sqm or more 4359 403 4763 32 52 83 4846

type of areacity centre 295 262 558 72 75 147 704other urban centre 2263 967 3230 538 458 996 4227suburban residential 9204 1581 10785 1236 1171 2407 13192rural residential 2074 233 2307 105 190 295 2601village centre 647 110 756 26 47 72 829rural 524 144 668 7 11 19 687

deprived local areasmost deprived 10 773 325 1097 595 468 1064 21612-5th 5331 1518 6849 1121 1025 2145 89956-9th 7072 1188 8260 249 423 672 8932least deprived 1832 266 2097 19 36 54 2152

occupancy statusoccupied 14610 2858 17468 1896 1860 3755 21223vacant 398 438 836 88 92 180 1016

Total 15007 3296 18304 1984 1951 3935 22239

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

26 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

24 The large majority of dwellings were houses (181 million) most commonly terraced or semi-detached The remainder of the stock 41 million consisited of flats predominately purpose built low rise flats However types of housing vary markedly between tenures While 91 of owner occupied housing was made up of houses almost half (46) of local authority homes were flats Figure 7 Flats also accounted for over a third of private rented homes and housing association homes (36 and 39 respectively)

Figure 7 Dwelling type by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

purpose built flat high risepurpose built flat low riseconverted flatdetached houses and bungalowssemi-detached housemediumlarge terraced housesmall terraced house

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

25 England has a relatively old housing stock with some 84 million homes built before 1945 of which 48 million were built before 1919 A fifth of homes (47 million) have been built since 1980

26 Stock in different tenures have different age profiles It is noticeable that owner occupied homes are evenly distributed across the five age bands compared with other tenures Figure 8 In the private rented sector for example 40 (13 million homes) were built before 1919 significantly higher than other tenures Housing association homes were more likely to have been built during the 1980s and 1990s (32) compared to only 7 of local authority homes

Section 2 Housing stock | 27

Figure 8 Age of housing stock by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

post 19901981-901965-801945-641919-44pre 1919

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

27 Some 44 million (29) of owner occupied homes had a floor area greater than 110m2 including 18 million (12 of the sector) which were over 150m2 This reflects the proportion of semi-detached and detached owner occupied homes which tend to be large Social sector homes were most likely to have a floor area of less than 50m2 compared with those in the private sector (28 and 8 respectively)

28 Homes in England were most likely to be located in suburban residential areas and least likely to be found in rural areas (59 and 3 respectively)

Energy efficiency of the housing stock

Heating and insulation29 Key ways of increasing the energy efficiency of existing homes are

improvements to their heating systems and levels of insulation For heating the type of heating system boiler in use and the fuel used are all related to energy performance

210 Central heating is the predominant main heating system present in 199 million homes (89 of the housing stock) in 2008 see Annex Table 3 This was followed by storage heaters present in 16 million (7) of homes and room heaters in 700000 homes (3) Central heating is generally considered to be the most cost effective and relatively efficient method of heating whereas room heaters tend to be the least cost effective and relatively inefficient method of heating

28 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

211 In 2008 92 of owner occupied homes had central heating systems compared to 88 of social and 80 of private rented homes see Annex Table 4 In part this reflects the higher proportion of flats in the rented sectors compared with owner occupation with 23 of flats using storage heaters

212 Condensing boilers are generally the most efficient boiler type and are now mandatory for new and replacement boilers (for gas fired boilers since 2005 for oil fired boilers since 2007) However even prior to these requirements the less efficient standard and back boilers were decreasing in use with the growing popularity of standard combination types Figure 9 Recent years have seen rapidly expanding take up of condensing and particularly combination condensing boilers In 2008 37 million homes (17 of the stock) had one of the two types of condensing boilers

Figure 9 Boiler types 1996-2008

no boiler

condensing-combination boiler condensing boilercombination boilerback boiler (to fire or stove)standard boiler (floor or wall)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

20082007200620052004200320011996

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes underpinning data is presented in Annex Table 5Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

213 For a home to provide optimum energy performance a high level of thermal insulation needs to be present alongside an efficient heating system Standard insulation measures include cavity wall insulation loft insulation and double glazing which have all improved in the stock since 1996 Figure 10

214 In 2008 155 million homes (70) had external walls of cavity construction 74 million homes (33 of the stock) had cavity wall insulation 47 million homes (21) had 200mm or more of loft insulation and 157 million homes (71) had full double glazing with an additional 29 million homes (13) having more than half double glazed Figure 10

Section 2 Housing stock | 29

Figure 10 Insulation measures 1996-2008

20082007200620052004200320011996

entire housedouble glazing

200mm or moreof loft insulation

cavity walls withinsulation

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes1) Only 89 of dwellings have lofts and 70 of dwellings have cavity walls2) Underpinning data is presented in annex Table 7Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

215 In 2008 the social rented sector had the greatest proportion of homes with cavity wall insulation (local authority 42 housing association 44) 200mm or more of loft insulation (local authority 24 housing association 29) and full double glazing (local authority 75 housing association 83) whereas the private rented sector had the lowest proportion of all three standard insulation measures cavity wall insulation (17) 200mm or more of loft insulation (13) and full double glazing (61) Figure 11

30 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Figure 11 Percentage of dwellings with efficient insulation measures by tenure 2008

full double glazing200mm or moreloft insulation

cavity withinsulation

cavity wall

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

housing associationlocal authorityprivate rentedowner occupied0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Base all dwellingsSource English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

SAP Rating

216 The energy efficiency of the housing stock continued to improve between 1996 and 2008 the average SAP rating of a home increased by 9 SAP points from 42 to 51 Table 11 The social sector was on average more energy efficient than the private sector and saw the greatest improvement with the average SAP rating increasing by 12 SAP points from 47 to 59

Table 11 Energy efficiency average SAP rating by tenure 2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

owner occupied 411 444 450 456 461 469 481 496private rented 379 419 444 457 460 466 481 502all private 407 441 449 456 461 468 481 497

local authority 457 496 520 539 553 558 562 580housing association 509 564 567 573 589 593 595 603all social 468 519 539 553 569 574 578 592

all tenures 421 457 466 474 481 487 498 514

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Section 2 Housing stock | 31

217 There has been a significant increase in the proportion of homes achieving the highest Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands in 2008 10 (23 million) of homes achieved the highest (EER) Bands A to C3 compared with 7 (16 million) in 2006 Table 12 The number of homes in the lowest EER Bands (F and G) fell by a million over the same period The majority of homes (73) continue to be in the EER Bands D or E

Table 12 Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 35 35 77Band C (69-80) 1545 1710 2229Band D (55-68) 6555 7316 7865Band E (39-54) 9072 8859 8310Band F (21-38) 3838 3389 2972Band G (1-20) 943 881 786Total 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 02 02 03Band C (69-80) 70 77 100Band D (55-68) 298 330 354Band E (39-54) 413 399 374Band F (21-38) 175 153 134Band G (1-20) 43 40 35Total 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 2006 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Housing health and safety rating system

218 A potentially serious (Category 1) hazard as measured under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System was present in around 48 million homes in 2008 22 of the housing stock

2 EER Bands are used in the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) The Certificate provides among other indicators an energy efficiency rating for the home on a scale from A-G (where A is the most efficient and G the least efficient)

32 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Housing conditions

Housing Health and Safety Rating System219 There was no significant change in the proportion of homes with any Category

1 hazard between 2006 and 2008 Hazards tend to be more common in older housing stock for example stairs are more likely to be steep and narrow in older housing making lsquofalls on stairsrsquo more likely or heating and insulation measures tend to be less effective in older stock making lsquoexcess coldrsquo a more serious hazard Therefore it is not surprising that hazards are more common in the private sector where the older housing stock is concentrated Almost a quarter of housing in the private sector had at least one category 1 hazard in 2008 (24) compared to around 13 in the social sector Table 14 Privately rented homes were most likely to have Category 1 hazards present compared to housing association homes (31 and 13 respectively)

220 The most common type of hazard in all four tenures was falls (see annex Table 10 for details of which hazards are included in this category) Overall 13 of homes have at least one type of falls hazard present

Decent homes221 In 2008 74 million homes (33) were non-decent4 Table 13 Housing

association housing was the least likely to be non-decent (23) while private rented housing was in the worst condition with 44 of homes being non-decent Overall social sector homes were in a better condition than private sector homes with 27 being non-decent compared to 34

222 The number of non-decent homes fell from 77 million in 2006 to 74 million in 20085 Conditions in the social sector improved with the proportion of homes failing the standard falling by two percentage points from 29 in 2006 to 27 in 2008 Private sector homes also improved from 36 non-decent in 2006 to 34 non-decent in 2008

4 Estimates from the EHS are based soley on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors subject to any limitations of the information they collect The EHS estimates in this report do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property

5 In 2006 the Housing Health and Safety Rating System replaced the Fitness Standard as the statutory minimum standard for housing Earlier estimates based on the original definition are not comparable therefore any change in the number of decent homes can only be referenced back to 2006 Figures for decent homes prior to 2006 can be found in the 2006 English House Condition Survey Annual Report available at wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

Section 2 Housing stock | 33

Table 13 Non-decent homes by tenure 2006 ndash 2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5335 5304 4842private rented 1223 1244 1449all private 6558 6548 6291

local authority 676 652 625housing association 465 486 444all social 1142 1138 1069

all tenures 7700 7686 7360

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 346 341 323private rented 468 454 440all private 363 358 344

local authority 324 328 315housing association 252 255 228all social 290 292 272

all tenures 350 346 331

Notes1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties between 2007 and 2008 are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates See Annex Table 11Sources2006 ndash 2007 English House Condition Survey2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Reasons for failing decent homes223 Of the four components required to meet the decent homes standard the

presence of one or more category 1 hazards under the HHSRS was the most commonly failed Table 14 This is particularly the case for private sector homes where 24 of homes had one or more Category 1 hazards present compared to 13 of social sector homes

34 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 14 Homes failing decent homes criteria by tenure 2008

all dwellings

Category 1 hazard (HHSRS)

thermal comfort

modern facilities repair all non-decent

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 3342 1773 379 817 4842private rented 978 637 160 369 1449all private 4320 2411 539 1186 6291

local authority 298 227 138 146 625housing association 224 199 50 86 444all social 522 426 188 231 1069

all tenures 4842 2837 727 1417 7360

percentages

owner occupied 223 118 25 54 323private rented 297 193 49 112 440all private 236 132 29 65 344

local authority 150 115 70 74 315housing association 115 102 25 44 228all social 133 108 48 59 272

all tenures 218 128 33 64 331

Note The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoids a break in the time series See Annex Table 12 for estimate based on 26 hazardsSource English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

224 There was significant progress in the thermal comfort of homes between 2006 and 2008 The proportion of homes failing thermal comfort fell to 13 in 2008 from 16 in 2006 Improvement has been made across all tenures

Private sector vulnerable households225 In 2008 31 million lsquovulnerablersquo households6 were living in the private sector of

which 12 million (39) were living in non-decent homes the remaining 19 million (61) were living in decent accommodation Table 15 There has been no significant change since 2006

226 Vulnerable households who privately rent their accommodation were more likely to live in non-decent homes compared to social tenants (51 and 26 respectively) Table 15

6 Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

Section 2 Housing stock | 35

Table 15 Households living in decent homes 2006-2008

all dwellings

number (000s) percentage ()

2006 2007 2008 2006 2007 2008

decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 1543 1575 1428 630 649 653private rented 334 354 429 450 482 490all private vulnerable 1877 1929 1857 588 610 606

private non- vulnerableowner occupied 8418 8531 8494 664 667 683private rented 922 985 1246 567 566 588all private non-vulnerable 9340 9516 9740 653 655 669

all owner occupied 9961 10106 9922 658 664 678all private rented 1256 1339 1675 530 541 559all private 11217 11445 11597 641 647 658all social 2690 2649 2798 722 719 740all households 13907 14094 14395 655 659 672

non-decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 905 851 760 370 351 347private rented 408 380 447 550 518 510all private vulnerable 1313 1231 1207 412 390 394

private non-vulnerableowner occupied 4262 4264 3946 336 333 317private rented 704 754 874 433 434 412all private non-vulnerable 4966 5018 4820 347 345 331

all owner occupied 5167 5115 4706 342 336 322all private rented 1112 1134 1321 470 459 441all private 6279 6249 6027 359 353 342

all social 1034 1037 985 278 281 260all households 7313 7286 7012 345 341 328

Notes 1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoid a break in the time series See Annex Table 13 for further detailsSource English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

36 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Damp and mould growth227 The proportion of homes with damp problems has reduced from 13 in 1996

to 8 in 2008 Table 16

Table 16 Number and percentage of homes with damp problems in one or more rooms 1996-2008

all dwellings

rising damp

penetrating damp

condensation mould

any damp problems

thousands of dwellings1996 858 1271 1145 26012001 625 1032 860 20322003 740 1066 1003 22832004 750 1035 951 22512005 759 952 941 22102006 724 886 947 21582007 640 833 881 19162008 584 759 865 1746

percentage of dwellings1996 42 63 56 1282001 29 49 41 962003 34 50 47 1062004 35 48 44 1042005 35 44 43 1012006 33 40 43 982007 29 38 40 862008 26 34 39 78

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

228 Privately rented homes were more likely to experience damp problems compared to other tenures Figure 11 Privately rented homes were more likely to be older homes and experience problems with rising or penetrating damp due to defects in the damp proof course roof covering gutters and down pipes which would affect at least one room in the property

229 In the social sector damp problems were more likely to be caused by serious condensation and mould growth rather than by rising damp Figure 12

Section 2 Housing stock | 37

Figure 12 Percentage of homes with a damp problem by tenure 2008

rising damp penetrating damp condensationmould

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

alltenures

housingassociation

localauthority

privaterented

owneroccupied

per

cen

tage

of

ho

mes

wit

h d

amp

pro

ble

ms

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

38 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex tables

Households

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

Annex Table 2 Economic Status of working age HRP by tenure 2008-09

Energy efficiency

Annex Table 3 Heating Type 1996-2008

Annex Table 4 Main Heating System by tenure 2008

Annex Table 5 Boiler Types 1996-2008

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

Annex Table 8 Cavity Wall insulation by tenure 2008

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

Housing Health and Safety Rating System

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 HHSRS hazards present (comparison of estimates based on any one of 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Non-decent homes in deprived areas

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes in deprived areas by tenure 2006-2008

Annex tables | 39

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent

child(ren)

couple with dependent

child(ren)

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)

other multi-

person households

all one-person

households

all household

types

percentageown outright 46 9 7 24 37 31buying with mortgage 35 66 27 25 23 36social renters 9 13 44 20 25 18private renters 10 12 22 31 15 14

all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 2 Economic status of working age HRP by tenure

all households

working un-employed retired other inactive Total percentage

own outright 74 2 14 10 100buying with mortgage 94 1 1 4 100social renters 49 12 1 37 100private renters 75 5 1 19 100all tenures 80 4 3 13 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 3 Heating type 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingscentral heating 16178 18177 18604 18919 19179 19553 19862 19862storage heater 1643 1600 1587 1616 1609 1532 1552 1641fixed roomportable heater 2515 2001 1294 1078 993 904 776 736Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingscentral heating 796 860 866 875 881 889 895 893storage heater 81 76 74 75 74 70 70 74fixed roomportable heating heater 124 95 60 50 46 41 35 33Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

40 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 4 Main heating system by tenure 2008

all dwellings

central heating storage heaterfixed room

heatingportable

heating only all dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 13788 790 411 19 15007 private rented 2630 441 208 17 3296 all private 16418 1232 619 36 18304

local authority 1776 160 46 2 1984 housing association 1669 249 33 1 1951 all social 3445 409 79 3 3935

all tenures 19862 1641 698 38 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 919 53 27 01 1000 private rented 798 134 63 05 1000 all private 897 67 34 02 1000

local authority 895 80 23 01 1000 housing association 855 128 17 00 1000 all social 875 104 20 01 1000

all tenures 893 74 31 02 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 5 Boiler types 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsstandard boiler 10447 10338 9642 9635 9425 9014 8782 8072back boiler 2773 2759 2580 2409 2181 2131 1944 1688combination boiler 2810 4431 5492 5934 6254 6312 6287 6082condensing boiler ndash 155 154 202 300 460 698 948condensing-combination boiler ndash 318 373 417 727 1297 1837 2773no boiler 4305 3140 3244 3016 2894 2775 2642 2676Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsstandard boiler 514 489 449 446 433 410 396 363back boiler 136 130 120 111 100 97 88 76combination boiler 138 210 256 275 287 287 283 273condensing boiler 00 07 07 09 14 21 31 43condensing-combination boiler 00 15 17 19 33 59 83 125no boiler 212 149 151 140 133 126 119 120Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 41

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

all dwellings

standard boiler

back boiler

combination boiler

condensing boiler

condensing-combination

boilerno

boilerall

dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 6223 1045 3984 713 1756 1286 15007 private rented 817 149 1112 73 429 716 3296 all private 7040 1194 5096 787 2185 2002 18304

local authority 499 271 481 90 335 309 1984 housing association 533 223 505 72 254 365 1951 all social 1032 494 986 162 589 674 3935

all 8072 1688 6082 948 2773 2676 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 415 70 265 48 117 86 1000 private rented 248 45 337 22 130 217 1000 all private 385 65 278 43 119 109 1000

local authority 251 136 242 45 169 156 1000 housing association 273 114 259 37 130 187 1000 all social 262 125 250 41 150 171 1000

all 363 76 273 43 125 120 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 2853 5210 5334 5825 5974 6644 7267 7418200mm or more of loft insulation 583 1256 2034 2530 2919 3520 4258 4685entire house double glazing 6169 10753 11915 12846 13486 13924 14850 15747

all dwellings 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 140 246 248 270 274 302 327 334200mm or more of loft insulation 29 59 95 117 134 160 192 211entire house double glazing 303 509 555 594 619 633 669 708

all dwellings 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

42 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 8 Cavity wall insulation by tenure

all dwellings

cavity with insulation

cavity uninsulated other all

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5161 5483 4364 15007private rented 566 1213 1517 3296private 5727 6696 5882 18304

local authority 834 657 493 1984housing association 857 720 374 1951social 1691 1378 867 3935

total 7418 8073 6749 22239

percentage of dwellingsowner occupied 344 365 291 100private rented 172 368 460 100private 313 366 321 100

local authority 420 331 248 100housing association 439 369 192 100social 430 350 220 100

total 334 363 303 100

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 43

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

all dwellings

no loftno

insulationless than

50mm50 up to

99mm

100 up to

149mm

150 up to

199mm200mm or more

all dwellings

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 748 442 432 3009 5147 2007 3223 15007 private rented 672 175 66 857 813 281 434 3296 private 1420 617 497 3866 5960 2288 3657 18304

local authority 614 33 19 171 471 206 470 1984 housing association 467 20 16 143 482 265 558 1951 social 1081 53 35 314 953 471 1028 3935

total 2501 670 532 4179 6913 2759 4685 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 50 29 29 200 343 134 215 1000private rented 204 53 20 260 247 85 132 1000private 78 34 27 211 326 125 200 1000

local authority 309 17 10 86 237 104 237 1000housing association 239 10 08 73 247 136 286 1000social 275 14 09 80 242 120 261 1000

total 112 30 24 188 311 124 211 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

44 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

hazard presentnumber of homes (000s) each hazard is present in

falling on stairs 2025excess cold 1966falling on level surfaces 788falling between levels 443fire 318

entry by intruders

flames hot surfacesleaddamp and mould growth 50 to 100 eachcollision and entrapmentradiationfalls associated with baths

crowding and space

food safetypersonal hygiene sanitation and drainage 20 to 50 eachnoisedomestic hygiene pests and refuseelectrical hazards

structural collapse and falling elements

water supplycarbon monoxide and fuel combustion productsposition and operability of amenities less thanexcess heat 20 eachlightinguncombusted fuel gasexplosions

any of the 15 hazards 4842

any of the 26 hazards 5039

Note For 2006 and 2007 the survey reported on 15 hazards only The 2008 EHS can provide estimates for 26 hazards - the additional hazards are marked with an asterisk The three remaining hazards not included in the survey are presence of asbestos biocides or volatile organic compounds For reporting purposes HHSRS and non-decent estimates will be based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with previous years and avoid a break in the time seriesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 45

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 4842 4925private rented 1449 1478all private 6291 6403

local authority 625 640housing association 444 464all social 1069 1104

all tenures 7360 7507

percentagesowner occupied 323 328private rented 440 448all private 344 350

local authority 315 323housing association 228 238all social 272 281

all tenures 331 338

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

46 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 hazards present (compariosn of estimates based on any one to the 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 3342 3452private rented 978 1013all private 4320 4465

local authority 298 326RSL 224 248all social 522 574

all tenures 4842 5039

percentagesowner occupied 223 230private rented 297 307all private 236 244

local authority 150 164RSL 115 127all social 133 146

all tenures 218 227

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 47

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all households

15 hazards 26 hazards

number (000s) percentage () number (000s) percentage ()

decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 1428 653 1413 646private rented 429 490 417 476all private vulnerable 1857 606 1830 597 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 8494 683 8425 677private rented 1246 588 1232 581all private non-vulnerable 9740 669 9657 663 all owner occupied 9922 678 9839 673all private rented 1675 559 1648 550all private 11597 658 11487 663all social 2798 740 2766 731

all households 14395 672 14253 666

non-decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 760 347 775 354private rented 447 510 459 524all private vulnerable 1207 394 1234 403 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 3946 317 4015 323private rented 874 412 888 419all private non-vulnerable 4820 331 4903 337 all owner occupied 4706 322 4790 327all private rented 1321 441 1347 450all private 6027 342 6137 348all social 985 260 1017 269

all households 7012 328 7154 334

Note For reporting purposes decent homes estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

48 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes1 by deprived and other districts by tenure 2006-2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsSocial NRF88 662 652 605Other districts 480 486 464 Private NRF88 2544 2621 2442Other districts 4013 3928 3849

percentages of dwellingsSocial NRF88 313 304 278Other districts 264 278 263 Private NRF88 381 380 361Other districts 353 344 333

Note NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving Neighbourhood Renewal Funding 2001-2006Source English House Condition Survey 2006-2007English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub sample)

Technical annex | 49

Technical annex

General description

The survey consists of three main elements an initial interview survey of 17700 households with a follow up physical inspection and a desk based market valuation of a sub-sample of 8000 of these dwellings including vacant dwellings The interview survey sample forms part of ONSrsquos Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the core questions from the IHS form part of the EHS questionnaire More information about the IHS is available from its webpage wwwstatisticsgovukCCInuggetaspID=936ampPos=1ampColRank=1ampRank=224

The EHS interview content covers the key topics included under the former SEH and EHCS The content of the physical and market value components remains very largely unchanged from the former EHCS

Sampling and grossing

2008-09 Sample1 The initial sample for 2008-09 consisted of 32100 addresses drawn as a systematic

random sample from the Postcode Address File (small users) Interviews were attempted at all of these addresses over the course of the survey year from April 2008 to March 2009 A proportion of addresses were found not to be valid residential properties (eg demolished properties secondholiday homes small businesses not yet built)

2 Of the 17691 addresses where interviews were achieved (the lsquofull household samplersquo) all social rented properties and a sub-sample of private properties were regarded as eligible for the physical survey and the respondentrsquos consent was sought A proportion of vacant properties were also sub-sampled Physical surveys were completed in 7972 cases and these cases contribute to the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo (see below)

3 The principal differences in sampling methodology between the EHS and its predecessors the SEH and EHCS are that

bull The EHS uses an unclustered sample This enables a smaller sample to be used with no loss of precision ie without sampling errors being increased The more scattered sample does however have some implications for fieldwork organisation

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 14: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

14 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 3 Economic status of household reference person by tenure 2008-09

all households

economic status of HRP

full time work

part-time work

un-employed retired

other inactive all

thousands of householdsown outright 1777 570 54 4079 290 6770buying with mortgage 6679 470 101 312 290 7851all owner occupiers 8456 1040 155 4390 580 14621 local authority 444 203 172 566 503 1887housing association 489 182 152 643 488 1955all social renters 933 385 324 1209 991 3842 all private renters 1874 262 143 274 514 3067 all tenures 11263 1687 622 5873 2085 21530

percentagesown outright 26 8 1 60 4 100buying with mortgage 85 6 1 4 4 100all owner occupiers 58 7 1 30 4 100 local authority 24 11 9 30 27 100housing association 25 9 8 33 25 100all social renters 24 10 8 31 26 100 all private renters 61 9 5 9 17 100 all tenures 52 8 3 27 10 100Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

19 Table 3 shows the economic status of all householders Figure 3 shows the economic status of those of working age ndash men aged under 65 and women aged under 60 Within this group 94 of those buying with a mortgage were working compared to only 49 of those who were social renters Unemployment was highest in the social rented sector 12 compared to 5 of private renters and only 1 of owner occupiers

110 There was also a much higher proportion of lsquoother inactiversquo amongst working age social renters than those in other tenures 37 compared to 19 of private renters 10 of outright owners and 4 of mortgagors

Section 1 Households | 15

Figure 3 Economic status of working age HRPs 2008-09

other inactiveretiredunemployedworking

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

alltenures

privaterenters

socialrenters

buying withmortgage

ownoutright

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sampleNote underlying data is presented in annex table 2

Age of household reference person by tenure

111 Owner occupation is the most common tenure in England In 2008-09 there were 68 million households that owned outright and 78 million buying with a mortgage Around three-quarters of mortgagors were aged between 35 and 64 with only 3 aged 65 or over Outright owners the majority of whom were likely to have once had a mortgage and paid it off were concentrated in the older age groups 6 were aged under 45 Overall 32 of owner occupiers were in the 16 to 44 age range

112 Around half (51) of householders aged 25 to 34 were owners 17 were social renters and 31 were private renters Within the 35 to 44 age group the proportions of social and private renters were very similar 17 and 16 respectively and 67 of householders in this age group were owners

113 Over 80 of private renters were aged under 55 with only 8 aged 65 or over By contrast 28 of owner occupiers and 29 of social renters were aged 65 or over

16 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 4 Age of household reference person by tenure 2008-09

all households

age of HRP

16 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54 55 - 64 65 or over all ages

thousands of householdsown outright 9 87 329 759 1752 3833 6770buying with mortgage 114 1562 2619 2237 1071 249 7851all owner occupiers 123 1649 2948 2996 2823 4082 14621 local authority 123 306 373 318 244 523 1887housing association 112 254 385 349 256 599 1955all social renters 235 560 757 667 501 1122 3842 private renters 497 995 686 380 252 257 3067 all tenures 855 3203 4392 4043 3576 5461 21530

percentage within tenureown outright 0 1 5 11 26 57 100buying with mortgage 1 20 33 28 14 3 100all owner occupiers 1 11 20 20 19 28 100 local authority 7 16 20 17 13 28 100housing association 6 13 20 18 13 31 100all social renters 6 15 20 17 13 29 100 private renters 16 32 22 12 8 8 100 all tenures 4 15 20 19 17 25 100

percentage within age groupown outright 1 3 7 19 49 70 31buying with mortgage 13 49 60 55 30 5 36all owner occupiers 14 51 67 74 79 75 68 local authority 14 10 8 8 7 10 9housing association 13 8 9 9 7 11 9all social renters 27 17 17 17 14 21 18 private renters 58 31 16 9 7 5 14 all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Section 1 Households | 17

Figure 4 Age of household reference person by tenure 2008ndash09

per

cen

tage

private renterssocial rentersbuying with mortgageown outright

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

65 or over 55ndash64 45ndash54 35ndash44

age of HRP

25ndash34 16ndash24

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Buying expectations of renters

114 In 2008-09 27 of social renters expected to eventually become homeowners compared to 59 of private renters Of those who did expect to buy 44 of social renters expected to buy their current accommodation compared to only 13 of private renters

18 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 5 Buying aspirations of social and private renters 2008-09

all renters

social renters private renters

percentagesWill eventually buy or share home in UK yes 27 59no 73 41All 100 100

Expect to buy current accommodation (all who expect to buy) yes 44 13no 56 87All 100 100

When expect to buy (all who expect to buy) Less than a yearrsquos time 3 81 year but less than 2 years 7 162 years but less than 5 years 25 345 years or more 65 42All 100 100

Note Expectations to buy include shared ownershipSource English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

115 An estimated 24 of private renters expecting to buy (14 of all private renters) thought that they would buy within the next two years This proportion had fallen from 34 in 2006-07 (see Figure 5) whilst the proportion expecting to buy in five or more yearsrsquo time had risen from 35 to 42 over this period These changes suggest that private renters now expect to rent for longer before being in a position to buy perhaps due to affordability issues

Figure 5 Trend in expected time to buying ndash private renters expecting to buy eventually

per

cen

tage

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

2008-09 2007-082006-07

5 years or more2 years but less than 5lt2 years

Note based on those private renters who expect to buy eventuallySource English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Section 1 Households | 19

Overcrowding and under-occupation

116 Levels of overcrowding are measured using the ldquobedroom standardrdquo (see definition in Glossary) Essentially this is the difference between the number of bedrooms needed to avoid undesirable sharing (given the number and ages of household members and their relationships to each other) and the number of bedrooms actually available to the household

117 The previous estimates of overcrowding were based on three-year moving averages from the Survey of English Housing for 2005-06 2006-07 and 2007-08 The reason for having to base estimates on a three-year average was that with fewer than 3 per cent of households overcrowded the sample size for a single year was too small to provide reliable annual estimates However for 2008-09 in addition to the EHS sample of 17700 households we have information from a further 95000 households that were interviewed for the ONS Labour Force Survey This combined sample was sufficiently large to deliver robust single year estimates for 2008-09 without the need to carry forward the three-year average series

Table 6 Overcrowding and under-occupation by tenure 2008-09

all households

difference from bedroom standard

overcrowded at standardone above

standardunder-

occupied total

thousands of householdsowner occupiers 231 2117 5416 6855 14620

social renters 258 2032 1121 430 3841

private renters 164 1312 1095 494 3066

all tenures 654 5462 7633 7779 21527

percentagesowner occupiers 16 145 370 469 100

social renters 67 529 292 112 100

private renters 54 428 357 161 100

all tenures 30 254 355 361 100

Notes Details of the bedroom standard can be found in the GlossarySource English Housing Survey - full household sample and ONS Labour Force Survey

118 The overall rate of overcrowding in England for 2008-09 was 30 (see Table 6) This compares to the previously published estimate of 28 (averaged over the period 2005-06 to 2007-08) There were around 654000 overcrowded households (compared to an average of 570000 over the period 2005-06 to 2007-08) Levels of overcrowding varied considerably by tenure and were lowest in the owner occupied sector at 16 up from 14 for the period 2005-06 to 2007-08 Around 67 of social renters were overcrowded and 54 of private renters compared to 59 and 49 respectively for 2005-06 to 2007-08

20 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

119 Although the overall rate of overcrowding has shown little change in recent years this is largely due to the relatively stable rate of overcrowding in the owner occupied sector the largest tenure Over the past decade overcrowding has been rising in both the rented sectors

Figure 6 Trend in overcrowding rates by tenure 1995-96 to 2008-09 (3 year moving average)

private renters social rentersowner occupiers all tenures

per

cen

tage

of

ho

use

ho

lds

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

2008

-09

2007

-08

2006

-07

2005

-06

2004

-05

2003

-04

2002

-03

2001

-02

2000

-01

1999

-00

1998

-99

1997

-98

1996

-97

1995

-96

Source Survey of English Housing to 2007-08 and combined English Housing Survey (full sample) plus Labour Force Survey for 2008-09 The estimates up to 2007-08 are three-year moving averages so the ldquo2007-08rdquo figure is actually the average of 2005-06 2006-07 and 2007-08 Since the 2008-09 estimates are for that year only a gap has been introduced to separate the three-year averages to 2007-08 from the annual estimates for 2008-09

120 Around 78 million households were estimated to be under-occupying their accommodation in 2008-09 that is they had at least two bedrooms more than they needed (see definition of bedroom standard in Glossary) Under-occupation was far more likely to be found in the owner occupied sector than in the rented sectors 47 of owner occupiers were under-occupying accommodation compared to 11 of social renters and 16 of private renters

Recent movers

121 In this section we look at those households that had been in their current accommodation for less than 12 months at the time of interview

Section 1 Households | 21

Table 7 Previous tenure by current tenure 2008-09

HRPs resident less than a year

previous tenure ndash continuing households

current tenurenew

householdowner

occupierssocial

rentersprivate renters all tenures

thousands of householdsoutright owners 4 83 0 12 99buying with mortgage 68 204 13 131 416all owner occupiers 72 287 13 144 515

local authority 20 13 76 20 129housing association 24 9 105 38 177all social renters 44 23 181 58 306

private renters 229 141 47 686 1103

all tenures 345 450 241 887 1924

percentageoutright owners 4 84 0 13 100buying with mortgage 16 49 3 32 100all owner occupiers 14 56 3 28 100

local authority 15 10 59 15 100housing association 14 5 59 22 100all social renters 15 7 59 19 100

private renters 21 13 4 62 100

all tenures 18 23 13 46 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

122 Around 18 of households that had moved into their accommodation in the previous year were new households Two thirds (66) of these new households were private renters and around one fifth (21) were owner occupiers Movement within tenure was more common than moves between tenures 62 of current private renters had previously been private renters 59 of social renters had moved from another social rented property and 56 of owner occupiers had owned their previous property Movement into the social rented sector for continuing households was more likely to be from private renting (19 of current social renters) than from owner occupation (7)

22 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Attitudes to home and local area

123 Around 90 of households in England were satisfied with their accommodation in 2008-09 The highest levels of satisfaction were expressed by outright owners 73 of whom said that they were very satisfied with their homes Over three quarters of social renters were satisfied with their homes but 9 were slightly dissatisfied and 7 were very dissatisfied Around 82 of private renters were very or fairly satisfied with their accommodation and only 3 said they were very dissatisfied

Table 8 Satisfaction with accommodation by tenure 2008-09

all households

very satisfied

fairly satisfied

neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

slightly dissatisfied

very dissatisfied Total

thousands of householdsoutright owners 4926 1535 111 100 36 6709buying with mortgage 4604 2719 232 200 55 7810all owneroccupiers 9530 4254 343 300 91 14519

local authority 697 736 98 192 142 1866housing association 842 700 116 159 117 1935all social renters 1539 1437 214 351 260 3801

private renters 1240 1211 193 227 102 2972

all tenures 12309 6901 751 878 452 21291

percentagesoutright owners 73 23 2 1 1 100buying with mortgage 59 35 3 3 1 100all owneroccupiers 66 29 2 2 1 100

local authority 37 39 5 10 8 100housing association 44 36 6 8 6 100all social renters 40 38 6 9 7 100

private renters 42 41 6 8 3 100

all tenures 58 32 4 4 2 100

Note This question is not asked of proxy respondents and a small proportion of respondents chose not to answer These exclusions are reflected in the overall total number of households in this table Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

124 A large majority of households are satisfied with the local area in which they live In 2008-09 just over half of all households in England were very satisfied with their local area and 87 were very or fairly satisfied Only 3 of households were very dissatisfied with their local area

Section 1 Households | 23

125 There were some differences by tenure 89 of owner occupiers were satisfied with their local area compared to 79 of social renters and 85 of private renters Whilst only two per cent of owner occupiers and private renters said that they were very dissatisfied with their local area seven per cent of social renters were very dissatisfied

Table 9 Satisfaction with local area by tenure 2008-09

all households

very satisfied

fairly satisfied

neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

slightly dissatisfied

very dissatisfied Total

thousands of householdsoutright owners 3999 2093 180 322 114 6708buying with mortgage 3919 2973 371 420 127 7810all owners 7918 5066 552 742 241 14518

local authority 754 712 122 159 122 1867housing association 861 679 116 150 129 1936all social renters 1615 1391 238 309 251 3803

private renters 1520 1001 183 194 73 2972

all tenures 11052 7458 972 1245 565 21293

percentagesoutright owners 60 31 3 5 2 100buying with mortgage 50 38 5 5 2 100all owners 55 35 4 5 2 100

local authority 40 38 7 9 7 100housing association 44 35 6 8 7 100all social renters 42 37 6 8 7 100

private renters 51 34 6 7 2 100

all tenures 52 35 5 6 3 100

Note This question is not asked of proxy respondents and a small proportion of respondents chose not to answer These exclusions are reflected in the overall total number of households in this table Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

24 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Section 2Housing stock

21 Results relating to the housing stock in this report are presented using two yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the English House Condition Survey (EHCS) For this transition year data from the last full year of the EHCS (2007-08) were combined with the first year of the EHS (2008-09)

22 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Stock profile

23 There were around 222 million dwellings in 2008 Table 10 Of these 183 million (82 of the stock) were in the private sector and comprised 150 million owner occupied homes and 33 million private rented homes There were 39 million social sector homes (18 of the stock) of which two million were owned by local authority and two million by housing associations

Section 2 Housing stock | 25

Table 10 Stock profile 2008

all dwellings

private sector social sector

owner occupied

private rented

all private sector

local authority

housing association

all social sector

all dwellings

in group

thousands of dwellingsdwelling agepre 1919 3194 1309 4503 86 170 257 47601919-44 2689 431 3120 336 187 522 36421945-64 2708 384 3092 760 511 1271 43631965-80 3146 536 3682 665 467 1132 48141981-90 1401 222 1624 107 223 330 1953post 1990 1869 415 2284 30 394 424 2708

dwelling typemid terrace 2638 820 3459 325 367 693 4151end terrance 1440 340 1779 199 222 421 2201small terraced house 1216 548 1764 192 217 408 2172mediumlarge terraced house 2862 612 3475 333 373 705 4180all terrace 4078 1160 5238 524 589 1114 6352semi-detached house 4515 556 5070 365 351 716 5786detached house 3575 267 3843 5 18 24 3867bungalow 1548 133 1681 176 236 412 2092converted flat 284 427 712 38 75 113 825purpose built flat low rise 926 704 1630 724 626 1349 2979purpose built flat high rise 81 49 130 152 56 208 338

floor arealess than 50 sqm 742 652 1394 550 536 1086 248050 to 69 sqm 2913 1028 3942 725 680 1405 534770 to 89 sqm 4361 890 5251 575 553 1127 637990 to 109 sqm 2632 322 2954 102 132 234 3188110 sqm or more 4359 403 4763 32 52 83 4846

type of areacity centre 295 262 558 72 75 147 704other urban centre 2263 967 3230 538 458 996 4227suburban residential 9204 1581 10785 1236 1171 2407 13192rural residential 2074 233 2307 105 190 295 2601village centre 647 110 756 26 47 72 829rural 524 144 668 7 11 19 687

deprived local areasmost deprived 10 773 325 1097 595 468 1064 21612-5th 5331 1518 6849 1121 1025 2145 89956-9th 7072 1188 8260 249 423 672 8932least deprived 1832 266 2097 19 36 54 2152

occupancy statusoccupied 14610 2858 17468 1896 1860 3755 21223vacant 398 438 836 88 92 180 1016

Total 15007 3296 18304 1984 1951 3935 22239

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

26 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

24 The large majority of dwellings were houses (181 million) most commonly terraced or semi-detached The remainder of the stock 41 million consisited of flats predominately purpose built low rise flats However types of housing vary markedly between tenures While 91 of owner occupied housing was made up of houses almost half (46) of local authority homes were flats Figure 7 Flats also accounted for over a third of private rented homes and housing association homes (36 and 39 respectively)

Figure 7 Dwelling type by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

purpose built flat high risepurpose built flat low riseconverted flatdetached houses and bungalowssemi-detached housemediumlarge terraced housesmall terraced house

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

25 England has a relatively old housing stock with some 84 million homes built before 1945 of which 48 million were built before 1919 A fifth of homes (47 million) have been built since 1980

26 Stock in different tenures have different age profiles It is noticeable that owner occupied homes are evenly distributed across the five age bands compared with other tenures Figure 8 In the private rented sector for example 40 (13 million homes) were built before 1919 significantly higher than other tenures Housing association homes were more likely to have been built during the 1980s and 1990s (32) compared to only 7 of local authority homes

Section 2 Housing stock | 27

Figure 8 Age of housing stock by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

post 19901981-901965-801945-641919-44pre 1919

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

27 Some 44 million (29) of owner occupied homes had a floor area greater than 110m2 including 18 million (12 of the sector) which were over 150m2 This reflects the proportion of semi-detached and detached owner occupied homes which tend to be large Social sector homes were most likely to have a floor area of less than 50m2 compared with those in the private sector (28 and 8 respectively)

28 Homes in England were most likely to be located in suburban residential areas and least likely to be found in rural areas (59 and 3 respectively)

Energy efficiency of the housing stock

Heating and insulation29 Key ways of increasing the energy efficiency of existing homes are

improvements to their heating systems and levels of insulation For heating the type of heating system boiler in use and the fuel used are all related to energy performance

210 Central heating is the predominant main heating system present in 199 million homes (89 of the housing stock) in 2008 see Annex Table 3 This was followed by storage heaters present in 16 million (7) of homes and room heaters in 700000 homes (3) Central heating is generally considered to be the most cost effective and relatively efficient method of heating whereas room heaters tend to be the least cost effective and relatively inefficient method of heating

28 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

211 In 2008 92 of owner occupied homes had central heating systems compared to 88 of social and 80 of private rented homes see Annex Table 4 In part this reflects the higher proportion of flats in the rented sectors compared with owner occupation with 23 of flats using storage heaters

212 Condensing boilers are generally the most efficient boiler type and are now mandatory for new and replacement boilers (for gas fired boilers since 2005 for oil fired boilers since 2007) However even prior to these requirements the less efficient standard and back boilers were decreasing in use with the growing popularity of standard combination types Figure 9 Recent years have seen rapidly expanding take up of condensing and particularly combination condensing boilers In 2008 37 million homes (17 of the stock) had one of the two types of condensing boilers

Figure 9 Boiler types 1996-2008

no boiler

condensing-combination boiler condensing boilercombination boilerback boiler (to fire or stove)standard boiler (floor or wall)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

20082007200620052004200320011996

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes underpinning data is presented in Annex Table 5Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

213 For a home to provide optimum energy performance a high level of thermal insulation needs to be present alongside an efficient heating system Standard insulation measures include cavity wall insulation loft insulation and double glazing which have all improved in the stock since 1996 Figure 10

214 In 2008 155 million homes (70) had external walls of cavity construction 74 million homes (33 of the stock) had cavity wall insulation 47 million homes (21) had 200mm or more of loft insulation and 157 million homes (71) had full double glazing with an additional 29 million homes (13) having more than half double glazed Figure 10

Section 2 Housing stock | 29

Figure 10 Insulation measures 1996-2008

20082007200620052004200320011996

entire housedouble glazing

200mm or moreof loft insulation

cavity walls withinsulation

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes1) Only 89 of dwellings have lofts and 70 of dwellings have cavity walls2) Underpinning data is presented in annex Table 7Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

215 In 2008 the social rented sector had the greatest proportion of homes with cavity wall insulation (local authority 42 housing association 44) 200mm or more of loft insulation (local authority 24 housing association 29) and full double glazing (local authority 75 housing association 83) whereas the private rented sector had the lowest proportion of all three standard insulation measures cavity wall insulation (17) 200mm or more of loft insulation (13) and full double glazing (61) Figure 11

30 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Figure 11 Percentage of dwellings with efficient insulation measures by tenure 2008

full double glazing200mm or moreloft insulation

cavity withinsulation

cavity wall

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

housing associationlocal authorityprivate rentedowner occupied0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Base all dwellingsSource English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

SAP Rating

216 The energy efficiency of the housing stock continued to improve between 1996 and 2008 the average SAP rating of a home increased by 9 SAP points from 42 to 51 Table 11 The social sector was on average more energy efficient than the private sector and saw the greatest improvement with the average SAP rating increasing by 12 SAP points from 47 to 59

Table 11 Energy efficiency average SAP rating by tenure 2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

owner occupied 411 444 450 456 461 469 481 496private rented 379 419 444 457 460 466 481 502all private 407 441 449 456 461 468 481 497

local authority 457 496 520 539 553 558 562 580housing association 509 564 567 573 589 593 595 603all social 468 519 539 553 569 574 578 592

all tenures 421 457 466 474 481 487 498 514

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Section 2 Housing stock | 31

217 There has been a significant increase in the proportion of homes achieving the highest Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands in 2008 10 (23 million) of homes achieved the highest (EER) Bands A to C3 compared with 7 (16 million) in 2006 Table 12 The number of homes in the lowest EER Bands (F and G) fell by a million over the same period The majority of homes (73) continue to be in the EER Bands D or E

Table 12 Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 35 35 77Band C (69-80) 1545 1710 2229Band D (55-68) 6555 7316 7865Band E (39-54) 9072 8859 8310Band F (21-38) 3838 3389 2972Band G (1-20) 943 881 786Total 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 02 02 03Band C (69-80) 70 77 100Band D (55-68) 298 330 354Band E (39-54) 413 399 374Band F (21-38) 175 153 134Band G (1-20) 43 40 35Total 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 2006 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Housing health and safety rating system

218 A potentially serious (Category 1) hazard as measured under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System was present in around 48 million homes in 2008 22 of the housing stock

2 EER Bands are used in the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) The Certificate provides among other indicators an energy efficiency rating for the home on a scale from A-G (where A is the most efficient and G the least efficient)

32 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Housing conditions

Housing Health and Safety Rating System219 There was no significant change in the proportion of homes with any Category

1 hazard between 2006 and 2008 Hazards tend to be more common in older housing stock for example stairs are more likely to be steep and narrow in older housing making lsquofalls on stairsrsquo more likely or heating and insulation measures tend to be less effective in older stock making lsquoexcess coldrsquo a more serious hazard Therefore it is not surprising that hazards are more common in the private sector where the older housing stock is concentrated Almost a quarter of housing in the private sector had at least one category 1 hazard in 2008 (24) compared to around 13 in the social sector Table 14 Privately rented homes were most likely to have Category 1 hazards present compared to housing association homes (31 and 13 respectively)

220 The most common type of hazard in all four tenures was falls (see annex Table 10 for details of which hazards are included in this category) Overall 13 of homes have at least one type of falls hazard present

Decent homes221 In 2008 74 million homes (33) were non-decent4 Table 13 Housing

association housing was the least likely to be non-decent (23) while private rented housing was in the worst condition with 44 of homes being non-decent Overall social sector homes were in a better condition than private sector homes with 27 being non-decent compared to 34

222 The number of non-decent homes fell from 77 million in 2006 to 74 million in 20085 Conditions in the social sector improved with the proportion of homes failing the standard falling by two percentage points from 29 in 2006 to 27 in 2008 Private sector homes also improved from 36 non-decent in 2006 to 34 non-decent in 2008

4 Estimates from the EHS are based soley on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors subject to any limitations of the information they collect The EHS estimates in this report do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property

5 In 2006 the Housing Health and Safety Rating System replaced the Fitness Standard as the statutory minimum standard for housing Earlier estimates based on the original definition are not comparable therefore any change in the number of decent homes can only be referenced back to 2006 Figures for decent homes prior to 2006 can be found in the 2006 English House Condition Survey Annual Report available at wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

Section 2 Housing stock | 33

Table 13 Non-decent homes by tenure 2006 ndash 2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5335 5304 4842private rented 1223 1244 1449all private 6558 6548 6291

local authority 676 652 625housing association 465 486 444all social 1142 1138 1069

all tenures 7700 7686 7360

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 346 341 323private rented 468 454 440all private 363 358 344

local authority 324 328 315housing association 252 255 228all social 290 292 272

all tenures 350 346 331

Notes1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties between 2007 and 2008 are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates See Annex Table 11Sources2006 ndash 2007 English House Condition Survey2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Reasons for failing decent homes223 Of the four components required to meet the decent homes standard the

presence of one or more category 1 hazards under the HHSRS was the most commonly failed Table 14 This is particularly the case for private sector homes where 24 of homes had one or more Category 1 hazards present compared to 13 of social sector homes

34 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 14 Homes failing decent homes criteria by tenure 2008

all dwellings

Category 1 hazard (HHSRS)

thermal comfort

modern facilities repair all non-decent

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 3342 1773 379 817 4842private rented 978 637 160 369 1449all private 4320 2411 539 1186 6291

local authority 298 227 138 146 625housing association 224 199 50 86 444all social 522 426 188 231 1069

all tenures 4842 2837 727 1417 7360

percentages

owner occupied 223 118 25 54 323private rented 297 193 49 112 440all private 236 132 29 65 344

local authority 150 115 70 74 315housing association 115 102 25 44 228all social 133 108 48 59 272

all tenures 218 128 33 64 331

Note The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoids a break in the time series See Annex Table 12 for estimate based on 26 hazardsSource English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

224 There was significant progress in the thermal comfort of homes between 2006 and 2008 The proportion of homes failing thermal comfort fell to 13 in 2008 from 16 in 2006 Improvement has been made across all tenures

Private sector vulnerable households225 In 2008 31 million lsquovulnerablersquo households6 were living in the private sector of

which 12 million (39) were living in non-decent homes the remaining 19 million (61) were living in decent accommodation Table 15 There has been no significant change since 2006

226 Vulnerable households who privately rent their accommodation were more likely to live in non-decent homes compared to social tenants (51 and 26 respectively) Table 15

6 Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

Section 2 Housing stock | 35

Table 15 Households living in decent homes 2006-2008

all dwellings

number (000s) percentage ()

2006 2007 2008 2006 2007 2008

decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 1543 1575 1428 630 649 653private rented 334 354 429 450 482 490all private vulnerable 1877 1929 1857 588 610 606

private non- vulnerableowner occupied 8418 8531 8494 664 667 683private rented 922 985 1246 567 566 588all private non-vulnerable 9340 9516 9740 653 655 669

all owner occupied 9961 10106 9922 658 664 678all private rented 1256 1339 1675 530 541 559all private 11217 11445 11597 641 647 658all social 2690 2649 2798 722 719 740all households 13907 14094 14395 655 659 672

non-decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 905 851 760 370 351 347private rented 408 380 447 550 518 510all private vulnerable 1313 1231 1207 412 390 394

private non-vulnerableowner occupied 4262 4264 3946 336 333 317private rented 704 754 874 433 434 412all private non-vulnerable 4966 5018 4820 347 345 331

all owner occupied 5167 5115 4706 342 336 322all private rented 1112 1134 1321 470 459 441all private 6279 6249 6027 359 353 342

all social 1034 1037 985 278 281 260all households 7313 7286 7012 345 341 328

Notes 1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoid a break in the time series See Annex Table 13 for further detailsSource English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

36 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Damp and mould growth227 The proportion of homes with damp problems has reduced from 13 in 1996

to 8 in 2008 Table 16

Table 16 Number and percentage of homes with damp problems in one or more rooms 1996-2008

all dwellings

rising damp

penetrating damp

condensation mould

any damp problems

thousands of dwellings1996 858 1271 1145 26012001 625 1032 860 20322003 740 1066 1003 22832004 750 1035 951 22512005 759 952 941 22102006 724 886 947 21582007 640 833 881 19162008 584 759 865 1746

percentage of dwellings1996 42 63 56 1282001 29 49 41 962003 34 50 47 1062004 35 48 44 1042005 35 44 43 1012006 33 40 43 982007 29 38 40 862008 26 34 39 78

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

228 Privately rented homes were more likely to experience damp problems compared to other tenures Figure 11 Privately rented homes were more likely to be older homes and experience problems with rising or penetrating damp due to defects in the damp proof course roof covering gutters and down pipes which would affect at least one room in the property

229 In the social sector damp problems were more likely to be caused by serious condensation and mould growth rather than by rising damp Figure 12

Section 2 Housing stock | 37

Figure 12 Percentage of homes with a damp problem by tenure 2008

rising damp penetrating damp condensationmould

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

alltenures

housingassociation

localauthority

privaterented

owneroccupied

per

cen

tage

of

ho

mes

wit

h d

amp

pro

ble

ms

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

38 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex tables

Households

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

Annex Table 2 Economic Status of working age HRP by tenure 2008-09

Energy efficiency

Annex Table 3 Heating Type 1996-2008

Annex Table 4 Main Heating System by tenure 2008

Annex Table 5 Boiler Types 1996-2008

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

Annex Table 8 Cavity Wall insulation by tenure 2008

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

Housing Health and Safety Rating System

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 HHSRS hazards present (comparison of estimates based on any one of 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Non-decent homes in deprived areas

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes in deprived areas by tenure 2006-2008

Annex tables | 39

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent

child(ren)

couple with dependent

child(ren)

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)

other multi-

person households

all one-person

households

all household

types

percentageown outright 46 9 7 24 37 31buying with mortgage 35 66 27 25 23 36social renters 9 13 44 20 25 18private renters 10 12 22 31 15 14

all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 2 Economic status of working age HRP by tenure

all households

working un-employed retired other inactive Total percentage

own outright 74 2 14 10 100buying with mortgage 94 1 1 4 100social renters 49 12 1 37 100private renters 75 5 1 19 100all tenures 80 4 3 13 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 3 Heating type 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingscentral heating 16178 18177 18604 18919 19179 19553 19862 19862storage heater 1643 1600 1587 1616 1609 1532 1552 1641fixed roomportable heater 2515 2001 1294 1078 993 904 776 736Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingscentral heating 796 860 866 875 881 889 895 893storage heater 81 76 74 75 74 70 70 74fixed roomportable heating heater 124 95 60 50 46 41 35 33Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

40 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 4 Main heating system by tenure 2008

all dwellings

central heating storage heaterfixed room

heatingportable

heating only all dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 13788 790 411 19 15007 private rented 2630 441 208 17 3296 all private 16418 1232 619 36 18304

local authority 1776 160 46 2 1984 housing association 1669 249 33 1 1951 all social 3445 409 79 3 3935

all tenures 19862 1641 698 38 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 919 53 27 01 1000 private rented 798 134 63 05 1000 all private 897 67 34 02 1000

local authority 895 80 23 01 1000 housing association 855 128 17 00 1000 all social 875 104 20 01 1000

all tenures 893 74 31 02 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 5 Boiler types 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsstandard boiler 10447 10338 9642 9635 9425 9014 8782 8072back boiler 2773 2759 2580 2409 2181 2131 1944 1688combination boiler 2810 4431 5492 5934 6254 6312 6287 6082condensing boiler ndash 155 154 202 300 460 698 948condensing-combination boiler ndash 318 373 417 727 1297 1837 2773no boiler 4305 3140 3244 3016 2894 2775 2642 2676Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsstandard boiler 514 489 449 446 433 410 396 363back boiler 136 130 120 111 100 97 88 76combination boiler 138 210 256 275 287 287 283 273condensing boiler 00 07 07 09 14 21 31 43condensing-combination boiler 00 15 17 19 33 59 83 125no boiler 212 149 151 140 133 126 119 120Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 41

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

all dwellings

standard boiler

back boiler

combination boiler

condensing boiler

condensing-combination

boilerno

boilerall

dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 6223 1045 3984 713 1756 1286 15007 private rented 817 149 1112 73 429 716 3296 all private 7040 1194 5096 787 2185 2002 18304

local authority 499 271 481 90 335 309 1984 housing association 533 223 505 72 254 365 1951 all social 1032 494 986 162 589 674 3935

all 8072 1688 6082 948 2773 2676 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 415 70 265 48 117 86 1000 private rented 248 45 337 22 130 217 1000 all private 385 65 278 43 119 109 1000

local authority 251 136 242 45 169 156 1000 housing association 273 114 259 37 130 187 1000 all social 262 125 250 41 150 171 1000

all 363 76 273 43 125 120 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 2853 5210 5334 5825 5974 6644 7267 7418200mm or more of loft insulation 583 1256 2034 2530 2919 3520 4258 4685entire house double glazing 6169 10753 11915 12846 13486 13924 14850 15747

all dwellings 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 140 246 248 270 274 302 327 334200mm or more of loft insulation 29 59 95 117 134 160 192 211entire house double glazing 303 509 555 594 619 633 669 708

all dwellings 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

42 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 8 Cavity wall insulation by tenure

all dwellings

cavity with insulation

cavity uninsulated other all

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5161 5483 4364 15007private rented 566 1213 1517 3296private 5727 6696 5882 18304

local authority 834 657 493 1984housing association 857 720 374 1951social 1691 1378 867 3935

total 7418 8073 6749 22239

percentage of dwellingsowner occupied 344 365 291 100private rented 172 368 460 100private 313 366 321 100

local authority 420 331 248 100housing association 439 369 192 100social 430 350 220 100

total 334 363 303 100

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 43

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

all dwellings

no loftno

insulationless than

50mm50 up to

99mm

100 up to

149mm

150 up to

199mm200mm or more

all dwellings

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 748 442 432 3009 5147 2007 3223 15007 private rented 672 175 66 857 813 281 434 3296 private 1420 617 497 3866 5960 2288 3657 18304

local authority 614 33 19 171 471 206 470 1984 housing association 467 20 16 143 482 265 558 1951 social 1081 53 35 314 953 471 1028 3935

total 2501 670 532 4179 6913 2759 4685 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 50 29 29 200 343 134 215 1000private rented 204 53 20 260 247 85 132 1000private 78 34 27 211 326 125 200 1000

local authority 309 17 10 86 237 104 237 1000housing association 239 10 08 73 247 136 286 1000social 275 14 09 80 242 120 261 1000

total 112 30 24 188 311 124 211 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

44 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

hazard presentnumber of homes (000s) each hazard is present in

falling on stairs 2025excess cold 1966falling on level surfaces 788falling between levels 443fire 318

entry by intruders

flames hot surfacesleaddamp and mould growth 50 to 100 eachcollision and entrapmentradiationfalls associated with baths

crowding and space

food safetypersonal hygiene sanitation and drainage 20 to 50 eachnoisedomestic hygiene pests and refuseelectrical hazards

structural collapse and falling elements

water supplycarbon monoxide and fuel combustion productsposition and operability of amenities less thanexcess heat 20 eachlightinguncombusted fuel gasexplosions

any of the 15 hazards 4842

any of the 26 hazards 5039

Note For 2006 and 2007 the survey reported on 15 hazards only The 2008 EHS can provide estimates for 26 hazards - the additional hazards are marked with an asterisk The three remaining hazards not included in the survey are presence of asbestos biocides or volatile organic compounds For reporting purposes HHSRS and non-decent estimates will be based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with previous years and avoid a break in the time seriesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 45

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 4842 4925private rented 1449 1478all private 6291 6403

local authority 625 640housing association 444 464all social 1069 1104

all tenures 7360 7507

percentagesowner occupied 323 328private rented 440 448all private 344 350

local authority 315 323housing association 228 238all social 272 281

all tenures 331 338

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

46 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 hazards present (compariosn of estimates based on any one to the 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 3342 3452private rented 978 1013all private 4320 4465

local authority 298 326RSL 224 248all social 522 574

all tenures 4842 5039

percentagesowner occupied 223 230private rented 297 307all private 236 244

local authority 150 164RSL 115 127all social 133 146

all tenures 218 227

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 47

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all households

15 hazards 26 hazards

number (000s) percentage () number (000s) percentage ()

decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 1428 653 1413 646private rented 429 490 417 476all private vulnerable 1857 606 1830 597 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 8494 683 8425 677private rented 1246 588 1232 581all private non-vulnerable 9740 669 9657 663 all owner occupied 9922 678 9839 673all private rented 1675 559 1648 550all private 11597 658 11487 663all social 2798 740 2766 731

all households 14395 672 14253 666

non-decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 760 347 775 354private rented 447 510 459 524all private vulnerable 1207 394 1234 403 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 3946 317 4015 323private rented 874 412 888 419all private non-vulnerable 4820 331 4903 337 all owner occupied 4706 322 4790 327all private rented 1321 441 1347 450all private 6027 342 6137 348all social 985 260 1017 269

all households 7012 328 7154 334

Note For reporting purposes decent homes estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

48 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes1 by deprived and other districts by tenure 2006-2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsSocial NRF88 662 652 605Other districts 480 486 464 Private NRF88 2544 2621 2442Other districts 4013 3928 3849

percentages of dwellingsSocial NRF88 313 304 278Other districts 264 278 263 Private NRF88 381 380 361Other districts 353 344 333

Note NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving Neighbourhood Renewal Funding 2001-2006Source English House Condition Survey 2006-2007English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub sample)

Technical annex | 49

Technical annex

General description

The survey consists of three main elements an initial interview survey of 17700 households with a follow up physical inspection and a desk based market valuation of a sub-sample of 8000 of these dwellings including vacant dwellings The interview survey sample forms part of ONSrsquos Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the core questions from the IHS form part of the EHS questionnaire More information about the IHS is available from its webpage wwwstatisticsgovukCCInuggetaspID=936ampPos=1ampColRank=1ampRank=224

The EHS interview content covers the key topics included under the former SEH and EHCS The content of the physical and market value components remains very largely unchanged from the former EHCS

Sampling and grossing

2008-09 Sample1 The initial sample for 2008-09 consisted of 32100 addresses drawn as a systematic

random sample from the Postcode Address File (small users) Interviews were attempted at all of these addresses over the course of the survey year from April 2008 to March 2009 A proportion of addresses were found not to be valid residential properties (eg demolished properties secondholiday homes small businesses not yet built)

2 Of the 17691 addresses where interviews were achieved (the lsquofull household samplersquo) all social rented properties and a sub-sample of private properties were regarded as eligible for the physical survey and the respondentrsquos consent was sought A proportion of vacant properties were also sub-sampled Physical surveys were completed in 7972 cases and these cases contribute to the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo (see below)

3 The principal differences in sampling methodology between the EHS and its predecessors the SEH and EHCS are that

bull The EHS uses an unclustered sample This enables a smaller sample to be used with no loss of precision ie without sampling errors being increased The more scattered sample does however have some implications for fieldwork organisation

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 15: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

Section 1 Households | 15

Figure 3 Economic status of working age HRPs 2008-09

other inactiveretiredunemployedworking

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

alltenures

privaterenters

socialrenters

buying withmortgage

ownoutright

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sampleNote underlying data is presented in annex table 2

Age of household reference person by tenure

111 Owner occupation is the most common tenure in England In 2008-09 there were 68 million households that owned outright and 78 million buying with a mortgage Around three-quarters of mortgagors were aged between 35 and 64 with only 3 aged 65 or over Outright owners the majority of whom were likely to have once had a mortgage and paid it off were concentrated in the older age groups 6 were aged under 45 Overall 32 of owner occupiers were in the 16 to 44 age range

112 Around half (51) of householders aged 25 to 34 were owners 17 were social renters and 31 were private renters Within the 35 to 44 age group the proportions of social and private renters were very similar 17 and 16 respectively and 67 of householders in this age group were owners

113 Over 80 of private renters were aged under 55 with only 8 aged 65 or over By contrast 28 of owner occupiers and 29 of social renters were aged 65 or over

16 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 4 Age of household reference person by tenure 2008-09

all households

age of HRP

16 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54 55 - 64 65 or over all ages

thousands of householdsown outright 9 87 329 759 1752 3833 6770buying with mortgage 114 1562 2619 2237 1071 249 7851all owner occupiers 123 1649 2948 2996 2823 4082 14621 local authority 123 306 373 318 244 523 1887housing association 112 254 385 349 256 599 1955all social renters 235 560 757 667 501 1122 3842 private renters 497 995 686 380 252 257 3067 all tenures 855 3203 4392 4043 3576 5461 21530

percentage within tenureown outright 0 1 5 11 26 57 100buying with mortgage 1 20 33 28 14 3 100all owner occupiers 1 11 20 20 19 28 100 local authority 7 16 20 17 13 28 100housing association 6 13 20 18 13 31 100all social renters 6 15 20 17 13 29 100 private renters 16 32 22 12 8 8 100 all tenures 4 15 20 19 17 25 100

percentage within age groupown outright 1 3 7 19 49 70 31buying with mortgage 13 49 60 55 30 5 36all owner occupiers 14 51 67 74 79 75 68 local authority 14 10 8 8 7 10 9housing association 13 8 9 9 7 11 9all social renters 27 17 17 17 14 21 18 private renters 58 31 16 9 7 5 14 all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Section 1 Households | 17

Figure 4 Age of household reference person by tenure 2008ndash09

per

cen

tage

private renterssocial rentersbuying with mortgageown outright

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

65 or over 55ndash64 45ndash54 35ndash44

age of HRP

25ndash34 16ndash24

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Buying expectations of renters

114 In 2008-09 27 of social renters expected to eventually become homeowners compared to 59 of private renters Of those who did expect to buy 44 of social renters expected to buy their current accommodation compared to only 13 of private renters

18 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 5 Buying aspirations of social and private renters 2008-09

all renters

social renters private renters

percentagesWill eventually buy or share home in UK yes 27 59no 73 41All 100 100

Expect to buy current accommodation (all who expect to buy) yes 44 13no 56 87All 100 100

When expect to buy (all who expect to buy) Less than a yearrsquos time 3 81 year but less than 2 years 7 162 years but less than 5 years 25 345 years or more 65 42All 100 100

Note Expectations to buy include shared ownershipSource English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

115 An estimated 24 of private renters expecting to buy (14 of all private renters) thought that they would buy within the next two years This proportion had fallen from 34 in 2006-07 (see Figure 5) whilst the proportion expecting to buy in five or more yearsrsquo time had risen from 35 to 42 over this period These changes suggest that private renters now expect to rent for longer before being in a position to buy perhaps due to affordability issues

Figure 5 Trend in expected time to buying ndash private renters expecting to buy eventually

per

cen

tage

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

2008-09 2007-082006-07

5 years or more2 years but less than 5lt2 years

Note based on those private renters who expect to buy eventuallySource English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Section 1 Households | 19

Overcrowding and under-occupation

116 Levels of overcrowding are measured using the ldquobedroom standardrdquo (see definition in Glossary) Essentially this is the difference between the number of bedrooms needed to avoid undesirable sharing (given the number and ages of household members and their relationships to each other) and the number of bedrooms actually available to the household

117 The previous estimates of overcrowding were based on three-year moving averages from the Survey of English Housing for 2005-06 2006-07 and 2007-08 The reason for having to base estimates on a three-year average was that with fewer than 3 per cent of households overcrowded the sample size for a single year was too small to provide reliable annual estimates However for 2008-09 in addition to the EHS sample of 17700 households we have information from a further 95000 households that were interviewed for the ONS Labour Force Survey This combined sample was sufficiently large to deliver robust single year estimates for 2008-09 without the need to carry forward the three-year average series

Table 6 Overcrowding and under-occupation by tenure 2008-09

all households

difference from bedroom standard

overcrowded at standardone above

standardunder-

occupied total

thousands of householdsowner occupiers 231 2117 5416 6855 14620

social renters 258 2032 1121 430 3841

private renters 164 1312 1095 494 3066

all tenures 654 5462 7633 7779 21527

percentagesowner occupiers 16 145 370 469 100

social renters 67 529 292 112 100

private renters 54 428 357 161 100

all tenures 30 254 355 361 100

Notes Details of the bedroom standard can be found in the GlossarySource English Housing Survey - full household sample and ONS Labour Force Survey

118 The overall rate of overcrowding in England for 2008-09 was 30 (see Table 6) This compares to the previously published estimate of 28 (averaged over the period 2005-06 to 2007-08) There were around 654000 overcrowded households (compared to an average of 570000 over the period 2005-06 to 2007-08) Levels of overcrowding varied considerably by tenure and were lowest in the owner occupied sector at 16 up from 14 for the period 2005-06 to 2007-08 Around 67 of social renters were overcrowded and 54 of private renters compared to 59 and 49 respectively for 2005-06 to 2007-08

20 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

119 Although the overall rate of overcrowding has shown little change in recent years this is largely due to the relatively stable rate of overcrowding in the owner occupied sector the largest tenure Over the past decade overcrowding has been rising in both the rented sectors

Figure 6 Trend in overcrowding rates by tenure 1995-96 to 2008-09 (3 year moving average)

private renters social rentersowner occupiers all tenures

per

cen

tage

of

ho

use

ho

lds

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

2008

-09

2007

-08

2006

-07

2005

-06

2004

-05

2003

-04

2002

-03

2001

-02

2000

-01

1999

-00

1998

-99

1997

-98

1996

-97

1995

-96

Source Survey of English Housing to 2007-08 and combined English Housing Survey (full sample) plus Labour Force Survey for 2008-09 The estimates up to 2007-08 are three-year moving averages so the ldquo2007-08rdquo figure is actually the average of 2005-06 2006-07 and 2007-08 Since the 2008-09 estimates are for that year only a gap has been introduced to separate the three-year averages to 2007-08 from the annual estimates for 2008-09

120 Around 78 million households were estimated to be under-occupying their accommodation in 2008-09 that is they had at least two bedrooms more than they needed (see definition of bedroom standard in Glossary) Under-occupation was far more likely to be found in the owner occupied sector than in the rented sectors 47 of owner occupiers were under-occupying accommodation compared to 11 of social renters and 16 of private renters

Recent movers

121 In this section we look at those households that had been in their current accommodation for less than 12 months at the time of interview

Section 1 Households | 21

Table 7 Previous tenure by current tenure 2008-09

HRPs resident less than a year

previous tenure ndash continuing households

current tenurenew

householdowner

occupierssocial

rentersprivate renters all tenures

thousands of householdsoutright owners 4 83 0 12 99buying with mortgage 68 204 13 131 416all owner occupiers 72 287 13 144 515

local authority 20 13 76 20 129housing association 24 9 105 38 177all social renters 44 23 181 58 306

private renters 229 141 47 686 1103

all tenures 345 450 241 887 1924

percentageoutright owners 4 84 0 13 100buying with mortgage 16 49 3 32 100all owner occupiers 14 56 3 28 100

local authority 15 10 59 15 100housing association 14 5 59 22 100all social renters 15 7 59 19 100

private renters 21 13 4 62 100

all tenures 18 23 13 46 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

122 Around 18 of households that had moved into their accommodation in the previous year were new households Two thirds (66) of these new households were private renters and around one fifth (21) were owner occupiers Movement within tenure was more common than moves between tenures 62 of current private renters had previously been private renters 59 of social renters had moved from another social rented property and 56 of owner occupiers had owned their previous property Movement into the social rented sector for continuing households was more likely to be from private renting (19 of current social renters) than from owner occupation (7)

22 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Attitudes to home and local area

123 Around 90 of households in England were satisfied with their accommodation in 2008-09 The highest levels of satisfaction were expressed by outright owners 73 of whom said that they were very satisfied with their homes Over three quarters of social renters were satisfied with their homes but 9 were slightly dissatisfied and 7 were very dissatisfied Around 82 of private renters were very or fairly satisfied with their accommodation and only 3 said they were very dissatisfied

Table 8 Satisfaction with accommodation by tenure 2008-09

all households

very satisfied

fairly satisfied

neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

slightly dissatisfied

very dissatisfied Total

thousands of householdsoutright owners 4926 1535 111 100 36 6709buying with mortgage 4604 2719 232 200 55 7810all owneroccupiers 9530 4254 343 300 91 14519

local authority 697 736 98 192 142 1866housing association 842 700 116 159 117 1935all social renters 1539 1437 214 351 260 3801

private renters 1240 1211 193 227 102 2972

all tenures 12309 6901 751 878 452 21291

percentagesoutright owners 73 23 2 1 1 100buying with mortgage 59 35 3 3 1 100all owneroccupiers 66 29 2 2 1 100

local authority 37 39 5 10 8 100housing association 44 36 6 8 6 100all social renters 40 38 6 9 7 100

private renters 42 41 6 8 3 100

all tenures 58 32 4 4 2 100

Note This question is not asked of proxy respondents and a small proportion of respondents chose not to answer These exclusions are reflected in the overall total number of households in this table Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

124 A large majority of households are satisfied with the local area in which they live In 2008-09 just over half of all households in England were very satisfied with their local area and 87 were very or fairly satisfied Only 3 of households were very dissatisfied with their local area

Section 1 Households | 23

125 There were some differences by tenure 89 of owner occupiers were satisfied with their local area compared to 79 of social renters and 85 of private renters Whilst only two per cent of owner occupiers and private renters said that they were very dissatisfied with their local area seven per cent of social renters were very dissatisfied

Table 9 Satisfaction with local area by tenure 2008-09

all households

very satisfied

fairly satisfied

neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

slightly dissatisfied

very dissatisfied Total

thousands of householdsoutright owners 3999 2093 180 322 114 6708buying with mortgage 3919 2973 371 420 127 7810all owners 7918 5066 552 742 241 14518

local authority 754 712 122 159 122 1867housing association 861 679 116 150 129 1936all social renters 1615 1391 238 309 251 3803

private renters 1520 1001 183 194 73 2972

all tenures 11052 7458 972 1245 565 21293

percentagesoutright owners 60 31 3 5 2 100buying with mortgage 50 38 5 5 2 100all owners 55 35 4 5 2 100

local authority 40 38 7 9 7 100housing association 44 35 6 8 7 100all social renters 42 37 6 8 7 100

private renters 51 34 6 7 2 100

all tenures 52 35 5 6 3 100

Note This question is not asked of proxy respondents and a small proportion of respondents chose not to answer These exclusions are reflected in the overall total number of households in this table Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

24 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Section 2Housing stock

21 Results relating to the housing stock in this report are presented using two yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the English House Condition Survey (EHCS) For this transition year data from the last full year of the EHCS (2007-08) were combined with the first year of the EHS (2008-09)

22 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Stock profile

23 There were around 222 million dwellings in 2008 Table 10 Of these 183 million (82 of the stock) were in the private sector and comprised 150 million owner occupied homes and 33 million private rented homes There were 39 million social sector homes (18 of the stock) of which two million were owned by local authority and two million by housing associations

Section 2 Housing stock | 25

Table 10 Stock profile 2008

all dwellings

private sector social sector

owner occupied

private rented

all private sector

local authority

housing association

all social sector

all dwellings

in group

thousands of dwellingsdwelling agepre 1919 3194 1309 4503 86 170 257 47601919-44 2689 431 3120 336 187 522 36421945-64 2708 384 3092 760 511 1271 43631965-80 3146 536 3682 665 467 1132 48141981-90 1401 222 1624 107 223 330 1953post 1990 1869 415 2284 30 394 424 2708

dwelling typemid terrace 2638 820 3459 325 367 693 4151end terrance 1440 340 1779 199 222 421 2201small terraced house 1216 548 1764 192 217 408 2172mediumlarge terraced house 2862 612 3475 333 373 705 4180all terrace 4078 1160 5238 524 589 1114 6352semi-detached house 4515 556 5070 365 351 716 5786detached house 3575 267 3843 5 18 24 3867bungalow 1548 133 1681 176 236 412 2092converted flat 284 427 712 38 75 113 825purpose built flat low rise 926 704 1630 724 626 1349 2979purpose built flat high rise 81 49 130 152 56 208 338

floor arealess than 50 sqm 742 652 1394 550 536 1086 248050 to 69 sqm 2913 1028 3942 725 680 1405 534770 to 89 sqm 4361 890 5251 575 553 1127 637990 to 109 sqm 2632 322 2954 102 132 234 3188110 sqm or more 4359 403 4763 32 52 83 4846

type of areacity centre 295 262 558 72 75 147 704other urban centre 2263 967 3230 538 458 996 4227suburban residential 9204 1581 10785 1236 1171 2407 13192rural residential 2074 233 2307 105 190 295 2601village centre 647 110 756 26 47 72 829rural 524 144 668 7 11 19 687

deprived local areasmost deprived 10 773 325 1097 595 468 1064 21612-5th 5331 1518 6849 1121 1025 2145 89956-9th 7072 1188 8260 249 423 672 8932least deprived 1832 266 2097 19 36 54 2152

occupancy statusoccupied 14610 2858 17468 1896 1860 3755 21223vacant 398 438 836 88 92 180 1016

Total 15007 3296 18304 1984 1951 3935 22239

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

26 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

24 The large majority of dwellings were houses (181 million) most commonly terraced or semi-detached The remainder of the stock 41 million consisited of flats predominately purpose built low rise flats However types of housing vary markedly between tenures While 91 of owner occupied housing was made up of houses almost half (46) of local authority homes were flats Figure 7 Flats also accounted for over a third of private rented homes and housing association homes (36 and 39 respectively)

Figure 7 Dwelling type by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

purpose built flat high risepurpose built flat low riseconverted flatdetached houses and bungalowssemi-detached housemediumlarge terraced housesmall terraced house

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

25 England has a relatively old housing stock with some 84 million homes built before 1945 of which 48 million were built before 1919 A fifth of homes (47 million) have been built since 1980

26 Stock in different tenures have different age profiles It is noticeable that owner occupied homes are evenly distributed across the five age bands compared with other tenures Figure 8 In the private rented sector for example 40 (13 million homes) were built before 1919 significantly higher than other tenures Housing association homes were more likely to have been built during the 1980s and 1990s (32) compared to only 7 of local authority homes

Section 2 Housing stock | 27

Figure 8 Age of housing stock by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

post 19901981-901965-801945-641919-44pre 1919

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

27 Some 44 million (29) of owner occupied homes had a floor area greater than 110m2 including 18 million (12 of the sector) which were over 150m2 This reflects the proportion of semi-detached and detached owner occupied homes which tend to be large Social sector homes were most likely to have a floor area of less than 50m2 compared with those in the private sector (28 and 8 respectively)

28 Homes in England were most likely to be located in suburban residential areas and least likely to be found in rural areas (59 and 3 respectively)

Energy efficiency of the housing stock

Heating and insulation29 Key ways of increasing the energy efficiency of existing homes are

improvements to their heating systems and levels of insulation For heating the type of heating system boiler in use and the fuel used are all related to energy performance

210 Central heating is the predominant main heating system present in 199 million homes (89 of the housing stock) in 2008 see Annex Table 3 This was followed by storage heaters present in 16 million (7) of homes and room heaters in 700000 homes (3) Central heating is generally considered to be the most cost effective and relatively efficient method of heating whereas room heaters tend to be the least cost effective and relatively inefficient method of heating

28 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

211 In 2008 92 of owner occupied homes had central heating systems compared to 88 of social and 80 of private rented homes see Annex Table 4 In part this reflects the higher proportion of flats in the rented sectors compared with owner occupation with 23 of flats using storage heaters

212 Condensing boilers are generally the most efficient boiler type and are now mandatory for new and replacement boilers (for gas fired boilers since 2005 for oil fired boilers since 2007) However even prior to these requirements the less efficient standard and back boilers were decreasing in use with the growing popularity of standard combination types Figure 9 Recent years have seen rapidly expanding take up of condensing and particularly combination condensing boilers In 2008 37 million homes (17 of the stock) had one of the two types of condensing boilers

Figure 9 Boiler types 1996-2008

no boiler

condensing-combination boiler condensing boilercombination boilerback boiler (to fire or stove)standard boiler (floor or wall)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

20082007200620052004200320011996

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes underpinning data is presented in Annex Table 5Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

213 For a home to provide optimum energy performance a high level of thermal insulation needs to be present alongside an efficient heating system Standard insulation measures include cavity wall insulation loft insulation and double glazing which have all improved in the stock since 1996 Figure 10

214 In 2008 155 million homes (70) had external walls of cavity construction 74 million homes (33 of the stock) had cavity wall insulation 47 million homes (21) had 200mm or more of loft insulation and 157 million homes (71) had full double glazing with an additional 29 million homes (13) having more than half double glazed Figure 10

Section 2 Housing stock | 29

Figure 10 Insulation measures 1996-2008

20082007200620052004200320011996

entire housedouble glazing

200mm or moreof loft insulation

cavity walls withinsulation

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes1) Only 89 of dwellings have lofts and 70 of dwellings have cavity walls2) Underpinning data is presented in annex Table 7Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

215 In 2008 the social rented sector had the greatest proportion of homes with cavity wall insulation (local authority 42 housing association 44) 200mm or more of loft insulation (local authority 24 housing association 29) and full double glazing (local authority 75 housing association 83) whereas the private rented sector had the lowest proportion of all three standard insulation measures cavity wall insulation (17) 200mm or more of loft insulation (13) and full double glazing (61) Figure 11

30 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Figure 11 Percentage of dwellings with efficient insulation measures by tenure 2008

full double glazing200mm or moreloft insulation

cavity withinsulation

cavity wall

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

housing associationlocal authorityprivate rentedowner occupied0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Base all dwellingsSource English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

SAP Rating

216 The energy efficiency of the housing stock continued to improve between 1996 and 2008 the average SAP rating of a home increased by 9 SAP points from 42 to 51 Table 11 The social sector was on average more energy efficient than the private sector and saw the greatest improvement with the average SAP rating increasing by 12 SAP points from 47 to 59

Table 11 Energy efficiency average SAP rating by tenure 2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

owner occupied 411 444 450 456 461 469 481 496private rented 379 419 444 457 460 466 481 502all private 407 441 449 456 461 468 481 497

local authority 457 496 520 539 553 558 562 580housing association 509 564 567 573 589 593 595 603all social 468 519 539 553 569 574 578 592

all tenures 421 457 466 474 481 487 498 514

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Section 2 Housing stock | 31

217 There has been a significant increase in the proportion of homes achieving the highest Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands in 2008 10 (23 million) of homes achieved the highest (EER) Bands A to C3 compared with 7 (16 million) in 2006 Table 12 The number of homes in the lowest EER Bands (F and G) fell by a million over the same period The majority of homes (73) continue to be in the EER Bands D or E

Table 12 Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 35 35 77Band C (69-80) 1545 1710 2229Band D (55-68) 6555 7316 7865Band E (39-54) 9072 8859 8310Band F (21-38) 3838 3389 2972Band G (1-20) 943 881 786Total 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 02 02 03Band C (69-80) 70 77 100Band D (55-68) 298 330 354Band E (39-54) 413 399 374Band F (21-38) 175 153 134Band G (1-20) 43 40 35Total 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 2006 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Housing health and safety rating system

218 A potentially serious (Category 1) hazard as measured under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System was present in around 48 million homes in 2008 22 of the housing stock

2 EER Bands are used in the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) The Certificate provides among other indicators an energy efficiency rating for the home on a scale from A-G (where A is the most efficient and G the least efficient)

32 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Housing conditions

Housing Health and Safety Rating System219 There was no significant change in the proportion of homes with any Category

1 hazard between 2006 and 2008 Hazards tend to be more common in older housing stock for example stairs are more likely to be steep and narrow in older housing making lsquofalls on stairsrsquo more likely or heating and insulation measures tend to be less effective in older stock making lsquoexcess coldrsquo a more serious hazard Therefore it is not surprising that hazards are more common in the private sector where the older housing stock is concentrated Almost a quarter of housing in the private sector had at least one category 1 hazard in 2008 (24) compared to around 13 in the social sector Table 14 Privately rented homes were most likely to have Category 1 hazards present compared to housing association homes (31 and 13 respectively)

220 The most common type of hazard in all four tenures was falls (see annex Table 10 for details of which hazards are included in this category) Overall 13 of homes have at least one type of falls hazard present

Decent homes221 In 2008 74 million homes (33) were non-decent4 Table 13 Housing

association housing was the least likely to be non-decent (23) while private rented housing was in the worst condition with 44 of homes being non-decent Overall social sector homes were in a better condition than private sector homes with 27 being non-decent compared to 34

222 The number of non-decent homes fell from 77 million in 2006 to 74 million in 20085 Conditions in the social sector improved with the proportion of homes failing the standard falling by two percentage points from 29 in 2006 to 27 in 2008 Private sector homes also improved from 36 non-decent in 2006 to 34 non-decent in 2008

4 Estimates from the EHS are based soley on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors subject to any limitations of the information they collect The EHS estimates in this report do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property

5 In 2006 the Housing Health and Safety Rating System replaced the Fitness Standard as the statutory minimum standard for housing Earlier estimates based on the original definition are not comparable therefore any change in the number of decent homes can only be referenced back to 2006 Figures for decent homes prior to 2006 can be found in the 2006 English House Condition Survey Annual Report available at wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

Section 2 Housing stock | 33

Table 13 Non-decent homes by tenure 2006 ndash 2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5335 5304 4842private rented 1223 1244 1449all private 6558 6548 6291

local authority 676 652 625housing association 465 486 444all social 1142 1138 1069

all tenures 7700 7686 7360

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 346 341 323private rented 468 454 440all private 363 358 344

local authority 324 328 315housing association 252 255 228all social 290 292 272

all tenures 350 346 331

Notes1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties between 2007 and 2008 are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates See Annex Table 11Sources2006 ndash 2007 English House Condition Survey2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Reasons for failing decent homes223 Of the four components required to meet the decent homes standard the

presence of one or more category 1 hazards under the HHSRS was the most commonly failed Table 14 This is particularly the case for private sector homes where 24 of homes had one or more Category 1 hazards present compared to 13 of social sector homes

34 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 14 Homes failing decent homes criteria by tenure 2008

all dwellings

Category 1 hazard (HHSRS)

thermal comfort

modern facilities repair all non-decent

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 3342 1773 379 817 4842private rented 978 637 160 369 1449all private 4320 2411 539 1186 6291

local authority 298 227 138 146 625housing association 224 199 50 86 444all social 522 426 188 231 1069

all tenures 4842 2837 727 1417 7360

percentages

owner occupied 223 118 25 54 323private rented 297 193 49 112 440all private 236 132 29 65 344

local authority 150 115 70 74 315housing association 115 102 25 44 228all social 133 108 48 59 272

all tenures 218 128 33 64 331

Note The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoids a break in the time series See Annex Table 12 for estimate based on 26 hazardsSource English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

224 There was significant progress in the thermal comfort of homes between 2006 and 2008 The proportion of homes failing thermal comfort fell to 13 in 2008 from 16 in 2006 Improvement has been made across all tenures

Private sector vulnerable households225 In 2008 31 million lsquovulnerablersquo households6 were living in the private sector of

which 12 million (39) were living in non-decent homes the remaining 19 million (61) were living in decent accommodation Table 15 There has been no significant change since 2006

226 Vulnerable households who privately rent their accommodation were more likely to live in non-decent homes compared to social tenants (51 and 26 respectively) Table 15

6 Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

Section 2 Housing stock | 35

Table 15 Households living in decent homes 2006-2008

all dwellings

number (000s) percentage ()

2006 2007 2008 2006 2007 2008

decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 1543 1575 1428 630 649 653private rented 334 354 429 450 482 490all private vulnerable 1877 1929 1857 588 610 606

private non- vulnerableowner occupied 8418 8531 8494 664 667 683private rented 922 985 1246 567 566 588all private non-vulnerable 9340 9516 9740 653 655 669

all owner occupied 9961 10106 9922 658 664 678all private rented 1256 1339 1675 530 541 559all private 11217 11445 11597 641 647 658all social 2690 2649 2798 722 719 740all households 13907 14094 14395 655 659 672

non-decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 905 851 760 370 351 347private rented 408 380 447 550 518 510all private vulnerable 1313 1231 1207 412 390 394

private non-vulnerableowner occupied 4262 4264 3946 336 333 317private rented 704 754 874 433 434 412all private non-vulnerable 4966 5018 4820 347 345 331

all owner occupied 5167 5115 4706 342 336 322all private rented 1112 1134 1321 470 459 441all private 6279 6249 6027 359 353 342

all social 1034 1037 985 278 281 260all households 7313 7286 7012 345 341 328

Notes 1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoid a break in the time series See Annex Table 13 for further detailsSource English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

36 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Damp and mould growth227 The proportion of homes with damp problems has reduced from 13 in 1996

to 8 in 2008 Table 16

Table 16 Number and percentage of homes with damp problems in one or more rooms 1996-2008

all dwellings

rising damp

penetrating damp

condensation mould

any damp problems

thousands of dwellings1996 858 1271 1145 26012001 625 1032 860 20322003 740 1066 1003 22832004 750 1035 951 22512005 759 952 941 22102006 724 886 947 21582007 640 833 881 19162008 584 759 865 1746

percentage of dwellings1996 42 63 56 1282001 29 49 41 962003 34 50 47 1062004 35 48 44 1042005 35 44 43 1012006 33 40 43 982007 29 38 40 862008 26 34 39 78

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

228 Privately rented homes were more likely to experience damp problems compared to other tenures Figure 11 Privately rented homes were more likely to be older homes and experience problems with rising or penetrating damp due to defects in the damp proof course roof covering gutters and down pipes which would affect at least one room in the property

229 In the social sector damp problems were more likely to be caused by serious condensation and mould growth rather than by rising damp Figure 12

Section 2 Housing stock | 37

Figure 12 Percentage of homes with a damp problem by tenure 2008

rising damp penetrating damp condensationmould

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

alltenures

housingassociation

localauthority

privaterented

owneroccupied

per

cen

tage

of

ho

mes

wit

h d

amp

pro

ble

ms

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

38 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex tables

Households

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

Annex Table 2 Economic Status of working age HRP by tenure 2008-09

Energy efficiency

Annex Table 3 Heating Type 1996-2008

Annex Table 4 Main Heating System by tenure 2008

Annex Table 5 Boiler Types 1996-2008

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

Annex Table 8 Cavity Wall insulation by tenure 2008

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

Housing Health and Safety Rating System

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 HHSRS hazards present (comparison of estimates based on any one of 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Non-decent homes in deprived areas

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes in deprived areas by tenure 2006-2008

Annex tables | 39

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent

child(ren)

couple with dependent

child(ren)

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)

other multi-

person households

all one-person

households

all household

types

percentageown outright 46 9 7 24 37 31buying with mortgage 35 66 27 25 23 36social renters 9 13 44 20 25 18private renters 10 12 22 31 15 14

all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 2 Economic status of working age HRP by tenure

all households

working un-employed retired other inactive Total percentage

own outright 74 2 14 10 100buying with mortgage 94 1 1 4 100social renters 49 12 1 37 100private renters 75 5 1 19 100all tenures 80 4 3 13 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 3 Heating type 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingscentral heating 16178 18177 18604 18919 19179 19553 19862 19862storage heater 1643 1600 1587 1616 1609 1532 1552 1641fixed roomportable heater 2515 2001 1294 1078 993 904 776 736Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingscentral heating 796 860 866 875 881 889 895 893storage heater 81 76 74 75 74 70 70 74fixed roomportable heating heater 124 95 60 50 46 41 35 33Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

40 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 4 Main heating system by tenure 2008

all dwellings

central heating storage heaterfixed room

heatingportable

heating only all dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 13788 790 411 19 15007 private rented 2630 441 208 17 3296 all private 16418 1232 619 36 18304

local authority 1776 160 46 2 1984 housing association 1669 249 33 1 1951 all social 3445 409 79 3 3935

all tenures 19862 1641 698 38 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 919 53 27 01 1000 private rented 798 134 63 05 1000 all private 897 67 34 02 1000

local authority 895 80 23 01 1000 housing association 855 128 17 00 1000 all social 875 104 20 01 1000

all tenures 893 74 31 02 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 5 Boiler types 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsstandard boiler 10447 10338 9642 9635 9425 9014 8782 8072back boiler 2773 2759 2580 2409 2181 2131 1944 1688combination boiler 2810 4431 5492 5934 6254 6312 6287 6082condensing boiler ndash 155 154 202 300 460 698 948condensing-combination boiler ndash 318 373 417 727 1297 1837 2773no boiler 4305 3140 3244 3016 2894 2775 2642 2676Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsstandard boiler 514 489 449 446 433 410 396 363back boiler 136 130 120 111 100 97 88 76combination boiler 138 210 256 275 287 287 283 273condensing boiler 00 07 07 09 14 21 31 43condensing-combination boiler 00 15 17 19 33 59 83 125no boiler 212 149 151 140 133 126 119 120Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 41

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

all dwellings

standard boiler

back boiler

combination boiler

condensing boiler

condensing-combination

boilerno

boilerall

dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 6223 1045 3984 713 1756 1286 15007 private rented 817 149 1112 73 429 716 3296 all private 7040 1194 5096 787 2185 2002 18304

local authority 499 271 481 90 335 309 1984 housing association 533 223 505 72 254 365 1951 all social 1032 494 986 162 589 674 3935

all 8072 1688 6082 948 2773 2676 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 415 70 265 48 117 86 1000 private rented 248 45 337 22 130 217 1000 all private 385 65 278 43 119 109 1000

local authority 251 136 242 45 169 156 1000 housing association 273 114 259 37 130 187 1000 all social 262 125 250 41 150 171 1000

all 363 76 273 43 125 120 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 2853 5210 5334 5825 5974 6644 7267 7418200mm or more of loft insulation 583 1256 2034 2530 2919 3520 4258 4685entire house double glazing 6169 10753 11915 12846 13486 13924 14850 15747

all dwellings 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 140 246 248 270 274 302 327 334200mm or more of loft insulation 29 59 95 117 134 160 192 211entire house double glazing 303 509 555 594 619 633 669 708

all dwellings 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

42 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 8 Cavity wall insulation by tenure

all dwellings

cavity with insulation

cavity uninsulated other all

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5161 5483 4364 15007private rented 566 1213 1517 3296private 5727 6696 5882 18304

local authority 834 657 493 1984housing association 857 720 374 1951social 1691 1378 867 3935

total 7418 8073 6749 22239

percentage of dwellingsowner occupied 344 365 291 100private rented 172 368 460 100private 313 366 321 100

local authority 420 331 248 100housing association 439 369 192 100social 430 350 220 100

total 334 363 303 100

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 43

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

all dwellings

no loftno

insulationless than

50mm50 up to

99mm

100 up to

149mm

150 up to

199mm200mm or more

all dwellings

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 748 442 432 3009 5147 2007 3223 15007 private rented 672 175 66 857 813 281 434 3296 private 1420 617 497 3866 5960 2288 3657 18304

local authority 614 33 19 171 471 206 470 1984 housing association 467 20 16 143 482 265 558 1951 social 1081 53 35 314 953 471 1028 3935

total 2501 670 532 4179 6913 2759 4685 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 50 29 29 200 343 134 215 1000private rented 204 53 20 260 247 85 132 1000private 78 34 27 211 326 125 200 1000

local authority 309 17 10 86 237 104 237 1000housing association 239 10 08 73 247 136 286 1000social 275 14 09 80 242 120 261 1000

total 112 30 24 188 311 124 211 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

44 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

hazard presentnumber of homes (000s) each hazard is present in

falling on stairs 2025excess cold 1966falling on level surfaces 788falling between levels 443fire 318

entry by intruders

flames hot surfacesleaddamp and mould growth 50 to 100 eachcollision and entrapmentradiationfalls associated with baths

crowding and space

food safetypersonal hygiene sanitation and drainage 20 to 50 eachnoisedomestic hygiene pests and refuseelectrical hazards

structural collapse and falling elements

water supplycarbon monoxide and fuel combustion productsposition and operability of amenities less thanexcess heat 20 eachlightinguncombusted fuel gasexplosions

any of the 15 hazards 4842

any of the 26 hazards 5039

Note For 2006 and 2007 the survey reported on 15 hazards only The 2008 EHS can provide estimates for 26 hazards - the additional hazards are marked with an asterisk The three remaining hazards not included in the survey are presence of asbestos biocides or volatile organic compounds For reporting purposes HHSRS and non-decent estimates will be based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with previous years and avoid a break in the time seriesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 45

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 4842 4925private rented 1449 1478all private 6291 6403

local authority 625 640housing association 444 464all social 1069 1104

all tenures 7360 7507

percentagesowner occupied 323 328private rented 440 448all private 344 350

local authority 315 323housing association 228 238all social 272 281

all tenures 331 338

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

46 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 hazards present (compariosn of estimates based on any one to the 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 3342 3452private rented 978 1013all private 4320 4465

local authority 298 326RSL 224 248all social 522 574

all tenures 4842 5039

percentagesowner occupied 223 230private rented 297 307all private 236 244

local authority 150 164RSL 115 127all social 133 146

all tenures 218 227

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 47

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all households

15 hazards 26 hazards

number (000s) percentage () number (000s) percentage ()

decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 1428 653 1413 646private rented 429 490 417 476all private vulnerable 1857 606 1830 597 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 8494 683 8425 677private rented 1246 588 1232 581all private non-vulnerable 9740 669 9657 663 all owner occupied 9922 678 9839 673all private rented 1675 559 1648 550all private 11597 658 11487 663all social 2798 740 2766 731

all households 14395 672 14253 666

non-decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 760 347 775 354private rented 447 510 459 524all private vulnerable 1207 394 1234 403 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 3946 317 4015 323private rented 874 412 888 419all private non-vulnerable 4820 331 4903 337 all owner occupied 4706 322 4790 327all private rented 1321 441 1347 450all private 6027 342 6137 348all social 985 260 1017 269

all households 7012 328 7154 334

Note For reporting purposes decent homes estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

48 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes1 by deprived and other districts by tenure 2006-2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsSocial NRF88 662 652 605Other districts 480 486 464 Private NRF88 2544 2621 2442Other districts 4013 3928 3849

percentages of dwellingsSocial NRF88 313 304 278Other districts 264 278 263 Private NRF88 381 380 361Other districts 353 344 333

Note NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving Neighbourhood Renewal Funding 2001-2006Source English House Condition Survey 2006-2007English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub sample)

Technical annex | 49

Technical annex

General description

The survey consists of three main elements an initial interview survey of 17700 households with a follow up physical inspection and a desk based market valuation of a sub-sample of 8000 of these dwellings including vacant dwellings The interview survey sample forms part of ONSrsquos Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the core questions from the IHS form part of the EHS questionnaire More information about the IHS is available from its webpage wwwstatisticsgovukCCInuggetaspID=936ampPos=1ampColRank=1ampRank=224

The EHS interview content covers the key topics included under the former SEH and EHCS The content of the physical and market value components remains very largely unchanged from the former EHCS

Sampling and grossing

2008-09 Sample1 The initial sample for 2008-09 consisted of 32100 addresses drawn as a systematic

random sample from the Postcode Address File (small users) Interviews were attempted at all of these addresses over the course of the survey year from April 2008 to March 2009 A proportion of addresses were found not to be valid residential properties (eg demolished properties secondholiday homes small businesses not yet built)

2 Of the 17691 addresses where interviews were achieved (the lsquofull household samplersquo) all social rented properties and a sub-sample of private properties were regarded as eligible for the physical survey and the respondentrsquos consent was sought A proportion of vacant properties were also sub-sampled Physical surveys were completed in 7972 cases and these cases contribute to the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo (see below)

3 The principal differences in sampling methodology between the EHS and its predecessors the SEH and EHCS are that

bull The EHS uses an unclustered sample This enables a smaller sample to be used with no loss of precision ie without sampling errors being increased The more scattered sample does however have some implications for fieldwork organisation

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 16: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

16 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 4 Age of household reference person by tenure 2008-09

all households

age of HRP

16 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54 55 - 64 65 or over all ages

thousands of householdsown outright 9 87 329 759 1752 3833 6770buying with mortgage 114 1562 2619 2237 1071 249 7851all owner occupiers 123 1649 2948 2996 2823 4082 14621 local authority 123 306 373 318 244 523 1887housing association 112 254 385 349 256 599 1955all social renters 235 560 757 667 501 1122 3842 private renters 497 995 686 380 252 257 3067 all tenures 855 3203 4392 4043 3576 5461 21530

percentage within tenureown outright 0 1 5 11 26 57 100buying with mortgage 1 20 33 28 14 3 100all owner occupiers 1 11 20 20 19 28 100 local authority 7 16 20 17 13 28 100housing association 6 13 20 18 13 31 100all social renters 6 15 20 17 13 29 100 private renters 16 32 22 12 8 8 100 all tenures 4 15 20 19 17 25 100

percentage within age groupown outright 1 3 7 19 49 70 31buying with mortgage 13 49 60 55 30 5 36all owner occupiers 14 51 67 74 79 75 68 local authority 14 10 8 8 7 10 9housing association 13 8 9 9 7 11 9all social renters 27 17 17 17 14 21 18 private renters 58 31 16 9 7 5 14 all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Section 1 Households | 17

Figure 4 Age of household reference person by tenure 2008ndash09

per

cen

tage

private renterssocial rentersbuying with mortgageown outright

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

65 or over 55ndash64 45ndash54 35ndash44

age of HRP

25ndash34 16ndash24

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Buying expectations of renters

114 In 2008-09 27 of social renters expected to eventually become homeowners compared to 59 of private renters Of those who did expect to buy 44 of social renters expected to buy their current accommodation compared to only 13 of private renters

18 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 5 Buying aspirations of social and private renters 2008-09

all renters

social renters private renters

percentagesWill eventually buy or share home in UK yes 27 59no 73 41All 100 100

Expect to buy current accommodation (all who expect to buy) yes 44 13no 56 87All 100 100

When expect to buy (all who expect to buy) Less than a yearrsquos time 3 81 year but less than 2 years 7 162 years but less than 5 years 25 345 years or more 65 42All 100 100

Note Expectations to buy include shared ownershipSource English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

115 An estimated 24 of private renters expecting to buy (14 of all private renters) thought that they would buy within the next two years This proportion had fallen from 34 in 2006-07 (see Figure 5) whilst the proportion expecting to buy in five or more yearsrsquo time had risen from 35 to 42 over this period These changes suggest that private renters now expect to rent for longer before being in a position to buy perhaps due to affordability issues

Figure 5 Trend in expected time to buying ndash private renters expecting to buy eventually

per

cen

tage

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

2008-09 2007-082006-07

5 years or more2 years but less than 5lt2 years

Note based on those private renters who expect to buy eventuallySource English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Section 1 Households | 19

Overcrowding and under-occupation

116 Levels of overcrowding are measured using the ldquobedroom standardrdquo (see definition in Glossary) Essentially this is the difference between the number of bedrooms needed to avoid undesirable sharing (given the number and ages of household members and their relationships to each other) and the number of bedrooms actually available to the household

117 The previous estimates of overcrowding were based on three-year moving averages from the Survey of English Housing for 2005-06 2006-07 and 2007-08 The reason for having to base estimates on a three-year average was that with fewer than 3 per cent of households overcrowded the sample size for a single year was too small to provide reliable annual estimates However for 2008-09 in addition to the EHS sample of 17700 households we have information from a further 95000 households that were interviewed for the ONS Labour Force Survey This combined sample was sufficiently large to deliver robust single year estimates for 2008-09 without the need to carry forward the three-year average series

Table 6 Overcrowding and under-occupation by tenure 2008-09

all households

difference from bedroom standard

overcrowded at standardone above

standardunder-

occupied total

thousands of householdsowner occupiers 231 2117 5416 6855 14620

social renters 258 2032 1121 430 3841

private renters 164 1312 1095 494 3066

all tenures 654 5462 7633 7779 21527

percentagesowner occupiers 16 145 370 469 100

social renters 67 529 292 112 100

private renters 54 428 357 161 100

all tenures 30 254 355 361 100

Notes Details of the bedroom standard can be found in the GlossarySource English Housing Survey - full household sample and ONS Labour Force Survey

118 The overall rate of overcrowding in England for 2008-09 was 30 (see Table 6) This compares to the previously published estimate of 28 (averaged over the period 2005-06 to 2007-08) There were around 654000 overcrowded households (compared to an average of 570000 over the period 2005-06 to 2007-08) Levels of overcrowding varied considerably by tenure and were lowest in the owner occupied sector at 16 up from 14 for the period 2005-06 to 2007-08 Around 67 of social renters were overcrowded and 54 of private renters compared to 59 and 49 respectively for 2005-06 to 2007-08

20 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

119 Although the overall rate of overcrowding has shown little change in recent years this is largely due to the relatively stable rate of overcrowding in the owner occupied sector the largest tenure Over the past decade overcrowding has been rising in both the rented sectors

Figure 6 Trend in overcrowding rates by tenure 1995-96 to 2008-09 (3 year moving average)

private renters social rentersowner occupiers all tenures

per

cen

tage

of

ho

use

ho

lds

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

2008

-09

2007

-08

2006

-07

2005

-06

2004

-05

2003

-04

2002

-03

2001

-02

2000

-01

1999

-00

1998

-99

1997

-98

1996

-97

1995

-96

Source Survey of English Housing to 2007-08 and combined English Housing Survey (full sample) plus Labour Force Survey for 2008-09 The estimates up to 2007-08 are three-year moving averages so the ldquo2007-08rdquo figure is actually the average of 2005-06 2006-07 and 2007-08 Since the 2008-09 estimates are for that year only a gap has been introduced to separate the three-year averages to 2007-08 from the annual estimates for 2008-09

120 Around 78 million households were estimated to be under-occupying their accommodation in 2008-09 that is they had at least two bedrooms more than they needed (see definition of bedroom standard in Glossary) Under-occupation was far more likely to be found in the owner occupied sector than in the rented sectors 47 of owner occupiers were under-occupying accommodation compared to 11 of social renters and 16 of private renters

Recent movers

121 In this section we look at those households that had been in their current accommodation for less than 12 months at the time of interview

Section 1 Households | 21

Table 7 Previous tenure by current tenure 2008-09

HRPs resident less than a year

previous tenure ndash continuing households

current tenurenew

householdowner

occupierssocial

rentersprivate renters all tenures

thousands of householdsoutright owners 4 83 0 12 99buying with mortgage 68 204 13 131 416all owner occupiers 72 287 13 144 515

local authority 20 13 76 20 129housing association 24 9 105 38 177all social renters 44 23 181 58 306

private renters 229 141 47 686 1103

all tenures 345 450 241 887 1924

percentageoutright owners 4 84 0 13 100buying with mortgage 16 49 3 32 100all owner occupiers 14 56 3 28 100

local authority 15 10 59 15 100housing association 14 5 59 22 100all social renters 15 7 59 19 100

private renters 21 13 4 62 100

all tenures 18 23 13 46 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

122 Around 18 of households that had moved into their accommodation in the previous year were new households Two thirds (66) of these new households were private renters and around one fifth (21) were owner occupiers Movement within tenure was more common than moves between tenures 62 of current private renters had previously been private renters 59 of social renters had moved from another social rented property and 56 of owner occupiers had owned their previous property Movement into the social rented sector for continuing households was more likely to be from private renting (19 of current social renters) than from owner occupation (7)

22 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Attitudes to home and local area

123 Around 90 of households in England were satisfied with their accommodation in 2008-09 The highest levels of satisfaction were expressed by outright owners 73 of whom said that they were very satisfied with their homes Over three quarters of social renters were satisfied with their homes but 9 were slightly dissatisfied and 7 were very dissatisfied Around 82 of private renters were very or fairly satisfied with their accommodation and only 3 said they were very dissatisfied

Table 8 Satisfaction with accommodation by tenure 2008-09

all households

very satisfied

fairly satisfied

neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

slightly dissatisfied

very dissatisfied Total

thousands of householdsoutright owners 4926 1535 111 100 36 6709buying with mortgage 4604 2719 232 200 55 7810all owneroccupiers 9530 4254 343 300 91 14519

local authority 697 736 98 192 142 1866housing association 842 700 116 159 117 1935all social renters 1539 1437 214 351 260 3801

private renters 1240 1211 193 227 102 2972

all tenures 12309 6901 751 878 452 21291

percentagesoutright owners 73 23 2 1 1 100buying with mortgage 59 35 3 3 1 100all owneroccupiers 66 29 2 2 1 100

local authority 37 39 5 10 8 100housing association 44 36 6 8 6 100all social renters 40 38 6 9 7 100

private renters 42 41 6 8 3 100

all tenures 58 32 4 4 2 100

Note This question is not asked of proxy respondents and a small proportion of respondents chose not to answer These exclusions are reflected in the overall total number of households in this table Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

124 A large majority of households are satisfied with the local area in which they live In 2008-09 just over half of all households in England were very satisfied with their local area and 87 were very or fairly satisfied Only 3 of households were very dissatisfied with their local area

Section 1 Households | 23

125 There were some differences by tenure 89 of owner occupiers were satisfied with their local area compared to 79 of social renters and 85 of private renters Whilst only two per cent of owner occupiers and private renters said that they were very dissatisfied with their local area seven per cent of social renters were very dissatisfied

Table 9 Satisfaction with local area by tenure 2008-09

all households

very satisfied

fairly satisfied

neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

slightly dissatisfied

very dissatisfied Total

thousands of householdsoutright owners 3999 2093 180 322 114 6708buying with mortgage 3919 2973 371 420 127 7810all owners 7918 5066 552 742 241 14518

local authority 754 712 122 159 122 1867housing association 861 679 116 150 129 1936all social renters 1615 1391 238 309 251 3803

private renters 1520 1001 183 194 73 2972

all tenures 11052 7458 972 1245 565 21293

percentagesoutright owners 60 31 3 5 2 100buying with mortgage 50 38 5 5 2 100all owners 55 35 4 5 2 100

local authority 40 38 7 9 7 100housing association 44 35 6 8 7 100all social renters 42 37 6 8 7 100

private renters 51 34 6 7 2 100

all tenures 52 35 5 6 3 100

Note This question is not asked of proxy respondents and a small proportion of respondents chose not to answer These exclusions are reflected in the overall total number of households in this table Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

24 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Section 2Housing stock

21 Results relating to the housing stock in this report are presented using two yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the English House Condition Survey (EHCS) For this transition year data from the last full year of the EHCS (2007-08) were combined with the first year of the EHS (2008-09)

22 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Stock profile

23 There were around 222 million dwellings in 2008 Table 10 Of these 183 million (82 of the stock) were in the private sector and comprised 150 million owner occupied homes and 33 million private rented homes There were 39 million social sector homes (18 of the stock) of which two million were owned by local authority and two million by housing associations

Section 2 Housing stock | 25

Table 10 Stock profile 2008

all dwellings

private sector social sector

owner occupied

private rented

all private sector

local authority

housing association

all social sector

all dwellings

in group

thousands of dwellingsdwelling agepre 1919 3194 1309 4503 86 170 257 47601919-44 2689 431 3120 336 187 522 36421945-64 2708 384 3092 760 511 1271 43631965-80 3146 536 3682 665 467 1132 48141981-90 1401 222 1624 107 223 330 1953post 1990 1869 415 2284 30 394 424 2708

dwelling typemid terrace 2638 820 3459 325 367 693 4151end terrance 1440 340 1779 199 222 421 2201small terraced house 1216 548 1764 192 217 408 2172mediumlarge terraced house 2862 612 3475 333 373 705 4180all terrace 4078 1160 5238 524 589 1114 6352semi-detached house 4515 556 5070 365 351 716 5786detached house 3575 267 3843 5 18 24 3867bungalow 1548 133 1681 176 236 412 2092converted flat 284 427 712 38 75 113 825purpose built flat low rise 926 704 1630 724 626 1349 2979purpose built flat high rise 81 49 130 152 56 208 338

floor arealess than 50 sqm 742 652 1394 550 536 1086 248050 to 69 sqm 2913 1028 3942 725 680 1405 534770 to 89 sqm 4361 890 5251 575 553 1127 637990 to 109 sqm 2632 322 2954 102 132 234 3188110 sqm or more 4359 403 4763 32 52 83 4846

type of areacity centre 295 262 558 72 75 147 704other urban centre 2263 967 3230 538 458 996 4227suburban residential 9204 1581 10785 1236 1171 2407 13192rural residential 2074 233 2307 105 190 295 2601village centre 647 110 756 26 47 72 829rural 524 144 668 7 11 19 687

deprived local areasmost deprived 10 773 325 1097 595 468 1064 21612-5th 5331 1518 6849 1121 1025 2145 89956-9th 7072 1188 8260 249 423 672 8932least deprived 1832 266 2097 19 36 54 2152

occupancy statusoccupied 14610 2858 17468 1896 1860 3755 21223vacant 398 438 836 88 92 180 1016

Total 15007 3296 18304 1984 1951 3935 22239

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

26 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

24 The large majority of dwellings were houses (181 million) most commonly terraced or semi-detached The remainder of the stock 41 million consisited of flats predominately purpose built low rise flats However types of housing vary markedly between tenures While 91 of owner occupied housing was made up of houses almost half (46) of local authority homes were flats Figure 7 Flats also accounted for over a third of private rented homes and housing association homes (36 and 39 respectively)

Figure 7 Dwelling type by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

purpose built flat high risepurpose built flat low riseconverted flatdetached houses and bungalowssemi-detached housemediumlarge terraced housesmall terraced house

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

25 England has a relatively old housing stock with some 84 million homes built before 1945 of which 48 million were built before 1919 A fifth of homes (47 million) have been built since 1980

26 Stock in different tenures have different age profiles It is noticeable that owner occupied homes are evenly distributed across the five age bands compared with other tenures Figure 8 In the private rented sector for example 40 (13 million homes) were built before 1919 significantly higher than other tenures Housing association homes were more likely to have been built during the 1980s and 1990s (32) compared to only 7 of local authority homes

Section 2 Housing stock | 27

Figure 8 Age of housing stock by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

post 19901981-901965-801945-641919-44pre 1919

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

27 Some 44 million (29) of owner occupied homes had a floor area greater than 110m2 including 18 million (12 of the sector) which were over 150m2 This reflects the proportion of semi-detached and detached owner occupied homes which tend to be large Social sector homes were most likely to have a floor area of less than 50m2 compared with those in the private sector (28 and 8 respectively)

28 Homes in England were most likely to be located in suburban residential areas and least likely to be found in rural areas (59 and 3 respectively)

Energy efficiency of the housing stock

Heating and insulation29 Key ways of increasing the energy efficiency of existing homes are

improvements to their heating systems and levels of insulation For heating the type of heating system boiler in use and the fuel used are all related to energy performance

210 Central heating is the predominant main heating system present in 199 million homes (89 of the housing stock) in 2008 see Annex Table 3 This was followed by storage heaters present in 16 million (7) of homes and room heaters in 700000 homes (3) Central heating is generally considered to be the most cost effective and relatively efficient method of heating whereas room heaters tend to be the least cost effective and relatively inefficient method of heating

28 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

211 In 2008 92 of owner occupied homes had central heating systems compared to 88 of social and 80 of private rented homes see Annex Table 4 In part this reflects the higher proportion of flats in the rented sectors compared with owner occupation with 23 of flats using storage heaters

212 Condensing boilers are generally the most efficient boiler type and are now mandatory for new and replacement boilers (for gas fired boilers since 2005 for oil fired boilers since 2007) However even prior to these requirements the less efficient standard and back boilers were decreasing in use with the growing popularity of standard combination types Figure 9 Recent years have seen rapidly expanding take up of condensing and particularly combination condensing boilers In 2008 37 million homes (17 of the stock) had one of the two types of condensing boilers

Figure 9 Boiler types 1996-2008

no boiler

condensing-combination boiler condensing boilercombination boilerback boiler (to fire or stove)standard boiler (floor or wall)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

20082007200620052004200320011996

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes underpinning data is presented in Annex Table 5Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

213 For a home to provide optimum energy performance a high level of thermal insulation needs to be present alongside an efficient heating system Standard insulation measures include cavity wall insulation loft insulation and double glazing which have all improved in the stock since 1996 Figure 10

214 In 2008 155 million homes (70) had external walls of cavity construction 74 million homes (33 of the stock) had cavity wall insulation 47 million homes (21) had 200mm or more of loft insulation and 157 million homes (71) had full double glazing with an additional 29 million homes (13) having more than half double glazed Figure 10

Section 2 Housing stock | 29

Figure 10 Insulation measures 1996-2008

20082007200620052004200320011996

entire housedouble glazing

200mm or moreof loft insulation

cavity walls withinsulation

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes1) Only 89 of dwellings have lofts and 70 of dwellings have cavity walls2) Underpinning data is presented in annex Table 7Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

215 In 2008 the social rented sector had the greatest proportion of homes with cavity wall insulation (local authority 42 housing association 44) 200mm or more of loft insulation (local authority 24 housing association 29) and full double glazing (local authority 75 housing association 83) whereas the private rented sector had the lowest proportion of all three standard insulation measures cavity wall insulation (17) 200mm or more of loft insulation (13) and full double glazing (61) Figure 11

30 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Figure 11 Percentage of dwellings with efficient insulation measures by tenure 2008

full double glazing200mm or moreloft insulation

cavity withinsulation

cavity wall

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

housing associationlocal authorityprivate rentedowner occupied0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Base all dwellingsSource English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

SAP Rating

216 The energy efficiency of the housing stock continued to improve between 1996 and 2008 the average SAP rating of a home increased by 9 SAP points from 42 to 51 Table 11 The social sector was on average more energy efficient than the private sector and saw the greatest improvement with the average SAP rating increasing by 12 SAP points from 47 to 59

Table 11 Energy efficiency average SAP rating by tenure 2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

owner occupied 411 444 450 456 461 469 481 496private rented 379 419 444 457 460 466 481 502all private 407 441 449 456 461 468 481 497

local authority 457 496 520 539 553 558 562 580housing association 509 564 567 573 589 593 595 603all social 468 519 539 553 569 574 578 592

all tenures 421 457 466 474 481 487 498 514

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Section 2 Housing stock | 31

217 There has been a significant increase in the proportion of homes achieving the highest Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands in 2008 10 (23 million) of homes achieved the highest (EER) Bands A to C3 compared with 7 (16 million) in 2006 Table 12 The number of homes in the lowest EER Bands (F and G) fell by a million over the same period The majority of homes (73) continue to be in the EER Bands D or E

Table 12 Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 35 35 77Band C (69-80) 1545 1710 2229Band D (55-68) 6555 7316 7865Band E (39-54) 9072 8859 8310Band F (21-38) 3838 3389 2972Band G (1-20) 943 881 786Total 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 02 02 03Band C (69-80) 70 77 100Band D (55-68) 298 330 354Band E (39-54) 413 399 374Band F (21-38) 175 153 134Band G (1-20) 43 40 35Total 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 2006 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Housing health and safety rating system

218 A potentially serious (Category 1) hazard as measured under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System was present in around 48 million homes in 2008 22 of the housing stock

2 EER Bands are used in the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) The Certificate provides among other indicators an energy efficiency rating for the home on a scale from A-G (where A is the most efficient and G the least efficient)

32 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Housing conditions

Housing Health and Safety Rating System219 There was no significant change in the proportion of homes with any Category

1 hazard between 2006 and 2008 Hazards tend to be more common in older housing stock for example stairs are more likely to be steep and narrow in older housing making lsquofalls on stairsrsquo more likely or heating and insulation measures tend to be less effective in older stock making lsquoexcess coldrsquo a more serious hazard Therefore it is not surprising that hazards are more common in the private sector where the older housing stock is concentrated Almost a quarter of housing in the private sector had at least one category 1 hazard in 2008 (24) compared to around 13 in the social sector Table 14 Privately rented homes were most likely to have Category 1 hazards present compared to housing association homes (31 and 13 respectively)

220 The most common type of hazard in all four tenures was falls (see annex Table 10 for details of which hazards are included in this category) Overall 13 of homes have at least one type of falls hazard present

Decent homes221 In 2008 74 million homes (33) were non-decent4 Table 13 Housing

association housing was the least likely to be non-decent (23) while private rented housing was in the worst condition with 44 of homes being non-decent Overall social sector homes were in a better condition than private sector homes with 27 being non-decent compared to 34

222 The number of non-decent homes fell from 77 million in 2006 to 74 million in 20085 Conditions in the social sector improved with the proportion of homes failing the standard falling by two percentage points from 29 in 2006 to 27 in 2008 Private sector homes also improved from 36 non-decent in 2006 to 34 non-decent in 2008

4 Estimates from the EHS are based soley on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors subject to any limitations of the information they collect The EHS estimates in this report do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property

5 In 2006 the Housing Health and Safety Rating System replaced the Fitness Standard as the statutory minimum standard for housing Earlier estimates based on the original definition are not comparable therefore any change in the number of decent homes can only be referenced back to 2006 Figures for decent homes prior to 2006 can be found in the 2006 English House Condition Survey Annual Report available at wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

Section 2 Housing stock | 33

Table 13 Non-decent homes by tenure 2006 ndash 2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5335 5304 4842private rented 1223 1244 1449all private 6558 6548 6291

local authority 676 652 625housing association 465 486 444all social 1142 1138 1069

all tenures 7700 7686 7360

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 346 341 323private rented 468 454 440all private 363 358 344

local authority 324 328 315housing association 252 255 228all social 290 292 272

all tenures 350 346 331

Notes1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties between 2007 and 2008 are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates See Annex Table 11Sources2006 ndash 2007 English House Condition Survey2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Reasons for failing decent homes223 Of the four components required to meet the decent homes standard the

presence of one or more category 1 hazards under the HHSRS was the most commonly failed Table 14 This is particularly the case for private sector homes where 24 of homes had one or more Category 1 hazards present compared to 13 of social sector homes

34 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 14 Homes failing decent homes criteria by tenure 2008

all dwellings

Category 1 hazard (HHSRS)

thermal comfort

modern facilities repair all non-decent

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 3342 1773 379 817 4842private rented 978 637 160 369 1449all private 4320 2411 539 1186 6291

local authority 298 227 138 146 625housing association 224 199 50 86 444all social 522 426 188 231 1069

all tenures 4842 2837 727 1417 7360

percentages

owner occupied 223 118 25 54 323private rented 297 193 49 112 440all private 236 132 29 65 344

local authority 150 115 70 74 315housing association 115 102 25 44 228all social 133 108 48 59 272

all tenures 218 128 33 64 331

Note The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoids a break in the time series See Annex Table 12 for estimate based on 26 hazardsSource English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

224 There was significant progress in the thermal comfort of homes between 2006 and 2008 The proportion of homes failing thermal comfort fell to 13 in 2008 from 16 in 2006 Improvement has been made across all tenures

Private sector vulnerable households225 In 2008 31 million lsquovulnerablersquo households6 were living in the private sector of

which 12 million (39) were living in non-decent homes the remaining 19 million (61) were living in decent accommodation Table 15 There has been no significant change since 2006

226 Vulnerable households who privately rent their accommodation were more likely to live in non-decent homes compared to social tenants (51 and 26 respectively) Table 15

6 Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

Section 2 Housing stock | 35

Table 15 Households living in decent homes 2006-2008

all dwellings

number (000s) percentage ()

2006 2007 2008 2006 2007 2008

decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 1543 1575 1428 630 649 653private rented 334 354 429 450 482 490all private vulnerable 1877 1929 1857 588 610 606

private non- vulnerableowner occupied 8418 8531 8494 664 667 683private rented 922 985 1246 567 566 588all private non-vulnerable 9340 9516 9740 653 655 669

all owner occupied 9961 10106 9922 658 664 678all private rented 1256 1339 1675 530 541 559all private 11217 11445 11597 641 647 658all social 2690 2649 2798 722 719 740all households 13907 14094 14395 655 659 672

non-decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 905 851 760 370 351 347private rented 408 380 447 550 518 510all private vulnerable 1313 1231 1207 412 390 394

private non-vulnerableowner occupied 4262 4264 3946 336 333 317private rented 704 754 874 433 434 412all private non-vulnerable 4966 5018 4820 347 345 331

all owner occupied 5167 5115 4706 342 336 322all private rented 1112 1134 1321 470 459 441all private 6279 6249 6027 359 353 342

all social 1034 1037 985 278 281 260all households 7313 7286 7012 345 341 328

Notes 1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoid a break in the time series See Annex Table 13 for further detailsSource English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

36 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Damp and mould growth227 The proportion of homes with damp problems has reduced from 13 in 1996

to 8 in 2008 Table 16

Table 16 Number and percentage of homes with damp problems in one or more rooms 1996-2008

all dwellings

rising damp

penetrating damp

condensation mould

any damp problems

thousands of dwellings1996 858 1271 1145 26012001 625 1032 860 20322003 740 1066 1003 22832004 750 1035 951 22512005 759 952 941 22102006 724 886 947 21582007 640 833 881 19162008 584 759 865 1746

percentage of dwellings1996 42 63 56 1282001 29 49 41 962003 34 50 47 1062004 35 48 44 1042005 35 44 43 1012006 33 40 43 982007 29 38 40 862008 26 34 39 78

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

228 Privately rented homes were more likely to experience damp problems compared to other tenures Figure 11 Privately rented homes were more likely to be older homes and experience problems with rising or penetrating damp due to defects in the damp proof course roof covering gutters and down pipes which would affect at least one room in the property

229 In the social sector damp problems were more likely to be caused by serious condensation and mould growth rather than by rising damp Figure 12

Section 2 Housing stock | 37

Figure 12 Percentage of homes with a damp problem by tenure 2008

rising damp penetrating damp condensationmould

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

alltenures

housingassociation

localauthority

privaterented

owneroccupied

per

cen

tage

of

ho

mes

wit

h d

amp

pro

ble

ms

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

38 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex tables

Households

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

Annex Table 2 Economic Status of working age HRP by tenure 2008-09

Energy efficiency

Annex Table 3 Heating Type 1996-2008

Annex Table 4 Main Heating System by tenure 2008

Annex Table 5 Boiler Types 1996-2008

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

Annex Table 8 Cavity Wall insulation by tenure 2008

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

Housing Health and Safety Rating System

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 HHSRS hazards present (comparison of estimates based on any one of 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Non-decent homes in deprived areas

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes in deprived areas by tenure 2006-2008

Annex tables | 39

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent

child(ren)

couple with dependent

child(ren)

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)

other multi-

person households

all one-person

households

all household

types

percentageown outright 46 9 7 24 37 31buying with mortgage 35 66 27 25 23 36social renters 9 13 44 20 25 18private renters 10 12 22 31 15 14

all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 2 Economic status of working age HRP by tenure

all households

working un-employed retired other inactive Total percentage

own outright 74 2 14 10 100buying with mortgage 94 1 1 4 100social renters 49 12 1 37 100private renters 75 5 1 19 100all tenures 80 4 3 13 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 3 Heating type 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingscentral heating 16178 18177 18604 18919 19179 19553 19862 19862storage heater 1643 1600 1587 1616 1609 1532 1552 1641fixed roomportable heater 2515 2001 1294 1078 993 904 776 736Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingscentral heating 796 860 866 875 881 889 895 893storage heater 81 76 74 75 74 70 70 74fixed roomportable heating heater 124 95 60 50 46 41 35 33Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

40 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 4 Main heating system by tenure 2008

all dwellings

central heating storage heaterfixed room

heatingportable

heating only all dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 13788 790 411 19 15007 private rented 2630 441 208 17 3296 all private 16418 1232 619 36 18304

local authority 1776 160 46 2 1984 housing association 1669 249 33 1 1951 all social 3445 409 79 3 3935

all tenures 19862 1641 698 38 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 919 53 27 01 1000 private rented 798 134 63 05 1000 all private 897 67 34 02 1000

local authority 895 80 23 01 1000 housing association 855 128 17 00 1000 all social 875 104 20 01 1000

all tenures 893 74 31 02 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 5 Boiler types 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsstandard boiler 10447 10338 9642 9635 9425 9014 8782 8072back boiler 2773 2759 2580 2409 2181 2131 1944 1688combination boiler 2810 4431 5492 5934 6254 6312 6287 6082condensing boiler ndash 155 154 202 300 460 698 948condensing-combination boiler ndash 318 373 417 727 1297 1837 2773no boiler 4305 3140 3244 3016 2894 2775 2642 2676Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsstandard boiler 514 489 449 446 433 410 396 363back boiler 136 130 120 111 100 97 88 76combination boiler 138 210 256 275 287 287 283 273condensing boiler 00 07 07 09 14 21 31 43condensing-combination boiler 00 15 17 19 33 59 83 125no boiler 212 149 151 140 133 126 119 120Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 41

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

all dwellings

standard boiler

back boiler

combination boiler

condensing boiler

condensing-combination

boilerno

boilerall

dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 6223 1045 3984 713 1756 1286 15007 private rented 817 149 1112 73 429 716 3296 all private 7040 1194 5096 787 2185 2002 18304

local authority 499 271 481 90 335 309 1984 housing association 533 223 505 72 254 365 1951 all social 1032 494 986 162 589 674 3935

all 8072 1688 6082 948 2773 2676 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 415 70 265 48 117 86 1000 private rented 248 45 337 22 130 217 1000 all private 385 65 278 43 119 109 1000

local authority 251 136 242 45 169 156 1000 housing association 273 114 259 37 130 187 1000 all social 262 125 250 41 150 171 1000

all 363 76 273 43 125 120 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 2853 5210 5334 5825 5974 6644 7267 7418200mm or more of loft insulation 583 1256 2034 2530 2919 3520 4258 4685entire house double glazing 6169 10753 11915 12846 13486 13924 14850 15747

all dwellings 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 140 246 248 270 274 302 327 334200mm or more of loft insulation 29 59 95 117 134 160 192 211entire house double glazing 303 509 555 594 619 633 669 708

all dwellings 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

42 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 8 Cavity wall insulation by tenure

all dwellings

cavity with insulation

cavity uninsulated other all

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5161 5483 4364 15007private rented 566 1213 1517 3296private 5727 6696 5882 18304

local authority 834 657 493 1984housing association 857 720 374 1951social 1691 1378 867 3935

total 7418 8073 6749 22239

percentage of dwellingsowner occupied 344 365 291 100private rented 172 368 460 100private 313 366 321 100

local authority 420 331 248 100housing association 439 369 192 100social 430 350 220 100

total 334 363 303 100

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 43

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

all dwellings

no loftno

insulationless than

50mm50 up to

99mm

100 up to

149mm

150 up to

199mm200mm or more

all dwellings

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 748 442 432 3009 5147 2007 3223 15007 private rented 672 175 66 857 813 281 434 3296 private 1420 617 497 3866 5960 2288 3657 18304

local authority 614 33 19 171 471 206 470 1984 housing association 467 20 16 143 482 265 558 1951 social 1081 53 35 314 953 471 1028 3935

total 2501 670 532 4179 6913 2759 4685 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 50 29 29 200 343 134 215 1000private rented 204 53 20 260 247 85 132 1000private 78 34 27 211 326 125 200 1000

local authority 309 17 10 86 237 104 237 1000housing association 239 10 08 73 247 136 286 1000social 275 14 09 80 242 120 261 1000

total 112 30 24 188 311 124 211 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

44 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

hazard presentnumber of homes (000s) each hazard is present in

falling on stairs 2025excess cold 1966falling on level surfaces 788falling between levels 443fire 318

entry by intruders

flames hot surfacesleaddamp and mould growth 50 to 100 eachcollision and entrapmentradiationfalls associated with baths

crowding and space

food safetypersonal hygiene sanitation and drainage 20 to 50 eachnoisedomestic hygiene pests and refuseelectrical hazards

structural collapse and falling elements

water supplycarbon monoxide and fuel combustion productsposition and operability of amenities less thanexcess heat 20 eachlightinguncombusted fuel gasexplosions

any of the 15 hazards 4842

any of the 26 hazards 5039

Note For 2006 and 2007 the survey reported on 15 hazards only The 2008 EHS can provide estimates for 26 hazards - the additional hazards are marked with an asterisk The three remaining hazards not included in the survey are presence of asbestos biocides or volatile organic compounds For reporting purposes HHSRS and non-decent estimates will be based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with previous years and avoid a break in the time seriesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 45

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 4842 4925private rented 1449 1478all private 6291 6403

local authority 625 640housing association 444 464all social 1069 1104

all tenures 7360 7507

percentagesowner occupied 323 328private rented 440 448all private 344 350

local authority 315 323housing association 228 238all social 272 281

all tenures 331 338

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

46 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 hazards present (compariosn of estimates based on any one to the 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 3342 3452private rented 978 1013all private 4320 4465

local authority 298 326RSL 224 248all social 522 574

all tenures 4842 5039

percentagesowner occupied 223 230private rented 297 307all private 236 244

local authority 150 164RSL 115 127all social 133 146

all tenures 218 227

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 47

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all households

15 hazards 26 hazards

number (000s) percentage () number (000s) percentage ()

decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 1428 653 1413 646private rented 429 490 417 476all private vulnerable 1857 606 1830 597 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 8494 683 8425 677private rented 1246 588 1232 581all private non-vulnerable 9740 669 9657 663 all owner occupied 9922 678 9839 673all private rented 1675 559 1648 550all private 11597 658 11487 663all social 2798 740 2766 731

all households 14395 672 14253 666

non-decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 760 347 775 354private rented 447 510 459 524all private vulnerable 1207 394 1234 403 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 3946 317 4015 323private rented 874 412 888 419all private non-vulnerable 4820 331 4903 337 all owner occupied 4706 322 4790 327all private rented 1321 441 1347 450all private 6027 342 6137 348all social 985 260 1017 269

all households 7012 328 7154 334

Note For reporting purposes decent homes estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

48 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes1 by deprived and other districts by tenure 2006-2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsSocial NRF88 662 652 605Other districts 480 486 464 Private NRF88 2544 2621 2442Other districts 4013 3928 3849

percentages of dwellingsSocial NRF88 313 304 278Other districts 264 278 263 Private NRF88 381 380 361Other districts 353 344 333

Note NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving Neighbourhood Renewal Funding 2001-2006Source English House Condition Survey 2006-2007English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub sample)

Technical annex | 49

Technical annex

General description

The survey consists of three main elements an initial interview survey of 17700 households with a follow up physical inspection and a desk based market valuation of a sub-sample of 8000 of these dwellings including vacant dwellings The interview survey sample forms part of ONSrsquos Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the core questions from the IHS form part of the EHS questionnaire More information about the IHS is available from its webpage wwwstatisticsgovukCCInuggetaspID=936ampPos=1ampColRank=1ampRank=224

The EHS interview content covers the key topics included under the former SEH and EHCS The content of the physical and market value components remains very largely unchanged from the former EHCS

Sampling and grossing

2008-09 Sample1 The initial sample for 2008-09 consisted of 32100 addresses drawn as a systematic

random sample from the Postcode Address File (small users) Interviews were attempted at all of these addresses over the course of the survey year from April 2008 to March 2009 A proportion of addresses were found not to be valid residential properties (eg demolished properties secondholiday homes small businesses not yet built)

2 Of the 17691 addresses where interviews were achieved (the lsquofull household samplersquo) all social rented properties and a sub-sample of private properties were regarded as eligible for the physical survey and the respondentrsquos consent was sought A proportion of vacant properties were also sub-sampled Physical surveys were completed in 7972 cases and these cases contribute to the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo (see below)

3 The principal differences in sampling methodology between the EHS and its predecessors the SEH and EHCS are that

bull The EHS uses an unclustered sample This enables a smaller sample to be used with no loss of precision ie without sampling errors being increased The more scattered sample does however have some implications for fieldwork organisation

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 17: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

Section 1 Households | 17

Figure 4 Age of household reference person by tenure 2008ndash09

per

cen

tage

private renterssocial rentersbuying with mortgageown outright

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

65 or over 55ndash64 45ndash54 35ndash44

age of HRP

25ndash34 16ndash24

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Buying expectations of renters

114 In 2008-09 27 of social renters expected to eventually become homeowners compared to 59 of private renters Of those who did expect to buy 44 of social renters expected to buy their current accommodation compared to only 13 of private renters

18 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 5 Buying aspirations of social and private renters 2008-09

all renters

social renters private renters

percentagesWill eventually buy or share home in UK yes 27 59no 73 41All 100 100

Expect to buy current accommodation (all who expect to buy) yes 44 13no 56 87All 100 100

When expect to buy (all who expect to buy) Less than a yearrsquos time 3 81 year but less than 2 years 7 162 years but less than 5 years 25 345 years or more 65 42All 100 100

Note Expectations to buy include shared ownershipSource English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

115 An estimated 24 of private renters expecting to buy (14 of all private renters) thought that they would buy within the next two years This proportion had fallen from 34 in 2006-07 (see Figure 5) whilst the proportion expecting to buy in five or more yearsrsquo time had risen from 35 to 42 over this period These changes suggest that private renters now expect to rent for longer before being in a position to buy perhaps due to affordability issues

Figure 5 Trend in expected time to buying ndash private renters expecting to buy eventually

per

cen

tage

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

2008-09 2007-082006-07

5 years or more2 years but less than 5lt2 years

Note based on those private renters who expect to buy eventuallySource English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Section 1 Households | 19

Overcrowding and under-occupation

116 Levels of overcrowding are measured using the ldquobedroom standardrdquo (see definition in Glossary) Essentially this is the difference between the number of bedrooms needed to avoid undesirable sharing (given the number and ages of household members and their relationships to each other) and the number of bedrooms actually available to the household

117 The previous estimates of overcrowding were based on three-year moving averages from the Survey of English Housing for 2005-06 2006-07 and 2007-08 The reason for having to base estimates on a three-year average was that with fewer than 3 per cent of households overcrowded the sample size for a single year was too small to provide reliable annual estimates However for 2008-09 in addition to the EHS sample of 17700 households we have information from a further 95000 households that were interviewed for the ONS Labour Force Survey This combined sample was sufficiently large to deliver robust single year estimates for 2008-09 without the need to carry forward the three-year average series

Table 6 Overcrowding and under-occupation by tenure 2008-09

all households

difference from bedroom standard

overcrowded at standardone above

standardunder-

occupied total

thousands of householdsowner occupiers 231 2117 5416 6855 14620

social renters 258 2032 1121 430 3841

private renters 164 1312 1095 494 3066

all tenures 654 5462 7633 7779 21527

percentagesowner occupiers 16 145 370 469 100

social renters 67 529 292 112 100

private renters 54 428 357 161 100

all tenures 30 254 355 361 100

Notes Details of the bedroom standard can be found in the GlossarySource English Housing Survey - full household sample and ONS Labour Force Survey

118 The overall rate of overcrowding in England for 2008-09 was 30 (see Table 6) This compares to the previously published estimate of 28 (averaged over the period 2005-06 to 2007-08) There were around 654000 overcrowded households (compared to an average of 570000 over the period 2005-06 to 2007-08) Levels of overcrowding varied considerably by tenure and were lowest in the owner occupied sector at 16 up from 14 for the period 2005-06 to 2007-08 Around 67 of social renters were overcrowded and 54 of private renters compared to 59 and 49 respectively for 2005-06 to 2007-08

20 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

119 Although the overall rate of overcrowding has shown little change in recent years this is largely due to the relatively stable rate of overcrowding in the owner occupied sector the largest tenure Over the past decade overcrowding has been rising in both the rented sectors

Figure 6 Trend in overcrowding rates by tenure 1995-96 to 2008-09 (3 year moving average)

private renters social rentersowner occupiers all tenures

per

cen

tage

of

ho

use

ho

lds

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

2008

-09

2007

-08

2006

-07

2005

-06

2004

-05

2003

-04

2002

-03

2001

-02

2000

-01

1999

-00

1998

-99

1997

-98

1996

-97

1995

-96

Source Survey of English Housing to 2007-08 and combined English Housing Survey (full sample) plus Labour Force Survey for 2008-09 The estimates up to 2007-08 are three-year moving averages so the ldquo2007-08rdquo figure is actually the average of 2005-06 2006-07 and 2007-08 Since the 2008-09 estimates are for that year only a gap has been introduced to separate the three-year averages to 2007-08 from the annual estimates for 2008-09

120 Around 78 million households were estimated to be under-occupying their accommodation in 2008-09 that is they had at least two bedrooms more than they needed (see definition of bedroom standard in Glossary) Under-occupation was far more likely to be found in the owner occupied sector than in the rented sectors 47 of owner occupiers were under-occupying accommodation compared to 11 of social renters and 16 of private renters

Recent movers

121 In this section we look at those households that had been in their current accommodation for less than 12 months at the time of interview

Section 1 Households | 21

Table 7 Previous tenure by current tenure 2008-09

HRPs resident less than a year

previous tenure ndash continuing households

current tenurenew

householdowner

occupierssocial

rentersprivate renters all tenures

thousands of householdsoutright owners 4 83 0 12 99buying with mortgage 68 204 13 131 416all owner occupiers 72 287 13 144 515

local authority 20 13 76 20 129housing association 24 9 105 38 177all social renters 44 23 181 58 306

private renters 229 141 47 686 1103

all tenures 345 450 241 887 1924

percentageoutright owners 4 84 0 13 100buying with mortgage 16 49 3 32 100all owner occupiers 14 56 3 28 100

local authority 15 10 59 15 100housing association 14 5 59 22 100all social renters 15 7 59 19 100

private renters 21 13 4 62 100

all tenures 18 23 13 46 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

122 Around 18 of households that had moved into their accommodation in the previous year were new households Two thirds (66) of these new households were private renters and around one fifth (21) were owner occupiers Movement within tenure was more common than moves between tenures 62 of current private renters had previously been private renters 59 of social renters had moved from another social rented property and 56 of owner occupiers had owned their previous property Movement into the social rented sector for continuing households was more likely to be from private renting (19 of current social renters) than from owner occupation (7)

22 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Attitudes to home and local area

123 Around 90 of households in England were satisfied with their accommodation in 2008-09 The highest levels of satisfaction were expressed by outright owners 73 of whom said that they were very satisfied with their homes Over three quarters of social renters were satisfied with their homes but 9 were slightly dissatisfied and 7 were very dissatisfied Around 82 of private renters were very or fairly satisfied with their accommodation and only 3 said they were very dissatisfied

Table 8 Satisfaction with accommodation by tenure 2008-09

all households

very satisfied

fairly satisfied

neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

slightly dissatisfied

very dissatisfied Total

thousands of householdsoutright owners 4926 1535 111 100 36 6709buying with mortgage 4604 2719 232 200 55 7810all owneroccupiers 9530 4254 343 300 91 14519

local authority 697 736 98 192 142 1866housing association 842 700 116 159 117 1935all social renters 1539 1437 214 351 260 3801

private renters 1240 1211 193 227 102 2972

all tenures 12309 6901 751 878 452 21291

percentagesoutright owners 73 23 2 1 1 100buying with mortgage 59 35 3 3 1 100all owneroccupiers 66 29 2 2 1 100

local authority 37 39 5 10 8 100housing association 44 36 6 8 6 100all social renters 40 38 6 9 7 100

private renters 42 41 6 8 3 100

all tenures 58 32 4 4 2 100

Note This question is not asked of proxy respondents and a small proportion of respondents chose not to answer These exclusions are reflected in the overall total number of households in this table Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

124 A large majority of households are satisfied with the local area in which they live In 2008-09 just over half of all households in England were very satisfied with their local area and 87 were very or fairly satisfied Only 3 of households were very dissatisfied with their local area

Section 1 Households | 23

125 There were some differences by tenure 89 of owner occupiers were satisfied with their local area compared to 79 of social renters and 85 of private renters Whilst only two per cent of owner occupiers and private renters said that they were very dissatisfied with their local area seven per cent of social renters were very dissatisfied

Table 9 Satisfaction with local area by tenure 2008-09

all households

very satisfied

fairly satisfied

neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

slightly dissatisfied

very dissatisfied Total

thousands of householdsoutright owners 3999 2093 180 322 114 6708buying with mortgage 3919 2973 371 420 127 7810all owners 7918 5066 552 742 241 14518

local authority 754 712 122 159 122 1867housing association 861 679 116 150 129 1936all social renters 1615 1391 238 309 251 3803

private renters 1520 1001 183 194 73 2972

all tenures 11052 7458 972 1245 565 21293

percentagesoutright owners 60 31 3 5 2 100buying with mortgage 50 38 5 5 2 100all owners 55 35 4 5 2 100

local authority 40 38 7 9 7 100housing association 44 35 6 8 7 100all social renters 42 37 6 8 7 100

private renters 51 34 6 7 2 100

all tenures 52 35 5 6 3 100

Note This question is not asked of proxy respondents and a small proportion of respondents chose not to answer These exclusions are reflected in the overall total number of households in this table Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

24 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Section 2Housing stock

21 Results relating to the housing stock in this report are presented using two yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the English House Condition Survey (EHCS) For this transition year data from the last full year of the EHCS (2007-08) were combined with the first year of the EHS (2008-09)

22 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Stock profile

23 There were around 222 million dwellings in 2008 Table 10 Of these 183 million (82 of the stock) were in the private sector and comprised 150 million owner occupied homes and 33 million private rented homes There were 39 million social sector homes (18 of the stock) of which two million were owned by local authority and two million by housing associations

Section 2 Housing stock | 25

Table 10 Stock profile 2008

all dwellings

private sector social sector

owner occupied

private rented

all private sector

local authority

housing association

all social sector

all dwellings

in group

thousands of dwellingsdwelling agepre 1919 3194 1309 4503 86 170 257 47601919-44 2689 431 3120 336 187 522 36421945-64 2708 384 3092 760 511 1271 43631965-80 3146 536 3682 665 467 1132 48141981-90 1401 222 1624 107 223 330 1953post 1990 1869 415 2284 30 394 424 2708

dwelling typemid terrace 2638 820 3459 325 367 693 4151end terrance 1440 340 1779 199 222 421 2201small terraced house 1216 548 1764 192 217 408 2172mediumlarge terraced house 2862 612 3475 333 373 705 4180all terrace 4078 1160 5238 524 589 1114 6352semi-detached house 4515 556 5070 365 351 716 5786detached house 3575 267 3843 5 18 24 3867bungalow 1548 133 1681 176 236 412 2092converted flat 284 427 712 38 75 113 825purpose built flat low rise 926 704 1630 724 626 1349 2979purpose built flat high rise 81 49 130 152 56 208 338

floor arealess than 50 sqm 742 652 1394 550 536 1086 248050 to 69 sqm 2913 1028 3942 725 680 1405 534770 to 89 sqm 4361 890 5251 575 553 1127 637990 to 109 sqm 2632 322 2954 102 132 234 3188110 sqm or more 4359 403 4763 32 52 83 4846

type of areacity centre 295 262 558 72 75 147 704other urban centre 2263 967 3230 538 458 996 4227suburban residential 9204 1581 10785 1236 1171 2407 13192rural residential 2074 233 2307 105 190 295 2601village centre 647 110 756 26 47 72 829rural 524 144 668 7 11 19 687

deprived local areasmost deprived 10 773 325 1097 595 468 1064 21612-5th 5331 1518 6849 1121 1025 2145 89956-9th 7072 1188 8260 249 423 672 8932least deprived 1832 266 2097 19 36 54 2152

occupancy statusoccupied 14610 2858 17468 1896 1860 3755 21223vacant 398 438 836 88 92 180 1016

Total 15007 3296 18304 1984 1951 3935 22239

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

26 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

24 The large majority of dwellings were houses (181 million) most commonly terraced or semi-detached The remainder of the stock 41 million consisited of flats predominately purpose built low rise flats However types of housing vary markedly between tenures While 91 of owner occupied housing was made up of houses almost half (46) of local authority homes were flats Figure 7 Flats also accounted for over a third of private rented homes and housing association homes (36 and 39 respectively)

Figure 7 Dwelling type by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

purpose built flat high risepurpose built flat low riseconverted flatdetached houses and bungalowssemi-detached housemediumlarge terraced housesmall terraced house

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

25 England has a relatively old housing stock with some 84 million homes built before 1945 of which 48 million were built before 1919 A fifth of homes (47 million) have been built since 1980

26 Stock in different tenures have different age profiles It is noticeable that owner occupied homes are evenly distributed across the five age bands compared with other tenures Figure 8 In the private rented sector for example 40 (13 million homes) were built before 1919 significantly higher than other tenures Housing association homes were more likely to have been built during the 1980s and 1990s (32) compared to only 7 of local authority homes

Section 2 Housing stock | 27

Figure 8 Age of housing stock by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

post 19901981-901965-801945-641919-44pre 1919

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

27 Some 44 million (29) of owner occupied homes had a floor area greater than 110m2 including 18 million (12 of the sector) which were over 150m2 This reflects the proportion of semi-detached and detached owner occupied homes which tend to be large Social sector homes were most likely to have a floor area of less than 50m2 compared with those in the private sector (28 and 8 respectively)

28 Homes in England were most likely to be located in suburban residential areas and least likely to be found in rural areas (59 and 3 respectively)

Energy efficiency of the housing stock

Heating and insulation29 Key ways of increasing the energy efficiency of existing homes are

improvements to their heating systems and levels of insulation For heating the type of heating system boiler in use and the fuel used are all related to energy performance

210 Central heating is the predominant main heating system present in 199 million homes (89 of the housing stock) in 2008 see Annex Table 3 This was followed by storage heaters present in 16 million (7) of homes and room heaters in 700000 homes (3) Central heating is generally considered to be the most cost effective and relatively efficient method of heating whereas room heaters tend to be the least cost effective and relatively inefficient method of heating

28 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

211 In 2008 92 of owner occupied homes had central heating systems compared to 88 of social and 80 of private rented homes see Annex Table 4 In part this reflects the higher proportion of flats in the rented sectors compared with owner occupation with 23 of flats using storage heaters

212 Condensing boilers are generally the most efficient boiler type and are now mandatory for new and replacement boilers (for gas fired boilers since 2005 for oil fired boilers since 2007) However even prior to these requirements the less efficient standard and back boilers were decreasing in use with the growing popularity of standard combination types Figure 9 Recent years have seen rapidly expanding take up of condensing and particularly combination condensing boilers In 2008 37 million homes (17 of the stock) had one of the two types of condensing boilers

Figure 9 Boiler types 1996-2008

no boiler

condensing-combination boiler condensing boilercombination boilerback boiler (to fire or stove)standard boiler (floor or wall)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

20082007200620052004200320011996

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes underpinning data is presented in Annex Table 5Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

213 For a home to provide optimum energy performance a high level of thermal insulation needs to be present alongside an efficient heating system Standard insulation measures include cavity wall insulation loft insulation and double glazing which have all improved in the stock since 1996 Figure 10

214 In 2008 155 million homes (70) had external walls of cavity construction 74 million homes (33 of the stock) had cavity wall insulation 47 million homes (21) had 200mm or more of loft insulation and 157 million homes (71) had full double glazing with an additional 29 million homes (13) having more than half double glazed Figure 10

Section 2 Housing stock | 29

Figure 10 Insulation measures 1996-2008

20082007200620052004200320011996

entire housedouble glazing

200mm or moreof loft insulation

cavity walls withinsulation

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes1) Only 89 of dwellings have lofts and 70 of dwellings have cavity walls2) Underpinning data is presented in annex Table 7Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

215 In 2008 the social rented sector had the greatest proportion of homes with cavity wall insulation (local authority 42 housing association 44) 200mm or more of loft insulation (local authority 24 housing association 29) and full double glazing (local authority 75 housing association 83) whereas the private rented sector had the lowest proportion of all three standard insulation measures cavity wall insulation (17) 200mm or more of loft insulation (13) and full double glazing (61) Figure 11

30 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Figure 11 Percentage of dwellings with efficient insulation measures by tenure 2008

full double glazing200mm or moreloft insulation

cavity withinsulation

cavity wall

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

housing associationlocal authorityprivate rentedowner occupied0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Base all dwellingsSource English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

SAP Rating

216 The energy efficiency of the housing stock continued to improve between 1996 and 2008 the average SAP rating of a home increased by 9 SAP points from 42 to 51 Table 11 The social sector was on average more energy efficient than the private sector and saw the greatest improvement with the average SAP rating increasing by 12 SAP points from 47 to 59

Table 11 Energy efficiency average SAP rating by tenure 2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

owner occupied 411 444 450 456 461 469 481 496private rented 379 419 444 457 460 466 481 502all private 407 441 449 456 461 468 481 497

local authority 457 496 520 539 553 558 562 580housing association 509 564 567 573 589 593 595 603all social 468 519 539 553 569 574 578 592

all tenures 421 457 466 474 481 487 498 514

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Section 2 Housing stock | 31

217 There has been a significant increase in the proportion of homes achieving the highest Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands in 2008 10 (23 million) of homes achieved the highest (EER) Bands A to C3 compared with 7 (16 million) in 2006 Table 12 The number of homes in the lowest EER Bands (F and G) fell by a million over the same period The majority of homes (73) continue to be in the EER Bands D or E

Table 12 Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 35 35 77Band C (69-80) 1545 1710 2229Band D (55-68) 6555 7316 7865Band E (39-54) 9072 8859 8310Band F (21-38) 3838 3389 2972Band G (1-20) 943 881 786Total 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 02 02 03Band C (69-80) 70 77 100Band D (55-68) 298 330 354Band E (39-54) 413 399 374Band F (21-38) 175 153 134Band G (1-20) 43 40 35Total 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 2006 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Housing health and safety rating system

218 A potentially serious (Category 1) hazard as measured under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System was present in around 48 million homes in 2008 22 of the housing stock

2 EER Bands are used in the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) The Certificate provides among other indicators an energy efficiency rating for the home on a scale from A-G (where A is the most efficient and G the least efficient)

32 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Housing conditions

Housing Health and Safety Rating System219 There was no significant change in the proportion of homes with any Category

1 hazard between 2006 and 2008 Hazards tend to be more common in older housing stock for example stairs are more likely to be steep and narrow in older housing making lsquofalls on stairsrsquo more likely or heating and insulation measures tend to be less effective in older stock making lsquoexcess coldrsquo a more serious hazard Therefore it is not surprising that hazards are more common in the private sector where the older housing stock is concentrated Almost a quarter of housing in the private sector had at least one category 1 hazard in 2008 (24) compared to around 13 in the social sector Table 14 Privately rented homes were most likely to have Category 1 hazards present compared to housing association homes (31 and 13 respectively)

220 The most common type of hazard in all four tenures was falls (see annex Table 10 for details of which hazards are included in this category) Overall 13 of homes have at least one type of falls hazard present

Decent homes221 In 2008 74 million homes (33) were non-decent4 Table 13 Housing

association housing was the least likely to be non-decent (23) while private rented housing was in the worst condition with 44 of homes being non-decent Overall social sector homes were in a better condition than private sector homes with 27 being non-decent compared to 34

222 The number of non-decent homes fell from 77 million in 2006 to 74 million in 20085 Conditions in the social sector improved with the proportion of homes failing the standard falling by two percentage points from 29 in 2006 to 27 in 2008 Private sector homes also improved from 36 non-decent in 2006 to 34 non-decent in 2008

4 Estimates from the EHS are based soley on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors subject to any limitations of the information they collect The EHS estimates in this report do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property

5 In 2006 the Housing Health and Safety Rating System replaced the Fitness Standard as the statutory minimum standard for housing Earlier estimates based on the original definition are not comparable therefore any change in the number of decent homes can only be referenced back to 2006 Figures for decent homes prior to 2006 can be found in the 2006 English House Condition Survey Annual Report available at wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

Section 2 Housing stock | 33

Table 13 Non-decent homes by tenure 2006 ndash 2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5335 5304 4842private rented 1223 1244 1449all private 6558 6548 6291

local authority 676 652 625housing association 465 486 444all social 1142 1138 1069

all tenures 7700 7686 7360

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 346 341 323private rented 468 454 440all private 363 358 344

local authority 324 328 315housing association 252 255 228all social 290 292 272

all tenures 350 346 331

Notes1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties between 2007 and 2008 are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates See Annex Table 11Sources2006 ndash 2007 English House Condition Survey2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Reasons for failing decent homes223 Of the four components required to meet the decent homes standard the

presence of one or more category 1 hazards under the HHSRS was the most commonly failed Table 14 This is particularly the case for private sector homes where 24 of homes had one or more Category 1 hazards present compared to 13 of social sector homes

34 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 14 Homes failing decent homes criteria by tenure 2008

all dwellings

Category 1 hazard (HHSRS)

thermal comfort

modern facilities repair all non-decent

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 3342 1773 379 817 4842private rented 978 637 160 369 1449all private 4320 2411 539 1186 6291

local authority 298 227 138 146 625housing association 224 199 50 86 444all social 522 426 188 231 1069

all tenures 4842 2837 727 1417 7360

percentages

owner occupied 223 118 25 54 323private rented 297 193 49 112 440all private 236 132 29 65 344

local authority 150 115 70 74 315housing association 115 102 25 44 228all social 133 108 48 59 272

all tenures 218 128 33 64 331

Note The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoids a break in the time series See Annex Table 12 for estimate based on 26 hazardsSource English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

224 There was significant progress in the thermal comfort of homes between 2006 and 2008 The proportion of homes failing thermal comfort fell to 13 in 2008 from 16 in 2006 Improvement has been made across all tenures

Private sector vulnerable households225 In 2008 31 million lsquovulnerablersquo households6 were living in the private sector of

which 12 million (39) were living in non-decent homes the remaining 19 million (61) were living in decent accommodation Table 15 There has been no significant change since 2006

226 Vulnerable households who privately rent their accommodation were more likely to live in non-decent homes compared to social tenants (51 and 26 respectively) Table 15

6 Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

Section 2 Housing stock | 35

Table 15 Households living in decent homes 2006-2008

all dwellings

number (000s) percentage ()

2006 2007 2008 2006 2007 2008

decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 1543 1575 1428 630 649 653private rented 334 354 429 450 482 490all private vulnerable 1877 1929 1857 588 610 606

private non- vulnerableowner occupied 8418 8531 8494 664 667 683private rented 922 985 1246 567 566 588all private non-vulnerable 9340 9516 9740 653 655 669

all owner occupied 9961 10106 9922 658 664 678all private rented 1256 1339 1675 530 541 559all private 11217 11445 11597 641 647 658all social 2690 2649 2798 722 719 740all households 13907 14094 14395 655 659 672

non-decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 905 851 760 370 351 347private rented 408 380 447 550 518 510all private vulnerable 1313 1231 1207 412 390 394

private non-vulnerableowner occupied 4262 4264 3946 336 333 317private rented 704 754 874 433 434 412all private non-vulnerable 4966 5018 4820 347 345 331

all owner occupied 5167 5115 4706 342 336 322all private rented 1112 1134 1321 470 459 441all private 6279 6249 6027 359 353 342

all social 1034 1037 985 278 281 260all households 7313 7286 7012 345 341 328

Notes 1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoid a break in the time series See Annex Table 13 for further detailsSource English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

36 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Damp and mould growth227 The proportion of homes with damp problems has reduced from 13 in 1996

to 8 in 2008 Table 16

Table 16 Number and percentage of homes with damp problems in one or more rooms 1996-2008

all dwellings

rising damp

penetrating damp

condensation mould

any damp problems

thousands of dwellings1996 858 1271 1145 26012001 625 1032 860 20322003 740 1066 1003 22832004 750 1035 951 22512005 759 952 941 22102006 724 886 947 21582007 640 833 881 19162008 584 759 865 1746

percentage of dwellings1996 42 63 56 1282001 29 49 41 962003 34 50 47 1062004 35 48 44 1042005 35 44 43 1012006 33 40 43 982007 29 38 40 862008 26 34 39 78

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

228 Privately rented homes were more likely to experience damp problems compared to other tenures Figure 11 Privately rented homes were more likely to be older homes and experience problems with rising or penetrating damp due to defects in the damp proof course roof covering gutters and down pipes which would affect at least one room in the property

229 In the social sector damp problems were more likely to be caused by serious condensation and mould growth rather than by rising damp Figure 12

Section 2 Housing stock | 37

Figure 12 Percentage of homes with a damp problem by tenure 2008

rising damp penetrating damp condensationmould

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

alltenures

housingassociation

localauthority

privaterented

owneroccupied

per

cen

tage

of

ho

mes

wit

h d

amp

pro

ble

ms

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

38 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex tables

Households

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

Annex Table 2 Economic Status of working age HRP by tenure 2008-09

Energy efficiency

Annex Table 3 Heating Type 1996-2008

Annex Table 4 Main Heating System by tenure 2008

Annex Table 5 Boiler Types 1996-2008

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

Annex Table 8 Cavity Wall insulation by tenure 2008

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

Housing Health and Safety Rating System

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 HHSRS hazards present (comparison of estimates based on any one of 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Non-decent homes in deprived areas

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes in deprived areas by tenure 2006-2008

Annex tables | 39

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent

child(ren)

couple with dependent

child(ren)

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)

other multi-

person households

all one-person

households

all household

types

percentageown outright 46 9 7 24 37 31buying with mortgage 35 66 27 25 23 36social renters 9 13 44 20 25 18private renters 10 12 22 31 15 14

all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 2 Economic status of working age HRP by tenure

all households

working un-employed retired other inactive Total percentage

own outright 74 2 14 10 100buying with mortgage 94 1 1 4 100social renters 49 12 1 37 100private renters 75 5 1 19 100all tenures 80 4 3 13 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 3 Heating type 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingscentral heating 16178 18177 18604 18919 19179 19553 19862 19862storage heater 1643 1600 1587 1616 1609 1532 1552 1641fixed roomportable heater 2515 2001 1294 1078 993 904 776 736Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingscentral heating 796 860 866 875 881 889 895 893storage heater 81 76 74 75 74 70 70 74fixed roomportable heating heater 124 95 60 50 46 41 35 33Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

40 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 4 Main heating system by tenure 2008

all dwellings

central heating storage heaterfixed room

heatingportable

heating only all dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 13788 790 411 19 15007 private rented 2630 441 208 17 3296 all private 16418 1232 619 36 18304

local authority 1776 160 46 2 1984 housing association 1669 249 33 1 1951 all social 3445 409 79 3 3935

all tenures 19862 1641 698 38 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 919 53 27 01 1000 private rented 798 134 63 05 1000 all private 897 67 34 02 1000

local authority 895 80 23 01 1000 housing association 855 128 17 00 1000 all social 875 104 20 01 1000

all tenures 893 74 31 02 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 5 Boiler types 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsstandard boiler 10447 10338 9642 9635 9425 9014 8782 8072back boiler 2773 2759 2580 2409 2181 2131 1944 1688combination boiler 2810 4431 5492 5934 6254 6312 6287 6082condensing boiler ndash 155 154 202 300 460 698 948condensing-combination boiler ndash 318 373 417 727 1297 1837 2773no boiler 4305 3140 3244 3016 2894 2775 2642 2676Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsstandard boiler 514 489 449 446 433 410 396 363back boiler 136 130 120 111 100 97 88 76combination boiler 138 210 256 275 287 287 283 273condensing boiler 00 07 07 09 14 21 31 43condensing-combination boiler 00 15 17 19 33 59 83 125no boiler 212 149 151 140 133 126 119 120Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 41

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

all dwellings

standard boiler

back boiler

combination boiler

condensing boiler

condensing-combination

boilerno

boilerall

dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 6223 1045 3984 713 1756 1286 15007 private rented 817 149 1112 73 429 716 3296 all private 7040 1194 5096 787 2185 2002 18304

local authority 499 271 481 90 335 309 1984 housing association 533 223 505 72 254 365 1951 all social 1032 494 986 162 589 674 3935

all 8072 1688 6082 948 2773 2676 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 415 70 265 48 117 86 1000 private rented 248 45 337 22 130 217 1000 all private 385 65 278 43 119 109 1000

local authority 251 136 242 45 169 156 1000 housing association 273 114 259 37 130 187 1000 all social 262 125 250 41 150 171 1000

all 363 76 273 43 125 120 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 2853 5210 5334 5825 5974 6644 7267 7418200mm or more of loft insulation 583 1256 2034 2530 2919 3520 4258 4685entire house double glazing 6169 10753 11915 12846 13486 13924 14850 15747

all dwellings 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 140 246 248 270 274 302 327 334200mm or more of loft insulation 29 59 95 117 134 160 192 211entire house double glazing 303 509 555 594 619 633 669 708

all dwellings 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

42 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 8 Cavity wall insulation by tenure

all dwellings

cavity with insulation

cavity uninsulated other all

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5161 5483 4364 15007private rented 566 1213 1517 3296private 5727 6696 5882 18304

local authority 834 657 493 1984housing association 857 720 374 1951social 1691 1378 867 3935

total 7418 8073 6749 22239

percentage of dwellingsowner occupied 344 365 291 100private rented 172 368 460 100private 313 366 321 100

local authority 420 331 248 100housing association 439 369 192 100social 430 350 220 100

total 334 363 303 100

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 43

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

all dwellings

no loftno

insulationless than

50mm50 up to

99mm

100 up to

149mm

150 up to

199mm200mm or more

all dwellings

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 748 442 432 3009 5147 2007 3223 15007 private rented 672 175 66 857 813 281 434 3296 private 1420 617 497 3866 5960 2288 3657 18304

local authority 614 33 19 171 471 206 470 1984 housing association 467 20 16 143 482 265 558 1951 social 1081 53 35 314 953 471 1028 3935

total 2501 670 532 4179 6913 2759 4685 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 50 29 29 200 343 134 215 1000private rented 204 53 20 260 247 85 132 1000private 78 34 27 211 326 125 200 1000

local authority 309 17 10 86 237 104 237 1000housing association 239 10 08 73 247 136 286 1000social 275 14 09 80 242 120 261 1000

total 112 30 24 188 311 124 211 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

44 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

hazard presentnumber of homes (000s) each hazard is present in

falling on stairs 2025excess cold 1966falling on level surfaces 788falling between levels 443fire 318

entry by intruders

flames hot surfacesleaddamp and mould growth 50 to 100 eachcollision and entrapmentradiationfalls associated with baths

crowding and space

food safetypersonal hygiene sanitation and drainage 20 to 50 eachnoisedomestic hygiene pests and refuseelectrical hazards

structural collapse and falling elements

water supplycarbon monoxide and fuel combustion productsposition and operability of amenities less thanexcess heat 20 eachlightinguncombusted fuel gasexplosions

any of the 15 hazards 4842

any of the 26 hazards 5039

Note For 2006 and 2007 the survey reported on 15 hazards only The 2008 EHS can provide estimates for 26 hazards - the additional hazards are marked with an asterisk The three remaining hazards not included in the survey are presence of asbestos biocides or volatile organic compounds For reporting purposes HHSRS and non-decent estimates will be based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with previous years and avoid a break in the time seriesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 45

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 4842 4925private rented 1449 1478all private 6291 6403

local authority 625 640housing association 444 464all social 1069 1104

all tenures 7360 7507

percentagesowner occupied 323 328private rented 440 448all private 344 350

local authority 315 323housing association 228 238all social 272 281

all tenures 331 338

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

46 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 hazards present (compariosn of estimates based on any one to the 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 3342 3452private rented 978 1013all private 4320 4465

local authority 298 326RSL 224 248all social 522 574

all tenures 4842 5039

percentagesowner occupied 223 230private rented 297 307all private 236 244

local authority 150 164RSL 115 127all social 133 146

all tenures 218 227

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 47

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all households

15 hazards 26 hazards

number (000s) percentage () number (000s) percentage ()

decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 1428 653 1413 646private rented 429 490 417 476all private vulnerable 1857 606 1830 597 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 8494 683 8425 677private rented 1246 588 1232 581all private non-vulnerable 9740 669 9657 663 all owner occupied 9922 678 9839 673all private rented 1675 559 1648 550all private 11597 658 11487 663all social 2798 740 2766 731

all households 14395 672 14253 666

non-decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 760 347 775 354private rented 447 510 459 524all private vulnerable 1207 394 1234 403 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 3946 317 4015 323private rented 874 412 888 419all private non-vulnerable 4820 331 4903 337 all owner occupied 4706 322 4790 327all private rented 1321 441 1347 450all private 6027 342 6137 348all social 985 260 1017 269

all households 7012 328 7154 334

Note For reporting purposes decent homes estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

48 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes1 by deprived and other districts by tenure 2006-2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsSocial NRF88 662 652 605Other districts 480 486 464 Private NRF88 2544 2621 2442Other districts 4013 3928 3849

percentages of dwellingsSocial NRF88 313 304 278Other districts 264 278 263 Private NRF88 381 380 361Other districts 353 344 333

Note NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving Neighbourhood Renewal Funding 2001-2006Source English House Condition Survey 2006-2007English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub sample)

Technical annex | 49

Technical annex

General description

The survey consists of three main elements an initial interview survey of 17700 households with a follow up physical inspection and a desk based market valuation of a sub-sample of 8000 of these dwellings including vacant dwellings The interview survey sample forms part of ONSrsquos Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the core questions from the IHS form part of the EHS questionnaire More information about the IHS is available from its webpage wwwstatisticsgovukCCInuggetaspID=936ampPos=1ampColRank=1ampRank=224

The EHS interview content covers the key topics included under the former SEH and EHCS The content of the physical and market value components remains very largely unchanged from the former EHCS

Sampling and grossing

2008-09 Sample1 The initial sample for 2008-09 consisted of 32100 addresses drawn as a systematic

random sample from the Postcode Address File (small users) Interviews were attempted at all of these addresses over the course of the survey year from April 2008 to March 2009 A proportion of addresses were found not to be valid residential properties (eg demolished properties secondholiday homes small businesses not yet built)

2 Of the 17691 addresses where interviews were achieved (the lsquofull household samplersquo) all social rented properties and a sub-sample of private properties were regarded as eligible for the physical survey and the respondentrsquos consent was sought A proportion of vacant properties were also sub-sampled Physical surveys were completed in 7972 cases and these cases contribute to the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo (see below)

3 The principal differences in sampling methodology between the EHS and its predecessors the SEH and EHCS are that

bull The EHS uses an unclustered sample This enables a smaller sample to be used with no loss of precision ie without sampling errors being increased The more scattered sample does however have some implications for fieldwork organisation

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 18: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

18 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 5 Buying aspirations of social and private renters 2008-09

all renters

social renters private renters

percentagesWill eventually buy or share home in UK yes 27 59no 73 41All 100 100

Expect to buy current accommodation (all who expect to buy) yes 44 13no 56 87All 100 100

When expect to buy (all who expect to buy) Less than a yearrsquos time 3 81 year but less than 2 years 7 162 years but less than 5 years 25 345 years or more 65 42All 100 100

Note Expectations to buy include shared ownershipSource English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

115 An estimated 24 of private renters expecting to buy (14 of all private renters) thought that they would buy within the next two years This proportion had fallen from 34 in 2006-07 (see Figure 5) whilst the proportion expecting to buy in five or more yearsrsquo time had risen from 35 to 42 over this period These changes suggest that private renters now expect to rent for longer before being in a position to buy perhaps due to affordability issues

Figure 5 Trend in expected time to buying ndash private renters expecting to buy eventually

per

cen

tage

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

2008-09 2007-082006-07

5 years or more2 years but less than 5lt2 years

Note based on those private renters who expect to buy eventuallySource English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Section 1 Households | 19

Overcrowding and under-occupation

116 Levels of overcrowding are measured using the ldquobedroom standardrdquo (see definition in Glossary) Essentially this is the difference between the number of bedrooms needed to avoid undesirable sharing (given the number and ages of household members and their relationships to each other) and the number of bedrooms actually available to the household

117 The previous estimates of overcrowding were based on three-year moving averages from the Survey of English Housing for 2005-06 2006-07 and 2007-08 The reason for having to base estimates on a three-year average was that with fewer than 3 per cent of households overcrowded the sample size for a single year was too small to provide reliable annual estimates However for 2008-09 in addition to the EHS sample of 17700 households we have information from a further 95000 households that were interviewed for the ONS Labour Force Survey This combined sample was sufficiently large to deliver robust single year estimates for 2008-09 without the need to carry forward the three-year average series

Table 6 Overcrowding and under-occupation by tenure 2008-09

all households

difference from bedroom standard

overcrowded at standardone above

standardunder-

occupied total

thousands of householdsowner occupiers 231 2117 5416 6855 14620

social renters 258 2032 1121 430 3841

private renters 164 1312 1095 494 3066

all tenures 654 5462 7633 7779 21527

percentagesowner occupiers 16 145 370 469 100

social renters 67 529 292 112 100

private renters 54 428 357 161 100

all tenures 30 254 355 361 100

Notes Details of the bedroom standard can be found in the GlossarySource English Housing Survey - full household sample and ONS Labour Force Survey

118 The overall rate of overcrowding in England for 2008-09 was 30 (see Table 6) This compares to the previously published estimate of 28 (averaged over the period 2005-06 to 2007-08) There were around 654000 overcrowded households (compared to an average of 570000 over the period 2005-06 to 2007-08) Levels of overcrowding varied considerably by tenure and were lowest in the owner occupied sector at 16 up from 14 for the period 2005-06 to 2007-08 Around 67 of social renters were overcrowded and 54 of private renters compared to 59 and 49 respectively for 2005-06 to 2007-08

20 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

119 Although the overall rate of overcrowding has shown little change in recent years this is largely due to the relatively stable rate of overcrowding in the owner occupied sector the largest tenure Over the past decade overcrowding has been rising in both the rented sectors

Figure 6 Trend in overcrowding rates by tenure 1995-96 to 2008-09 (3 year moving average)

private renters social rentersowner occupiers all tenures

per

cen

tage

of

ho

use

ho

lds

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

2008

-09

2007

-08

2006

-07

2005

-06

2004

-05

2003

-04

2002

-03

2001

-02

2000

-01

1999

-00

1998

-99

1997

-98

1996

-97

1995

-96

Source Survey of English Housing to 2007-08 and combined English Housing Survey (full sample) plus Labour Force Survey for 2008-09 The estimates up to 2007-08 are three-year moving averages so the ldquo2007-08rdquo figure is actually the average of 2005-06 2006-07 and 2007-08 Since the 2008-09 estimates are for that year only a gap has been introduced to separate the three-year averages to 2007-08 from the annual estimates for 2008-09

120 Around 78 million households were estimated to be under-occupying their accommodation in 2008-09 that is they had at least two bedrooms more than they needed (see definition of bedroom standard in Glossary) Under-occupation was far more likely to be found in the owner occupied sector than in the rented sectors 47 of owner occupiers were under-occupying accommodation compared to 11 of social renters and 16 of private renters

Recent movers

121 In this section we look at those households that had been in their current accommodation for less than 12 months at the time of interview

Section 1 Households | 21

Table 7 Previous tenure by current tenure 2008-09

HRPs resident less than a year

previous tenure ndash continuing households

current tenurenew

householdowner

occupierssocial

rentersprivate renters all tenures

thousands of householdsoutright owners 4 83 0 12 99buying with mortgage 68 204 13 131 416all owner occupiers 72 287 13 144 515

local authority 20 13 76 20 129housing association 24 9 105 38 177all social renters 44 23 181 58 306

private renters 229 141 47 686 1103

all tenures 345 450 241 887 1924

percentageoutright owners 4 84 0 13 100buying with mortgage 16 49 3 32 100all owner occupiers 14 56 3 28 100

local authority 15 10 59 15 100housing association 14 5 59 22 100all social renters 15 7 59 19 100

private renters 21 13 4 62 100

all tenures 18 23 13 46 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

122 Around 18 of households that had moved into their accommodation in the previous year were new households Two thirds (66) of these new households were private renters and around one fifth (21) were owner occupiers Movement within tenure was more common than moves between tenures 62 of current private renters had previously been private renters 59 of social renters had moved from another social rented property and 56 of owner occupiers had owned their previous property Movement into the social rented sector for continuing households was more likely to be from private renting (19 of current social renters) than from owner occupation (7)

22 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Attitudes to home and local area

123 Around 90 of households in England were satisfied with their accommodation in 2008-09 The highest levels of satisfaction were expressed by outright owners 73 of whom said that they were very satisfied with their homes Over three quarters of social renters were satisfied with their homes but 9 were slightly dissatisfied and 7 were very dissatisfied Around 82 of private renters were very or fairly satisfied with their accommodation and only 3 said they were very dissatisfied

Table 8 Satisfaction with accommodation by tenure 2008-09

all households

very satisfied

fairly satisfied

neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

slightly dissatisfied

very dissatisfied Total

thousands of householdsoutright owners 4926 1535 111 100 36 6709buying with mortgage 4604 2719 232 200 55 7810all owneroccupiers 9530 4254 343 300 91 14519

local authority 697 736 98 192 142 1866housing association 842 700 116 159 117 1935all social renters 1539 1437 214 351 260 3801

private renters 1240 1211 193 227 102 2972

all tenures 12309 6901 751 878 452 21291

percentagesoutright owners 73 23 2 1 1 100buying with mortgage 59 35 3 3 1 100all owneroccupiers 66 29 2 2 1 100

local authority 37 39 5 10 8 100housing association 44 36 6 8 6 100all social renters 40 38 6 9 7 100

private renters 42 41 6 8 3 100

all tenures 58 32 4 4 2 100

Note This question is not asked of proxy respondents and a small proportion of respondents chose not to answer These exclusions are reflected in the overall total number of households in this table Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

124 A large majority of households are satisfied with the local area in which they live In 2008-09 just over half of all households in England were very satisfied with their local area and 87 were very or fairly satisfied Only 3 of households were very dissatisfied with their local area

Section 1 Households | 23

125 There were some differences by tenure 89 of owner occupiers were satisfied with their local area compared to 79 of social renters and 85 of private renters Whilst only two per cent of owner occupiers and private renters said that they were very dissatisfied with their local area seven per cent of social renters were very dissatisfied

Table 9 Satisfaction with local area by tenure 2008-09

all households

very satisfied

fairly satisfied

neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

slightly dissatisfied

very dissatisfied Total

thousands of householdsoutright owners 3999 2093 180 322 114 6708buying with mortgage 3919 2973 371 420 127 7810all owners 7918 5066 552 742 241 14518

local authority 754 712 122 159 122 1867housing association 861 679 116 150 129 1936all social renters 1615 1391 238 309 251 3803

private renters 1520 1001 183 194 73 2972

all tenures 11052 7458 972 1245 565 21293

percentagesoutright owners 60 31 3 5 2 100buying with mortgage 50 38 5 5 2 100all owners 55 35 4 5 2 100

local authority 40 38 7 9 7 100housing association 44 35 6 8 7 100all social renters 42 37 6 8 7 100

private renters 51 34 6 7 2 100

all tenures 52 35 5 6 3 100

Note This question is not asked of proxy respondents and a small proportion of respondents chose not to answer These exclusions are reflected in the overall total number of households in this table Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

24 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Section 2Housing stock

21 Results relating to the housing stock in this report are presented using two yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the English House Condition Survey (EHCS) For this transition year data from the last full year of the EHCS (2007-08) were combined with the first year of the EHS (2008-09)

22 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Stock profile

23 There were around 222 million dwellings in 2008 Table 10 Of these 183 million (82 of the stock) were in the private sector and comprised 150 million owner occupied homes and 33 million private rented homes There were 39 million social sector homes (18 of the stock) of which two million were owned by local authority and two million by housing associations

Section 2 Housing stock | 25

Table 10 Stock profile 2008

all dwellings

private sector social sector

owner occupied

private rented

all private sector

local authority

housing association

all social sector

all dwellings

in group

thousands of dwellingsdwelling agepre 1919 3194 1309 4503 86 170 257 47601919-44 2689 431 3120 336 187 522 36421945-64 2708 384 3092 760 511 1271 43631965-80 3146 536 3682 665 467 1132 48141981-90 1401 222 1624 107 223 330 1953post 1990 1869 415 2284 30 394 424 2708

dwelling typemid terrace 2638 820 3459 325 367 693 4151end terrance 1440 340 1779 199 222 421 2201small terraced house 1216 548 1764 192 217 408 2172mediumlarge terraced house 2862 612 3475 333 373 705 4180all terrace 4078 1160 5238 524 589 1114 6352semi-detached house 4515 556 5070 365 351 716 5786detached house 3575 267 3843 5 18 24 3867bungalow 1548 133 1681 176 236 412 2092converted flat 284 427 712 38 75 113 825purpose built flat low rise 926 704 1630 724 626 1349 2979purpose built flat high rise 81 49 130 152 56 208 338

floor arealess than 50 sqm 742 652 1394 550 536 1086 248050 to 69 sqm 2913 1028 3942 725 680 1405 534770 to 89 sqm 4361 890 5251 575 553 1127 637990 to 109 sqm 2632 322 2954 102 132 234 3188110 sqm or more 4359 403 4763 32 52 83 4846

type of areacity centre 295 262 558 72 75 147 704other urban centre 2263 967 3230 538 458 996 4227suburban residential 9204 1581 10785 1236 1171 2407 13192rural residential 2074 233 2307 105 190 295 2601village centre 647 110 756 26 47 72 829rural 524 144 668 7 11 19 687

deprived local areasmost deprived 10 773 325 1097 595 468 1064 21612-5th 5331 1518 6849 1121 1025 2145 89956-9th 7072 1188 8260 249 423 672 8932least deprived 1832 266 2097 19 36 54 2152

occupancy statusoccupied 14610 2858 17468 1896 1860 3755 21223vacant 398 438 836 88 92 180 1016

Total 15007 3296 18304 1984 1951 3935 22239

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

26 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

24 The large majority of dwellings were houses (181 million) most commonly terraced or semi-detached The remainder of the stock 41 million consisited of flats predominately purpose built low rise flats However types of housing vary markedly between tenures While 91 of owner occupied housing was made up of houses almost half (46) of local authority homes were flats Figure 7 Flats also accounted for over a third of private rented homes and housing association homes (36 and 39 respectively)

Figure 7 Dwelling type by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

purpose built flat high risepurpose built flat low riseconverted flatdetached houses and bungalowssemi-detached housemediumlarge terraced housesmall terraced house

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

25 England has a relatively old housing stock with some 84 million homes built before 1945 of which 48 million were built before 1919 A fifth of homes (47 million) have been built since 1980

26 Stock in different tenures have different age profiles It is noticeable that owner occupied homes are evenly distributed across the five age bands compared with other tenures Figure 8 In the private rented sector for example 40 (13 million homes) were built before 1919 significantly higher than other tenures Housing association homes were more likely to have been built during the 1980s and 1990s (32) compared to only 7 of local authority homes

Section 2 Housing stock | 27

Figure 8 Age of housing stock by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

post 19901981-901965-801945-641919-44pre 1919

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

27 Some 44 million (29) of owner occupied homes had a floor area greater than 110m2 including 18 million (12 of the sector) which were over 150m2 This reflects the proportion of semi-detached and detached owner occupied homes which tend to be large Social sector homes were most likely to have a floor area of less than 50m2 compared with those in the private sector (28 and 8 respectively)

28 Homes in England were most likely to be located in suburban residential areas and least likely to be found in rural areas (59 and 3 respectively)

Energy efficiency of the housing stock

Heating and insulation29 Key ways of increasing the energy efficiency of existing homes are

improvements to their heating systems and levels of insulation For heating the type of heating system boiler in use and the fuel used are all related to energy performance

210 Central heating is the predominant main heating system present in 199 million homes (89 of the housing stock) in 2008 see Annex Table 3 This was followed by storage heaters present in 16 million (7) of homes and room heaters in 700000 homes (3) Central heating is generally considered to be the most cost effective and relatively efficient method of heating whereas room heaters tend to be the least cost effective and relatively inefficient method of heating

28 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

211 In 2008 92 of owner occupied homes had central heating systems compared to 88 of social and 80 of private rented homes see Annex Table 4 In part this reflects the higher proportion of flats in the rented sectors compared with owner occupation with 23 of flats using storage heaters

212 Condensing boilers are generally the most efficient boiler type and are now mandatory for new and replacement boilers (for gas fired boilers since 2005 for oil fired boilers since 2007) However even prior to these requirements the less efficient standard and back boilers were decreasing in use with the growing popularity of standard combination types Figure 9 Recent years have seen rapidly expanding take up of condensing and particularly combination condensing boilers In 2008 37 million homes (17 of the stock) had one of the two types of condensing boilers

Figure 9 Boiler types 1996-2008

no boiler

condensing-combination boiler condensing boilercombination boilerback boiler (to fire or stove)standard boiler (floor or wall)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

20082007200620052004200320011996

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes underpinning data is presented in Annex Table 5Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

213 For a home to provide optimum energy performance a high level of thermal insulation needs to be present alongside an efficient heating system Standard insulation measures include cavity wall insulation loft insulation and double glazing which have all improved in the stock since 1996 Figure 10

214 In 2008 155 million homes (70) had external walls of cavity construction 74 million homes (33 of the stock) had cavity wall insulation 47 million homes (21) had 200mm or more of loft insulation and 157 million homes (71) had full double glazing with an additional 29 million homes (13) having more than half double glazed Figure 10

Section 2 Housing stock | 29

Figure 10 Insulation measures 1996-2008

20082007200620052004200320011996

entire housedouble glazing

200mm or moreof loft insulation

cavity walls withinsulation

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes1) Only 89 of dwellings have lofts and 70 of dwellings have cavity walls2) Underpinning data is presented in annex Table 7Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

215 In 2008 the social rented sector had the greatest proportion of homes with cavity wall insulation (local authority 42 housing association 44) 200mm or more of loft insulation (local authority 24 housing association 29) and full double glazing (local authority 75 housing association 83) whereas the private rented sector had the lowest proportion of all three standard insulation measures cavity wall insulation (17) 200mm or more of loft insulation (13) and full double glazing (61) Figure 11

30 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Figure 11 Percentage of dwellings with efficient insulation measures by tenure 2008

full double glazing200mm or moreloft insulation

cavity withinsulation

cavity wall

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

housing associationlocal authorityprivate rentedowner occupied0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Base all dwellingsSource English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

SAP Rating

216 The energy efficiency of the housing stock continued to improve between 1996 and 2008 the average SAP rating of a home increased by 9 SAP points from 42 to 51 Table 11 The social sector was on average more energy efficient than the private sector and saw the greatest improvement with the average SAP rating increasing by 12 SAP points from 47 to 59

Table 11 Energy efficiency average SAP rating by tenure 2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

owner occupied 411 444 450 456 461 469 481 496private rented 379 419 444 457 460 466 481 502all private 407 441 449 456 461 468 481 497

local authority 457 496 520 539 553 558 562 580housing association 509 564 567 573 589 593 595 603all social 468 519 539 553 569 574 578 592

all tenures 421 457 466 474 481 487 498 514

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Section 2 Housing stock | 31

217 There has been a significant increase in the proportion of homes achieving the highest Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands in 2008 10 (23 million) of homes achieved the highest (EER) Bands A to C3 compared with 7 (16 million) in 2006 Table 12 The number of homes in the lowest EER Bands (F and G) fell by a million over the same period The majority of homes (73) continue to be in the EER Bands D or E

Table 12 Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 35 35 77Band C (69-80) 1545 1710 2229Band D (55-68) 6555 7316 7865Band E (39-54) 9072 8859 8310Band F (21-38) 3838 3389 2972Band G (1-20) 943 881 786Total 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 02 02 03Band C (69-80) 70 77 100Band D (55-68) 298 330 354Band E (39-54) 413 399 374Band F (21-38) 175 153 134Band G (1-20) 43 40 35Total 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 2006 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Housing health and safety rating system

218 A potentially serious (Category 1) hazard as measured under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System was present in around 48 million homes in 2008 22 of the housing stock

2 EER Bands are used in the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) The Certificate provides among other indicators an energy efficiency rating for the home on a scale from A-G (where A is the most efficient and G the least efficient)

32 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Housing conditions

Housing Health and Safety Rating System219 There was no significant change in the proportion of homes with any Category

1 hazard between 2006 and 2008 Hazards tend to be more common in older housing stock for example stairs are more likely to be steep and narrow in older housing making lsquofalls on stairsrsquo more likely or heating and insulation measures tend to be less effective in older stock making lsquoexcess coldrsquo a more serious hazard Therefore it is not surprising that hazards are more common in the private sector where the older housing stock is concentrated Almost a quarter of housing in the private sector had at least one category 1 hazard in 2008 (24) compared to around 13 in the social sector Table 14 Privately rented homes were most likely to have Category 1 hazards present compared to housing association homes (31 and 13 respectively)

220 The most common type of hazard in all four tenures was falls (see annex Table 10 for details of which hazards are included in this category) Overall 13 of homes have at least one type of falls hazard present

Decent homes221 In 2008 74 million homes (33) were non-decent4 Table 13 Housing

association housing was the least likely to be non-decent (23) while private rented housing was in the worst condition with 44 of homes being non-decent Overall social sector homes were in a better condition than private sector homes with 27 being non-decent compared to 34

222 The number of non-decent homes fell from 77 million in 2006 to 74 million in 20085 Conditions in the social sector improved with the proportion of homes failing the standard falling by two percentage points from 29 in 2006 to 27 in 2008 Private sector homes also improved from 36 non-decent in 2006 to 34 non-decent in 2008

4 Estimates from the EHS are based soley on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors subject to any limitations of the information they collect The EHS estimates in this report do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property

5 In 2006 the Housing Health and Safety Rating System replaced the Fitness Standard as the statutory minimum standard for housing Earlier estimates based on the original definition are not comparable therefore any change in the number of decent homes can only be referenced back to 2006 Figures for decent homes prior to 2006 can be found in the 2006 English House Condition Survey Annual Report available at wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

Section 2 Housing stock | 33

Table 13 Non-decent homes by tenure 2006 ndash 2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5335 5304 4842private rented 1223 1244 1449all private 6558 6548 6291

local authority 676 652 625housing association 465 486 444all social 1142 1138 1069

all tenures 7700 7686 7360

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 346 341 323private rented 468 454 440all private 363 358 344

local authority 324 328 315housing association 252 255 228all social 290 292 272

all tenures 350 346 331

Notes1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties between 2007 and 2008 are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates See Annex Table 11Sources2006 ndash 2007 English House Condition Survey2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Reasons for failing decent homes223 Of the four components required to meet the decent homes standard the

presence of one or more category 1 hazards under the HHSRS was the most commonly failed Table 14 This is particularly the case for private sector homes where 24 of homes had one or more Category 1 hazards present compared to 13 of social sector homes

34 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 14 Homes failing decent homes criteria by tenure 2008

all dwellings

Category 1 hazard (HHSRS)

thermal comfort

modern facilities repair all non-decent

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 3342 1773 379 817 4842private rented 978 637 160 369 1449all private 4320 2411 539 1186 6291

local authority 298 227 138 146 625housing association 224 199 50 86 444all social 522 426 188 231 1069

all tenures 4842 2837 727 1417 7360

percentages

owner occupied 223 118 25 54 323private rented 297 193 49 112 440all private 236 132 29 65 344

local authority 150 115 70 74 315housing association 115 102 25 44 228all social 133 108 48 59 272

all tenures 218 128 33 64 331

Note The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoids a break in the time series See Annex Table 12 for estimate based on 26 hazardsSource English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

224 There was significant progress in the thermal comfort of homes between 2006 and 2008 The proportion of homes failing thermal comfort fell to 13 in 2008 from 16 in 2006 Improvement has been made across all tenures

Private sector vulnerable households225 In 2008 31 million lsquovulnerablersquo households6 were living in the private sector of

which 12 million (39) were living in non-decent homes the remaining 19 million (61) were living in decent accommodation Table 15 There has been no significant change since 2006

226 Vulnerable households who privately rent their accommodation were more likely to live in non-decent homes compared to social tenants (51 and 26 respectively) Table 15

6 Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

Section 2 Housing stock | 35

Table 15 Households living in decent homes 2006-2008

all dwellings

number (000s) percentage ()

2006 2007 2008 2006 2007 2008

decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 1543 1575 1428 630 649 653private rented 334 354 429 450 482 490all private vulnerable 1877 1929 1857 588 610 606

private non- vulnerableowner occupied 8418 8531 8494 664 667 683private rented 922 985 1246 567 566 588all private non-vulnerable 9340 9516 9740 653 655 669

all owner occupied 9961 10106 9922 658 664 678all private rented 1256 1339 1675 530 541 559all private 11217 11445 11597 641 647 658all social 2690 2649 2798 722 719 740all households 13907 14094 14395 655 659 672

non-decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 905 851 760 370 351 347private rented 408 380 447 550 518 510all private vulnerable 1313 1231 1207 412 390 394

private non-vulnerableowner occupied 4262 4264 3946 336 333 317private rented 704 754 874 433 434 412all private non-vulnerable 4966 5018 4820 347 345 331

all owner occupied 5167 5115 4706 342 336 322all private rented 1112 1134 1321 470 459 441all private 6279 6249 6027 359 353 342

all social 1034 1037 985 278 281 260all households 7313 7286 7012 345 341 328

Notes 1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoid a break in the time series See Annex Table 13 for further detailsSource English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

36 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Damp and mould growth227 The proportion of homes with damp problems has reduced from 13 in 1996

to 8 in 2008 Table 16

Table 16 Number and percentage of homes with damp problems in one or more rooms 1996-2008

all dwellings

rising damp

penetrating damp

condensation mould

any damp problems

thousands of dwellings1996 858 1271 1145 26012001 625 1032 860 20322003 740 1066 1003 22832004 750 1035 951 22512005 759 952 941 22102006 724 886 947 21582007 640 833 881 19162008 584 759 865 1746

percentage of dwellings1996 42 63 56 1282001 29 49 41 962003 34 50 47 1062004 35 48 44 1042005 35 44 43 1012006 33 40 43 982007 29 38 40 862008 26 34 39 78

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

228 Privately rented homes were more likely to experience damp problems compared to other tenures Figure 11 Privately rented homes were more likely to be older homes and experience problems with rising or penetrating damp due to defects in the damp proof course roof covering gutters and down pipes which would affect at least one room in the property

229 In the social sector damp problems were more likely to be caused by serious condensation and mould growth rather than by rising damp Figure 12

Section 2 Housing stock | 37

Figure 12 Percentage of homes with a damp problem by tenure 2008

rising damp penetrating damp condensationmould

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

alltenures

housingassociation

localauthority

privaterented

owneroccupied

per

cen

tage

of

ho

mes

wit

h d

amp

pro

ble

ms

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

38 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex tables

Households

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

Annex Table 2 Economic Status of working age HRP by tenure 2008-09

Energy efficiency

Annex Table 3 Heating Type 1996-2008

Annex Table 4 Main Heating System by tenure 2008

Annex Table 5 Boiler Types 1996-2008

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

Annex Table 8 Cavity Wall insulation by tenure 2008

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

Housing Health and Safety Rating System

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 HHSRS hazards present (comparison of estimates based on any one of 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Non-decent homes in deprived areas

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes in deprived areas by tenure 2006-2008

Annex tables | 39

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent

child(ren)

couple with dependent

child(ren)

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)

other multi-

person households

all one-person

households

all household

types

percentageown outright 46 9 7 24 37 31buying with mortgage 35 66 27 25 23 36social renters 9 13 44 20 25 18private renters 10 12 22 31 15 14

all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 2 Economic status of working age HRP by tenure

all households

working un-employed retired other inactive Total percentage

own outright 74 2 14 10 100buying with mortgage 94 1 1 4 100social renters 49 12 1 37 100private renters 75 5 1 19 100all tenures 80 4 3 13 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 3 Heating type 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingscentral heating 16178 18177 18604 18919 19179 19553 19862 19862storage heater 1643 1600 1587 1616 1609 1532 1552 1641fixed roomportable heater 2515 2001 1294 1078 993 904 776 736Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingscentral heating 796 860 866 875 881 889 895 893storage heater 81 76 74 75 74 70 70 74fixed roomportable heating heater 124 95 60 50 46 41 35 33Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

40 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 4 Main heating system by tenure 2008

all dwellings

central heating storage heaterfixed room

heatingportable

heating only all dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 13788 790 411 19 15007 private rented 2630 441 208 17 3296 all private 16418 1232 619 36 18304

local authority 1776 160 46 2 1984 housing association 1669 249 33 1 1951 all social 3445 409 79 3 3935

all tenures 19862 1641 698 38 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 919 53 27 01 1000 private rented 798 134 63 05 1000 all private 897 67 34 02 1000

local authority 895 80 23 01 1000 housing association 855 128 17 00 1000 all social 875 104 20 01 1000

all tenures 893 74 31 02 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 5 Boiler types 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsstandard boiler 10447 10338 9642 9635 9425 9014 8782 8072back boiler 2773 2759 2580 2409 2181 2131 1944 1688combination boiler 2810 4431 5492 5934 6254 6312 6287 6082condensing boiler ndash 155 154 202 300 460 698 948condensing-combination boiler ndash 318 373 417 727 1297 1837 2773no boiler 4305 3140 3244 3016 2894 2775 2642 2676Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsstandard boiler 514 489 449 446 433 410 396 363back boiler 136 130 120 111 100 97 88 76combination boiler 138 210 256 275 287 287 283 273condensing boiler 00 07 07 09 14 21 31 43condensing-combination boiler 00 15 17 19 33 59 83 125no boiler 212 149 151 140 133 126 119 120Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 41

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

all dwellings

standard boiler

back boiler

combination boiler

condensing boiler

condensing-combination

boilerno

boilerall

dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 6223 1045 3984 713 1756 1286 15007 private rented 817 149 1112 73 429 716 3296 all private 7040 1194 5096 787 2185 2002 18304

local authority 499 271 481 90 335 309 1984 housing association 533 223 505 72 254 365 1951 all social 1032 494 986 162 589 674 3935

all 8072 1688 6082 948 2773 2676 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 415 70 265 48 117 86 1000 private rented 248 45 337 22 130 217 1000 all private 385 65 278 43 119 109 1000

local authority 251 136 242 45 169 156 1000 housing association 273 114 259 37 130 187 1000 all social 262 125 250 41 150 171 1000

all 363 76 273 43 125 120 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 2853 5210 5334 5825 5974 6644 7267 7418200mm or more of loft insulation 583 1256 2034 2530 2919 3520 4258 4685entire house double glazing 6169 10753 11915 12846 13486 13924 14850 15747

all dwellings 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 140 246 248 270 274 302 327 334200mm or more of loft insulation 29 59 95 117 134 160 192 211entire house double glazing 303 509 555 594 619 633 669 708

all dwellings 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

42 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 8 Cavity wall insulation by tenure

all dwellings

cavity with insulation

cavity uninsulated other all

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5161 5483 4364 15007private rented 566 1213 1517 3296private 5727 6696 5882 18304

local authority 834 657 493 1984housing association 857 720 374 1951social 1691 1378 867 3935

total 7418 8073 6749 22239

percentage of dwellingsowner occupied 344 365 291 100private rented 172 368 460 100private 313 366 321 100

local authority 420 331 248 100housing association 439 369 192 100social 430 350 220 100

total 334 363 303 100

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 43

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

all dwellings

no loftno

insulationless than

50mm50 up to

99mm

100 up to

149mm

150 up to

199mm200mm or more

all dwellings

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 748 442 432 3009 5147 2007 3223 15007 private rented 672 175 66 857 813 281 434 3296 private 1420 617 497 3866 5960 2288 3657 18304

local authority 614 33 19 171 471 206 470 1984 housing association 467 20 16 143 482 265 558 1951 social 1081 53 35 314 953 471 1028 3935

total 2501 670 532 4179 6913 2759 4685 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 50 29 29 200 343 134 215 1000private rented 204 53 20 260 247 85 132 1000private 78 34 27 211 326 125 200 1000

local authority 309 17 10 86 237 104 237 1000housing association 239 10 08 73 247 136 286 1000social 275 14 09 80 242 120 261 1000

total 112 30 24 188 311 124 211 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

44 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

hazard presentnumber of homes (000s) each hazard is present in

falling on stairs 2025excess cold 1966falling on level surfaces 788falling between levels 443fire 318

entry by intruders

flames hot surfacesleaddamp and mould growth 50 to 100 eachcollision and entrapmentradiationfalls associated with baths

crowding and space

food safetypersonal hygiene sanitation and drainage 20 to 50 eachnoisedomestic hygiene pests and refuseelectrical hazards

structural collapse and falling elements

water supplycarbon monoxide and fuel combustion productsposition and operability of amenities less thanexcess heat 20 eachlightinguncombusted fuel gasexplosions

any of the 15 hazards 4842

any of the 26 hazards 5039

Note For 2006 and 2007 the survey reported on 15 hazards only The 2008 EHS can provide estimates for 26 hazards - the additional hazards are marked with an asterisk The three remaining hazards not included in the survey are presence of asbestos biocides or volatile organic compounds For reporting purposes HHSRS and non-decent estimates will be based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with previous years and avoid a break in the time seriesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 45

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 4842 4925private rented 1449 1478all private 6291 6403

local authority 625 640housing association 444 464all social 1069 1104

all tenures 7360 7507

percentagesowner occupied 323 328private rented 440 448all private 344 350

local authority 315 323housing association 228 238all social 272 281

all tenures 331 338

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

46 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 hazards present (compariosn of estimates based on any one to the 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 3342 3452private rented 978 1013all private 4320 4465

local authority 298 326RSL 224 248all social 522 574

all tenures 4842 5039

percentagesowner occupied 223 230private rented 297 307all private 236 244

local authority 150 164RSL 115 127all social 133 146

all tenures 218 227

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 47

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all households

15 hazards 26 hazards

number (000s) percentage () number (000s) percentage ()

decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 1428 653 1413 646private rented 429 490 417 476all private vulnerable 1857 606 1830 597 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 8494 683 8425 677private rented 1246 588 1232 581all private non-vulnerable 9740 669 9657 663 all owner occupied 9922 678 9839 673all private rented 1675 559 1648 550all private 11597 658 11487 663all social 2798 740 2766 731

all households 14395 672 14253 666

non-decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 760 347 775 354private rented 447 510 459 524all private vulnerable 1207 394 1234 403 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 3946 317 4015 323private rented 874 412 888 419all private non-vulnerable 4820 331 4903 337 all owner occupied 4706 322 4790 327all private rented 1321 441 1347 450all private 6027 342 6137 348all social 985 260 1017 269

all households 7012 328 7154 334

Note For reporting purposes decent homes estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

48 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes1 by deprived and other districts by tenure 2006-2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsSocial NRF88 662 652 605Other districts 480 486 464 Private NRF88 2544 2621 2442Other districts 4013 3928 3849

percentages of dwellingsSocial NRF88 313 304 278Other districts 264 278 263 Private NRF88 381 380 361Other districts 353 344 333

Note NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving Neighbourhood Renewal Funding 2001-2006Source English House Condition Survey 2006-2007English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub sample)

Technical annex | 49

Technical annex

General description

The survey consists of three main elements an initial interview survey of 17700 households with a follow up physical inspection and a desk based market valuation of a sub-sample of 8000 of these dwellings including vacant dwellings The interview survey sample forms part of ONSrsquos Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the core questions from the IHS form part of the EHS questionnaire More information about the IHS is available from its webpage wwwstatisticsgovukCCInuggetaspID=936ampPos=1ampColRank=1ampRank=224

The EHS interview content covers the key topics included under the former SEH and EHCS The content of the physical and market value components remains very largely unchanged from the former EHCS

Sampling and grossing

2008-09 Sample1 The initial sample for 2008-09 consisted of 32100 addresses drawn as a systematic

random sample from the Postcode Address File (small users) Interviews were attempted at all of these addresses over the course of the survey year from April 2008 to March 2009 A proportion of addresses were found not to be valid residential properties (eg demolished properties secondholiday homes small businesses not yet built)

2 Of the 17691 addresses where interviews were achieved (the lsquofull household samplersquo) all social rented properties and a sub-sample of private properties were regarded as eligible for the physical survey and the respondentrsquos consent was sought A proportion of vacant properties were also sub-sampled Physical surveys were completed in 7972 cases and these cases contribute to the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo (see below)

3 The principal differences in sampling methodology between the EHS and its predecessors the SEH and EHCS are that

bull The EHS uses an unclustered sample This enables a smaller sample to be used with no loss of precision ie without sampling errors being increased The more scattered sample does however have some implications for fieldwork organisation

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 19: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

Section 1 Households | 19

Overcrowding and under-occupation

116 Levels of overcrowding are measured using the ldquobedroom standardrdquo (see definition in Glossary) Essentially this is the difference between the number of bedrooms needed to avoid undesirable sharing (given the number and ages of household members and their relationships to each other) and the number of bedrooms actually available to the household

117 The previous estimates of overcrowding were based on three-year moving averages from the Survey of English Housing for 2005-06 2006-07 and 2007-08 The reason for having to base estimates on a three-year average was that with fewer than 3 per cent of households overcrowded the sample size for a single year was too small to provide reliable annual estimates However for 2008-09 in addition to the EHS sample of 17700 households we have information from a further 95000 households that were interviewed for the ONS Labour Force Survey This combined sample was sufficiently large to deliver robust single year estimates for 2008-09 without the need to carry forward the three-year average series

Table 6 Overcrowding and under-occupation by tenure 2008-09

all households

difference from bedroom standard

overcrowded at standardone above

standardunder-

occupied total

thousands of householdsowner occupiers 231 2117 5416 6855 14620

social renters 258 2032 1121 430 3841

private renters 164 1312 1095 494 3066

all tenures 654 5462 7633 7779 21527

percentagesowner occupiers 16 145 370 469 100

social renters 67 529 292 112 100

private renters 54 428 357 161 100

all tenures 30 254 355 361 100

Notes Details of the bedroom standard can be found in the GlossarySource English Housing Survey - full household sample and ONS Labour Force Survey

118 The overall rate of overcrowding in England for 2008-09 was 30 (see Table 6) This compares to the previously published estimate of 28 (averaged over the period 2005-06 to 2007-08) There were around 654000 overcrowded households (compared to an average of 570000 over the period 2005-06 to 2007-08) Levels of overcrowding varied considerably by tenure and were lowest in the owner occupied sector at 16 up from 14 for the period 2005-06 to 2007-08 Around 67 of social renters were overcrowded and 54 of private renters compared to 59 and 49 respectively for 2005-06 to 2007-08

20 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

119 Although the overall rate of overcrowding has shown little change in recent years this is largely due to the relatively stable rate of overcrowding in the owner occupied sector the largest tenure Over the past decade overcrowding has been rising in both the rented sectors

Figure 6 Trend in overcrowding rates by tenure 1995-96 to 2008-09 (3 year moving average)

private renters social rentersowner occupiers all tenures

per

cen

tage

of

ho

use

ho

lds

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

2008

-09

2007

-08

2006

-07

2005

-06

2004

-05

2003

-04

2002

-03

2001

-02

2000

-01

1999

-00

1998

-99

1997

-98

1996

-97

1995

-96

Source Survey of English Housing to 2007-08 and combined English Housing Survey (full sample) plus Labour Force Survey for 2008-09 The estimates up to 2007-08 are three-year moving averages so the ldquo2007-08rdquo figure is actually the average of 2005-06 2006-07 and 2007-08 Since the 2008-09 estimates are for that year only a gap has been introduced to separate the three-year averages to 2007-08 from the annual estimates for 2008-09

120 Around 78 million households were estimated to be under-occupying their accommodation in 2008-09 that is they had at least two bedrooms more than they needed (see definition of bedroom standard in Glossary) Under-occupation was far more likely to be found in the owner occupied sector than in the rented sectors 47 of owner occupiers were under-occupying accommodation compared to 11 of social renters and 16 of private renters

Recent movers

121 In this section we look at those households that had been in their current accommodation for less than 12 months at the time of interview

Section 1 Households | 21

Table 7 Previous tenure by current tenure 2008-09

HRPs resident less than a year

previous tenure ndash continuing households

current tenurenew

householdowner

occupierssocial

rentersprivate renters all tenures

thousands of householdsoutright owners 4 83 0 12 99buying with mortgage 68 204 13 131 416all owner occupiers 72 287 13 144 515

local authority 20 13 76 20 129housing association 24 9 105 38 177all social renters 44 23 181 58 306

private renters 229 141 47 686 1103

all tenures 345 450 241 887 1924

percentageoutright owners 4 84 0 13 100buying with mortgage 16 49 3 32 100all owner occupiers 14 56 3 28 100

local authority 15 10 59 15 100housing association 14 5 59 22 100all social renters 15 7 59 19 100

private renters 21 13 4 62 100

all tenures 18 23 13 46 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

122 Around 18 of households that had moved into their accommodation in the previous year were new households Two thirds (66) of these new households were private renters and around one fifth (21) were owner occupiers Movement within tenure was more common than moves between tenures 62 of current private renters had previously been private renters 59 of social renters had moved from another social rented property and 56 of owner occupiers had owned their previous property Movement into the social rented sector for continuing households was more likely to be from private renting (19 of current social renters) than from owner occupation (7)

22 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Attitudes to home and local area

123 Around 90 of households in England were satisfied with their accommodation in 2008-09 The highest levels of satisfaction were expressed by outright owners 73 of whom said that they were very satisfied with their homes Over three quarters of social renters were satisfied with their homes but 9 were slightly dissatisfied and 7 were very dissatisfied Around 82 of private renters were very or fairly satisfied with their accommodation and only 3 said they were very dissatisfied

Table 8 Satisfaction with accommodation by tenure 2008-09

all households

very satisfied

fairly satisfied

neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

slightly dissatisfied

very dissatisfied Total

thousands of householdsoutright owners 4926 1535 111 100 36 6709buying with mortgage 4604 2719 232 200 55 7810all owneroccupiers 9530 4254 343 300 91 14519

local authority 697 736 98 192 142 1866housing association 842 700 116 159 117 1935all social renters 1539 1437 214 351 260 3801

private renters 1240 1211 193 227 102 2972

all tenures 12309 6901 751 878 452 21291

percentagesoutright owners 73 23 2 1 1 100buying with mortgage 59 35 3 3 1 100all owneroccupiers 66 29 2 2 1 100

local authority 37 39 5 10 8 100housing association 44 36 6 8 6 100all social renters 40 38 6 9 7 100

private renters 42 41 6 8 3 100

all tenures 58 32 4 4 2 100

Note This question is not asked of proxy respondents and a small proportion of respondents chose not to answer These exclusions are reflected in the overall total number of households in this table Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

124 A large majority of households are satisfied with the local area in which they live In 2008-09 just over half of all households in England were very satisfied with their local area and 87 were very or fairly satisfied Only 3 of households were very dissatisfied with their local area

Section 1 Households | 23

125 There were some differences by tenure 89 of owner occupiers were satisfied with their local area compared to 79 of social renters and 85 of private renters Whilst only two per cent of owner occupiers and private renters said that they were very dissatisfied with their local area seven per cent of social renters were very dissatisfied

Table 9 Satisfaction with local area by tenure 2008-09

all households

very satisfied

fairly satisfied

neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

slightly dissatisfied

very dissatisfied Total

thousands of householdsoutright owners 3999 2093 180 322 114 6708buying with mortgage 3919 2973 371 420 127 7810all owners 7918 5066 552 742 241 14518

local authority 754 712 122 159 122 1867housing association 861 679 116 150 129 1936all social renters 1615 1391 238 309 251 3803

private renters 1520 1001 183 194 73 2972

all tenures 11052 7458 972 1245 565 21293

percentagesoutright owners 60 31 3 5 2 100buying with mortgage 50 38 5 5 2 100all owners 55 35 4 5 2 100

local authority 40 38 7 9 7 100housing association 44 35 6 8 7 100all social renters 42 37 6 8 7 100

private renters 51 34 6 7 2 100

all tenures 52 35 5 6 3 100

Note This question is not asked of proxy respondents and a small proportion of respondents chose not to answer These exclusions are reflected in the overall total number of households in this table Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

24 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Section 2Housing stock

21 Results relating to the housing stock in this report are presented using two yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the English House Condition Survey (EHCS) For this transition year data from the last full year of the EHCS (2007-08) were combined with the first year of the EHS (2008-09)

22 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Stock profile

23 There were around 222 million dwellings in 2008 Table 10 Of these 183 million (82 of the stock) were in the private sector and comprised 150 million owner occupied homes and 33 million private rented homes There were 39 million social sector homes (18 of the stock) of which two million were owned by local authority and two million by housing associations

Section 2 Housing stock | 25

Table 10 Stock profile 2008

all dwellings

private sector social sector

owner occupied

private rented

all private sector

local authority

housing association

all social sector

all dwellings

in group

thousands of dwellingsdwelling agepre 1919 3194 1309 4503 86 170 257 47601919-44 2689 431 3120 336 187 522 36421945-64 2708 384 3092 760 511 1271 43631965-80 3146 536 3682 665 467 1132 48141981-90 1401 222 1624 107 223 330 1953post 1990 1869 415 2284 30 394 424 2708

dwelling typemid terrace 2638 820 3459 325 367 693 4151end terrance 1440 340 1779 199 222 421 2201small terraced house 1216 548 1764 192 217 408 2172mediumlarge terraced house 2862 612 3475 333 373 705 4180all terrace 4078 1160 5238 524 589 1114 6352semi-detached house 4515 556 5070 365 351 716 5786detached house 3575 267 3843 5 18 24 3867bungalow 1548 133 1681 176 236 412 2092converted flat 284 427 712 38 75 113 825purpose built flat low rise 926 704 1630 724 626 1349 2979purpose built flat high rise 81 49 130 152 56 208 338

floor arealess than 50 sqm 742 652 1394 550 536 1086 248050 to 69 sqm 2913 1028 3942 725 680 1405 534770 to 89 sqm 4361 890 5251 575 553 1127 637990 to 109 sqm 2632 322 2954 102 132 234 3188110 sqm or more 4359 403 4763 32 52 83 4846

type of areacity centre 295 262 558 72 75 147 704other urban centre 2263 967 3230 538 458 996 4227suburban residential 9204 1581 10785 1236 1171 2407 13192rural residential 2074 233 2307 105 190 295 2601village centre 647 110 756 26 47 72 829rural 524 144 668 7 11 19 687

deprived local areasmost deprived 10 773 325 1097 595 468 1064 21612-5th 5331 1518 6849 1121 1025 2145 89956-9th 7072 1188 8260 249 423 672 8932least deprived 1832 266 2097 19 36 54 2152

occupancy statusoccupied 14610 2858 17468 1896 1860 3755 21223vacant 398 438 836 88 92 180 1016

Total 15007 3296 18304 1984 1951 3935 22239

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

26 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

24 The large majority of dwellings were houses (181 million) most commonly terraced or semi-detached The remainder of the stock 41 million consisited of flats predominately purpose built low rise flats However types of housing vary markedly between tenures While 91 of owner occupied housing was made up of houses almost half (46) of local authority homes were flats Figure 7 Flats also accounted for over a third of private rented homes and housing association homes (36 and 39 respectively)

Figure 7 Dwelling type by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

purpose built flat high risepurpose built flat low riseconverted flatdetached houses and bungalowssemi-detached housemediumlarge terraced housesmall terraced house

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

25 England has a relatively old housing stock with some 84 million homes built before 1945 of which 48 million were built before 1919 A fifth of homes (47 million) have been built since 1980

26 Stock in different tenures have different age profiles It is noticeable that owner occupied homes are evenly distributed across the five age bands compared with other tenures Figure 8 In the private rented sector for example 40 (13 million homes) were built before 1919 significantly higher than other tenures Housing association homes were more likely to have been built during the 1980s and 1990s (32) compared to only 7 of local authority homes

Section 2 Housing stock | 27

Figure 8 Age of housing stock by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

post 19901981-901965-801945-641919-44pre 1919

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

27 Some 44 million (29) of owner occupied homes had a floor area greater than 110m2 including 18 million (12 of the sector) which were over 150m2 This reflects the proportion of semi-detached and detached owner occupied homes which tend to be large Social sector homes were most likely to have a floor area of less than 50m2 compared with those in the private sector (28 and 8 respectively)

28 Homes in England were most likely to be located in suburban residential areas and least likely to be found in rural areas (59 and 3 respectively)

Energy efficiency of the housing stock

Heating and insulation29 Key ways of increasing the energy efficiency of existing homes are

improvements to their heating systems and levels of insulation For heating the type of heating system boiler in use and the fuel used are all related to energy performance

210 Central heating is the predominant main heating system present in 199 million homes (89 of the housing stock) in 2008 see Annex Table 3 This was followed by storage heaters present in 16 million (7) of homes and room heaters in 700000 homes (3) Central heating is generally considered to be the most cost effective and relatively efficient method of heating whereas room heaters tend to be the least cost effective and relatively inefficient method of heating

28 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

211 In 2008 92 of owner occupied homes had central heating systems compared to 88 of social and 80 of private rented homes see Annex Table 4 In part this reflects the higher proportion of flats in the rented sectors compared with owner occupation with 23 of flats using storage heaters

212 Condensing boilers are generally the most efficient boiler type and are now mandatory for new and replacement boilers (for gas fired boilers since 2005 for oil fired boilers since 2007) However even prior to these requirements the less efficient standard and back boilers were decreasing in use with the growing popularity of standard combination types Figure 9 Recent years have seen rapidly expanding take up of condensing and particularly combination condensing boilers In 2008 37 million homes (17 of the stock) had one of the two types of condensing boilers

Figure 9 Boiler types 1996-2008

no boiler

condensing-combination boiler condensing boilercombination boilerback boiler (to fire or stove)standard boiler (floor or wall)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

20082007200620052004200320011996

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes underpinning data is presented in Annex Table 5Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

213 For a home to provide optimum energy performance a high level of thermal insulation needs to be present alongside an efficient heating system Standard insulation measures include cavity wall insulation loft insulation and double glazing which have all improved in the stock since 1996 Figure 10

214 In 2008 155 million homes (70) had external walls of cavity construction 74 million homes (33 of the stock) had cavity wall insulation 47 million homes (21) had 200mm or more of loft insulation and 157 million homes (71) had full double glazing with an additional 29 million homes (13) having more than half double glazed Figure 10

Section 2 Housing stock | 29

Figure 10 Insulation measures 1996-2008

20082007200620052004200320011996

entire housedouble glazing

200mm or moreof loft insulation

cavity walls withinsulation

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes1) Only 89 of dwellings have lofts and 70 of dwellings have cavity walls2) Underpinning data is presented in annex Table 7Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

215 In 2008 the social rented sector had the greatest proportion of homes with cavity wall insulation (local authority 42 housing association 44) 200mm or more of loft insulation (local authority 24 housing association 29) and full double glazing (local authority 75 housing association 83) whereas the private rented sector had the lowest proportion of all three standard insulation measures cavity wall insulation (17) 200mm or more of loft insulation (13) and full double glazing (61) Figure 11

30 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Figure 11 Percentage of dwellings with efficient insulation measures by tenure 2008

full double glazing200mm or moreloft insulation

cavity withinsulation

cavity wall

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

housing associationlocal authorityprivate rentedowner occupied0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Base all dwellingsSource English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

SAP Rating

216 The energy efficiency of the housing stock continued to improve between 1996 and 2008 the average SAP rating of a home increased by 9 SAP points from 42 to 51 Table 11 The social sector was on average more energy efficient than the private sector and saw the greatest improvement with the average SAP rating increasing by 12 SAP points from 47 to 59

Table 11 Energy efficiency average SAP rating by tenure 2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

owner occupied 411 444 450 456 461 469 481 496private rented 379 419 444 457 460 466 481 502all private 407 441 449 456 461 468 481 497

local authority 457 496 520 539 553 558 562 580housing association 509 564 567 573 589 593 595 603all social 468 519 539 553 569 574 578 592

all tenures 421 457 466 474 481 487 498 514

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Section 2 Housing stock | 31

217 There has been a significant increase in the proportion of homes achieving the highest Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands in 2008 10 (23 million) of homes achieved the highest (EER) Bands A to C3 compared with 7 (16 million) in 2006 Table 12 The number of homes in the lowest EER Bands (F and G) fell by a million over the same period The majority of homes (73) continue to be in the EER Bands D or E

Table 12 Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 35 35 77Band C (69-80) 1545 1710 2229Band D (55-68) 6555 7316 7865Band E (39-54) 9072 8859 8310Band F (21-38) 3838 3389 2972Band G (1-20) 943 881 786Total 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 02 02 03Band C (69-80) 70 77 100Band D (55-68) 298 330 354Band E (39-54) 413 399 374Band F (21-38) 175 153 134Band G (1-20) 43 40 35Total 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 2006 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Housing health and safety rating system

218 A potentially serious (Category 1) hazard as measured under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System was present in around 48 million homes in 2008 22 of the housing stock

2 EER Bands are used in the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) The Certificate provides among other indicators an energy efficiency rating for the home on a scale from A-G (where A is the most efficient and G the least efficient)

32 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Housing conditions

Housing Health and Safety Rating System219 There was no significant change in the proportion of homes with any Category

1 hazard between 2006 and 2008 Hazards tend to be more common in older housing stock for example stairs are more likely to be steep and narrow in older housing making lsquofalls on stairsrsquo more likely or heating and insulation measures tend to be less effective in older stock making lsquoexcess coldrsquo a more serious hazard Therefore it is not surprising that hazards are more common in the private sector where the older housing stock is concentrated Almost a quarter of housing in the private sector had at least one category 1 hazard in 2008 (24) compared to around 13 in the social sector Table 14 Privately rented homes were most likely to have Category 1 hazards present compared to housing association homes (31 and 13 respectively)

220 The most common type of hazard in all four tenures was falls (see annex Table 10 for details of which hazards are included in this category) Overall 13 of homes have at least one type of falls hazard present

Decent homes221 In 2008 74 million homes (33) were non-decent4 Table 13 Housing

association housing was the least likely to be non-decent (23) while private rented housing was in the worst condition with 44 of homes being non-decent Overall social sector homes were in a better condition than private sector homes with 27 being non-decent compared to 34

222 The number of non-decent homes fell from 77 million in 2006 to 74 million in 20085 Conditions in the social sector improved with the proportion of homes failing the standard falling by two percentage points from 29 in 2006 to 27 in 2008 Private sector homes also improved from 36 non-decent in 2006 to 34 non-decent in 2008

4 Estimates from the EHS are based soley on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors subject to any limitations of the information they collect The EHS estimates in this report do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property

5 In 2006 the Housing Health and Safety Rating System replaced the Fitness Standard as the statutory minimum standard for housing Earlier estimates based on the original definition are not comparable therefore any change in the number of decent homes can only be referenced back to 2006 Figures for decent homes prior to 2006 can be found in the 2006 English House Condition Survey Annual Report available at wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

Section 2 Housing stock | 33

Table 13 Non-decent homes by tenure 2006 ndash 2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5335 5304 4842private rented 1223 1244 1449all private 6558 6548 6291

local authority 676 652 625housing association 465 486 444all social 1142 1138 1069

all tenures 7700 7686 7360

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 346 341 323private rented 468 454 440all private 363 358 344

local authority 324 328 315housing association 252 255 228all social 290 292 272

all tenures 350 346 331

Notes1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties between 2007 and 2008 are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates See Annex Table 11Sources2006 ndash 2007 English House Condition Survey2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Reasons for failing decent homes223 Of the four components required to meet the decent homes standard the

presence of one or more category 1 hazards under the HHSRS was the most commonly failed Table 14 This is particularly the case for private sector homes where 24 of homes had one or more Category 1 hazards present compared to 13 of social sector homes

34 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 14 Homes failing decent homes criteria by tenure 2008

all dwellings

Category 1 hazard (HHSRS)

thermal comfort

modern facilities repair all non-decent

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 3342 1773 379 817 4842private rented 978 637 160 369 1449all private 4320 2411 539 1186 6291

local authority 298 227 138 146 625housing association 224 199 50 86 444all social 522 426 188 231 1069

all tenures 4842 2837 727 1417 7360

percentages

owner occupied 223 118 25 54 323private rented 297 193 49 112 440all private 236 132 29 65 344

local authority 150 115 70 74 315housing association 115 102 25 44 228all social 133 108 48 59 272

all tenures 218 128 33 64 331

Note The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoids a break in the time series See Annex Table 12 for estimate based on 26 hazardsSource English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

224 There was significant progress in the thermal comfort of homes between 2006 and 2008 The proportion of homes failing thermal comfort fell to 13 in 2008 from 16 in 2006 Improvement has been made across all tenures

Private sector vulnerable households225 In 2008 31 million lsquovulnerablersquo households6 were living in the private sector of

which 12 million (39) were living in non-decent homes the remaining 19 million (61) were living in decent accommodation Table 15 There has been no significant change since 2006

226 Vulnerable households who privately rent their accommodation were more likely to live in non-decent homes compared to social tenants (51 and 26 respectively) Table 15

6 Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

Section 2 Housing stock | 35

Table 15 Households living in decent homes 2006-2008

all dwellings

number (000s) percentage ()

2006 2007 2008 2006 2007 2008

decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 1543 1575 1428 630 649 653private rented 334 354 429 450 482 490all private vulnerable 1877 1929 1857 588 610 606

private non- vulnerableowner occupied 8418 8531 8494 664 667 683private rented 922 985 1246 567 566 588all private non-vulnerable 9340 9516 9740 653 655 669

all owner occupied 9961 10106 9922 658 664 678all private rented 1256 1339 1675 530 541 559all private 11217 11445 11597 641 647 658all social 2690 2649 2798 722 719 740all households 13907 14094 14395 655 659 672

non-decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 905 851 760 370 351 347private rented 408 380 447 550 518 510all private vulnerable 1313 1231 1207 412 390 394

private non-vulnerableowner occupied 4262 4264 3946 336 333 317private rented 704 754 874 433 434 412all private non-vulnerable 4966 5018 4820 347 345 331

all owner occupied 5167 5115 4706 342 336 322all private rented 1112 1134 1321 470 459 441all private 6279 6249 6027 359 353 342

all social 1034 1037 985 278 281 260all households 7313 7286 7012 345 341 328

Notes 1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoid a break in the time series See Annex Table 13 for further detailsSource English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

36 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Damp and mould growth227 The proportion of homes with damp problems has reduced from 13 in 1996

to 8 in 2008 Table 16

Table 16 Number and percentage of homes with damp problems in one or more rooms 1996-2008

all dwellings

rising damp

penetrating damp

condensation mould

any damp problems

thousands of dwellings1996 858 1271 1145 26012001 625 1032 860 20322003 740 1066 1003 22832004 750 1035 951 22512005 759 952 941 22102006 724 886 947 21582007 640 833 881 19162008 584 759 865 1746

percentage of dwellings1996 42 63 56 1282001 29 49 41 962003 34 50 47 1062004 35 48 44 1042005 35 44 43 1012006 33 40 43 982007 29 38 40 862008 26 34 39 78

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

228 Privately rented homes were more likely to experience damp problems compared to other tenures Figure 11 Privately rented homes were more likely to be older homes and experience problems with rising or penetrating damp due to defects in the damp proof course roof covering gutters and down pipes which would affect at least one room in the property

229 In the social sector damp problems were more likely to be caused by serious condensation and mould growth rather than by rising damp Figure 12

Section 2 Housing stock | 37

Figure 12 Percentage of homes with a damp problem by tenure 2008

rising damp penetrating damp condensationmould

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

alltenures

housingassociation

localauthority

privaterented

owneroccupied

per

cen

tage

of

ho

mes

wit

h d

amp

pro

ble

ms

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

38 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex tables

Households

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

Annex Table 2 Economic Status of working age HRP by tenure 2008-09

Energy efficiency

Annex Table 3 Heating Type 1996-2008

Annex Table 4 Main Heating System by tenure 2008

Annex Table 5 Boiler Types 1996-2008

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

Annex Table 8 Cavity Wall insulation by tenure 2008

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

Housing Health and Safety Rating System

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 HHSRS hazards present (comparison of estimates based on any one of 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Non-decent homes in deprived areas

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes in deprived areas by tenure 2006-2008

Annex tables | 39

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent

child(ren)

couple with dependent

child(ren)

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)

other multi-

person households

all one-person

households

all household

types

percentageown outright 46 9 7 24 37 31buying with mortgage 35 66 27 25 23 36social renters 9 13 44 20 25 18private renters 10 12 22 31 15 14

all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 2 Economic status of working age HRP by tenure

all households

working un-employed retired other inactive Total percentage

own outright 74 2 14 10 100buying with mortgage 94 1 1 4 100social renters 49 12 1 37 100private renters 75 5 1 19 100all tenures 80 4 3 13 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 3 Heating type 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingscentral heating 16178 18177 18604 18919 19179 19553 19862 19862storage heater 1643 1600 1587 1616 1609 1532 1552 1641fixed roomportable heater 2515 2001 1294 1078 993 904 776 736Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingscentral heating 796 860 866 875 881 889 895 893storage heater 81 76 74 75 74 70 70 74fixed roomportable heating heater 124 95 60 50 46 41 35 33Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

40 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 4 Main heating system by tenure 2008

all dwellings

central heating storage heaterfixed room

heatingportable

heating only all dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 13788 790 411 19 15007 private rented 2630 441 208 17 3296 all private 16418 1232 619 36 18304

local authority 1776 160 46 2 1984 housing association 1669 249 33 1 1951 all social 3445 409 79 3 3935

all tenures 19862 1641 698 38 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 919 53 27 01 1000 private rented 798 134 63 05 1000 all private 897 67 34 02 1000

local authority 895 80 23 01 1000 housing association 855 128 17 00 1000 all social 875 104 20 01 1000

all tenures 893 74 31 02 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 5 Boiler types 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsstandard boiler 10447 10338 9642 9635 9425 9014 8782 8072back boiler 2773 2759 2580 2409 2181 2131 1944 1688combination boiler 2810 4431 5492 5934 6254 6312 6287 6082condensing boiler ndash 155 154 202 300 460 698 948condensing-combination boiler ndash 318 373 417 727 1297 1837 2773no boiler 4305 3140 3244 3016 2894 2775 2642 2676Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsstandard boiler 514 489 449 446 433 410 396 363back boiler 136 130 120 111 100 97 88 76combination boiler 138 210 256 275 287 287 283 273condensing boiler 00 07 07 09 14 21 31 43condensing-combination boiler 00 15 17 19 33 59 83 125no boiler 212 149 151 140 133 126 119 120Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 41

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

all dwellings

standard boiler

back boiler

combination boiler

condensing boiler

condensing-combination

boilerno

boilerall

dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 6223 1045 3984 713 1756 1286 15007 private rented 817 149 1112 73 429 716 3296 all private 7040 1194 5096 787 2185 2002 18304

local authority 499 271 481 90 335 309 1984 housing association 533 223 505 72 254 365 1951 all social 1032 494 986 162 589 674 3935

all 8072 1688 6082 948 2773 2676 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 415 70 265 48 117 86 1000 private rented 248 45 337 22 130 217 1000 all private 385 65 278 43 119 109 1000

local authority 251 136 242 45 169 156 1000 housing association 273 114 259 37 130 187 1000 all social 262 125 250 41 150 171 1000

all 363 76 273 43 125 120 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 2853 5210 5334 5825 5974 6644 7267 7418200mm or more of loft insulation 583 1256 2034 2530 2919 3520 4258 4685entire house double glazing 6169 10753 11915 12846 13486 13924 14850 15747

all dwellings 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 140 246 248 270 274 302 327 334200mm or more of loft insulation 29 59 95 117 134 160 192 211entire house double glazing 303 509 555 594 619 633 669 708

all dwellings 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

42 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 8 Cavity wall insulation by tenure

all dwellings

cavity with insulation

cavity uninsulated other all

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5161 5483 4364 15007private rented 566 1213 1517 3296private 5727 6696 5882 18304

local authority 834 657 493 1984housing association 857 720 374 1951social 1691 1378 867 3935

total 7418 8073 6749 22239

percentage of dwellingsowner occupied 344 365 291 100private rented 172 368 460 100private 313 366 321 100

local authority 420 331 248 100housing association 439 369 192 100social 430 350 220 100

total 334 363 303 100

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 43

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

all dwellings

no loftno

insulationless than

50mm50 up to

99mm

100 up to

149mm

150 up to

199mm200mm or more

all dwellings

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 748 442 432 3009 5147 2007 3223 15007 private rented 672 175 66 857 813 281 434 3296 private 1420 617 497 3866 5960 2288 3657 18304

local authority 614 33 19 171 471 206 470 1984 housing association 467 20 16 143 482 265 558 1951 social 1081 53 35 314 953 471 1028 3935

total 2501 670 532 4179 6913 2759 4685 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 50 29 29 200 343 134 215 1000private rented 204 53 20 260 247 85 132 1000private 78 34 27 211 326 125 200 1000

local authority 309 17 10 86 237 104 237 1000housing association 239 10 08 73 247 136 286 1000social 275 14 09 80 242 120 261 1000

total 112 30 24 188 311 124 211 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

44 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

hazard presentnumber of homes (000s) each hazard is present in

falling on stairs 2025excess cold 1966falling on level surfaces 788falling between levels 443fire 318

entry by intruders

flames hot surfacesleaddamp and mould growth 50 to 100 eachcollision and entrapmentradiationfalls associated with baths

crowding and space

food safetypersonal hygiene sanitation and drainage 20 to 50 eachnoisedomestic hygiene pests and refuseelectrical hazards

structural collapse and falling elements

water supplycarbon monoxide and fuel combustion productsposition and operability of amenities less thanexcess heat 20 eachlightinguncombusted fuel gasexplosions

any of the 15 hazards 4842

any of the 26 hazards 5039

Note For 2006 and 2007 the survey reported on 15 hazards only The 2008 EHS can provide estimates for 26 hazards - the additional hazards are marked with an asterisk The three remaining hazards not included in the survey are presence of asbestos biocides or volatile organic compounds For reporting purposes HHSRS and non-decent estimates will be based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with previous years and avoid a break in the time seriesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 45

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 4842 4925private rented 1449 1478all private 6291 6403

local authority 625 640housing association 444 464all social 1069 1104

all tenures 7360 7507

percentagesowner occupied 323 328private rented 440 448all private 344 350

local authority 315 323housing association 228 238all social 272 281

all tenures 331 338

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

46 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 hazards present (compariosn of estimates based on any one to the 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 3342 3452private rented 978 1013all private 4320 4465

local authority 298 326RSL 224 248all social 522 574

all tenures 4842 5039

percentagesowner occupied 223 230private rented 297 307all private 236 244

local authority 150 164RSL 115 127all social 133 146

all tenures 218 227

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 47

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all households

15 hazards 26 hazards

number (000s) percentage () number (000s) percentage ()

decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 1428 653 1413 646private rented 429 490 417 476all private vulnerable 1857 606 1830 597 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 8494 683 8425 677private rented 1246 588 1232 581all private non-vulnerable 9740 669 9657 663 all owner occupied 9922 678 9839 673all private rented 1675 559 1648 550all private 11597 658 11487 663all social 2798 740 2766 731

all households 14395 672 14253 666

non-decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 760 347 775 354private rented 447 510 459 524all private vulnerable 1207 394 1234 403 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 3946 317 4015 323private rented 874 412 888 419all private non-vulnerable 4820 331 4903 337 all owner occupied 4706 322 4790 327all private rented 1321 441 1347 450all private 6027 342 6137 348all social 985 260 1017 269

all households 7012 328 7154 334

Note For reporting purposes decent homes estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

48 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes1 by deprived and other districts by tenure 2006-2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsSocial NRF88 662 652 605Other districts 480 486 464 Private NRF88 2544 2621 2442Other districts 4013 3928 3849

percentages of dwellingsSocial NRF88 313 304 278Other districts 264 278 263 Private NRF88 381 380 361Other districts 353 344 333

Note NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving Neighbourhood Renewal Funding 2001-2006Source English House Condition Survey 2006-2007English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub sample)

Technical annex | 49

Technical annex

General description

The survey consists of three main elements an initial interview survey of 17700 households with a follow up physical inspection and a desk based market valuation of a sub-sample of 8000 of these dwellings including vacant dwellings The interview survey sample forms part of ONSrsquos Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the core questions from the IHS form part of the EHS questionnaire More information about the IHS is available from its webpage wwwstatisticsgovukCCInuggetaspID=936ampPos=1ampColRank=1ampRank=224

The EHS interview content covers the key topics included under the former SEH and EHCS The content of the physical and market value components remains very largely unchanged from the former EHCS

Sampling and grossing

2008-09 Sample1 The initial sample for 2008-09 consisted of 32100 addresses drawn as a systematic

random sample from the Postcode Address File (small users) Interviews were attempted at all of these addresses over the course of the survey year from April 2008 to March 2009 A proportion of addresses were found not to be valid residential properties (eg demolished properties secondholiday homes small businesses not yet built)

2 Of the 17691 addresses where interviews were achieved (the lsquofull household samplersquo) all social rented properties and a sub-sample of private properties were regarded as eligible for the physical survey and the respondentrsquos consent was sought A proportion of vacant properties were also sub-sampled Physical surveys were completed in 7972 cases and these cases contribute to the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo (see below)

3 The principal differences in sampling methodology between the EHS and its predecessors the SEH and EHCS are that

bull The EHS uses an unclustered sample This enables a smaller sample to be used with no loss of precision ie without sampling errors being increased The more scattered sample does however have some implications for fieldwork organisation

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 20: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

20 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

119 Although the overall rate of overcrowding has shown little change in recent years this is largely due to the relatively stable rate of overcrowding in the owner occupied sector the largest tenure Over the past decade overcrowding has been rising in both the rented sectors

Figure 6 Trend in overcrowding rates by tenure 1995-96 to 2008-09 (3 year moving average)

private renters social rentersowner occupiers all tenures

per

cen

tage

of

ho

use

ho

lds

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

2008

-09

2007

-08

2006

-07

2005

-06

2004

-05

2003

-04

2002

-03

2001

-02

2000

-01

1999

-00

1998

-99

1997

-98

1996

-97

1995

-96

Source Survey of English Housing to 2007-08 and combined English Housing Survey (full sample) plus Labour Force Survey for 2008-09 The estimates up to 2007-08 are three-year moving averages so the ldquo2007-08rdquo figure is actually the average of 2005-06 2006-07 and 2007-08 Since the 2008-09 estimates are for that year only a gap has been introduced to separate the three-year averages to 2007-08 from the annual estimates for 2008-09

120 Around 78 million households were estimated to be under-occupying their accommodation in 2008-09 that is they had at least two bedrooms more than they needed (see definition of bedroom standard in Glossary) Under-occupation was far more likely to be found in the owner occupied sector than in the rented sectors 47 of owner occupiers were under-occupying accommodation compared to 11 of social renters and 16 of private renters

Recent movers

121 In this section we look at those households that had been in their current accommodation for less than 12 months at the time of interview

Section 1 Households | 21

Table 7 Previous tenure by current tenure 2008-09

HRPs resident less than a year

previous tenure ndash continuing households

current tenurenew

householdowner

occupierssocial

rentersprivate renters all tenures

thousands of householdsoutright owners 4 83 0 12 99buying with mortgage 68 204 13 131 416all owner occupiers 72 287 13 144 515

local authority 20 13 76 20 129housing association 24 9 105 38 177all social renters 44 23 181 58 306

private renters 229 141 47 686 1103

all tenures 345 450 241 887 1924

percentageoutright owners 4 84 0 13 100buying with mortgage 16 49 3 32 100all owner occupiers 14 56 3 28 100

local authority 15 10 59 15 100housing association 14 5 59 22 100all social renters 15 7 59 19 100

private renters 21 13 4 62 100

all tenures 18 23 13 46 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

122 Around 18 of households that had moved into their accommodation in the previous year were new households Two thirds (66) of these new households were private renters and around one fifth (21) were owner occupiers Movement within tenure was more common than moves between tenures 62 of current private renters had previously been private renters 59 of social renters had moved from another social rented property and 56 of owner occupiers had owned their previous property Movement into the social rented sector for continuing households was more likely to be from private renting (19 of current social renters) than from owner occupation (7)

22 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Attitudes to home and local area

123 Around 90 of households in England were satisfied with their accommodation in 2008-09 The highest levels of satisfaction were expressed by outright owners 73 of whom said that they were very satisfied with their homes Over three quarters of social renters were satisfied with their homes but 9 were slightly dissatisfied and 7 were very dissatisfied Around 82 of private renters were very or fairly satisfied with their accommodation and only 3 said they were very dissatisfied

Table 8 Satisfaction with accommodation by tenure 2008-09

all households

very satisfied

fairly satisfied

neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

slightly dissatisfied

very dissatisfied Total

thousands of householdsoutright owners 4926 1535 111 100 36 6709buying with mortgage 4604 2719 232 200 55 7810all owneroccupiers 9530 4254 343 300 91 14519

local authority 697 736 98 192 142 1866housing association 842 700 116 159 117 1935all social renters 1539 1437 214 351 260 3801

private renters 1240 1211 193 227 102 2972

all tenures 12309 6901 751 878 452 21291

percentagesoutright owners 73 23 2 1 1 100buying with mortgage 59 35 3 3 1 100all owneroccupiers 66 29 2 2 1 100

local authority 37 39 5 10 8 100housing association 44 36 6 8 6 100all social renters 40 38 6 9 7 100

private renters 42 41 6 8 3 100

all tenures 58 32 4 4 2 100

Note This question is not asked of proxy respondents and a small proportion of respondents chose not to answer These exclusions are reflected in the overall total number of households in this table Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

124 A large majority of households are satisfied with the local area in which they live In 2008-09 just over half of all households in England were very satisfied with their local area and 87 were very or fairly satisfied Only 3 of households were very dissatisfied with their local area

Section 1 Households | 23

125 There were some differences by tenure 89 of owner occupiers were satisfied with their local area compared to 79 of social renters and 85 of private renters Whilst only two per cent of owner occupiers and private renters said that they were very dissatisfied with their local area seven per cent of social renters were very dissatisfied

Table 9 Satisfaction with local area by tenure 2008-09

all households

very satisfied

fairly satisfied

neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

slightly dissatisfied

very dissatisfied Total

thousands of householdsoutright owners 3999 2093 180 322 114 6708buying with mortgage 3919 2973 371 420 127 7810all owners 7918 5066 552 742 241 14518

local authority 754 712 122 159 122 1867housing association 861 679 116 150 129 1936all social renters 1615 1391 238 309 251 3803

private renters 1520 1001 183 194 73 2972

all tenures 11052 7458 972 1245 565 21293

percentagesoutright owners 60 31 3 5 2 100buying with mortgage 50 38 5 5 2 100all owners 55 35 4 5 2 100

local authority 40 38 7 9 7 100housing association 44 35 6 8 7 100all social renters 42 37 6 8 7 100

private renters 51 34 6 7 2 100

all tenures 52 35 5 6 3 100

Note This question is not asked of proxy respondents and a small proportion of respondents chose not to answer These exclusions are reflected in the overall total number of households in this table Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

24 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Section 2Housing stock

21 Results relating to the housing stock in this report are presented using two yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the English House Condition Survey (EHCS) For this transition year data from the last full year of the EHCS (2007-08) were combined with the first year of the EHS (2008-09)

22 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Stock profile

23 There were around 222 million dwellings in 2008 Table 10 Of these 183 million (82 of the stock) were in the private sector and comprised 150 million owner occupied homes and 33 million private rented homes There were 39 million social sector homes (18 of the stock) of which two million were owned by local authority and two million by housing associations

Section 2 Housing stock | 25

Table 10 Stock profile 2008

all dwellings

private sector social sector

owner occupied

private rented

all private sector

local authority

housing association

all social sector

all dwellings

in group

thousands of dwellingsdwelling agepre 1919 3194 1309 4503 86 170 257 47601919-44 2689 431 3120 336 187 522 36421945-64 2708 384 3092 760 511 1271 43631965-80 3146 536 3682 665 467 1132 48141981-90 1401 222 1624 107 223 330 1953post 1990 1869 415 2284 30 394 424 2708

dwelling typemid terrace 2638 820 3459 325 367 693 4151end terrance 1440 340 1779 199 222 421 2201small terraced house 1216 548 1764 192 217 408 2172mediumlarge terraced house 2862 612 3475 333 373 705 4180all terrace 4078 1160 5238 524 589 1114 6352semi-detached house 4515 556 5070 365 351 716 5786detached house 3575 267 3843 5 18 24 3867bungalow 1548 133 1681 176 236 412 2092converted flat 284 427 712 38 75 113 825purpose built flat low rise 926 704 1630 724 626 1349 2979purpose built flat high rise 81 49 130 152 56 208 338

floor arealess than 50 sqm 742 652 1394 550 536 1086 248050 to 69 sqm 2913 1028 3942 725 680 1405 534770 to 89 sqm 4361 890 5251 575 553 1127 637990 to 109 sqm 2632 322 2954 102 132 234 3188110 sqm or more 4359 403 4763 32 52 83 4846

type of areacity centre 295 262 558 72 75 147 704other urban centre 2263 967 3230 538 458 996 4227suburban residential 9204 1581 10785 1236 1171 2407 13192rural residential 2074 233 2307 105 190 295 2601village centre 647 110 756 26 47 72 829rural 524 144 668 7 11 19 687

deprived local areasmost deprived 10 773 325 1097 595 468 1064 21612-5th 5331 1518 6849 1121 1025 2145 89956-9th 7072 1188 8260 249 423 672 8932least deprived 1832 266 2097 19 36 54 2152

occupancy statusoccupied 14610 2858 17468 1896 1860 3755 21223vacant 398 438 836 88 92 180 1016

Total 15007 3296 18304 1984 1951 3935 22239

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

26 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

24 The large majority of dwellings were houses (181 million) most commonly terraced or semi-detached The remainder of the stock 41 million consisited of flats predominately purpose built low rise flats However types of housing vary markedly between tenures While 91 of owner occupied housing was made up of houses almost half (46) of local authority homes were flats Figure 7 Flats also accounted for over a third of private rented homes and housing association homes (36 and 39 respectively)

Figure 7 Dwelling type by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

purpose built flat high risepurpose built flat low riseconverted flatdetached houses and bungalowssemi-detached housemediumlarge terraced housesmall terraced house

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

25 England has a relatively old housing stock with some 84 million homes built before 1945 of which 48 million were built before 1919 A fifth of homes (47 million) have been built since 1980

26 Stock in different tenures have different age profiles It is noticeable that owner occupied homes are evenly distributed across the five age bands compared with other tenures Figure 8 In the private rented sector for example 40 (13 million homes) were built before 1919 significantly higher than other tenures Housing association homes were more likely to have been built during the 1980s and 1990s (32) compared to only 7 of local authority homes

Section 2 Housing stock | 27

Figure 8 Age of housing stock by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

post 19901981-901965-801945-641919-44pre 1919

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

27 Some 44 million (29) of owner occupied homes had a floor area greater than 110m2 including 18 million (12 of the sector) which were over 150m2 This reflects the proportion of semi-detached and detached owner occupied homes which tend to be large Social sector homes were most likely to have a floor area of less than 50m2 compared with those in the private sector (28 and 8 respectively)

28 Homes in England were most likely to be located in suburban residential areas and least likely to be found in rural areas (59 and 3 respectively)

Energy efficiency of the housing stock

Heating and insulation29 Key ways of increasing the energy efficiency of existing homes are

improvements to their heating systems and levels of insulation For heating the type of heating system boiler in use and the fuel used are all related to energy performance

210 Central heating is the predominant main heating system present in 199 million homes (89 of the housing stock) in 2008 see Annex Table 3 This was followed by storage heaters present in 16 million (7) of homes and room heaters in 700000 homes (3) Central heating is generally considered to be the most cost effective and relatively efficient method of heating whereas room heaters tend to be the least cost effective and relatively inefficient method of heating

28 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

211 In 2008 92 of owner occupied homes had central heating systems compared to 88 of social and 80 of private rented homes see Annex Table 4 In part this reflects the higher proportion of flats in the rented sectors compared with owner occupation with 23 of flats using storage heaters

212 Condensing boilers are generally the most efficient boiler type and are now mandatory for new and replacement boilers (for gas fired boilers since 2005 for oil fired boilers since 2007) However even prior to these requirements the less efficient standard and back boilers were decreasing in use with the growing popularity of standard combination types Figure 9 Recent years have seen rapidly expanding take up of condensing and particularly combination condensing boilers In 2008 37 million homes (17 of the stock) had one of the two types of condensing boilers

Figure 9 Boiler types 1996-2008

no boiler

condensing-combination boiler condensing boilercombination boilerback boiler (to fire or stove)standard boiler (floor or wall)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

20082007200620052004200320011996

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes underpinning data is presented in Annex Table 5Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

213 For a home to provide optimum energy performance a high level of thermal insulation needs to be present alongside an efficient heating system Standard insulation measures include cavity wall insulation loft insulation and double glazing which have all improved in the stock since 1996 Figure 10

214 In 2008 155 million homes (70) had external walls of cavity construction 74 million homes (33 of the stock) had cavity wall insulation 47 million homes (21) had 200mm or more of loft insulation and 157 million homes (71) had full double glazing with an additional 29 million homes (13) having more than half double glazed Figure 10

Section 2 Housing stock | 29

Figure 10 Insulation measures 1996-2008

20082007200620052004200320011996

entire housedouble glazing

200mm or moreof loft insulation

cavity walls withinsulation

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes1) Only 89 of dwellings have lofts and 70 of dwellings have cavity walls2) Underpinning data is presented in annex Table 7Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

215 In 2008 the social rented sector had the greatest proportion of homes with cavity wall insulation (local authority 42 housing association 44) 200mm or more of loft insulation (local authority 24 housing association 29) and full double glazing (local authority 75 housing association 83) whereas the private rented sector had the lowest proportion of all three standard insulation measures cavity wall insulation (17) 200mm or more of loft insulation (13) and full double glazing (61) Figure 11

30 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Figure 11 Percentage of dwellings with efficient insulation measures by tenure 2008

full double glazing200mm or moreloft insulation

cavity withinsulation

cavity wall

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

housing associationlocal authorityprivate rentedowner occupied0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Base all dwellingsSource English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

SAP Rating

216 The energy efficiency of the housing stock continued to improve between 1996 and 2008 the average SAP rating of a home increased by 9 SAP points from 42 to 51 Table 11 The social sector was on average more energy efficient than the private sector and saw the greatest improvement with the average SAP rating increasing by 12 SAP points from 47 to 59

Table 11 Energy efficiency average SAP rating by tenure 2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

owner occupied 411 444 450 456 461 469 481 496private rented 379 419 444 457 460 466 481 502all private 407 441 449 456 461 468 481 497

local authority 457 496 520 539 553 558 562 580housing association 509 564 567 573 589 593 595 603all social 468 519 539 553 569 574 578 592

all tenures 421 457 466 474 481 487 498 514

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Section 2 Housing stock | 31

217 There has been a significant increase in the proportion of homes achieving the highest Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands in 2008 10 (23 million) of homes achieved the highest (EER) Bands A to C3 compared with 7 (16 million) in 2006 Table 12 The number of homes in the lowest EER Bands (F and G) fell by a million over the same period The majority of homes (73) continue to be in the EER Bands D or E

Table 12 Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 35 35 77Band C (69-80) 1545 1710 2229Band D (55-68) 6555 7316 7865Band E (39-54) 9072 8859 8310Band F (21-38) 3838 3389 2972Band G (1-20) 943 881 786Total 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 02 02 03Band C (69-80) 70 77 100Band D (55-68) 298 330 354Band E (39-54) 413 399 374Band F (21-38) 175 153 134Band G (1-20) 43 40 35Total 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 2006 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Housing health and safety rating system

218 A potentially serious (Category 1) hazard as measured under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System was present in around 48 million homes in 2008 22 of the housing stock

2 EER Bands are used in the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) The Certificate provides among other indicators an energy efficiency rating for the home on a scale from A-G (where A is the most efficient and G the least efficient)

32 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Housing conditions

Housing Health and Safety Rating System219 There was no significant change in the proportion of homes with any Category

1 hazard between 2006 and 2008 Hazards tend to be more common in older housing stock for example stairs are more likely to be steep and narrow in older housing making lsquofalls on stairsrsquo more likely or heating and insulation measures tend to be less effective in older stock making lsquoexcess coldrsquo a more serious hazard Therefore it is not surprising that hazards are more common in the private sector where the older housing stock is concentrated Almost a quarter of housing in the private sector had at least one category 1 hazard in 2008 (24) compared to around 13 in the social sector Table 14 Privately rented homes were most likely to have Category 1 hazards present compared to housing association homes (31 and 13 respectively)

220 The most common type of hazard in all four tenures was falls (see annex Table 10 for details of which hazards are included in this category) Overall 13 of homes have at least one type of falls hazard present

Decent homes221 In 2008 74 million homes (33) were non-decent4 Table 13 Housing

association housing was the least likely to be non-decent (23) while private rented housing was in the worst condition with 44 of homes being non-decent Overall social sector homes were in a better condition than private sector homes with 27 being non-decent compared to 34

222 The number of non-decent homes fell from 77 million in 2006 to 74 million in 20085 Conditions in the social sector improved with the proportion of homes failing the standard falling by two percentage points from 29 in 2006 to 27 in 2008 Private sector homes also improved from 36 non-decent in 2006 to 34 non-decent in 2008

4 Estimates from the EHS are based soley on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors subject to any limitations of the information they collect The EHS estimates in this report do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property

5 In 2006 the Housing Health and Safety Rating System replaced the Fitness Standard as the statutory minimum standard for housing Earlier estimates based on the original definition are not comparable therefore any change in the number of decent homes can only be referenced back to 2006 Figures for decent homes prior to 2006 can be found in the 2006 English House Condition Survey Annual Report available at wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

Section 2 Housing stock | 33

Table 13 Non-decent homes by tenure 2006 ndash 2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5335 5304 4842private rented 1223 1244 1449all private 6558 6548 6291

local authority 676 652 625housing association 465 486 444all social 1142 1138 1069

all tenures 7700 7686 7360

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 346 341 323private rented 468 454 440all private 363 358 344

local authority 324 328 315housing association 252 255 228all social 290 292 272

all tenures 350 346 331

Notes1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties between 2007 and 2008 are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates See Annex Table 11Sources2006 ndash 2007 English House Condition Survey2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Reasons for failing decent homes223 Of the four components required to meet the decent homes standard the

presence of one or more category 1 hazards under the HHSRS was the most commonly failed Table 14 This is particularly the case for private sector homes where 24 of homes had one or more Category 1 hazards present compared to 13 of social sector homes

34 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 14 Homes failing decent homes criteria by tenure 2008

all dwellings

Category 1 hazard (HHSRS)

thermal comfort

modern facilities repair all non-decent

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 3342 1773 379 817 4842private rented 978 637 160 369 1449all private 4320 2411 539 1186 6291

local authority 298 227 138 146 625housing association 224 199 50 86 444all social 522 426 188 231 1069

all tenures 4842 2837 727 1417 7360

percentages

owner occupied 223 118 25 54 323private rented 297 193 49 112 440all private 236 132 29 65 344

local authority 150 115 70 74 315housing association 115 102 25 44 228all social 133 108 48 59 272

all tenures 218 128 33 64 331

Note The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoids a break in the time series See Annex Table 12 for estimate based on 26 hazardsSource English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

224 There was significant progress in the thermal comfort of homes between 2006 and 2008 The proportion of homes failing thermal comfort fell to 13 in 2008 from 16 in 2006 Improvement has been made across all tenures

Private sector vulnerable households225 In 2008 31 million lsquovulnerablersquo households6 were living in the private sector of

which 12 million (39) were living in non-decent homes the remaining 19 million (61) were living in decent accommodation Table 15 There has been no significant change since 2006

226 Vulnerable households who privately rent their accommodation were more likely to live in non-decent homes compared to social tenants (51 and 26 respectively) Table 15

6 Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

Section 2 Housing stock | 35

Table 15 Households living in decent homes 2006-2008

all dwellings

number (000s) percentage ()

2006 2007 2008 2006 2007 2008

decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 1543 1575 1428 630 649 653private rented 334 354 429 450 482 490all private vulnerable 1877 1929 1857 588 610 606

private non- vulnerableowner occupied 8418 8531 8494 664 667 683private rented 922 985 1246 567 566 588all private non-vulnerable 9340 9516 9740 653 655 669

all owner occupied 9961 10106 9922 658 664 678all private rented 1256 1339 1675 530 541 559all private 11217 11445 11597 641 647 658all social 2690 2649 2798 722 719 740all households 13907 14094 14395 655 659 672

non-decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 905 851 760 370 351 347private rented 408 380 447 550 518 510all private vulnerable 1313 1231 1207 412 390 394

private non-vulnerableowner occupied 4262 4264 3946 336 333 317private rented 704 754 874 433 434 412all private non-vulnerable 4966 5018 4820 347 345 331

all owner occupied 5167 5115 4706 342 336 322all private rented 1112 1134 1321 470 459 441all private 6279 6249 6027 359 353 342

all social 1034 1037 985 278 281 260all households 7313 7286 7012 345 341 328

Notes 1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoid a break in the time series See Annex Table 13 for further detailsSource English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

36 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Damp and mould growth227 The proportion of homes with damp problems has reduced from 13 in 1996

to 8 in 2008 Table 16

Table 16 Number and percentage of homes with damp problems in one or more rooms 1996-2008

all dwellings

rising damp

penetrating damp

condensation mould

any damp problems

thousands of dwellings1996 858 1271 1145 26012001 625 1032 860 20322003 740 1066 1003 22832004 750 1035 951 22512005 759 952 941 22102006 724 886 947 21582007 640 833 881 19162008 584 759 865 1746

percentage of dwellings1996 42 63 56 1282001 29 49 41 962003 34 50 47 1062004 35 48 44 1042005 35 44 43 1012006 33 40 43 982007 29 38 40 862008 26 34 39 78

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

228 Privately rented homes were more likely to experience damp problems compared to other tenures Figure 11 Privately rented homes were more likely to be older homes and experience problems with rising or penetrating damp due to defects in the damp proof course roof covering gutters and down pipes which would affect at least one room in the property

229 In the social sector damp problems were more likely to be caused by serious condensation and mould growth rather than by rising damp Figure 12

Section 2 Housing stock | 37

Figure 12 Percentage of homes with a damp problem by tenure 2008

rising damp penetrating damp condensationmould

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

alltenures

housingassociation

localauthority

privaterented

owneroccupied

per

cen

tage

of

ho

mes

wit

h d

amp

pro

ble

ms

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

38 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex tables

Households

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

Annex Table 2 Economic Status of working age HRP by tenure 2008-09

Energy efficiency

Annex Table 3 Heating Type 1996-2008

Annex Table 4 Main Heating System by tenure 2008

Annex Table 5 Boiler Types 1996-2008

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

Annex Table 8 Cavity Wall insulation by tenure 2008

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

Housing Health and Safety Rating System

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 HHSRS hazards present (comparison of estimates based on any one of 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Non-decent homes in deprived areas

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes in deprived areas by tenure 2006-2008

Annex tables | 39

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent

child(ren)

couple with dependent

child(ren)

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)

other multi-

person households

all one-person

households

all household

types

percentageown outright 46 9 7 24 37 31buying with mortgage 35 66 27 25 23 36social renters 9 13 44 20 25 18private renters 10 12 22 31 15 14

all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 2 Economic status of working age HRP by tenure

all households

working un-employed retired other inactive Total percentage

own outright 74 2 14 10 100buying with mortgage 94 1 1 4 100social renters 49 12 1 37 100private renters 75 5 1 19 100all tenures 80 4 3 13 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 3 Heating type 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingscentral heating 16178 18177 18604 18919 19179 19553 19862 19862storage heater 1643 1600 1587 1616 1609 1532 1552 1641fixed roomportable heater 2515 2001 1294 1078 993 904 776 736Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingscentral heating 796 860 866 875 881 889 895 893storage heater 81 76 74 75 74 70 70 74fixed roomportable heating heater 124 95 60 50 46 41 35 33Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

40 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 4 Main heating system by tenure 2008

all dwellings

central heating storage heaterfixed room

heatingportable

heating only all dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 13788 790 411 19 15007 private rented 2630 441 208 17 3296 all private 16418 1232 619 36 18304

local authority 1776 160 46 2 1984 housing association 1669 249 33 1 1951 all social 3445 409 79 3 3935

all tenures 19862 1641 698 38 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 919 53 27 01 1000 private rented 798 134 63 05 1000 all private 897 67 34 02 1000

local authority 895 80 23 01 1000 housing association 855 128 17 00 1000 all social 875 104 20 01 1000

all tenures 893 74 31 02 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 5 Boiler types 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsstandard boiler 10447 10338 9642 9635 9425 9014 8782 8072back boiler 2773 2759 2580 2409 2181 2131 1944 1688combination boiler 2810 4431 5492 5934 6254 6312 6287 6082condensing boiler ndash 155 154 202 300 460 698 948condensing-combination boiler ndash 318 373 417 727 1297 1837 2773no boiler 4305 3140 3244 3016 2894 2775 2642 2676Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsstandard boiler 514 489 449 446 433 410 396 363back boiler 136 130 120 111 100 97 88 76combination boiler 138 210 256 275 287 287 283 273condensing boiler 00 07 07 09 14 21 31 43condensing-combination boiler 00 15 17 19 33 59 83 125no boiler 212 149 151 140 133 126 119 120Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 41

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

all dwellings

standard boiler

back boiler

combination boiler

condensing boiler

condensing-combination

boilerno

boilerall

dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 6223 1045 3984 713 1756 1286 15007 private rented 817 149 1112 73 429 716 3296 all private 7040 1194 5096 787 2185 2002 18304

local authority 499 271 481 90 335 309 1984 housing association 533 223 505 72 254 365 1951 all social 1032 494 986 162 589 674 3935

all 8072 1688 6082 948 2773 2676 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 415 70 265 48 117 86 1000 private rented 248 45 337 22 130 217 1000 all private 385 65 278 43 119 109 1000

local authority 251 136 242 45 169 156 1000 housing association 273 114 259 37 130 187 1000 all social 262 125 250 41 150 171 1000

all 363 76 273 43 125 120 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 2853 5210 5334 5825 5974 6644 7267 7418200mm or more of loft insulation 583 1256 2034 2530 2919 3520 4258 4685entire house double glazing 6169 10753 11915 12846 13486 13924 14850 15747

all dwellings 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 140 246 248 270 274 302 327 334200mm or more of loft insulation 29 59 95 117 134 160 192 211entire house double glazing 303 509 555 594 619 633 669 708

all dwellings 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

42 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 8 Cavity wall insulation by tenure

all dwellings

cavity with insulation

cavity uninsulated other all

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5161 5483 4364 15007private rented 566 1213 1517 3296private 5727 6696 5882 18304

local authority 834 657 493 1984housing association 857 720 374 1951social 1691 1378 867 3935

total 7418 8073 6749 22239

percentage of dwellingsowner occupied 344 365 291 100private rented 172 368 460 100private 313 366 321 100

local authority 420 331 248 100housing association 439 369 192 100social 430 350 220 100

total 334 363 303 100

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 43

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

all dwellings

no loftno

insulationless than

50mm50 up to

99mm

100 up to

149mm

150 up to

199mm200mm or more

all dwellings

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 748 442 432 3009 5147 2007 3223 15007 private rented 672 175 66 857 813 281 434 3296 private 1420 617 497 3866 5960 2288 3657 18304

local authority 614 33 19 171 471 206 470 1984 housing association 467 20 16 143 482 265 558 1951 social 1081 53 35 314 953 471 1028 3935

total 2501 670 532 4179 6913 2759 4685 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 50 29 29 200 343 134 215 1000private rented 204 53 20 260 247 85 132 1000private 78 34 27 211 326 125 200 1000

local authority 309 17 10 86 237 104 237 1000housing association 239 10 08 73 247 136 286 1000social 275 14 09 80 242 120 261 1000

total 112 30 24 188 311 124 211 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

44 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

hazard presentnumber of homes (000s) each hazard is present in

falling on stairs 2025excess cold 1966falling on level surfaces 788falling between levels 443fire 318

entry by intruders

flames hot surfacesleaddamp and mould growth 50 to 100 eachcollision and entrapmentradiationfalls associated with baths

crowding and space

food safetypersonal hygiene sanitation and drainage 20 to 50 eachnoisedomestic hygiene pests and refuseelectrical hazards

structural collapse and falling elements

water supplycarbon monoxide and fuel combustion productsposition and operability of amenities less thanexcess heat 20 eachlightinguncombusted fuel gasexplosions

any of the 15 hazards 4842

any of the 26 hazards 5039

Note For 2006 and 2007 the survey reported on 15 hazards only The 2008 EHS can provide estimates for 26 hazards - the additional hazards are marked with an asterisk The three remaining hazards not included in the survey are presence of asbestos biocides or volatile organic compounds For reporting purposes HHSRS and non-decent estimates will be based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with previous years and avoid a break in the time seriesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 45

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 4842 4925private rented 1449 1478all private 6291 6403

local authority 625 640housing association 444 464all social 1069 1104

all tenures 7360 7507

percentagesowner occupied 323 328private rented 440 448all private 344 350

local authority 315 323housing association 228 238all social 272 281

all tenures 331 338

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

46 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 hazards present (compariosn of estimates based on any one to the 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 3342 3452private rented 978 1013all private 4320 4465

local authority 298 326RSL 224 248all social 522 574

all tenures 4842 5039

percentagesowner occupied 223 230private rented 297 307all private 236 244

local authority 150 164RSL 115 127all social 133 146

all tenures 218 227

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 47

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all households

15 hazards 26 hazards

number (000s) percentage () number (000s) percentage ()

decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 1428 653 1413 646private rented 429 490 417 476all private vulnerable 1857 606 1830 597 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 8494 683 8425 677private rented 1246 588 1232 581all private non-vulnerable 9740 669 9657 663 all owner occupied 9922 678 9839 673all private rented 1675 559 1648 550all private 11597 658 11487 663all social 2798 740 2766 731

all households 14395 672 14253 666

non-decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 760 347 775 354private rented 447 510 459 524all private vulnerable 1207 394 1234 403 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 3946 317 4015 323private rented 874 412 888 419all private non-vulnerable 4820 331 4903 337 all owner occupied 4706 322 4790 327all private rented 1321 441 1347 450all private 6027 342 6137 348all social 985 260 1017 269

all households 7012 328 7154 334

Note For reporting purposes decent homes estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

48 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes1 by deprived and other districts by tenure 2006-2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsSocial NRF88 662 652 605Other districts 480 486 464 Private NRF88 2544 2621 2442Other districts 4013 3928 3849

percentages of dwellingsSocial NRF88 313 304 278Other districts 264 278 263 Private NRF88 381 380 361Other districts 353 344 333

Note NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving Neighbourhood Renewal Funding 2001-2006Source English House Condition Survey 2006-2007English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub sample)

Technical annex | 49

Technical annex

General description

The survey consists of three main elements an initial interview survey of 17700 households with a follow up physical inspection and a desk based market valuation of a sub-sample of 8000 of these dwellings including vacant dwellings The interview survey sample forms part of ONSrsquos Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the core questions from the IHS form part of the EHS questionnaire More information about the IHS is available from its webpage wwwstatisticsgovukCCInuggetaspID=936ampPos=1ampColRank=1ampRank=224

The EHS interview content covers the key topics included under the former SEH and EHCS The content of the physical and market value components remains very largely unchanged from the former EHCS

Sampling and grossing

2008-09 Sample1 The initial sample for 2008-09 consisted of 32100 addresses drawn as a systematic

random sample from the Postcode Address File (small users) Interviews were attempted at all of these addresses over the course of the survey year from April 2008 to March 2009 A proportion of addresses were found not to be valid residential properties (eg demolished properties secondholiday homes small businesses not yet built)

2 Of the 17691 addresses where interviews were achieved (the lsquofull household samplersquo) all social rented properties and a sub-sample of private properties were regarded as eligible for the physical survey and the respondentrsquos consent was sought A proportion of vacant properties were also sub-sampled Physical surveys were completed in 7972 cases and these cases contribute to the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo (see below)

3 The principal differences in sampling methodology between the EHS and its predecessors the SEH and EHCS are that

bull The EHS uses an unclustered sample This enables a smaller sample to be used with no loss of precision ie without sampling errors being increased The more scattered sample does however have some implications for fieldwork organisation

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 21: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

Section 1 Households | 21

Table 7 Previous tenure by current tenure 2008-09

HRPs resident less than a year

previous tenure ndash continuing households

current tenurenew

householdowner

occupierssocial

rentersprivate renters all tenures

thousands of householdsoutright owners 4 83 0 12 99buying with mortgage 68 204 13 131 416all owner occupiers 72 287 13 144 515

local authority 20 13 76 20 129housing association 24 9 105 38 177all social renters 44 23 181 58 306

private renters 229 141 47 686 1103

all tenures 345 450 241 887 1924

percentageoutright owners 4 84 0 13 100buying with mortgage 16 49 3 32 100all owner occupiers 14 56 3 28 100

local authority 15 10 59 15 100housing association 14 5 59 22 100all social renters 15 7 59 19 100

private renters 21 13 4 62 100

all tenures 18 23 13 46 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

122 Around 18 of households that had moved into their accommodation in the previous year were new households Two thirds (66) of these new households were private renters and around one fifth (21) were owner occupiers Movement within tenure was more common than moves between tenures 62 of current private renters had previously been private renters 59 of social renters had moved from another social rented property and 56 of owner occupiers had owned their previous property Movement into the social rented sector for continuing households was more likely to be from private renting (19 of current social renters) than from owner occupation (7)

22 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Attitudes to home and local area

123 Around 90 of households in England were satisfied with their accommodation in 2008-09 The highest levels of satisfaction were expressed by outright owners 73 of whom said that they were very satisfied with their homes Over three quarters of social renters were satisfied with their homes but 9 were slightly dissatisfied and 7 were very dissatisfied Around 82 of private renters were very or fairly satisfied with their accommodation and only 3 said they were very dissatisfied

Table 8 Satisfaction with accommodation by tenure 2008-09

all households

very satisfied

fairly satisfied

neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

slightly dissatisfied

very dissatisfied Total

thousands of householdsoutright owners 4926 1535 111 100 36 6709buying with mortgage 4604 2719 232 200 55 7810all owneroccupiers 9530 4254 343 300 91 14519

local authority 697 736 98 192 142 1866housing association 842 700 116 159 117 1935all social renters 1539 1437 214 351 260 3801

private renters 1240 1211 193 227 102 2972

all tenures 12309 6901 751 878 452 21291

percentagesoutright owners 73 23 2 1 1 100buying with mortgage 59 35 3 3 1 100all owneroccupiers 66 29 2 2 1 100

local authority 37 39 5 10 8 100housing association 44 36 6 8 6 100all social renters 40 38 6 9 7 100

private renters 42 41 6 8 3 100

all tenures 58 32 4 4 2 100

Note This question is not asked of proxy respondents and a small proportion of respondents chose not to answer These exclusions are reflected in the overall total number of households in this table Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

124 A large majority of households are satisfied with the local area in which they live In 2008-09 just over half of all households in England were very satisfied with their local area and 87 were very or fairly satisfied Only 3 of households were very dissatisfied with their local area

Section 1 Households | 23

125 There were some differences by tenure 89 of owner occupiers were satisfied with their local area compared to 79 of social renters and 85 of private renters Whilst only two per cent of owner occupiers and private renters said that they were very dissatisfied with their local area seven per cent of social renters were very dissatisfied

Table 9 Satisfaction with local area by tenure 2008-09

all households

very satisfied

fairly satisfied

neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

slightly dissatisfied

very dissatisfied Total

thousands of householdsoutright owners 3999 2093 180 322 114 6708buying with mortgage 3919 2973 371 420 127 7810all owners 7918 5066 552 742 241 14518

local authority 754 712 122 159 122 1867housing association 861 679 116 150 129 1936all social renters 1615 1391 238 309 251 3803

private renters 1520 1001 183 194 73 2972

all tenures 11052 7458 972 1245 565 21293

percentagesoutright owners 60 31 3 5 2 100buying with mortgage 50 38 5 5 2 100all owners 55 35 4 5 2 100

local authority 40 38 7 9 7 100housing association 44 35 6 8 7 100all social renters 42 37 6 8 7 100

private renters 51 34 6 7 2 100

all tenures 52 35 5 6 3 100

Note This question is not asked of proxy respondents and a small proportion of respondents chose not to answer These exclusions are reflected in the overall total number of households in this table Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

24 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Section 2Housing stock

21 Results relating to the housing stock in this report are presented using two yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the English House Condition Survey (EHCS) For this transition year data from the last full year of the EHCS (2007-08) were combined with the first year of the EHS (2008-09)

22 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Stock profile

23 There were around 222 million dwellings in 2008 Table 10 Of these 183 million (82 of the stock) were in the private sector and comprised 150 million owner occupied homes and 33 million private rented homes There were 39 million social sector homes (18 of the stock) of which two million were owned by local authority and two million by housing associations

Section 2 Housing stock | 25

Table 10 Stock profile 2008

all dwellings

private sector social sector

owner occupied

private rented

all private sector

local authority

housing association

all social sector

all dwellings

in group

thousands of dwellingsdwelling agepre 1919 3194 1309 4503 86 170 257 47601919-44 2689 431 3120 336 187 522 36421945-64 2708 384 3092 760 511 1271 43631965-80 3146 536 3682 665 467 1132 48141981-90 1401 222 1624 107 223 330 1953post 1990 1869 415 2284 30 394 424 2708

dwelling typemid terrace 2638 820 3459 325 367 693 4151end terrance 1440 340 1779 199 222 421 2201small terraced house 1216 548 1764 192 217 408 2172mediumlarge terraced house 2862 612 3475 333 373 705 4180all terrace 4078 1160 5238 524 589 1114 6352semi-detached house 4515 556 5070 365 351 716 5786detached house 3575 267 3843 5 18 24 3867bungalow 1548 133 1681 176 236 412 2092converted flat 284 427 712 38 75 113 825purpose built flat low rise 926 704 1630 724 626 1349 2979purpose built flat high rise 81 49 130 152 56 208 338

floor arealess than 50 sqm 742 652 1394 550 536 1086 248050 to 69 sqm 2913 1028 3942 725 680 1405 534770 to 89 sqm 4361 890 5251 575 553 1127 637990 to 109 sqm 2632 322 2954 102 132 234 3188110 sqm or more 4359 403 4763 32 52 83 4846

type of areacity centre 295 262 558 72 75 147 704other urban centre 2263 967 3230 538 458 996 4227suburban residential 9204 1581 10785 1236 1171 2407 13192rural residential 2074 233 2307 105 190 295 2601village centre 647 110 756 26 47 72 829rural 524 144 668 7 11 19 687

deprived local areasmost deprived 10 773 325 1097 595 468 1064 21612-5th 5331 1518 6849 1121 1025 2145 89956-9th 7072 1188 8260 249 423 672 8932least deprived 1832 266 2097 19 36 54 2152

occupancy statusoccupied 14610 2858 17468 1896 1860 3755 21223vacant 398 438 836 88 92 180 1016

Total 15007 3296 18304 1984 1951 3935 22239

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

26 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

24 The large majority of dwellings were houses (181 million) most commonly terraced or semi-detached The remainder of the stock 41 million consisited of flats predominately purpose built low rise flats However types of housing vary markedly between tenures While 91 of owner occupied housing was made up of houses almost half (46) of local authority homes were flats Figure 7 Flats also accounted for over a third of private rented homes and housing association homes (36 and 39 respectively)

Figure 7 Dwelling type by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

purpose built flat high risepurpose built flat low riseconverted flatdetached houses and bungalowssemi-detached housemediumlarge terraced housesmall terraced house

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

25 England has a relatively old housing stock with some 84 million homes built before 1945 of which 48 million were built before 1919 A fifth of homes (47 million) have been built since 1980

26 Stock in different tenures have different age profiles It is noticeable that owner occupied homes are evenly distributed across the five age bands compared with other tenures Figure 8 In the private rented sector for example 40 (13 million homes) were built before 1919 significantly higher than other tenures Housing association homes were more likely to have been built during the 1980s and 1990s (32) compared to only 7 of local authority homes

Section 2 Housing stock | 27

Figure 8 Age of housing stock by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

post 19901981-901965-801945-641919-44pre 1919

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

27 Some 44 million (29) of owner occupied homes had a floor area greater than 110m2 including 18 million (12 of the sector) which were over 150m2 This reflects the proportion of semi-detached and detached owner occupied homes which tend to be large Social sector homes were most likely to have a floor area of less than 50m2 compared with those in the private sector (28 and 8 respectively)

28 Homes in England were most likely to be located in suburban residential areas and least likely to be found in rural areas (59 and 3 respectively)

Energy efficiency of the housing stock

Heating and insulation29 Key ways of increasing the energy efficiency of existing homes are

improvements to their heating systems and levels of insulation For heating the type of heating system boiler in use and the fuel used are all related to energy performance

210 Central heating is the predominant main heating system present in 199 million homes (89 of the housing stock) in 2008 see Annex Table 3 This was followed by storage heaters present in 16 million (7) of homes and room heaters in 700000 homes (3) Central heating is generally considered to be the most cost effective and relatively efficient method of heating whereas room heaters tend to be the least cost effective and relatively inefficient method of heating

28 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

211 In 2008 92 of owner occupied homes had central heating systems compared to 88 of social and 80 of private rented homes see Annex Table 4 In part this reflects the higher proportion of flats in the rented sectors compared with owner occupation with 23 of flats using storage heaters

212 Condensing boilers are generally the most efficient boiler type and are now mandatory for new and replacement boilers (for gas fired boilers since 2005 for oil fired boilers since 2007) However even prior to these requirements the less efficient standard and back boilers were decreasing in use with the growing popularity of standard combination types Figure 9 Recent years have seen rapidly expanding take up of condensing and particularly combination condensing boilers In 2008 37 million homes (17 of the stock) had one of the two types of condensing boilers

Figure 9 Boiler types 1996-2008

no boiler

condensing-combination boiler condensing boilercombination boilerback boiler (to fire or stove)standard boiler (floor or wall)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

20082007200620052004200320011996

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes underpinning data is presented in Annex Table 5Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

213 For a home to provide optimum energy performance a high level of thermal insulation needs to be present alongside an efficient heating system Standard insulation measures include cavity wall insulation loft insulation and double glazing which have all improved in the stock since 1996 Figure 10

214 In 2008 155 million homes (70) had external walls of cavity construction 74 million homes (33 of the stock) had cavity wall insulation 47 million homes (21) had 200mm or more of loft insulation and 157 million homes (71) had full double glazing with an additional 29 million homes (13) having more than half double glazed Figure 10

Section 2 Housing stock | 29

Figure 10 Insulation measures 1996-2008

20082007200620052004200320011996

entire housedouble glazing

200mm or moreof loft insulation

cavity walls withinsulation

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes1) Only 89 of dwellings have lofts and 70 of dwellings have cavity walls2) Underpinning data is presented in annex Table 7Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

215 In 2008 the social rented sector had the greatest proportion of homes with cavity wall insulation (local authority 42 housing association 44) 200mm or more of loft insulation (local authority 24 housing association 29) and full double glazing (local authority 75 housing association 83) whereas the private rented sector had the lowest proportion of all three standard insulation measures cavity wall insulation (17) 200mm or more of loft insulation (13) and full double glazing (61) Figure 11

30 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Figure 11 Percentage of dwellings with efficient insulation measures by tenure 2008

full double glazing200mm or moreloft insulation

cavity withinsulation

cavity wall

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

housing associationlocal authorityprivate rentedowner occupied0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Base all dwellingsSource English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

SAP Rating

216 The energy efficiency of the housing stock continued to improve between 1996 and 2008 the average SAP rating of a home increased by 9 SAP points from 42 to 51 Table 11 The social sector was on average more energy efficient than the private sector and saw the greatest improvement with the average SAP rating increasing by 12 SAP points from 47 to 59

Table 11 Energy efficiency average SAP rating by tenure 2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

owner occupied 411 444 450 456 461 469 481 496private rented 379 419 444 457 460 466 481 502all private 407 441 449 456 461 468 481 497

local authority 457 496 520 539 553 558 562 580housing association 509 564 567 573 589 593 595 603all social 468 519 539 553 569 574 578 592

all tenures 421 457 466 474 481 487 498 514

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Section 2 Housing stock | 31

217 There has been a significant increase in the proportion of homes achieving the highest Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands in 2008 10 (23 million) of homes achieved the highest (EER) Bands A to C3 compared with 7 (16 million) in 2006 Table 12 The number of homes in the lowest EER Bands (F and G) fell by a million over the same period The majority of homes (73) continue to be in the EER Bands D or E

Table 12 Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 35 35 77Band C (69-80) 1545 1710 2229Band D (55-68) 6555 7316 7865Band E (39-54) 9072 8859 8310Band F (21-38) 3838 3389 2972Band G (1-20) 943 881 786Total 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 02 02 03Band C (69-80) 70 77 100Band D (55-68) 298 330 354Band E (39-54) 413 399 374Band F (21-38) 175 153 134Band G (1-20) 43 40 35Total 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 2006 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Housing health and safety rating system

218 A potentially serious (Category 1) hazard as measured under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System was present in around 48 million homes in 2008 22 of the housing stock

2 EER Bands are used in the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) The Certificate provides among other indicators an energy efficiency rating for the home on a scale from A-G (where A is the most efficient and G the least efficient)

32 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Housing conditions

Housing Health and Safety Rating System219 There was no significant change in the proportion of homes with any Category

1 hazard between 2006 and 2008 Hazards tend to be more common in older housing stock for example stairs are more likely to be steep and narrow in older housing making lsquofalls on stairsrsquo more likely or heating and insulation measures tend to be less effective in older stock making lsquoexcess coldrsquo a more serious hazard Therefore it is not surprising that hazards are more common in the private sector where the older housing stock is concentrated Almost a quarter of housing in the private sector had at least one category 1 hazard in 2008 (24) compared to around 13 in the social sector Table 14 Privately rented homes were most likely to have Category 1 hazards present compared to housing association homes (31 and 13 respectively)

220 The most common type of hazard in all four tenures was falls (see annex Table 10 for details of which hazards are included in this category) Overall 13 of homes have at least one type of falls hazard present

Decent homes221 In 2008 74 million homes (33) were non-decent4 Table 13 Housing

association housing was the least likely to be non-decent (23) while private rented housing was in the worst condition with 44 of homes being non-decent Overall social sector homes were in a better condition than private sector homes with 27 being non-decent compared to 34

222 The number of non-decent homes fell from 77 million in 2006 to 74 million in 20085 Conditions in the social sector improved with the proportion of homes failing the standard falling by two percentage points from 29 in 2006 to 27 in 2008 Private sector homes also improved from 36 non-decent in 2006 to 34 non-decent in 2008

4 Estimates from the EHS are based soley on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors subject to any limitations of the information they collect The EHS estimates in this report do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property

5 In 2006 the Housing Health and Safety Rating System replaced the Fitness Standard as the statutory minimum standard for housing Earlier estimates based on the original definition are not comparable therefore any change in the number of decent homes can only be referenced back to 2006 Figures for decent homes prior to 2006 can be found in the 2006 English House Condition Survey Annual Report available at wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

Section 2 Housing stock | 33

Table 13 Non-decent homes by tenure 2006 ndash 2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5335 5304 4842private rented 1223 1244 1449all private 6558 6548 6291

local authority 676 652 625housing association 465 486 444all social 1142 1138 1069

all tenures 7700 7686 7360

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 346 341 323private rented 468 454 440all private 363 358 344

local authority 324 328 315housing association 252 255 228all social 290 292 272

all tenures 350 346 331

Notes1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties between 2007 and 2008 are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates See Annex Table 11Sources2006 ndash 2007 English House Condition Survey2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Reasons for failing decent homes223 Of the four components required to meet the decent homes standard the

presence of one or more category 1 hazards under the HHSRS was the most commonly failed Table 14 This is particularly the case for private sector homes where 24 of homes had one or more Category 1 hazards present compared to 13 of social sector homes

34 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 14 Homes failing decent homes criteria by tenure 2008

all dwellings

Category 1 hazard (HHSRS)

thermal comfort

modern facilities repair all non-decent

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 3342 1773 379 817 4842private rented 978 637 160 369 1449all private 4320 2411 539 1186 6291

local authority 298 227 138 146 625housing association 224 199 50 86 444all social 522 426 188 231 1069

all tenures 4842 2837 727 1417 7360

percentages

owner occupied 223 118 25 54 323private rented 297 193 49 112 440all private 236 132 29 65 344

local authority 150 115 70 74 315housing association 115 102 25 44 228all social 133 108 48 59 272

all tenures 218 128 33 64 331

Note The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoids a break in the time series See Annex Table 12 for estimate based on 26 hazardsSource English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

224 There was significant progress in the thermal comfort of homes between 2006 and 2008 The proportion of homes failing thermal comfort fell to 13 in 2008 from 16 in 2006 Improvement has been made across all tenures

Private sector vulnerable households225 In 2008 31 million lsquovulnerablersquo households6 were living in the private sector of

which 12 million (39) were living in non-decent homes the remaining 19 million (61) were living in decent accommodation Table 15 There has been no significant change since 2006

226 Vulnerable households who privately rent their accommodation were more likely to live in non-decent homes compared to social tenants (51 and 26 respectively) Table 15

6 Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

Section 2 Housing stock | 35

Table 15 Households living in decent homes 2006-2008

all dwellings

number (000s) percentage ()

2006 2007 2008 2006 2007 2008

decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 1543 1575 1428 630 649 653private rented 334 354 429 450 482 490all private vulnerable 1877 1929 1857 588 610 606

private non- vulnerableowner occupied 8418 8531 8494 664 667 683private rented 922 985 1246 567 566 588all private non-vulnerable 9340 9516 9740 653 655 669

all owner occupied 9961 10106 9922 658 664 678all private rented 1256 1339 1675 530 541 559all private 11217 11445 11597 641 647 658all social 2690 2649 2798 722 719 740all households 13907 14094 14395 655 659 672

non-decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 905 851 760 370 351 347private rented 408 380 447 550 518 510all private vulnerable 1313 1231 1207 412 390 394

private non-vulnerableowner occupied 4262 4264 3946 336 333 317private rented 704 754 874 433 434 412all private non-vulnerable 4966 5018 4820 347 345 331

all owner occupied 5167 5115 4706 342 336 322all private rented 1112 1134 1321 470 459 441all private 6279 6249 6027 359 353 342

all social 1034 1037 985 278 281 260all households 7313 7286 7012 345 341 328

Notes 1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoid a break in the time series See Annex Table 13 for further detailsSource English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

36 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Damp and mould growth227 The proportion of homes with damp problems has reduced from 13 in 1996

to 8 in 2008 Table 16

Table 16 Number and percentage of homes with damp problems in one or more rooms 1996-2008

all dwellings

rising damp

penetrating damp

condensation mould

any damp problems

thousands of dwellings1996 858 1271 1145 26012001 625 1032 860 20322003 740 1066 1003 22832004 750 1035 951 22512005 759 952 941 22102006 724 886 947 21582007 640 833 881 19162008 584 759 865 1746

percentage of dwellings1996 42 63 56 1282001 29 49 41 962003 34 50 47 1062004 35 48 44 1042005 35 44 43 1012006 33 40 43 982007 29 38 40 862008 26 34 39 78

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

228 Privately rented homes were more likely to experience damp problems compared to other tenures Figure 11 Privately rented homes were more likely to be older homes and experience problems with rising or penetrating damp due to defects in the damp proof course roof covering gutters and down pipes which would affect at least one room in the property

229 In the social sector damp problems were more likely to be caused by serious condensation and mould growth rather than by rising damp Figure 12

Section 2 Housing stock | 37

Figure 12 Percentage of homes with a damp problem by tenure 2008

rising damp penetrating damp condensationmould

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

alltenures

housingassociation

localauthority

privaterented

owneroccupied

per

cen

tage

of

ho

mes

wit

h d

amp

pro

ble

ms

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

38 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex tables

Households

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

Annex Table 2 Economic Status of working age HRP by tenure 2008-09

Energy efficiency

Annex Table 3 Heating Type 1996-2008

Annex Table 4 Main Heating System by tenure 2008

Annex Table 5 Boiler Types 1996-2008

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

Annex Table 8 Cavity Wall insulation by tenure 2008

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

Housing Health and Safety Rating System

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 HHSRS hazards present (comparison of estimates based on any one of 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Non-decent homes in deprived areas

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes in deprived areas by tenure 2006-2008

Annex tables | 39

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent

child(ren)

couple with dependent

child(ren)

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)

other multi-

person households

all one-person

households

all household

types

percentageown outright 46 9 7 24 37 31buying with mortgage 35 66 27 25 23 36social renters 9 13 44 20 25 18private renters 10 12 22 31 15 14

all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 2 Economic status of working age HRP by tenure

all households

working un-employed retired other inactive Total percentage

own outright 74 2 14 10 100buying with mortgage 94 1 1 4 100social renters 49 12 1 37 100private renters 75 5 1 19 100all tenures 80 4 3 13 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 3 Heating type 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingscentral heating 16178 18177 18604 18919 19179 19553 19862 19862storage heater 1643 1600 1587 1616 1609 1532 1552 1641fixed roomportable heater 2515 2001 1294 1078 993 904 776 736Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingscentral heating 796 860 866 875 881 889 895 893storage heater 81 76 74 75 74 70 70 74fixed roomportable heating heater 124 95 60 50 46 41 35 33Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

40 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 4 Main heating system by tenure 2008

all dwellings

central heating storage heaterfixed room

heatingportable

heating only all dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 13788 790 411 19 15007 private rented 2630 441 208 17 3296 all private 16418 1232 619 36 18304

local authority 1776 160 46 2 1984 housing association 1669 249 33 1 1951 all social 3445 409 79 3 3935

all tenures 19862 1641 698 38 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 919 53 27 01 1000 private rented 798 134 63 05 1000 all private 897 67 34 02 1000

local authority 895 80 23 01 1000 housing association 855 128 17 00 1000 all social 875 104 20 01 1000

all tenures 893 74 31 02 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 5 Boiler types 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsstandard boiler 10447 10338 9642 9635 9425 9014 8782 8072back boiler 2773 2759 2580 2409 2181 2131 1944 1688combination boiler 2810 4431 5492 5934 6254 6312 6287 6082condensing boiler ndash 155 154 202 300 460 698 948condensing-combination boiler ndash 318 373 417 727 1297 1837 2773no boiler 4305 3140 3244 3016 2894 2775 2642 2676Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsstandard boiler 514 489 449 446 433 410 396 363back boiler 136 130 120 111 100 97 88 76combination boiler 138 210 256 275 287 287 283 273condensing boiler 00 07 07 09 14 21 31 43condensing-combination boiler 00 15 17 19 33 59 83 125no boiler 212 149 151 140 133 126 119 120Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 41

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

all dwellings

standard boiler

back boiler

combination boiler

condensing boiler

condensing-combination

boilerno

boilerall

dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 6223 1045 3984 713 1756 1286 15007 private rented 817 149 1112 73 429 716 3296 all private 7040 1194 5096 787 2185 2002 18304

local authority 499 271 481 90 335 309 1984 housing association 533 223 505 72 254 365 1951 all social 1032 494 986 162 589 674 3935

all 8072 1688 6082 948 2773 2676 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 415 70 265 48 117 86 1000 private rented 248 45 337 22 130 217 1000 all private 385 65 278 43 119 109 1000

local authority 251 136 242 45 169 156 1000 housing association 273 114 259 37 130 187 1000 all social 262 125 250 41 150 171 1000

all 363 76 273 43 125 120 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 2853 5210 5334 5825 5974 6644 7267 7418200mm or more of loft insulation 583 1256 2034 2530 2919 3520 4258 4685entire house double glazing 6169 10753 11915 12846 13486 13924 14850 15747

all dwellings 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 140 246 248 270 274 302 327 334200mm or more of loft insulation 29 59 95 117 134 160 192 211entire house double glazing 303 509 555 594 619 633 669 708

all dwellings 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

42 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 8 Cavity wall insulation by tenure

all dwellings

cavity with insulation

cavity uninsulated other all

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5161 5483 4364 15007private rented 566 1213 1517 3296private 5727 6696 5882 18304

local authority 834 657 493 1984housing association 857 720 374 1951social 1691 1378 867 3935

total 7418 8073 6749 22239

percentage of dwellingsowner occupied 344 365 291 100private rented 172 368 460 100private 313 366 321 100

local authority 420 331 248 100housing association 439 369 192 100social 430 350 220 100

total 334 363 303 100

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 43

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

all dwellings

no loftno

insulationless than

50mm50 up to

99mm

100 up to

149mm

150 up to

199mm200mm or more

all dwellings

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 748 442 432 3009 5147 2007 3223 15007 private rented 672 175 66 857 813 281 434 3296 private 1420 617 497 3866 5960 2288 3657 18304

local authority 614 33 19 171 471 206 470 1984 housing association 467 20 16 143 482 265 558 1951 social 1081 53 35 314 953 471 1028 3935

total 2501 670 532 4179 6913 2759 4685 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 50 29 29 200 343 134 215 1000private rented 204 53 20 260 247 85 132 1000private 78 34 27 211 326 125 200 1000

local authority 309 17 10 86 237 104 237 1000housing association 239 10 08 73 247 136 286 1000social 275 14 09 80 242 120 261 1000

total 112 30 24 188 311 124 211 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

44 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

hazard presentnumber of homes (000s) each hazard is present in

falling on stairs 2025excess cold 1966falling on level surfaces 788falling between levels 443fire 318

entry by intruders

flames hot surfacesleaddamp and mould growth 50 to 100 eachcollision and entrapmentradiationfalls associated with baths

crowding and space

food safetypersonal hygiene sanitation and drainage 20 to 50 eachnoisedomestic hygiene pests and refuseelectrical hazards

structural collapse and falling elements

water supplycarbon monoxide and fuel combustion productsposition and operability of amenities less thanexcess heat 20 eachlightinguncombusted fuel gasexplosions

any of the 15 hazards 4842

any of the 26 hazards 5039

Note For 2006 and 2007 the survey reported on 15 hazards only The 2008 EHS can provide estimates for 26 hazards - the additional hazards are marked with an asterisk The three remaining hazards not included in the survey are presence of asbestos biocides or volatile organic compounds For reporting purposes HHSRS and non-decent estimates will be based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with previous years and avoid a break in the time seriesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 45

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 4842 4925private rented 1449 1478all private 6291 6403

local authority 625 640housing association 444 464all social 1069 1104

all tenures 7360 7507

percentagesowner occupied 323 328private rented 440 448all private 344 350

local authority 315 323housing association 228 238all social 272 281

all tenures 331 338

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

46 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 hazards present (compariosn of estimates based on any one to the 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 3342 3452private rented 978 1013all private 4320 4465

local authority 298 326RSL 224 248all social 522 574

all tenures 4842 5039

percentagesowner occupied 223 230private rented 297 307all private 236 244

local authority 150 164RSL 115 127all social 133 146

all tenures 218 227

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 47

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all households

15 hazards 26 hazards

number (000s) percentage () number (000s) percentage ()

decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 1428 653 1413 646private rented 429 490 417 476all private vulnerable 1857 606 1830 597 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 8494 683 8425 677private rented 1246 588 1232 581all private non-vulnerable 9740 669 9657 663 all owner occupied 9922 678 9839 673all private rented 1675 559 1648 550all private 11597 658 11487 663all social 2798 740 2766 731

all households 14395 672 14253 666

non-decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 760 347 775 354private rented 447 510 459 524all private vulnerable 1207 394 1234 403 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 3946 317 4015 323private rented 874 412 888 419all private non-vulnerable 4820 331 4903 337 all owner occupied 4706 322 4790 327all private rented 1321 441 1347 450all private 6027 342 6137 348all social 985 260 1017 269

all households 7012 328 7154 334

Note For reporting purposes decent homes estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

48 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes1 by deprived and other districts by tenure 2006-2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsSocial NRF88 662 652 605Other districts 480 486 464 Private NRF88 2544 2621 2442Other districts 4013 3928 3849

percentages of dwellingsSocial NRF88 313 304 278Other districts 264 278 263 Private NRF88 381 380 361Other districts 353 344 333

Note NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving Neighbourhood Renewal Funding 2001-2006Source English House Condition Survey 2006-2007English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub sample)

Technical annex | 49

Technical annex

General description

The survey consists of three main elements an initial interview survey of 17700 households with a follow up physical inspection and a desk based market valuation of a sub-sample of 8000 of these dwellings including vacant dwellings The interview survey sample forms part of ONSrsquos Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the core questions from the IHS form part of the EHS questionnaire More information about the IHS is available from its webpage wwwstatisticsgovukCCInuggetaspID=936ampPos=1ampColRank=1ampRank=224

The EHS interview content covers the key topics included under the former SEH and EHCS The content of the physical and market value components remains very largely unchanged from the former EHCS

Sampling and grossing

2008-09 Sample1 The initial sample for 2008-09 consisted of 32100 addresses drawn as a systematic

random sample from the Postcode Address File (small users) Interviews were attempted at all of these addresses over the course of the survey year from April 2008 to March 2009 A proportion of addresses were found not to be valid residential properties (eg demolished properties secondholiday homes small businesses not yet built)

2 Of the 17691 addresses where interviews were achieved (the lsquofull household samplersquo) all social rented properties and a sub-sample of private properties were regarded as eligible for the physical survey and the respondentrsquos consent was sought A proportion of vacant properties were also sub-sampled Physical surveys were completed in 7972 cases and these cases contribute to the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo (see below)

3 The principal differences in sampling methodology between the EHS and its predecessors the SEH and EHCS are that

bull The EHS uses an unclustered sample This enables a smaller sample to be used with no loss of precision ie without sampling errors being increased The more scattered sample does however have some implications for fieldwork organisation

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 22: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

22 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Attitudes to home and local area

123 Around 90 of households in England were satisfied with their accommodation in 2008-09 The highest levels of satisfaction were expressed by outright owners 73 of whom said that they were very satisfied with their homes Over three quarters of social renters were satisfied with their homes but 9 were slightly dissatisfied and 7 were very dissatisfied Around 82 of private renters were very or fairly satisfied with their accommodation and only 3 said they were very dissatisfied

Table 8 Satisfaction with accommodation by tenure 2008-09

all households

very satisfied

fairly satisfied

neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

slightly dissatisfied

very dissatisfied Total

thousands of householdsoutright owners 4926 1535 111 100 36 6709buying with mortgage 4604 2719 232 200 55 7810all owneroccupiers 9530 4254 343 300 91 14519

local authority 697 736 98 192 142 1866housing association 842 700 116 159 117 1935all social renters 1539 1437 214 351 260 3801

private renters 1240 1211 193 227 102 2972

all tenures 12309 6901 751 878 452 21291

percentagesoutright owners 73 23 2 1 1 100buying with mortgage 59 35 3 3 1 100all owneroccupiers 66 29 2 2 1 100

local authority 37 39 5 10 8 100housing association 44 36 6 8 6 100all social renters 40 38 6 9 7 100

private renters 42 41 6 8 3 100

all tenures 58 32 4 4 2 100

Note This question is not asked of proxy respondents and a small proportion of respondents chose not to answer These exclusions are reflected in the overall total number of households in this table Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

124 A large majority of households are satisfied with the local area in which they live In 2008-09 just over half of all households in England were very satisfied with their local area and 87 were very or fairly satisfied Only 3 of households were very dissatisfied with their local area

Section 1 Households | 23

125 There were some differences by tenure 89 of owner occupiers were satisfied with their local area compared to 79 of social renters and 85 of private renters Whilst only two per cent of owner occupiers and private renters said that they were very dissatisfied with their local area seven per cent of social renters were very dissatisfied

Table 9 Satisfaction with local area by tenure 2008-09

all households

very satisfied

fairly satisfied

neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

slightly dissatisfied

very dissatisfied Total

thousands of householdsoutright owners 3999 2093 180 322 114 6708buying with mortgage 3919 2973 371 420 127 7810all owners 7918 5066 552 742 241 14518

local authority 754 712 122 159 122 1867housing association 861 679 116 150 129 1936all social renters 1615 1391 238 309 251 3803

private renters 1520 1001 183 194 73 2972

all tenures 11052 7458 972 1245 565 21293

percentagesoutright owners 60 31 3 5 2 100buying with mortgage 50 38 5 5 2 100all owners 55 35 4 5 2 100

local authority 40 38 7 9 7 100housing association 44 35 6 8 7 100all social renters 42 37 6 8 7 100

private renters 51 34 6 7 2 100

all tenures 52 35 5 6 3 100

Note This question is not asked of proxy respondents and a small proportion of respondents chose not to answer These exclusions are reflected in the overall total number of households in this table Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

24 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Section 2Housing stock

21 Results relating to the housing stock in this report are presented using two yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the English House Condition Survey (EHCS) For this transition year data from the last full year of the EHCS (2007-08) were combined with the first year of the EHS (2008-09)

22 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Stock profile

23 There were around 222 million dwellings in 2008 Table 10 Of these 183 million (82 of the stock) were in the private sector and comprised 150 million owner occupied homes and 33 million private rented homes There were 39 million social sector homes (18 of the stock) of which two million were owned by local authority and two million by housing associations

Section 2 Housing stock | 25

Table 10 Stock profile 2008

all dwellings

private sector social sector

owner occupied

private rented

all private sector

local authority

housing association

all social sector

all dwellings

in group

thousands of dwellingsdwelling agepre 1919 3194 1309 4503 86 170 257 47601919-44 2689 431 3120 336 187 522 36421945-64 2708 384 3092 760 511 1271 43631965-80 3146 536 3682 665 467 1132 48141981-90 1401 222 1624 107 223 330 1953post 1990 1869 415 2284 30 394 424 2708

dwelling typemid terrace 2638 820 3459 325 367 693 4151end terrance 1440 340 1779 199 222 421 2201small terraced house 1216 548 1764 192 217 408 2172mediumlarge terraced house 2862 612 3475 333 373 705 4180all terrace 4078 1160 5238 524 589 1114 6352semi-detached house 4515 556 5070 365 351 716 5786detached house 3575 267 3843 5 18 24 3867bungalow 1548 133 1681 176 236 412 2092converted flat 284 427 712 38 75 113 825purpose built flat low rise 926 704 1630 724 626 1349 2979purpose built flat high rise 81 49 130 152 56 208 338

floor arealess than 50 sqm 742 652 1394 550 536 1086 248050 to 69 sqm 2913 1028 3942 725 680 1405 534770 to 89 sqm 4361 890 5251 575 553 1127 637990 to 109 sqm 2632 322 2954 102 132 234 3188110 sqm or more 4359 403 4763 32 52 83 4846

type of areacity centre 295 262 558 72 75 147 704other urban centre 2263 967 3230 538 458 996 4227suburban residential 9204 1581 10785 1236 1171 2407 13192rural residential 2074 233 2307 105 190 295 2601village centre 647 110 756 26 47 72 829rural 524 144 668 7 11 19 687

deprived local areasmost deprived 10 773 325 1097 595 468 1064 21612-5th 5331 1518 6849 1121 1025 2145 89956-9th 7072 1188 8260 249 423 672 8932least deprived 1832 266 2097 19 36 54 2152

occupancy statusoccupied 14610 2858 17468 1896 1860 3755 21223vacant 398 438 836 88 92 180 1016

Total 15007 3296 18304 1984 1951 3935 22239

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

26 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

24 The large majority of dwellings were houses (181 million) most commonly terraced or semi-detached The remainder of the stock 41 million consisited of flats predominately purpose built low rise flats However types of housing vary markedly between tenures While 91 of owner occupied housing was made up of houses almost half (46) of local authority homes were flats Figure 7 Flats also accounted for over a third of private rented homes and housing association homes (36 and 39 respectively)

Figure 7 Dwelling type by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

purpose built flat high risepurpose built flat low riseconverted flatdetached houses and bungalowssemi-detached housemediumlarge terraced housesmall terraced house

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

25 England has a relatively old housing stock with some 84 million homes built before 1945 of which 48 million were built before 1919 A fifth of homes (47 million) have been built since 1980

26 Stock in different tenures have different age profiles It is noticeable that owner occupied homes are evenly distributed across the five age bands compared with other tenures Figure 8 In the private rented sector for example 40 (13 million homes) were built before 1919 significantly higher than other tenures Housing association homes were more likely to have been built during the 1980s and 1990s (32) compared to only 7 of local authority homes

Section 2 Housing stock | 27

Figure 8 Age of housing stock by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

post 19901981-901965-801945-641919-44pre 1919

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

27 Some 44 million (29) of owner occupied homes had a floor area greater than 110m2 including 18 million (12 of the sector) which were over 150m2 This reflects the proportion of semi-detached and detached owner occupied homes which tend to be large Social sector homes were most likely to have a floor area of less than 50m2 compared with those in the private sector (28 and 8 respectively)

28 Homes in England were most likely to be located in suburban residential areas and least likely to be found in rural areas (59 and 3 respectively)

Energy efficiency of the housing stock

Heating and insulation29 Key ways of increasing the energy efficiency of existing homes are

improvements to their heating systems and levels of insulation For heating the type of heating system boiler in use and the fuel used are all related to energy performance

210 Central heating is the predominant main heating system present in 199 million homes (89 of the housing stock) in 2008 see Annex Table 3 This was followed by storage heaters present in 16 million (7) of homes and room heaters in 700000 homes (3) Central heating is generally considered to be the most cost effective and relatively efficient method of heating whereas room heaters tend to be the least cost effective and relatively inefficient method of heating

28 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

211 In 2008 92 of owner occupied homes had central heating systems compared to 88 of social and 80 of private rented homes see Annex Table 4 In part this reflects the higher proportion of flats in the rented sectors compared with owner occupation with 23 of flats using storage heaters

212 Condensing boilers are generally the most efficient boiler type and are now mandatory for new and replacement boilers (for gas fired boilers since 2005 for oil fired boilers since 2007) However even prior to these requirements the less efficient standard and back boilers were decreasing in use with the growing popularity of standard combination types Figure 9 Recent years have seen rapidly expanding take up of condensing and particularly combination condensing boilers In 2008 37 million homes (17 of the stock) had one of the two types of condensing boilers

Figure 9 Boiler types 1996-2008

no boiler

condensing-combination boiler condensing boilercombination boilerback boiler (to fire or stove)standard boiler (floor or wall)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

20082007200620052004200320011996

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes underpinning data is presented in Annex Table 5Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

213 For a home to provide optimum energy performance a high level of thermal insulation needs to be present alongside an efficient heating system Standard insulation measures include cavity wall insulation loft insulation and double glazing which have all improved in the stock since 1996 Figure 10

214 In 2008 155 million homes (70) had external walls of cavity construction 74 million homes (33 of the stock) had cavity wall insulation 47 million homes (21) had 200mm or more of loft insulation and 157 million homes (71) had full double glazing with an additional 29 million homes (13) having more than half double glazed Figure 10

Section 2 Housing stock | 29

Figure 10 Insulation measures 1996-2008

20082007200620052004200320011996

entire housedouble glazing

200mm or moreof loft insulation

cavity walls withinsulation

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes1) Only 89 of dwellings have lofts and 70 of dwellings have cavity walls2) Underpinning data is presented in annex Table 7Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

215 In 2008 the social rented sector had the greatest proportion of homes with cavity wall insulation (local authority 42 housing association 44) 200mm or more of loft insulation (local authority 24 housing association 29) and full double glazing (local authority 75 housing association 83) whereas the private rented sector had the lowest proportion of all three standard insulation measures cavity wall insulation (17) 200mm or more of loft insulation (13) and full double glazing (61) Figure 11

30 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Figure 11 Percentage of dwellings with efficient insulation measures by tenure 2008

full double glazing200mm or moreloft insulation

cavity withinsulation

cavity wall

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

housing associationlocal authorityprivate rentedowner occupied0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Base all dwellingsSource English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

SAP Rating

216 The energy efficiency of the housing stock continued to improve between 1996 and 2008 the average SAP rating of a home increased by 9 SAP points from 42 to 51 Table 11 The social sector was on average more energy efficient than the private sector and saw the greatest improvement with the average SAP rating increasing by 12 SAP points from 47 to 59

Table 11 Energy efficiency average SAP rating by tenure 2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

owner occupied 411 444 450 456 461 469 481 496private rented 379 419 444 457 460 466 481 502all private 407 441 449 456 461 468 481 497

local authority 457 496 520 539 553 558 562 580housing association 509 564 567 573 589 593 595 603all social 468 519 539 553 569 574 578 592

all tenures 421 457 466 474 481 487 498 514

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Section 2 Housing stock | 31

217 There has been a significant increase in the proportion of homes achieving the highest Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands in 2008 10 (23 million) of homes achieved the highest (EER) Bands A to C3 compared with 7 (16 million) in 2006 Table 12 The number of homes in the lowest EER Bands (F and G) fell by a million over the same period The majority of homes (73) continue to be in the EER Bands D or E

Table 12 Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 35 35 77Band C (69-80) 1545 1710 2229Band D (55-68) 6555 7316 7865Band E (39-54) 9072 8859 8310Band F (21-38) 3838 3389 2972Band G (1-20) 943 881 786Total 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 02 02 03Band C (69-80) 70 77 100Band D (55-68) 298 330 354Band E (39-54) 413 399 374Band F (21-38) 175 153 134Band G (1-20) 43 40 35Total 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 2006 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Housing health and safety rating system

218 A potentially serious (Category 1) hazard as measured under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System was present in around 48 million homes in 2008 22 of the housing stock

2 EER Bands are used in the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) The Certificate provides among other indicators an energy efficiency rating for the home on a scale from A-G (where A is the most efficient and G the least efficient)

32 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Housing conditions

Housing Health and Safety Rating System219 There was no significant change in the proportion of homes with any Category

1 hazard between 2006 and 2008 Hazards tend to be more common in older housing stock for example stairs are more likely to be steep and narrow in older housing making lsquofalls on stairsrsquo more likely or heating and insulation measures tend to be less effective in older stock making lsquoexcess coldrsquo a more serious hazard Therefore it is not surprising that hazards are more common in the private sector where the older housing stock is concentrated Almost a quarter of housing in the private sector had at least one category 1 hazard in 2008 (24) compared to around 13 in the social sector Table 14 Privately rented homes were most likely to have Category 1 hazards present compared to housing association homes (31 and 13 respectively)

220 The most common type of hazard in all four tenures was falls (see annex Table 10 for details of which hazards are included in this category) Overall 13 of homes have at least one type of falls hazard present

Decent homes221 In 2008 74 million homes (33) were non-decent4 Table 13 Housing

association housing was the least likely to be non-decent (23) while private rented housing was in the worst condition with 44 of homes being non-decent Overall social sector homes were in a better condition than private sector homes with 27 being non-decent compared to 34

222 The number of non-decent homes fell from 77 million in 2006 to 74 million in 20085 Conditions in the social sector improved with the proportion of homes failing the standard falling by two percentage points from 29 in 2006 to 27 in 2008 Private sector homes also improved from 36 non-decent in 2006 to 34 non-decent in 2008

4 Estimates from the EHS are based soley on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors subject to any limitations of the information they collect The EHS estimates in this report do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property

5 In 2006 the Housing Health and Safety Rating System replaced the Fitness Standard as the statutory minimum standard for housing Earlier estimates based on the original definition are not comparable therefore any change in the number of decent homes can only be referenced back to 2006 Figures for decent homes prior to 2006 can be found in the 2006 English House Condition Survey Annual Report available at wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

Section 2 Housing stock | 33

Table 13 Non-decent homes by tenure 2006 ndash 2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5335 5304 4842private rented 1223 1244 1449all private 6558 6548 6291

local authority 676 652 625housing association 465 486 444all social 1142 1138 1069

all tenures 7700 7686 7360

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 346 341 323private rented 468 454 440all private 363 358 344

local authority 324 328 315housing association 252 255 228all social 290 292 272

all tenures 350 346 331

Notes1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties between 2007 and 2008 are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates See Annex Table 11Sources2006 ndash 2007 English House Condition Survey2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Reasons for failing decent homes223 Of the four components required to meet the decent homes standard the

presence of one or more category 1 hazards under the HHSRS was the most commonly failed Table 14 This is particularly the case for private sector homes where 24 of homes had one or more Category 1 hazards present compared to 13 of social sector homes

34 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 14 Homes failing decent homes criteria by tenure 2008

all dwellings

Category 1 hazard (HHSRS)

thermal comfort

modern facilities repair all non-decent

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 3342 1773 379 817 4842private rented 978 637 160 369 1449all private 4320 2411 539 1186 6291

local authority 298 227 138 146 625housing association 224 199 50 86 444all social 522 426 188 231 1069

all tenures 4842 2837 727 1417 7360

percentages

owner occupied 223 118 25 54 323private rented 297 193 49 112 440all private 236 132 29 65 344

local authority 150 115 70 74 315housing association 115 102 25 44 228all social 133 108 48 59 272

all tenures 218 128 33 64 331

Note The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoids a break in the time series See Annex Table 12 for estimate based on 26 hazardsSource English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

224 There was significant progress in the thermal comfort of homes between 2006 and 2008 The proportion of homes failing thermal comfort fell to 13 in 2008 from 16 in 2006 Improvement has been made across all tenures

Private sector vulnerable households225 In 2008 31 million lsquovulnerablersquo households6 were living in the private sector of

which 12 million (39) were living in non-decent homes the remaining 19 million (61) were living in decent accommodation Table 15 There has been no significant change since 2006

226 Vulnerable households who privately rent their accommodation were more likely to live in non-decent homes compared to social tenants (51 and 26 respectively) Table 15

6 Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

Section 2 Housing stock | 35

Table 15 Households living in decent homes 2006-2008

all dwellings

number (000s) percentage ()

2006 2007 2008 2006 2007 2008

decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 1543 1575 1428 630 649 653private rented 334 354 429 450 482 490all private vulnerable 1877 1929 1857 588 610 606

private non- vulnerableowner occupied 8418 8531 8494 664 667 683private rented 922 985 1246 567 566 588all private non-vulnerable 9340 9516 9740 653 655 669

all owner occupied 9961 10106 9922 658 664 678all private rented 1256 1339 1675 530 541 559all private 11217 11445 11597 641 647 658all social 2690 2649 2798 722 719 740all households 13907 14094 14395 655 659 672

non-decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 905 851 760 370 351 347private rented 408 380 447 550 518 510all private vulnerable 1313 1231 1207 412 390 394

private non-vulnerableowner occupied 4262 4264 3946 336 333 317private rented 704 754 874 433 434 412all private non-vulnerable 4966 5018 4820 347 345 331

all owner occupied 5167 5115 4706 342 336 322all private rented 1112 1134 1321 470 459 441all private 6279 6249 6027 359 353 342

all social 1034 1037 985 278 281 260all households 7313 7286 7012 345 341 328

Notes 1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoid a break in the time series See Annex Table 13 for further detailsSource English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

36 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Damp and mould growth227 The proportion of homes with damp problems has reduced from 13 in 1996

to 8 in 2008 Table 16

Table 16 Number and percentage of homes with damp problems in one or more rooms 1996-2008

all dwellings

rising damp

penetrating damp

condensation mould

any damp problems

thousands of dwellings1996 858 1271 1145 26012001 625 1032 860 20322003 740 1066 1003 22832004 750 1035 951 22512005 759 952 941 22102006 724 886 947 21582007 640 833 881 19162008 584 759 865 1746

percentage of dwellings1996 42 63 56 1282001 29 49 41 962003 34 50 47 1062004 35 48 44 1042005 35 44 43 1012006 33 40 43 982007 29 38 40 862008 26 34 39 78

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

228 Privately rented homes were more likely to experience damp problems compared to other tenures Figure 11 Privately rented homes were more likely to be older homes and experience problems with rising or penetrating damp due to defects in the damp proof course roof covering gutters and down pipes which would affect at least one room in the property

229 In the social sector damp problems were more likely to be caused by serious condensation and mould growth rather than by rising damp Figure 12

Section 2 Housing stock | 37

Figure 12 Percentage of homes with a damp problem by tenure 2008

rising damp penetrating damp condensationmould

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

alltenures

housingassociation

localauthority

privaterented

owneroccupied

per

cen

tage

of

ho

mes

wit

h d

amp

pro

ble

ms

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

38 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex tables

Households

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

Annex Table 2 Economic Status of working age HRP by tenure 2008-09

Energy efficiency

Annex Table 3 Heating Type 1996-2008

Annex Table 4 Main Heating System by tenure 2008

Annex Table 5 Boiler Types 1996-2008

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

Annex Table 8 Cavity Wall insulation by tenure 2008

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

Housing Health and Safety Rating System

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 HHSRS hazards present (comparison of estimates based on any one of 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Non-decent homes in deprived areas

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes in deprived areas by tenure 2006-2008

Annex tables | 39

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent

child(ren)

couple with dependent

child(ren)

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)

other multi-

person households

all one-person

households

all household

types

percentageown outright 46 9 7 24 37 31buying with mortgage 35 66 27 25 23 36social renters 9 13 44 20 25 18private renters 10 12 22 31 15 14

all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 2 Economic status of working age HRP by tenure

all households

working un-employed retired other inactive Total percentage

own outright 74 2 14 10 100buying with mortgage 94 1 1 4 100social renters 49 12 1 37 100private renters 75 5 1 19 100all tenures 80 4 3 13 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 3 Heating type 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingscentral heating 16178 18177 18604 18919 19179 19553 19862 19862storage heater 1643 1600 1587 1616 1609 1532 1552 1641fixed roomportable heater 2515 2001 1294 1078 993 904 776 736Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingscentral heating 796 860 866 875 881 889 895 893storage heater 81 76 74 75 74 70 70 74fixed roomportable heating heater 124 95 60 50 46 41 35 33Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

40 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 4 Main heating system by tenure 2008

all dwellings

central heating storage heaterfixed room

heatingportable

heating only all dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 13788 790 411 19 15007 private rented 2630 441 208 17 3296 all private 16418 1232 619 36 18304

local authority 1776 160 46 2 1984 housing association 1669 249 33 1 1951 all social 3445 409 79 3 3935

all tenures 19862 1641 698 38 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 919 53 27 01 1000 private rented 798 134 63 05 1000 all private 897 67 34 02 1000

local authority 895 80 23 01 1000 housing association 855 128 17 00 1000 all social 875 104 20 01 1000

all tenures 893 74 31 02 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 5 Boiler types 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsstandard boiler 10447 10338 9642 9635 9425 9014 8782 8072back boiler 2773 2759 2580 2409 2181 2131 1944 1688combination boiler 2810 4431 5492 5934 6254 6312 6287 6082condensing boiler ndash 155 154 202 300 460 698 948condensing-combination boiler ndash 318 373 417 727 1297 1837 2773no boiler 4305 3140 3244 3016 2894 2775 2642 2676Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsstandard boiler 514 489 449 446 433 410 396 363back boiler 136 130 120 111 100 97 88 76combination boiler 138 210 256 275 287 287 283 273condensing boiler 00 07 07 09 14 21 31 43condensing-combination boiler 00 15 17 19 33 59 83 125no boiler 212 149 151 140 133 126 119 120Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 41

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

all dwellings

standard boiler

back boiler

combination boiler

condensing boiler

condensing-combination

boilerno

boilerall

dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 6223 1045 3984 713 1756 1286 15007 private rented 817 149 1112 73 429 716 3296 all private 7040 1194 5096 787 2185 2002 18304

local authority 499 271 481 90 335 309 1984 housing association 533 223 505 72 254 365 1951 all social 1032 494 986 162 589 674 3935

all 8072 1688 6082 948 2773 2676 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 415 70 265 48 117 86 1000 private rented 248 45 337 22 130 217 1000 all private 385 65 278 43 119 109 1000

local authority 251 136 242 45 169 156 1000 housing association 273 114 259 37 130 187 1000 all social 262 125 250 41 150 171 1000

all 363 76 273 43 125 120 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 2853 5210 5334 5825 5974 6644 7267 7418200mm or more of loft insulation 583 1256 2034 2530 2919 3520 4258 4685entire house double glazing 6169 10753 11915 12846 13486 13924 14850 15747

all dwellings 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 140 246 248 270 274 302 327 334200mm or more of loft insulation 29 59 95 117 134 160 192 211entire house double glazing 303 509 555 594 619 633 669 708

all dwellings 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

42 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 8 Cavity wall insulation by tenure

all dwellings

cavity with insulation

cavity uninsulated other all

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5161 5483 4364 15007private rented 566 1213 1517 3296private 5727 6696 5882 18304

local authority 834 657 493 1984housing association 857 720 374 1951social 1691 1378 867 3935

total 7418 8073 6749 22239

percentage of dwellingsowner occupied 344 365 291 100private rented 172 368 460 100private 313 366 321 100

local authority 420 331 248 100housing association 439 369 192 100social 430 350 220 100

total 334 363 303 100

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 43

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

all dwellings

no loftno

insulationless than

50mm50 up to

99mm

100 up to

149mm

150 up to

199mm200mm or more

all dwellings

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 748 442 432 3009 5147 2007 3223 15007 private rented 672 175 66 857 813 281 434 3296 private 1420 617 497 3866 5960 2288 3657 18304

local authority 614 33 19 171 471 206 470 1984 housing association 467 20 16 143 482 265 558 1951 social 1081 53 35 314 953 471 1028 3935

total 2501 670 532 4179 6913 2759 4685 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 50 29 29 200 343 134 215 1000private rented 204 53 20 260 247 85 132 1000private 78 34 27 211 326 125 200 1000

local authority 309 17 10 86 237 104 237 1000housing association 239 10 08 73 247 136 286 1000social 275 14 09 80 242 120 261 1000

total 112 30 24 188 311 124 211 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

44 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

hazard presentnumber of homes (000s) each hazard is present in

falling on stairs 2025excess cold 1966falling on level surfaces 788falling between levels 443fire 318

entry by intruders

flames hot surfacesleaddamp and mould growth 50 to 100 eachcollision and entrapmentradiationfalls associated with baths

crowding and space

food safetypersonal hygiene sanitation and drainage 20 to 50 eachnoisedomestic hygiene pests and refuseelectrical hazards

structural collapse and falling elements

water supplycarbon monoxide and fuel combustion productsposition and operability of amenities less thanexcess heat 20 eachlightinguncombusted fuel gasexplosions

any of the 15 hazards 4842

any of the 26 hazards 5039

Note For 2006 and 2007 the survey reported on 15 hazards only The 2008 EHS can provide estimates for 26 hazards - the additional hazards are marked with an asterisk The three remaining hazards not included in the survey are presence of asbestos biocides or volatile organic compounds For reporting purposes HHSRS and non-decent estimates will be based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with previous years and avoid a break in the time seriesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 45

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 4842 4925private rented 1449 1478all private 6291 6403

local authority 625 640housing association 444 464all social 1069 1104

all tenures 7360 7507

percentagesowner occupied 323 328private rented 440 448all private 344 350

local authority 315 323housing association 228 238all social 272 281

all tenures 331 338

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

46 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 hazards present (compariosn of estimates based on any one to the 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 3342 3452private rented 978 1013all private 4320 4465

local authority 298 326RSL 224 248all social 522 574

all tenures 4842 5039

percentagesowner occupied 223 230private rented 297 307all private 236 244

local authority 150 164RSL 115 127all social 133 146

all tenures 218 227

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 47

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all households

15 hazards 26 hazards

number (000s) percentage () number (000s) percentage ()

decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 1428 653 1413 646private rented 429 490 417 476all private vulnerable 1857 606 1830 597 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 8494 683 8425 677private rented 1246 588 1232 581all private non-vulnerable 9740 669 9657 663 all owner occupied 9922 678 9839 673all private rented 1675 559 1648 550all private 11597 658 11487 663all social 2798 740 2766 731

all households 14395 672 14253 666

non-decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 760 347 775 354private rented 447 510 459 524all private vulnerable 1207 394 1234 403 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 3946 317 4015 323private rented 874 412 888 419all private non-vulnerable 4820 331 4903 337 all owner occupied 4706 322 4790 327all private rented 1321 441 1347 450all private 6027 342 6137 348all social 985 260 1017 269

all households 7012 328 7154 334

Note For reporting purposes decent homes estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

48 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes1 by deprived and other districts by tenure 2006-2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsSocial NRF88 662 652 605Other districts 480 486 464 Private NRF88 2544 2621 2442Other districts 4013 3928 3849

percentages of dwellingsSocial NRF88 313 304 278Other districts 264 278 263 Private NRF88 381 380 361Other districts 353 344 333

Note NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving Neighbourhood Renewal Funding 2001-2006Source English House Condition Survey 2006-2007English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub sample)

Technical annex | 49

Technical annex

General description

The survey consists of three main elements an initial interview survey of 17700 households with a follow up physical inspection and a desk based market valuation of a sub-sample of 8000 of these dwellings including vacant dwellings The interview survey sample forms part of ONSrsquos Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the core questions from the IHS form part of the EHS questionnaire More information about the IHS is available from its webpage wwwstatisticsgovukCCInuggetaspID=936ampPos=1ampColRank=1ampRank=224

The EHS interview content covers the key topics included under the former SEH and EHCS The content of the physical and market value components remains very largely unchanged from the former EHCS

Sampling and grossing

2008-09 Sample1 The initial sample for 2008-09 consisted of 32100 addresses drawn as a systematic

random sample from the Postcode Address File (small users) Interviews were attempted at all of these addresses over the course of the survey year from April 2008 to March 2009 A proportion of addresses were found not to be valid residential properties (eg demolished properties secondholiday homes small businesses not yet built)

2 Of the 17691 addresses where interviews were achieved (the lsquofull household samplersquo) all social rented properties and a sub-sample of private properties were regarded as eligible for the physical survey and the respondentrsquos consent was sought A proportion of vacant properties were also sub-sampled Physical surveys were completed in 7972 cases and these cases contribute to the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo (see below)

3 The principal differences in sampling methodology between the EHS and its predecessors the SEH and EHCS are that

bull The EHS uses an unclustered sample This enables a smaller sample to be used with no loss of precision ie without sampling errors being increased The more scattered sample does however have some implications for fieldwork organisation

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 23: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

Section 1 Households | 23

125 There were some differences by tenure 89 of owner occupiers were satisfied with their local area compared to 79 of social renters and 85 of private renters Whilst only two per cent of owner occupiers and private renters said that they were very dissatisfied with their local area seven per cent of social renters were very dissatisfied

Table 9 Satisfaction with local area by tenure 2008-09

all households

very satisfied

fairly satisfied

neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

slightly dissatisfied

very dissatisfied Total

thousands of householdsoutright owners 3999 2093 180 322 114 6708buying with mortgage 3919 2973 371 420 127 7810all owners 7918 5066 552 742 241 14518

local authority 754 712 122 159 122 1867housing association 861 679 116 150 129 1936all social renters 1615 1391 238 309 251 3803

private renters 1520 1001 183 194 73 2972

all tenures 11052 7458 972 1245 565 21293

percentagesoutright owners 60 31 3 5 2 100buying with mortgage 50 38 5 5 2 100all owners 55 35 4 5 2 100

local authority 40 38 7 9 7 100housing association 44 35 6 8 7 100all social renters 42 37 6 8 7 100

private renters 51 34 6 7 2 100

all tenures 52 35 5 6 3 100

Note This question is not asked of proxy respondents and a small proportion of respondents chose not to answer These exclusions are reflected in the overall total number of households in this table Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

24 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Section 2Housing stock

21 Results relating to the housing stock in this report are presented using two yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the English House Condition Survey (EHCS) For this transition year data from the last full year of the EHCS (2007-08) were combined with the first year of the EHS (2008-09)

22 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Stock profile

23 There were around 222 million dwellings in 2008 Table 10 Of these 183 million (82 of the stock) were in the private sector and comprised 150 million owner occupied homes and 33 million private rented homes There were 39 million social sector homes (18 of the stock) of which two million were owned by local authority and two million by housing associations

Section 2 Housing stock | 25

Table 10 Stock profile 2008

all dwellings

private sector social sector

owner occupied

private rented

all private sector

local authority

housing association

all social sector

all dwellings

in group

thousands of dwellingsdwelling agepre 1919 3194 1309 4503 86 170 257 47601919-44 2689 431 3120 336 187 522 36421945-64 2708 384 3092 760 511 1271 43631965-80 3146 536 3682 665 467 1132 48141981-90 1401 222 1624 107 223 330 1953post 1990 1869 415 2284 30 394 424 2708

dwelling typemid terrace 2638 820 3459 325 367 693 4151end terrance 1440 340 1779 199 222 421 2201small terraced house 1216 548 1764 192 217 408 2172mediumlarge terraced house 2862 612 3475 333 373 705 4180all terrace 4078 1160 5238 524 589 1114 6352semi-detached house 4515 556 5070 365 351 716 5786detached house 3575 267 3843 5 18 24 3867bungalow 1548 133 1681 176 236 412 2092converted flat 284 427 712 38 75 113 825purpose built flat low rise 926 704 1630 724 626 1349 2979purpose built flat high rise 81 49 130 152 56 208 338

floor arealess than 50 sqm 742 652 1394 550 536 1086 248050 to 69 sqm 2913 1028 3942 725 680 1405 534770 to 89 sqm 4361 890 5251 575 553 1127 637990 to 109 sqm 2632 322 2954 102 132 234 3188110 sqm or more 4359 403 4763 32 52 83 4846

type of areacity centre 295 262 558 72 75 147 704other urban centre 2263 967 3230 538 458 996 4227suburban residential 9204 1581 10785 1236 1171 2407 13192rural residential 2074 233 2307 105 190 295 2601village centre 647 110 756 26 47 72 829rural 524 144 668 7 11 19 687

deprived local areasmost deprived 10 773 325 1097 595 468 1064 21612-5th 5331 1518 6849 1121 1025 2145 89956-9th 7072 1188 8260 249 423 672 8932least deprived 1832 266 2097 19 36 54 2152

occupancy statusoccupied 14610 2858 17468 1896 1860 3755 21223vacant 398 438 836 88 92 180 1016

Total 15007 3296 18304 1984 1951 3935 22239

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

26 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

24 The large majority of dwellings were houses (181 million) most commonly terraced or semi-detached The remainder of the stock 41 million consisited of flats predominately purpose built low rise flats However types of housing vary markedly between tenures While 91 of owner occupied housing was made up of houses almost half (46) of local authority homes were flats Figure 7 Flats also accounted for over a third of private rented homes and housing association homes (36 and 39 respectively)

Figure 7 Dwelling type by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

purpose built flat high risepurpose built flat low riseconverted flatdetached houses and bungalowssemi-detached housemediumlarge terraced housesmall terraced house

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

25 England has a relatively old housing stock with some 84 million homes built before 1945 of which 48 million were built before 1919 A fifth of homes (47 million) have been built since 1980

26 Stock in different tenures have different age profiles It is noticeable that owner occupied homes are evenly distributed across the five age bands compared with other tenures Figure 8 In the private rented sector for example 40 (13 million homes) were built before 1919 significantly higher than other tenures Housing association homes were more likely to have been built during the 1980s and 1990s (32) compared to only 7 of local authority homes

Section 2 Housing stock | 27

Figure 8 Age of housing stock by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

post 19901981-901965-801945-641919-44pre 1919

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

27 Some 44 million (29) of owner occupied homes had a floor area greater than 110m2 including 18 million (12 of the sector) which were over 150m2 This reflects the proportion of semi-detached and detached owner occupied homes which tend to be large Social sector homes were most likely to have a floor area of less than 50m2 compared with those in the private sector (28 and 8 respectively)

28 Homes in England were most likely to be located in suburban residential areas and least likely to be found in rural areas (59 and 3 respectively)

Energy efficiency of the housing stock

Heating and insulation29 Key ways of increasing the energy efficiency of existing homes are

improvements to their heating systems and levels of insulation For heating the type of heating system boiler in use and the fuel used are all related to energy performance

210 Central heating is the predominant main heating system present in 199 million homes (89 of the housing stock) in 2008 see Annex Table 3 This was followed by storage heaters present in 16 million (7) of homes and room heaters in 700000 homes (3) Central heating is generally considered to be the most cost effective and relatively efficient method of heating whereas room heaters tend to be the least cost effective and relatively inefficient method of heating

28 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

211 In 2008 92 of owner occupied homes had central heating systems compared to 88 of social and 80 of private rented homes see Annex Table 4 In part this reflects the higher proportion of flats in the rented sectors compared with owner occupation with 23 of flats using storage heaters

212 Condensing boilers are generally the most efficient boiler type and are now mandatory for new and replacement boilers (for gas fired boilers since 2005 for oil fired boilers since 2007) However even prior to these requirements the less efficient standard and back boilers were decreasing in use with the growing popularity of standard combination types Figure 9 Recent years have seen rapidly expanding take up of condensing and particularly combination condensing boilers In 2008 37 million homes (17 of the stock) had one of the two types of condensing boilers

Figure 9 Boiler types 1996-2008

no boiler

condensing-combination boiler condensing boilercombination boilerback boiler (to fire or stove)standard boiler (floor or wall)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

20082007200620052004200320011996

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes underpinning data is presented in Annex Table 5Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

213 For a home to provide optimum energy performance a high level of thermal insulation needs to be present alongside an efficient heating system Standard insulation measures include cavity wall insulation loft insulation and double glazing which have all improved in the stock since 1996 Figure 10

214 In 2008 155 million homes (70) had external walls of cavity construction 74 million homes (33 of the stock) had cavity wall insulation 47 million homes (21) had 200mm or more of loft insulation and 157 million homes (71) had full double glazing with an additional 29 million homes (13) having more than half double glazed Figure 10

Section 2 Housing stock | 29

Figure 10 Insulation measures 1996-2008

20082007200620052004200320011996

entire housedouble glazing

200mm or moreof loft insulation

cavity walls withinsulation

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes1) Only 89 of dwellings have lofts and 70 of dwellings have cavity walls2) Underpinning data is presented in annex Table 7Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

215 In 2008 the social rented sector had the greatest proportion of homes with cavity wall insulation (local authority 42 housing association 44) 200mm or more of loft insulation (local authority 24 housing association 29) and full double glazing (local authority 75 housing association 83) whereas the private rented sector had the lowest proportion of all three standard insulation measures cavity wall insulation (17) 200mm or more of loft insulation (13) and full double glazing (61) Figure 11

30 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Figure 11 Percentage of dwellings with efficient insulation measures by tenure 2008

full double glazing200mm or moreloft insulation

cavity withinsulation

cavity wall

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

housing associationlocal authorityprivate rentedowner occupied0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Base all dwellingsSource English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

SAP Rating

216 The energy efficiency of the housing stock continued to improve between 1996 and 2008 the average SAP rating of a home increased by 9 SAP points from 42 to 51 Table 11 The social sector was on average more energy efficient than the private sector and saw the greatest improvement with the average SAP rating increasing by 12 SAP points from 47 to 59

Table 11 Energy efficiency average SAP rating by tenure 2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

owner occupied 411 444 450 456 461 469 481 496private rented 379 419 444 457 460 466 481 502all private 407 441 449 456 461 468 481 497

local authority 457 496 520 539 553 558 562 580housing association 509 564 567 573 589 593 595 603all social 468 519 539 553 569 574 578 592

all tenures 421 457 466 474 481 487 498 514

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Section 2 Housing stock | 31

217 There has been a significant increase in the proportion of homes achieving the highest Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands in 2008 10 (23 million) of homes achieved the highest (EER) Bands A to C3 compared with 7 (16 million) in 2006 Table 12 The number of homes in the lowest EER Bands (F and G) fell by a million over the same period The majority of homes (73) continue to be in the EER Bands D or E

Table 12 Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 35 35 77Band C (69-80) 1545 1710 2229Band D (55-68) 6555 7316 7865Band E (39-54) 9072 8859 8310Band F (21-38) 3838 3389 2972Band G (1-20) 943 881 786Total 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 02 02 03Band C (69-80) 70 77 100Band D (55-68) 298 330 354Band E (39-54) 413 399 374Band F (21-38) 175 153 134Band G (1-20) 43 40 35Total 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 2006 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Housing health and safety rating system

218 A potentially serious (Category 1) hazard as measured under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System was present in around 48 million homes in 2008 22 of the housing stock

2 EER Bands are used in the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) The Certificate provides among other indicators an energy efficiency rating for the home on a scale from A-G (where A is the most efficient and G the least efficient)

32 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Housing conditions

Housing Health and Safety Rating System219 There was no significant change in the proportion of homes with any Category

1 hazard between 2006 and 2008 Hazards tend to be more common in older housing stock for example stairs are more likely to be steep and narrow in older housing making lsquofalls on stairsrsquo more likely or heating and insulation measures tend to be less effective in older stock making lsquoexcess coldrsquo a more serious hazard Therefore it is not surprising that hazards are more common in the private sector where the older housing stock is concentrated Almost a quarter of housing in the private sector had at least one category 1 hazard in 2008 (24) compared to around 13 in the social sector Table 14 Privately rented homes were most likely to have Category 1 hazards present compared to housing association homes (31 and 13 respectively)

220 The most common type of hazard in all four tenures was falls (see annex Table 10 for details of which hazards are included in this category) Overall 13 of homes have at least one type of falls hazard present

Decent homes221 In 2008 74 million homes (33) were non-decent4 Table 13 Housing

association housing was the least likely to be non-decent (23) while private rented housing was in the worst condition with 44 of homes being non-decent Overall social sector homes were in a better condition than private sector homes with 27 being non-decent compared to 34

222 The number of non-decent homes fell from 77 million in 2006 to 74 million in 20085 Conditions in the social sector improved with the proportion of homes failing the standard falling by two percentage points from 29 in 2006 to 27 in 2008 Private sector homes also improved from 36 non-decent in 2006 to 34 non-decent in 2008

4 Estimates from the EHS are based soley on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors subject to any limitations of the information they collect The EHS estimates in this report do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property

5 In 2006 the Housing Health and Safety Rating System replaced the Fitness Standard as the statutory minimum standard for housing Earlier estimates based on the original definition are not comparable therefore any change in the number of decent homes can only be referenced back to 2006 Figures for decent homes prior to 2006 can be found in the 2006 English House Condition Survey Annual Report available at wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

Section 2 Housing stock | 33

Table 13 Non-decent homes by tenure 2006 ndash 2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5335 5304 4842private rented 1223 1244 1449all private 6558 6548 6291

local authority 676 652 625housing association 465 486 444all social 1142 1138 1069

all tenures 7700 7686 7360

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 346 341 323private rented 468 454 440all private 363 358 344

local authority 324 328 315housing association 252 255 228all social 290 292 272

all tenures 350 346 331

Notes1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties between 2007 and 2008 are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates See Annex Table 11Sources2006 ndash 2007 English House Condition Survey2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Reasons for failing decent homes223 Of the four components required to meet the decent homes standard the

presence of one or more category 1 hazards under the HHSRS was the most commonly failed Table 14 This is particularly the case for private sector homes where 24 of homes had one or more Category 1 hazards present compared to 13 of social sector homes

34 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 14 Homes failing decent homes criteria by tenure 2008

all dwellings

Category 1 hazard (HHSRS)

thermal comfort

modern facilities repair all non-decent

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 3342 1773 379 817 4842private rented 978 637 160 369 1449all private 4320 2411 539 1186 6291

local authority 298 227 138 146 625housing association 224 199 50 86 444all social 522 426 188 231 1069

all tenures 4842 2837 727 1417 7360

percentages

owner occupied 223 118 25 54 323private rented 297 193 49 112 440all private 236 132 29 65 344

local authority 150 115 70 74 315housing association 115 102 25 44 228all social 133 108 48 59 272

all tenures 218 128 33 64 331

Note The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoids a break in the time series See Annex Table 12 for estimate based on 26 hazardsSource English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

224 There was significant progress in the thermal comfort of homes between 2006 and 2008 The proportion of homes failing thermal comfort fell to 13 in 2008 from 16 in 2006 Improvement has been made across all tenures

Private sector vulnerable households225 In 2008 31 million lsquovulnerablersquo households6 were living in the private sector of

which 12 million (39) were living in non-decent homes the remaining 19 million (61) were living in decent accommodation Table 15 There has been no significant change since 2006

226 Vulnerable households who privately rent their accommodation were more likely to live in non-decent homes compared to social tenants (51 and 26 respectively) Table 15

6 Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

Section 2 Housing stock | 35

Table 15 Households living in decent homes 2006-2008

all dwellings

number (000s) percentage ()

2006 2007 2008 2006 2007 2008

decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 1543 1575 1428 630 649 653private rented 334 354 429 450 482 490all private vulnerable 1877 1929 1857 588 610 606

private non- vulnerableowner occupied 8418 8531 8494 664 667 683private rented 922 985 1246 567 566 588all private non-vulnerable 9340 9516 9740 653 655 669

all owner occupied 9961 10106 9922 658 664 678all private rented 1256 1339 1675 530 541 559all private 11217 11445 11597 641 647 658all social 2690 2649 2798 722 719 740all households 13907 14094 14395 655 659 672

non-decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 905 851 760 370 351 347private rented 408 380 447 550 518 510all private vulnerable 1313 1231 1207 412 390 394

private non-vulnerableowner occupied 4262 4264 3946 336 333 317private rented 704 754 874 433 434 412all private non-vulnerable 4966 5018 4820 347 345 331

all owner occupied 5167 5115 4706 342 336 322all private rented 1112 1134 1321 470 459 441all private 6279 6249 6027 359 353 342

all social 1034 1037 985 278 281 260all households 7313 7286 7012 345 341 328

Notes 1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoid a break in the time series See Annex Table 13 for further detailsSource English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

36 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Damp and mould growth227 The proportion of homes with damp problems has reduced from 13 in 1996

to 8 in 2008 Table 16

Table 16 Number and percentage of homes with damp problems in one or more rooms 1996-2008

all dwellings

rising damp

penetrating damp

condensation mould

any damp problems

thousands of dwellings1996 858 1271 1145 26012001 625 1032 860 20322003 740 1066 1003 22832004 750 1035 951 22512005 759 952 941 22102006 724 886 947 21582007 640 833 881 19162008 584 759 865 1746

percentage of dwellings1996 42 63 56 1282001 29 49 41 962003 34 50 47 1062004 35 48 44 1042005 35 44 43 1012006 33 40 43 982007 29 38 40 862008 26 34 39 78

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

228 Privately rented homes were more likely to experience damp problems compared to other tenures Figure 11 Privately rented homes were more likely to be older homes and experience problems with rising or penetrating damp due to defects in the damp proof course roof covering gutters and down pipes which would affect at least one room in the property

229 In the social sector damp problems were more likely to be caused by serious condensation and mould growth rather than by rising damp Figure 12

Section 2 Housing stock | 37

Figure 12 Percentage of homes with a damp problem by tenure 2008

rising damp penetrating damp condensationmould

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

alltenures

housingassociation

localauthority

privaterented

owneroccupied

per

cen

tage

of

ho

mes

wit

h d

amp

pro

ble

ms

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

38 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex tables

Households

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

Annex Table 2 Economic Status of working age HRP by tenure 2008-09

Energy efficiency

Annex Table 3 Heating Type 1996-2008

Annex Table 4 Main Heating System by tenure 2008

Annex Table 5 Boiler Types 1996-2008

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

Annex Table 8 Cavity Wall insulation by tenure 2008

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

Housing Health and Safety Rating System

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 HHSRS hazards present (comparison of estimates based on any one of 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Non-decent homes in deprived areas

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes in deprived areas by tenure 2006-2008

Annex tables | 39

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent

child(ren)

couple with dependent

child(ren)

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)

other multi-

person households

all one-person

households

all household

types

percentageown outright 46 9 7 24 37 31buying with mortgage 35 66 27 25 23 36social renters 9 13 44 20 25 18private renters 10 12 22 31 15 14

all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 2 Economic status of working age HRP by tenure

all households

working un-employed retired other inactive Total percentage

own outright 74 2 14 10 100buying with mortgage 94 1 1 4 100social renters 49 12 1 37 100private renters 75 5 1 19 100all tenures 80 4 3 13 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 3 Heating type 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingscentral heating 16178 18177 18604 18919 19179 19553 19862 19862storage heater 1643 1600 1587 1616 1609 1532 1552 1641fixed roomportable heater 2515 2001 1294 1078 993 904 776 736Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingscentral heating 796 860 866 875 881 889 895 893storage heater 81 76 74 75 74 70 70 74fixed roomportable heating heater 124 95 60 50 46 41 35 33Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

40 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 4 Main heating system by tenure 2008

all dwellings

central heating storage heaterfixed room

heatingportable

heating only all dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 13788 790 411 19 15007 private rented 2630 441 208 17 3296 all private 16418 1232 619 36 18304

local authority 1776 160 46 2 1984 housing association 1669 249 33 1 1951 all social 3445 409 79 3 3935

all tenures 19862 1641 698 38 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 919 53 27 01 1000 private rented 798 134 63 05 1000 all private 897 67 34 02 1000

local authority 895 80 23 01 1000 housing association 855 128 17 00 1000 all social 875 104 20 01 1000

all tenures 893 74 31 02 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 5 Boiler types 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsstandard boiler 10447 10338 9642 9635 9425 9014 8782 8072back boiler 2773 2759 2580 2409 2181 2131 1944 1688combination boiler 2810 4431 5492 5934 6254 6312 6287 6082condensing boiler ndash 155 154 202 300 460 698 948condensing-combination boiler ndash 318 373 417 727 1297 1837 2773no boiler 4305 3140 3244 3016 2894 2775 2642 2676Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsstandard boiler 514 489 449 446 433 410 396 363back boiler 136 130 120 111 100 97 88 76combination boiler 138 210 256 275 287 287 283 273condensing boiler 00 07 07 09 14 21 31 43condensing-combination boiler 00 15 17 19 33 59 83 125no boiler 212 149 151 140 133 126 119 120Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 41

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

all dwellings

standard boiler

back boiler

combination boiler

condensing boiler

condensing-combination

boilerno

boilerall

dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 6223 1045 3984 713 1756 1286 15007 private rented 817 149 1112 73 429 716 3296 all private 7040 1194 5096 787 2185 2002 18304

local authority 499 271 481 90 335 309 1984 housing association 533 223 505 72 254 365 1951 all social 1032 494 986 162 589 674 3935

all 8072 1688 6082 948 2773 2676 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 415 70 265 48 117 86 1000 private rented 248 45 337 22 130 217 1000 all private 385 65 278 43 119 109 1000

local authority 251 136 242 45 169 156 1000 housing association 273 114 259 37 130 187 1000 all social 262 125 250 41 150 171 1000

all 363 76 273 43 125 120 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 2853 5210 5334 5825 5974 6644 7267 7418200mm or more of loft insulation 583 1256 2034 2530 2919 3520 4258 4685entire house double glazing 6169 10753 11915 12846 13486 13924 14850 15747

all dwellings 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 140 246 248 270 274 302 327 334200mm or more of loft insulation 29 59 95 117 134 160 192 211entire house double glazing 303 509 555 594 619 633 669 708

all dwellings 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

42 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 8 Cavity wall insulation by tenure

all dwellings

cavity with insulation

cavity uninsulated other all

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5161 5483 4364 15007private rented 566 1213 1517 3296private 5727 6696 5882 18304

local authority 834 657 493 1984housing association 857 720 374 1951social 1691 1378 867 3935

total 7418 8073 6749 22239

percentage of dwellingsowner occupied 344 365 291 100private rented 172 368 460 100private 313 366 321 100

local authority 420 331 248 100housing association 439 369 192 100social 430 350 220 100

total 334 363 303 100

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 43

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

all dwellings

no loftno

insulationless than

50mm50 up to

99mm

100 up to

149mm

150 up to

199mm200mm or more

all dwellings

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 748 442 432 3009 5147 2007 3223 15007 private rented 672 175 66 857 813 281 434 3296 private 1420 617 497 3866 5960 2288 3657 18304

local authority 614 33 19 171 471 206 470 1984 housing association 467 20 16 143 482 265 558 1951 social 1081 53 35 314 953 471 1028 3935

total 2501 670 532 4179 6913 2759 4685 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 50 29 29 200 343 134 215 1000private rented 204 53 20 260 247 85 132 1000private 78 34 27 211 326 125 200 1000

local authority 309 17 10 86 237 104 237 1000housing association 239 10 08 73 247 136 286 1000social 275 14 09 80 242 120 261 1000

total 112 30 24 188 311 124 211 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

44 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

hazard presentnumber of homes (000s) each hazard is present in

falling on stairs 2025excess cold 1966falling on level surfaces 788falling between levels 443fire 318

entry by intruders

flames hot surfacesleaddamp and mould growth 50 to 100 eachcollision and entrapmentradiationfalls associated with baths

crowding and space

food safetypersonal hygiene sanitation and drainage 20 to 50 eachnoisedomestic hygiene pests and refuseelectrical hazards

structural collapse and falling elements

water supplycarbon monoxide and fuel combustion productsposition and operability of amenities less thanexcess heat 20 eachlightinguncombusted fuel gasexplosions

any of the 15 hazards 4842

any of the 26 hazards 5039

Note For 2006 and 2007 the survey reported on 15 hazards only The 2008 EHS can provide estimates for 26 hazards - the additional hazards are marked with an asterisk The three remaining hazards not included in the survey are presence of asbestos biocides or volatile organic compounds For reporting purposes HHSRS and non-decent estimates will be based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with previous years and avoid a break in the time seriesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 45

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 4842 4925private rented 1449 1478all private 6291 6403

local authority 625 640housing association 444 464all social 1069 1104

all tenures 7360 7507

percentagesowner occupied 323 328private rented 440 448all private 344 350

local authority 315 323housing association 228 238all social 272 281

all tenures 331 338

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

46 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 hazards present (compariosn of estimates based on any one to the 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 3342 3452private rented 978 1013all private 4320 4465

local authority 298 326RSL 224 248all social 522 574

all tenures 4842 5039

percentagesowner occupied 223 230private rented 297 307all private 236 244

local authority 150 164RSL 115 127all social 133 146

all tenures 218 227

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 47

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all households

15 hazards 26 hazards

number (000s) percentage () number (000s) percentage ()

decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 1428 653 1413 646private rented 429 490 417 476all private vulnerable 1857 606 1830 597 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 8494 683 8425 677private rented 1246 588 1232 581all private non-vulnerable 9740 669 9657 663 all owner occupied 9922 678 9839 673all private rented 1675 559 1648 550all private 11597 658 11487 663all social 2798 740 2766 731

all households 14395 672 14253 666

non-decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 760 347 775 354private rented 447 510 459 524all private vulnerable 1207 394 1234 403 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 3946 317 4015 323private rented 874 412 888 419all private non-vulnerable 4820 331 4903 337 all owner occupied 4706 322 4790 327all private rented 1321 441 1347 450all private 6027 342 6137 348all social 985 260 1017 269

all households 7012 328 7154 334

Note For reporting purposes decent homes estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

48 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes1 by deprived and other districts by tenure 2006-2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsSocial NRF88 662 652 605Other districts 480 486 464 Private NRF88 2544 2621 2442Other districts 4013 3928 3849

percentages of dwellingsSocial NRF88 313 304 278Other districts 264 278 263 Private NRF88 381 380 361Other districts 353 344 333

Note NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving Neighbourhood Renewal Funding 2001-2006Source English House Condition Survey 2006-2007English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub sample)

Technical annex | 49

Technical annex

General description

The survey consists of three main elements an initial interview survey of 17700 households with a follow up physical inspection and a desk based market valuation of a sub-sample of 8000 of these dwellings including vacant dwellings The interview survey sample forms part of ONSrsquos Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the core questions from the IHS form part of the EHS questionnaire More information about the IHS is available from its webpage wwwstatisticsgovukCCInuggetaspID=936ampPos=1ampColRank=1ampRank=224

The EHS interview content covers the key topics included under the former SEH and EHCS The content of the physical and market value components remains very largely unchanged from the former EHCS

Sampling and grossing

2008-09 Sample1 The initial sample for 2008-09 consisted of 32100 addresses drawn as a systematic

random sample from the Postcode Address File (small users) Interviews were attempted at all of these addresses over the course of the survey year from April 2008 to March 2009 A proportion of addresses were found not to be valid residential properties (eg demolished properties secondholiday homes small businesses not yet built)

2 Of the 17691 addresses where interviews were achieved (the lsquofull household samplersquo) all social rented properties and a sub-sample of private properties were regarded as eligible for the physical survey and the respondentrsquos consent was sought A proportion of vacant properties were also sub-sampled Physical surveys were completed in 7972 cases and these cases contribute to the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo (see below)

3 The principal differences in sampling methodology between the EHS and its predecessors the SEH and EHCS are that

bull The EHS uses an unclustered sample This enables a smaller sample to be used with no loss of precision ie without sampling errors being increased The more scattered sample does however have some implications for fieldwork organisation

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 24: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

24 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Section 2Housing stock

21 Results relating to the housing stock in this report are presented using two yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the English House Condition Survey (EHCS) For this transition year data from the last full year of the EHCS (2007-08) were combined with the first year of the EHS (2008-09)

22 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Stock profile

23 There were around 222 million dwellings in 2008 Table 10 Of these 183 million (82 of the stock) were in the private sector and comprised 150 million owner occupied homes and 33 million private rented homes There were 39 million social sector homes (18 of the stock) of which two million were owned by local authority and two million by housing associations

Section 2 Housing stock | 25

Table 10 Stock profile 2008

all dwellings

private sector social sector

owner occupied

private rented

all private sector

local authority

housing association

all social sector

all dwellings

in group

thousands of dwellingsdwelling agepre 1919 3194 1309 4503 86 170 257 47601919-44 2689 431 3120 336 187 522 36421945-64 2708 384 3092 760 511 1271 43631965-80 3146 536 3682 665 467 1132 48141981-90 1401 222 1624 107 223 330 1953post 1990 1869 415 2284 30 394 424 2708

dwelling typemid terrace 2638 820 3459 325 367 693 4151end terrance 1440 340 1779 199 222 421 2201small terraced house 1216 548 1764 192 217 408 2172mediumlarge terraced house 2862 612 3475 333 373 705 4180all terrace 4078 1160 5238 524 589 1114 6352semi-detached house 4515 556 5070 365 351 716 5786detached house 3575 267 3843 5 18 24 3867bungalow 1548 133 1681 176 236 412 2092converted flat 284 427 712 38 75 113 825purpose built flat low rise 926 704 1630 724 626 1349 2979purpose built flat high rise 81 49 130 152 56 208 338

floor arealess than 50 sqm 742 652 1394 550 536 1086 248050 to 69 sqm 2913 1028 3942 725 680 1405 534770 to 89 sqm 4361 890 5251 575 553 1127 637990 to 109 sqm 2632 322 2954 102 132 234 3188110 sqm or more 4359 403 4763 32 52 83 4846

type of areacity centre 295 262 558 72 75 147 704other urban centre 2263 967 3230 538 458 996 4227suburban residential 9204 1581 10785 1236 1171 2407 13192rural residential 2074 233 2307 105 190 295 2601village centre 647 110 756 26 47 72 829rural 524 144 668 7 11 19 687

deprived local areasmost deprived 10 773 325 1097 595 468 1064 21612-5th 5331 1518 6849 1121 1025 2145 89956-9th 7072 1188 8260 249 423 672 8932least deprived 1832 266 2097 19 36 54 2152

occupancy statusoccupied 14610 2858 17468 1896 1860 3755 21223vacant 398 438 836 88 92 180 1016

Total 15007 3296 18304 1984 1951 3935 22239

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

26 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

24 The large majority of dwellings were houses (181 million) most commonly terraced or semi-detached The remainder of the stock 41 million consisited of flats predominately purpose built low rise flats However types of housing vary markedly between tenures While 91 of owner occupied housing was made up of houses almost half (46) of local authority homes were flats Figure 7 Flats also accounted for over a third of private rented homes and housing association homes (36 and 39 respectively)

Figure 7 Dwelling type by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

purpose built flat high risepurpose built flat low riseconverted flatdetached houses and bungalowssemi-detached housemediumlarge terraced housesmall terraced house

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

25 England has a relatively old housing stock with some 84 million homes built before 1945 of which 48 million were built before 1919 A fifth of homes (47 million) have been built since 1980

26 Stock in different tenures have different age profiles It is noticeable that owner occupied homes are evenly distributed across the five age bands compared with other tenures Figure 8 In the private rented sector for example 40 (13 million homes) were built before 1919 significantly higher than other tenures Housing association homes were more likely to have been built during the 1980s and 1990s (32) compared to only 7 of local authority homes

Section 2 Housing stock | 27

Figure 8 Age of housing stock by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

post 19901981-901965-801945-641919-44pre 1919

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

27 Some 44 million (29) of owner occupied homes had a floor area greater than 110m2 including 18 million (12 of the sector) which were over 150m2 This reflects the proportion of semi-detached and detached owner occupied homes which tend to be large Social sector homes were most likely to have a floor area of less than 50m2 compared with those in the private sector (28 and 8 respectively)

28 Homes in England were most likely to be located in suburban residential areas and least likely to be found in rural areas (59 and 3 respectively)

Energy efficiency of the housing stock

Heating and insulation29 Key ways of increasing the energy efficiency of existing homes are

improvements to their heating systems and levels of insulation For heating the type of heating system boiler in use and the fuel used are all related to energy performance

210 Central heating is the predominant main heating system present in 199 million homes (89 of the housing stock) in 2008 see Annex Table 3 This was followed by storage heaters present in 16 million (7) of homes and room heaters in 700000 homes (3) Central heating is generally considered to be the most cost effective and relatively efficient method of heating whereas room heaters tend to be the least cost effective and relatively inefficient method of heating

28 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

211 In 2008 92 of owner occupied homes had central heating systems compared to 88 of social and 80 of private rented homes see Annex Table 4 In part this reflects the higher proportion of flats in the rented sectors compared with owner occupation with 23 of flats using storage heaters

212 Condensing boilers are generally the most efficient boiler type and are now mandatory for new and replacement boilers (for gas fired boilers since 2005 for oil fired boilers since 2007) However even prior to these requirements the less efficient standard and back boilers were decreasing in use with the growing popularity of standard combination types Figure 9 Recent years have seen rapidly expanding take up of condensing and particularly combination condensing boilers In 2008 37 million homes (17 of the stock) had one of the two types of condensing boilers

Figure 9 Boiler types 1996-2008

no boiler

condensing-combination boiler condensing boilercombination boilerback boiler (to fire or stove)standard boiler (floor or wall)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

20082007200620052004200320011996

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes underpinning data is presented in Annex Table 5Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

213 For a home to provide optimum energy performance a high level of thermal insulation needs to be present alongside an efficient heating system Standard insulation measures include cavity wall insulation loft insulation and double glazing which have all improved in the stock since 1996 Figure 10

214 In 2008 155 million homes (70) had external walls of cavity construction 74 million homes (33 of the stock) had cavity wall insulation 47 million homes (21) had 200mm or more of loft insulation and 157 million homes (71) had full double glazing with an additional 29 million homes (13) having more than half double glazed Figure 10

Section 2 Housing stock | 29

Figure 10 Insulation measures 1996-2008

20082007200620052004200320011996

entire housedouble glazing

200mm or moreof loft insulation

cavity walls withinsulation

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes1) Only 89 of dwellings have lofts and 70 of dwellings have cavity walls2) Underpinning data is presented in annex Table 7Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

215 In 2008 the social rented sector had the greatest proportion of homes with cavity wall insulation (local authority 42 housing association 44) 200mm or more of loft insulation (local authority 24 housing association 29) and full double glazing (local authority 75 housing association 83) whereas the private rented sector had the lowest proportion of all three standard insulation measures cavity wall insulation (17) 200mm or more of loft insulation (13) and full double glazing (61) Figure 11

30 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Figure 11 Percentage of dwellings with efficient insulation measures by tenure 2008

full double glazing200mm or moreloft insulation

cavity withinsulation

cavity wall

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

housing associationlocal authorityprivate rentedowner occupied0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Base all dwellingsSource English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

SAP Rating

216 The energy efficiency of the housing stock continued to improve between 1996 and 2008 the average SAP rating of a home increased by 9 SAP points from 42 to 51 Table 11 The social sector was on average more energy efficient than the private sector and saw the greatest improvement with the average SAP rating increasing by 12 SAP points from 47 to 59

Table 11 Energy efficiency average SAP rating by tenure 2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

owner occupied 411 444 450 456 461 469 481 496private rented 379 419 444 457 460 466 481 502all private 407 441 449 456 461 468 481 497

local authority 457 496 520 539 553 558 562 580housing association 509 564 567 573 589 593 595 603all social 468 519 539 553 569 574 578 592

all tenures 421 457 466 474 481 487 498 514

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Section 2 Housing stock | 31

217 There has been a significant increase in the proportion of homes achieving the highest Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands in 2008 10 (23 million) of homes achieved the highest (EER) Bands A to C3 compared with 7 (16 million) in 2006 Table 12 The number of homes in the lowest EER Bands (F and G) fell by a million over the same period The majority of homes (73) continue to be in the EER Bands D or E

Table 12 Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 35 35 77Band C (69-80) 1545 1710 2229Band D (55-68) 6555 7316 7865Band E (39-54) 9072 8859 8310Band F (21-38) 3838 3389 2972Band G (1-20) 943 881 786Total 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 02 02 03Band C (69-80) 70 77 100Band D (55-68) 298 330 354Band E (39-54) 413 399 374Band F (21-38) 175 153 134Band G (1-20) 43 40 35Total 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 2006 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Housing health and safety rating system

218 A potentially serious (Category 1) hazard as measured under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System was present in around 48 million homes in 2008 22 of the housing stock

2 EER Bands are used in the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) The Certificate provides among other indicators an energy efficiency rating for the home on a scale from A-G (where A is the most efficient and G the least efficient)

32 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Housing conditions

Housing Health and Safety Rating System219 There was no significant change in the proportion of homes with any Category

1 hazard between 2006 and 2008 Hazards tend to be more common in older housing stock for example stairs are more likely to be steep and narrow in older housing making lsquofalls on stairsrsquo more likely or heating and insulation measures tend to be less effective in older stock making lsquoexcess coldrsquo a more serious hazard Therefore it is not surprising that hazards are more common in the private sector where the older housing stock is concentrated Almost a quarter of housing in the private sector had at least one category 1 hazard in 2008 (24) compared to around 13 in the social sector Table 14 Privately rented homes were most likely to have Category 1 hazards present compared to housing association homes (31 and 13 respectively)

220 The most common type of hazard in all four tenures was falls (see annex Table 10 for details of which hazards are included in this category) Overall 13 of homes have at least one type of falls hazard present

Decent homes221 In 2008 74 million homes (33) were non-decent4 Table 13 Housing

association housing was the least likely to be non-decent (23) while private rented housing was in the worst condition with 44 of homes being non-decent Overall social sector homes were in a better condition than private sector homes with 27 being non-decent compared to 34

222 The number of non-decent homes fell from 77 million in 2006 to 74 million in 20085 Conditions in the social sector improved with the proportion of homes failing the standard falling by two percentage points from 29 in 2006 to 27 in 2008 Private sector homes also improved from 36 non-decent in 2006 to 34 non-decent in 2008

4 Estimates from the EHS are based soley on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors subject to any limitations of the information they collect The EHS estimates in this report do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property

5 In 2006 the Housing Health and Safety Rating System replaced the Fitness Standard as the statutory minimum standard for housing Earlier estimates based on the original definition are not comparable therefore any change in the number of decent homes can only be referenced back to 2006 Figures for decent homes prior to 2006 can be found in the 2006 English House Condition Survey Annual Report available at wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

Section 2 Housing stock | 33

Table 13 Non-decent homes by tenure 2006 ndash 2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5335 5304 4842private rented 1223 1244 1449all private 6558 6548 6291

local authority 676 652 625housing association 465 486 444all social 1142 1138 1069

all tenures 7700 7686 7360

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 346 341 323private rented 468 454 440all private 363 358 344

local authority 324 328 315housing association 252 255 228all social 290 292 272

all tenures 350 346 331

Notes1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties between 2007 and 2008 are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates See Annex Table 11Sources2006 ndash 2007 English House Condition Survey2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Reasons for failing decent homes223 Of the four components required to meet the decent homes standard the

presence of one or more category 1 hazards under the HHSRS was the most commonly failed Table 14 This is particularly the case for private sector homes where 24 of homes had one or more Category 1 hazards present compared to 13 of social sector homes

34 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 14 Homes failing decent homes criteria by tenure 2008

all dwellings

Category 1 hazard (HHSRS)

thermal comfort

modern facilities repair all non-decent

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 3342 1773 379 817 4842private rented 978 637 160 369 1449all private 4320 2411 539 1186 6291

local authority 298 227 138 146 625housing association 224 199 50 86 444all social 522 426 188 231 1069

all tenures 4842 2837 727 1417 7360

percentages

owner occupied 223 118 25 54 323private rented 297 193 49 112 440all private 236 132 29 65 344

local authority 150 115 70 74 315housing association 115 102 25 44 228all social 133 108 48 59 272

all tenures 218 128 33 64 331

Note The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoids a break in the time series See Annex Table 12 for estimate based on 26 hazardsSource English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

224 There was significant progress in the thermal comfort of homes between 2006 and 2008 The proportion of homes failing thermal comfort fell to 13 in 2008 from 16 in 2006 Improvement has been made across all tenures

Private sector vulnerable households225 In 2008 31 million lsquovulnerablersquo households6 were living in the private sector of

which 12 million (39) were living in non-decent homes the remaining 19 million (61) were living in decent accommodation Table 15 There has been no significant change since 2006

226 Vulnerable households who privately rent their accommodation were more likely to live in non-decent homes compared to social tenants (51 and 26 respectively) Table 15

6 Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

Section 2 Housing stock | 35

Table 15 Households living in decent homes 2006-2008

all dwellings

number (000s) percentage ()

2006 2007 2008 2006 2007 2008

decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 1543 1575 1428 630 649 653private rented 334 354 429 450 482 490all private vulnerable 1877 1929 1857 588 610 606

private non- vulnerableowner occupied 8418 8531 8494 664 667 683private rented 922 985 1246 567 566 588all private non-vulnerable 9340 9516 9740 653 655 669

all owner occupied 9961 10106 9922 658 664 678all private rented 1256 1339 1675 530 541 559all private 11217 11445 11597 641 647 658all social 2690 2649 2798 722 719 740all households 13907 14094 14395 655 659 672

non-decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 905 851 760 370 351 347private rented 408 380 447 550 518 510all private vulnerable 1313 1231 1207 412 390 394

private non-vulnerableowner occupied 4262 4264 3946 336 333 317private rented 704 754 874 433 434 412all private non-vulnerable 4966 5018 4820 347 345 331

all owner occupied 5167 5115 4706 342 336 322all private rented 1112 1134 1321 470 459 441all private 6279 6249 6027 359 353 342

all social 1034 1037 985 278 281 260all households 7313 7286 7012 345 341 328

Notes 1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoid a break in the time series See Annex Table 13 for further detailsSource English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

36 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Damp and mould growth227 The proportion of homes with damp problems has reduced from 13 in 1996

to 8 in 2008 Table 16

Table 16 Number and percentage of homes with damp problems in one or more rooms 1996-2008

all dwellings

rising damp

penetrating damp

condensation mould

any damp problems

thousands of dwellings1996 858 1271 1145 26012001 625 1032 860 20322003 740 1066 1003 22832004 750 1035 951 22512005 759 952 941 22102006 724 886 947 21582007 640 833 881 19162008 584 759 865 1746

percentage of dwellings1996 42 63 56 1282001 29 49 41 962003 34 50 47 1062004 35 48 44 1042005 35 44 43 1012006 33 40 43 982007 29 38 40 862008 26 34 39 78

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

228 Privately rented homes were more likely to experience damp problems compared to other tenures Figure 11 Privately rented homes were more likely to be older homes and experience problems with rising or penetrating damp due to defects in the damp proof course roof covering gutters and down pipes which would affect at least one room in the property

229 In the social sector damp problems were more likely to be caused by serious condensation and mould growth rather than by rising damp Figure 12

Section 2 Housing stock | 37

Figure 12 Percentage of homes with a damp problem by tenure 2008

rising damp penetrating damp condensationmould

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

alltenures

housingassociation

localauthority

privaterented

owneroccupied

per

cen

tage

of

ho

mes

wit

h d

amp

pro

ble

ms

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

38 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex tables

Households

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

Annex Table 2 Economic Status of working age HRP by tenure 2008-09

Energy efficiency

Annex Table 3 Heating Type 1996-2008

Annex Table 4 Main Heating System by tenure 2008

Annex Table 5 Boiler Types 1996-2008

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

Annex Table 8 Cavity Wall insulation by tenure 2008

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

Housing Health and Safety Rating System

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 HHSRS hazards present (comparison of estimates based on any one of 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Non-decent homes in deprived areas

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes in deprived areas by tenure 2006-2008

Annex tables | 39

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent

child(ren)

couple with dependent

child(ren)

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)

other multi-

person households

all one-person

households

all household

types

percentageown outright 46 9 7 24 37 31buying with mortgage 35 66 27 25 23 36social renters 9 13 44 20 25 18private renters 10 12 22 31 15 14

all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 2 Economic status of working age HRP by tenure

all households

working un-employed retired other inactive Total percentage

own outright 74 2 14 10 100buying with mortgage 94 1 1 4 100social renters 49 12 1 37 100private renters 75 5 1 19 100all tenures 80 4 3 13 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 3 Heating type 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingscentral heating 16178 18177 18604 18919 19179 19553 19862 19862storage heater 1643 1600 1587 1616 1609 1532 1552 1641fixed roomportable heater 2515 2001 1294 1078 993 904 776 736Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingscentral heating 796 860 866 875 881 889 895 893storage heater 81 76 74 75 74 70 70 74fixed roomportable heating heater 124 95 60 50 46 41 35 33Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

40 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 4 Main heating system by tenure 2008

all dwellings

central heating storage heaterfixed room

heatingportable

heating only all dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 13788 790 411 19 15007 private rented 2630 441 208 17 3296 all private 16418 1232 619 36 18304

local authority 1776 160 46 2 1984 housing association 1669 249 33 1 1951 all social 3445 409 79 3 3935

all tenures 19862 1641 698 38 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 919 53 27 01 1000 private rented 798 134 63 05 1000 all private 897 67 34 02 1000

local authority 895 80 23 01 1000 housing association 855 128 17 00 1000 all social 875 104 20 01 1000

all tenures 893 74 31 02 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 5 Boiler types 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsstandard boiler 10447 10338 9642 9635 9425 9014 8782 8072back boiler 2773 2759 2580 2409 2181 2131 1944 1688combination boiler 2810 4431 5492 5934 6254 6312 6287 6082condensing boiler ndash 155 154 202 300 460 698 948condensing-combination boiler ndash 318 373 417 727 1297 1837 2773no boiler 4305 3140 3244 3016 2894 2775 2642 2676Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsstandard boiler 514 489 449 446 433 410 396 363back boiler 136 130 120 111 100 97 88 76combination boiler 138 210 256 275 287 287 283 273condensing boiler 00 07 07 09 14 21 31 43condensing-combination boiler 00 15 17 19 33 59 83 125no boiler 212 149 151 140 133 126 119 120Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 41

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

all dwellings

standard boiler

back boiler

combination boiler

condensing boiler

condensing-combination

boilerno

boilerall

dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 6223 1045 3984 713 1756 1286 15007 private rented 817 149 1112 73 429 716 3296 all private 7040 1194 5096 787 2185 2002 18304

local authority 499 271 481 90 335 309 1984 housing association 533 223 505 72 254 365 1951 all social 1032 494 986 162 589 674 3935

all 8072 1688 6082 948 2773 2676 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 415 70 265 48 117 86 1000 private rented 248 45 337 22 130 217 1000 all private 385 65 278 43 119 109 1000

local authority 251 136 242 45 169 156 1000 housing association 273 114 259 37 130 187 1000 all social 262 125 250 41 150 171 1000

all 363 76 273 43 125 120 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 2853 5210 5334 5825 5974 6644 7267 7418200mm or more of loft insulation 583 1256 2034 2530 2919 3520 4258 4685entire house double glazing 6169 10753 11915 12846 13486 13924 14850 15747

all dwellings 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 140 246 248 270 274 302 327 334200mm or more of loft insulation 29 59 95 117 134 160 192 211entire house double glazing 303 509 555 594 619 633 669 708

all dwellings 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

42 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 8 Cavity wall insulation by tenure

all dwellings

cavity with insulation

cavity uninsulated other all

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5161 5483 4364 15007private rented 566 1213 1517 3296private 5727 6696 5882 18304

local authority 834 657 493 1984housing association 857 720 374 1951social 1691 1378 867 3935

total 7418 8073 6749 22239

percentage of dwellingsowner occupied 344 365 291 100private rented 172 368 460 100private 313 366 321 100

local authority 420 331 248 100housing association 439 369 192 100social 430 350 220 100

total 334 363 303 100

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 43

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

all dwellings

no loftno

insulationless than

50mm50 up to

99mm

100 up to

149mm

150 up to

199mm200mm or more

all dwellings

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 748 442 432 3009 5147 2007 3223 15007 private rented 672 175 66 857 813 281 434 3296 private 1420 617 497 3866 5960 2288 3657 18304

local authority 614 33 19 171 471 206 470 1984 housing association 467 20 16 143 482 265 558 1951 social 1081 53 35 314 953 471 1028 3935

total 2501 670 532 4179 6913 2759 4685 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 50 29 29 200 343 134 215 1000private rented 204 53 20 260 247 85 132 1000private 78 34 27 211 326 125 200 1000

local authority 309 17 10 86 237 104 237 1000housing association 239 10 08 73 247 136 286 1000social 275 14 09 80 242 120 261 1000

total 112 30 24 188 311 124 211 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

44 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

hazard presentnumber of homes (000s) each hazard is present in

falling on stairs 2025excess cold 1966falling on level surfaces 788falling between levels 443fire 318

entry by intruders

flames hot surfacesleaddamp and mould growth 50 to 100 eachcollision and entrapmentradiationfalls associated with baths

crowding and space

food safetypersonal hygiene sanitation and drainage 20 to 50 eachnoisedomestic hygiene pests and refuseelectrical hazards

structural collapse and falling elements

water supplycarbon monoxide and fuel combustion productsposition and operability of amenities less thanexcess heat 20 eachlightinguncombusted fuel gasexplosions

any of the 15 hazards 4842

any of the 26 hazards 5039

Note For 2006 and 2007 the survey reported on 15 hazards only The 2008 EHS can provide estimates for 26 hazards - the additional hazards are marked with an asterisk The three remaining hazards not included in the survey are presence of asbestos biocides or volatile organic compounds For reporting purposes HHSRS and non-decent estimates will be based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with previous years and avoid a break in the time seriesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 45

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 4842 4925private rented 1449 1478all private 6291 6403

local authority 625 640housing association 444 464all social 1069 1104

all tenures 7360 7507

percentagesowner occupied 323 328private rented 440 448all private 344 350

local authority 315 323housing association 228 238all social 272 281

all tenures 331 338

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

46 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 hazards present (compariosn of estimates based on any one to the 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 3342 3452private rented 978 1013all private 4320 4465

local authority 298 326RSL 224 248all social 522 574

all tenures 4842 5039

percentagesowner occupied 223 230private rented 297 307all private 236 244

local authority 150 164RSL 115 127all social 133 146

all tenures 218 227

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 47

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all households

15 hazards 26 hazards

number (000s) percentage () number (000s) percentage ()

decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 1428 653 1413 646private rented 429 490 417 476all private vulnerable 1857 606 1830 597 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 8494 683 8425 677private rented 1246 588 1232 581all private non-vulnerable 9740 669 9657 663 all owner occupied 9922 678 9839 673all private rented 1675 559 1648 550all private 11597 658 11487 663all social 2798 740 2766 731

all households 14395 672 14253 666

non-decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 760 347 775 354private rented 447 510 459 524all private vulnerable 1207 394 1234 403 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 3946 317 4015 323private rented 874 412 888 419all private non-vulnerable 4820 331 4903 337 all owner occupied 4706 322 4790 327all private rented 1321 441 1347 450all private 6027 342 6137 348all social 985 260 1017 269

all households 7012 328 7154 334

Note For reporting purposes decent homes estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

48 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes1 by deprived and other districts by tenure 2006-2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsSocial NRF88 662 652 605Other districts 480 486 464 Private NRF88 2544 2621 2442Other districts 4013 3928 3849

percentages of dwellingsSocial NRF88 313 304 278Other districts 264 278 263 Private NRF88 381 380 361Other districts 353 344 333

Note NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving Neighbourhood Renewal Funding 2001-2006Source English House Condition Survey 2006-2007English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub sample)

Technical annex | 49

Technical annex

General description

The survey consists of three main elements an initial interview survey of 17700 households with a follow up physical inspection and a desk based market valuation of a sub-sample of 8000 of these dwellings including vacant dwellings The interview survey sample forms part of ONSrsquos Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the core questions from the IHS form part of the EHS questionnaire More information about the IHS is available from its webpage wwwstatisticsgovukCCInuggetaspID=936ampPos=1ampColRank=1ampRank=224

The EHS interview content covers the key topics included under the former SEH and EHCS The content of the physical and market value components remains very largely unchanged from the former EHCS

Sampling and grossing

2008-09 Sample1 The initial sample for 2008-09 consisted of 32100 addresses drawn as a systematic

random sample from the Postcode Address File (small users) Interviews were attempted at all of these addresses over the course of the survey year from April 2008 to March 2009 A proportion of addresses were found not to be valid residential properties (eg demolished properties secondholiday homes small businesses not yet built)

2 Of the 17691 addresses where interviews were achieved (the lsquofull household samplersquo) all social rented properties and a sub-sample of private properties were regarded as eligible for the physical survey and the respondentrsquos consent was sought A proportion of vacant properties were also sub-sampled Physical surveys were completed in 7972 cases and these cases contribute to the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo (see below)

3 The principal differences in sampling methodology between the EHS and its predecessors the SEH and EHCS are that

bull The EHS uses an unclustered sample This enables a smaller sample to be used with no loss of precision ie without sampling errors being increased The more scattered sample does however have some implications for fieldwork organisation

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 25: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

Section 2 Housing stock | 25

Table 10 Stock profile 2008

all dwellings

private sector social sector

owner occupied

private rented

all private sector

local authority

housing association

all social sector

all dwellings

in group

thousands of dwellingsdwelling agepre 1919 3194 1309 4503 86 170 257 47601919-44 2689 431 3120 336 187 522 36421945-64 2708 384 3092 760 511 1271 43631965-80 3146 536 3682 665 467 1132 48141981-90 1401 222 1624 107 223 330 1953post 1990 1869 415 2284 30 394 424 2708

dwelling typemid terrace 2638 820 3459 325 367 693 4151end terrance 1440 340 1779 199 222 421 2201small terraced house 1216 548 1764 192 217 408 2172mediumlarge terraced house 2862 612 3475 333 373 705 4180all terrace 4078 1160 5238 524 589 1114 6352semi-detached house 4515 556 5070 365 351 716 5786detached house 3575 267 3843 5 18 24 3867bungalow 1548 133 1681 176 236 412 2092converted flat 284 427 712 38 75 113 825purpose built flat low rise 926 704 1630 724 626 1349 2979purpose built flat high rise 81 49 130 152 56 208 338

floor arealess than 50 sqm 742 652 1394 550 536 1086 248050 to 69 sqm 2913 1028 3942 725 680 1405 534770 to 89 sqm 4361 890 5251 575 553 1127 637990 to 109 sqm 2632 322 2954 102 132 234 3188110 sqm or more 4359 403 4763 32 52 83 4846

type of areacity centre 295 262 558 72 75 147 704other urban centre 2263 967 3230 538 458 996 4227suburban residential 9204 1581 10785 1236 1171 2407 13192rural residential 2074 233 2307 105 190 295 2601village centre 647 110 756 26 47 72 829rural 524 144 668 7 11 19 687

deprived local areasmost deprived 10 773 325 1097 595 468 1064 21612-5th 5331 1518 6849 1121 1025 2145 89956-9th 7072 1188 8260 249 423 672 8932least deprived 1832 266 2097 19 36 54 2152

occupancy statusoccupied 14610 2858 17468 1896 1860 3755 21223vacant 398 438 836 88 92 180 1016

Total 15007 3296 18304 1984 1951 3935 22239

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

26 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

24 The large majority of dwellings were houses (181 million) most commonly terraced or semi-detached The remainder of the stock 41 million consisited of flats predominately purpose built low rise flats However types of housing vary markedly between tenures While 91 of owner occupied housing was made up of houses almost half (46) of local authority homes were flats Figure 7 Flats also accounted for over a third of private rented homes and housing association homes (36 and 39 respectively)

Figure 7 Dwelling type by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

purpose built flat high risepurpose built flat low riseconverted flatdetached houses and bungalowssemi-detached housemediumlarge terraced housesmall terraced house

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

25 England has a relatively old housing stock with some 84 million homes built before 1945 of which 48 million were built before 1919 A fifth of homes (47 million) have been built since 1980

26 Stock in different tenures have different age profiles It is noticeable that owner occupied homes are evenly distributed across the five age bands compared with other tenures Figure 8 In the private rented sector for example 40 (13 million homes) were built before 1919 significantly higher than other tenures Housing association homes were more likely to have been built during the 1980s and 1990s (32) compared to only 7 of local authority homes

Section 2 Housing stock | 27

Figure 8 Age of housing stock by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

post 19901981-901965-801945-641919-44pre 1919

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

27 Some 44 million (29) of owner occupied homes had a floor area greater than 110m2 including 18 million (12 of the sector) which were over 150m2 This reflects the proportion of semi-detached and detached owner occupied homes which tend to be large Social sector homes were most likely to have a floor area of less than 50m2 compared with those in the private sector (28 and 8 respectively)

28 Homes in England were most likely to be located in suburban residential areas and least likely to be found in rural areas (59 and 3 respectively)

Energy efficiency of the housing stock

Heating and insulation29 Key ways of increasing the energy efficiency of existing homes are

improvements to their heating systems and levels of insulation For heating the type of heating system boiler in use and the fuel used are all related to energy performance

210 Central heating is the predominant main heating system present in 199 million homes (89 of the housing stock) in 2008 see Annex Table 3 This was followed by storage heaters present in 16 million (7) of homes and room heaters in 700000 homes (3) Central heating is generally considered to be the most cost effective and relatively efficient method of heating whereas room heaters tend to be the least cost effective and relatively inefficient method of heating

28 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

211 In 2008 92 of owner occupied homes had central heating systems compared to 88 of social and 80 of private rented homes see Annex Table 4 In part this reflects the higher proportion of flats in the rented sectors compared with owner occupation with 23 of flats using storage heaters

212 Condensing boilers are generally the most efficient boiler type and are now mandatory for new and replacement boilers (for gas fired boilers since 2005 for oil fired boilers since 2007) However even prior to these requirements the less efficient standard and back boilers were decreasing in use with the growing popularity of standard combination types Figure 9 Recent years have seen rapidly expanding take up of condensing and particularly combination condensing boilers In 2008 37 million homes (17 of the stock) had one of the two types of condensing boilers

Figure 9 Boiler types 1996-2008

no boiler

condensing-combination boiler condensing boilercombination boilerback boiler (to fire or stove)standard boiler (floor or wall)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

20082007200620052004200320011996

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes underpinning data is presented in Annex Table 5Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

213 For a home to provide optimum energy performance a high level of thermal insulation needs to be present alongside an efficient heating system Standard insulation measures include cavity wall insulation loft insulation and double glazing which have all improved in the stock since 1996 Figure 10

214 In 2008 155 million homes (70) had external walls of cavity construction 74 million homes (33 of the stock) had cavity wall insulation 47 million homes (21) had 200mm or more of loft insulation and 157 million homes (71) had full double glazing with an additional 29 million homes (13) having more than half double glazed Figure 10

Section 2 Housing stock | 29

Figure 10 Insulation measures 1996-2008

20082007200620052004200320011996

entire housedouble glazing

200mm or moreof loft insulation

cavity walls withinsulation

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes1) Only 89 of dwellings have lofts and 70 of dwellings have cavity walls2) Underpinning data is presented in annex Table 7Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

215 In 2008 the social rented sector had the greatest proportion of homes with cavity wall insulation (local authority 42 housing association 44) 200mm or more of loft insulation (local authority 24 housing association 29) and full double glazing (local authority 75 housing association 83) whereas the private rented sector had the lowest proportion of all three standard insulation measures cavity wall insulation (17) 200mm or more of loft insulation (13) and full double glazing (61) Figure 11

30 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Figure 11 Percentage of dwellings with efficient insulation measures by tenure 2008

full double glazing200mm or moreloft insulation

cavity withinsulation

cavity wall

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

housing associationlocal authorityprivate rentedowner occupied0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Base all dwellingsSource English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

SAP Rating

216 The energy efficiency of the housing stock continued to improve between 1996 and 2008 the average SAP rating of a home increased by 9 SAP points from 42 to 51 Table 11 The social sector was on average more energy efficient than the private sector and saw the greatest improvement with the average SAP rating increasing by 12 SAP points from 47 to 59

Table 11 Energy efficiency average SAP rating by tenure 2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

owner occupied 411 444 450 456 461 469 481 496private rented 379 419 444 457 460 466 481 502all private 407 441 449 456 461 468 481 497

local authority 457 496 520 539 553 558 562 580housing association 509 564 567 573 589 593 595 603all social 468 519 539 553 569 574 578 592

all tenures 421 457 466 474 481 487 498 514

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Section 2 Housing stock | 31

217 There has been a significant increase in the proportion of homes achieving the highest Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands in 2008 10 (23 million) of homes achieved the highest (EER) Bands A to C3 compared with 7 (16 million) in 2006 Table 12 The number of homes in the lowest EER Bands (F and G) fell by a million over the same period The majority of homes (73) continue to be in the EER Bands D or E

Table 12 Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 35 35 77Band C (69-80) 1545 1710 2229Band D (55-68) 6555 7316 7865Band E (39-54) 9072 8859 8310Band F (21-38) 3838 3389 2972Band G (1-20) 943 881 786Total 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 02 02 03Band C (69-80) 70 77 100Band D (55-68) 298 330 354Band E (39-54) 413 399 374Band F (21-38) 175 153 134Band G (1-20) 43 40 35Total 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 2006 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Housing health and safety rating system

218 A potentially serious (Category 1) hazard as measured under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System was present in around 48 million homes in 2008 22 of the housing stock

2 EER Bands are used in the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) The Certificate provides among other indicators an energy efficiency rating for the home on a scale from A-G (where A is the most efficient and G the least efficient)

32 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Housing conditions

Housing Health and Safety Rating System219 There was no significant change in the proportion of homes with any Category

1 hazard between 2006 and 2008 Hazards tend to be more common in older housing stock for example stairs are more likely to be steep and narrow in older housing making lsquofalls on stairsrsquo more likely or heating and insulation measures tend to be less effective in older stock making lsquoexcess coldrsquo a more serious hazard Therefore it is not surprising that hazards are more common in the private sector where the older housing stock is concentrated Almost a quarter of housing in the private sector had at least one category 1 hazard in 2008 (24) compared to around 13 in the social sector Table 14 Privately rented homes were most likely to have Category 1 hazards present compared to housing association homes (31 and 13 respectively)

220 The most common type of hazard in all four tenures was falls (see annex Table 10 for details of which hazards are included in this category) Overall 13 of homes have at least one type of falls hazard present

Decent homes221 In 2008 74 million homes (33) were non-decent4 Table 13 Housing

association housing was the least likely to be non-decent (23) while private rented housing was in the worst condition with 44 of homes being non-decent Overall social sector homes were in a better condition than private sector homes with 27 being non-decent compared to 34

222 The number of non-decent homes fell from 77 million in 2006 to 74 million in 20085 Conditions in the social sector improved with the proportion of homes failing the standard falling by two percentage points from 29 in 2006 to 27 in 2008 Private sector homes also improved from 36 non-decent in 2006 to 34 non-decent in 2008

4 Estimates from the EHS are based soley on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors subject to any limitations of the information they collect The EHS estimates in this report do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property

5 In 2006 the Housing Health and Safety Rating System replaced the Fitness Standard as the statutory minimum standard for housing Earlier estimates based on the original definition are not comparable therefore any change in the number of decent homes can only be referenced back to 2006 Figures for decent homes prior to 2006 can be found in the 2006 English House Condition Survey Annual Report available at wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

Section 2 Housing stock | 33

Table 13 Non-decent homes by tenure 2006 ndash 2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5335 5304 4842private rented 1223 1244 1449all private 6558 6548 6291

local authority 676 652 625housing association 465 486 444all social 1142 1138 1069

all tenures 7700 7686 7360

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 346 341 323private rented 468 454 440all private 363 358 344

local authority 324 328 315housing association 252 255 228all social 290 292 272

all tenures 350 346 331

Notes1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties between 2007 and 2008 are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates See Annex Table 11Sources2006 ndash 2007 English House Condition Survey2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Reasons for failing decent homes223 Of the four components required to meet the decent homes standard the

presence of one or more category 1 hazards under the HHSRS was the most commonly failed Table 14 This is particularly the case for private sector homes where 24 of homes had one or more Category 1 hazards present compared to 13 of social sector homes

34 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 14 Homes failing decent homes criteria by tenure 2008

all dwellings

Category 1 hazard (HHSRS)

thermal comfort

modern facilities repair all non-decent

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 3342 1773 379 817 4842private rented 978 637 160 369 1449all private 4320 2411 539 1186 6291

local authority 298 227 138 146 625housing association 224 199 50 86 444all social 522 426 188 231 1069

all tenures 4842 2837 727 1417 7360

percentages

owner occupied 223 118 25 54 323private rented 297 193 49 112 440all private 236 132 29 65 344

local authority 150 115 70 74 315housing association 115 102 25 44 228all social 133 108 48 59 272

all tenures 218 128 33 64 331

Note The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoids a break in the time series See Annex Table 12 for estimate based on 26 hazardsSource English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

224 There was significant progress in the thermal comfort of homes between 2006 and 2008 The proportion of homes failing thermal comfort fell to 13 in 2008 from 16 in 2006 Improvement has been made across all tenures

Private sector vulnerable households225 In 2008 31 million lsquovulnerablersquo households6 were living in the private sector of

which 12 million (39) were living in non-decent homes the remaining 19 million (61) were living in decent accommodation Table 15 There has been no significant change since 2006

226 Vulnerable households who privately rent their accommodation were more likely to live in non-decent homes compared to social tenants (51 and 26 respectively) Table 15

6 Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

Section 2 Housing stock | 35

Table 15 Households living in decent homes 2006-2008

all dwellings

number (000s) percentage ()

2006 2007 2008 2006 2007 2008

decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 1543 1575 1428 630 649 653private rented 334 354 429 450 482 490all private vulnerable 1877 1929 1857 588 610 606

private non- vulnerableowner occupied 8418 8531 8494 664 667 683private rented 922 985 1246 567 566 588all private non-vulnerable 9340 9516 9740 653 655 669

all owner occupied 9961 10106 9922 658 664 678all private rented 1256 1339 1675 530 541 559all private 11217 11445 11597 641 647 658all social 2690 2649 2798 722 719 740all households 13907 14094 14395 655 659 672

non-decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 905 851 760 370 351 347private rented 408 380 447 550 518 510all private vulnerable 1313 1231 1207 412 390 394

private non-vulnerableowner occupied 4262 4264 3946 336 333 317private rented 704 754 874 433 434 412all private non-vulnerable 4966 5018 4820 347 345 331

all owner occupied 5167 5115 4706 342 336 322all private rented 1112 1134 1321 470 459 441all private 6279 6249 6027 359 353 342

all social 1034 1037 985 278 281 260all households 7313 7286 7012 345 341 328

Notes 1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoid a break in the time series See Annex Table 13 for further detailsSource English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

36 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Damp and mould growth227 The proportion of homes with damp problems has reduced from 13 in 1996

to 8 in 2008 Table 16

Table 16 Number and percentage of homes with damp problems in one or more rooms 1996-2008

all dwellings

rising damp

penetrating damp

condensation mould

any damp problems

thousands of dwellings1996 858 1271 1145 26012001 625 1032 860 20322003 740 1066 1003 22832004 750 1035 951 22512005 759 952 941 22102006 724 886 947 21582007 640 833 881 19162008 584 759 865 1746

percentage of dwellings1996 42 63 56 1282001 29 49 41 962003 34 50 47 1062004 35 48 44 1042005 35 44 43 1012006 33 40 43 982007 29 38 40 862008 26 34 39 78

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

228 Privately rented homes were more likely to experience damp problems compared to other tenures Figure 11 Privately rented homes were more likely to be older homes and experience problems with rising or penetrating damp due to defects in the damp proof course roof covering gutters and down pipes which would affect at least one room in the property

229 In the social sector damp problems were more likely to be caused by serious condensation and mould growth rather than by rising damp Figure 12

Section 2 Housing stock | 37

Figure 12 Percentage of homes with a damp problem by tenure 2008

rising damp penetrating damp condensationmould

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

alltenures

housingassociation

localauthority

privaterented

owneroccupied

per

cen

tage

of

ho

mes

wit

h d

amp

pro

ble

ms

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

38 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex tables

Households

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

Annex Table 2 Economic Status of working age HRP by tenure 2008-09

Energy efficiency

Annex Table 3 Heating Type 1996-2008

Annex Table 4 Main Heating System by tenure 2008

Annex Table 5 Boiler Types 1996-2008

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

Annex Table 8 Cavity Wall insulation by tenure 2008

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

Housing Health and Safety Rating System

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 HHSRS hazards present (comparison of estimates based on any one of 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Non-decent homes in deprived areas

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes in deprived areas by tenure 2006-2008

Annex tables | 39

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent

child(ren)

couple with dependent

child(ren)

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)

other multi-

person households

all one-person

households

all household

types

percentageown outright 46 9 7 24 37 31buying with mortgage 35 66 27 25 23 36social renters 9 13 44 20 25 18private renters 10 12 22 31 15 14

all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 2 Economic status of working age HRP by tenure

all households

working un-employed retired other inactive Total percentage

own outright 74 2 14 10 100buying with mortgage 94 1 1 4 100social renters 49 12 1 37 100private renters 75 5 1 19 100all tenures 80 4 3 13 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 3 Heating type 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingscentral heating 16178 18177 18604 18919 19179 19553 19862 19862storage heater 1643 1600 1587 1616 1609 1532 1552 1641fixed roomportable heater 2515 2001 1294 1078 993 904 776 736Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingscentral heating 796 860 866 875 881 889 895 893storage heater 81 76 74 75 74 70 70 74fixed roomportable heating heater 124 95 60 50 46 41 35 33Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

40 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 4 Main heating system by tenure 2008

all dwellings

central heating storage heaterfixed room

heatingportable

heating only all dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 13788 790 411 19 15007 private rented 2630 441 208 17 3296 all private 16418 1232 619 36 18304

local authority 1776 160 46 2 1984 housing association 1669 249 33 1 1951 all social 3445 409 79 3 3935

all tenures 19862 1641 698 38 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 919 53 27 01 1000 private rented 798 134 63 05 1000 all private 897 67 34 02 1000

local authority 895 80 23 01 1000 housing association 855 128 17 00 1000 all social 875 104 20 01 1000

all tenures 893 74 31 02 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 5 Boiler types 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsstandard boiler 10447 10338 9642 9635 9425 9014 8782 8072back boiler 2773 2759 2580 2409 2181 2131 1944 1688combination boiler 2810 4431 5492 5934 6254 6312 6287 6082condensing boiler ndash 155 154 202 300 460 698 948condensing-combination boiler ndash 318 373 417 727 1297 1837 2773no boiler 4305 3140 3244 3016 2894 2775 2642 2676Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsstandard boiler 514 489 449 446 433 410 396 363back boiler 136 130 120 111 100 97 88 76combination boiler 138 210 256 275 287 287 283 273condensing boiler 00 07 07 09 14 21 31 43condensing-combination boiler 00 15 17 19 33 59 83 125no boiler 212 149 151 140 133 126 119 120Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 41

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

all dwellings

standard boiler

back boiler

combination boiler

condensing boiler

condensing-combination

boilerno

boilerall

dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 6223 1045 3984 713 1756 1286 15007 private rented 817 149 1112 73 429 716 3296 all private 7040 1194 5096 787 2185 2002 18304

local authority 499 271 481 90 335 309 1984 housing association 533 223 505 72 254 365 1951 all social 1032 494 986 162 589 674 3935

all 8072 1688 6082 948 2773 2676 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 415 70 265 48 117 86 1000 private rented 248 45 337 22 130 217 1000 all private 385 65 278 43 119 109 1000

local authority 251 136 242 45 169 156 1000 housing association 273 114 259 37 130 187 1000 all social 262 125 250 41 150 171 1000

all 363 76 273 43 125 120 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 2853 5210 5334 5825 5974 6644 7267 7418200mm or more of loft insulation 583 1256 2034 2530 2919 3520 4258 4685entire house double glazing 6169 10753 11915 12846 13486 13924 14850 15747

all dwellings 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 140 246 248 270 274 302 327 334200mm or more of loft insulation 29 59 95 117 134 160 192 211entire house double glazing 303 509 555 594 619 633 669 708

all dwellings 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

42 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 8 Cavity wall insulation by tenure

all dwellings

cavity with insulation

cavity uninsulated other all

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5161 5483 4364 15007private rented 566 1213 1517 3296private 5727 6696 5882 18304

local authority 834 657 493 1984housing association 857 720 374 1951social 1691 1378 867 3935

total 7418 8073 6749 22239

percentage of dwellingsowner occupied 344 365 291 100private rented 172 368 460 100private 313 366 321 100

local authority 420 331 248 100housing association 439 369 192 100social 430 350 220 100

total 334 363 303 100

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 43

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

all dwellings

no loftno

insulationless than

50mm50 up to

99mm

100 up to

149mm

150 up to

199mm200mm or more

all dwellings

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 748 442 432 3009 5147 2007 3223 15007 private rented 672 175 66 857 813 281 434 3296 private 1420 617 497 3866 5960 2288 3657 18304

local authority 614 33 19 171 471 206 470 1984 housing association 467 20 16 143 482 265 558 1951 social 1081 53 35 314 953 471 1028 3935

total 2501 670 532 4179 6913 2759 4685 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 50 29 29 200 343 134 215 1000private rented 204 53 20 260 247 85 132 1000private 78 34 27 211 326 125 200 1000

local authority 309 17 10 86 237 104 237 1000housing association 239 10 08 73 247 136 286 1000social 275 14 09 80 242 120 261 1000

total 112 30 24 188 311 124 211 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

44 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

hazard presentnumber of homes (000s) each hazard is present in

falling on stairs 2025excess cold 1966falling on level surfaces 788falling between levels 443fire 318

entry by intruders

flames hot surfacesleaddamp and mould growth 50 to 100 eachcollision and entrapmentradiationfalls associated with baths

crowding and space

food safetypersonal hygiene sanitation and drainage 20 to 50 eachnoisedomestic hygiene pests and refuseelectrical hazards

structural collapse and falling elements

water supplycarbon monoxide and fuel combustion productsposition and operability of amenities less thanexcess heat 20 eachlightinguncombusted fuel gasexplosions

any of the 15 hazards 4842

any of the 26 hazards 5039

Note For 2006 and 2007 the survey reported on 15 hazards only The 2008 EHS can provide estimates for 26 hazards - the additional hazards are marked with an asterisk The three remaining hazards not included in the survey are presence of asbestos biocides or volatile organic compounds For reporting purposes HHSRS and non-decent estimates will be based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with previous years and avoid a break in the time seriesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 45

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 4842 4925private rented 1449 1478all private 6291 6403

local authority 625 640housing association 444 464all social 1069 1104

all tenures 7360 7507

percentagesowner occupied 323 328private rented 440 448all private 344 350

local authority 315 323housing association 228 238all social 272 281

all tenures 331 338

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

46 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 hazards present (compariosn of estimates based on any one to the 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 3342 3452private rented 978 1013all private 4320 4465

local authority 298 326RSL 224 248all social 522 574

all tenures 4842 5039

percentagesowner occupied 223 230private rented 297 307all private 236 244

local authority 150 164RSL 115 127all social 133 146

all tenures 218 227

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 47

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all households

15 hazards 26 hazards

number (000s) percentage () number (000s) percentage ()

decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 1428 653 1413 646private rented 429 490 417 476all private vulnerable 1857 606 1830 597 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 8494 683 8425 677private rented 1246 588 1232 581all private non-vulnerable 9740 669 9657 663 all owner occupied 9922 678 9839 673all private rented 1675 559 1648 550all private 11597 658 11487 663all social 2798 740 2766 731

all households 14395 672 14253 666

non-decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 760 347 775 354private rented 447 510 459 524all private vulnerable 1207 394 1234 403 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 3946 317 4015 323private rented 874 412 888 419all private non-vulnerable 4820 331 4903 337 all owner occupied 4706 322 4790 327all private rented 1321 441 1347 450all private 6027 342 6137 348all social 985 260 1017 269

all households 7012 328 7154 334

Note For reporting purposes decent homes estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

48 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes1 by deprived and other districts by tenure 2006-2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsSocial NRF88 662 652 605Other districts 480 486 464 Private NRF88 2544 2621 2442Other districts 4013 3928 3849

percentages of dwellingsSocial NRF88 313 304 278Other districts 264 278 263 Private NRF88 381 380 361Other districts 353 344 333

Note NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving Neighbourhood Renewal Funding 2001-2006Source English House Condition Survey 2006-2007English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub sample)

Technical annex | 49

Technical annex

General description

The survey consists of three main elements an initial interview survey of 17700 households with a follow up physical inspection and a desk based market valuation of a sub-sample of 8000 of these dwellings including vacant dwellings The interview survey sample forms part of ONSrsquos Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the core questions from the IHS form part of the EHS questionnaire More information about the IHS is available from its webpage wwwstatisticsgovukCCInuggetaspID=936ampPos=1ampColRank=1ampRank=224

The EHS interview content covers the key topics included under the former SEH and EHCS The content of the physical and market value components remains very largely unchanged from the former EHCS

Sampling and grossing

2008-09 Sample1 The initial sample for 2008-09 consisted of 32100 addresses drawn as a systematic

random sample from the Postcode Address File (small users) Interviews were attempted at all of these addresses over the course of the survey year from April 2008 to March 2009 A proportion of addresses were found not to be valid residential properties (eg demolished properties secondholiday homes small businesses not yet built)

2 Of the 17691 addresses where interviews were achieved (the lsquofull household samplersquo) all social rented properties and a sub-sample of private properties were regarded as eligible for the physical survey and the respondentrsquos consent was sought A proportion of vacant properties were also sub-sampled Physical surveys were completed in 7972 cases and these cases contribute to the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo (see below)

3 The principal differences in sampling methodology between the EHS and its predecessors the SEH and EHCS are that

bull The EHS uses an unclustered sample This enables a smaller sample to be used with no loss of precision ie without sampling errors being increased The more scattered sample does however have some implications for fieldwork organisation

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 26: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

26 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

24 The large majority of dwellings were houses (181 million) most commonly terraced or semi-detached The remainder of the stock 41 million consisited of flats predominately purpose built low rise flats However types of housing vary markedly between tenures While 91 of owner occupied housing was made up of houses almost half (46) of local authority homes were flats Figure 7 Flats also accounted for over a third of private rented homes and housing association homes (36 and 39 respectively)

Figure 7 Dwelling type by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

purpose built flat high risepurpose built flat low riseconverted flatdetached houses and bungalowssemi-detached housemediumlarge terraced housesmall terraced house

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

25 England has a relatively old housing stock with some 84 million homes built before 1945 of which 48 million were built before 1919 A fifth of homes (47 million) have been built since 1980

26 Stock in different tenures have different age profiles It is noticeable that owner occupied homes are evenly distributed across the five age bands compared with other tenures Figure 8 In the private rented sector for example 40 (13 million homes) were built before 1919 significantly higher than other tenures Housing association homes were more likely to have been built during the 1980s and 1990s (32) compared to only 7 of local authority homes

Section 2 Housing stock | 27

Figure 8 Age of housing stock by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

post 19901981-901965-801945-641919-44pre 1919

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

27 Some 44 million (29) of owner occupied homes had a floor area greater than 110m2 including 18 million (12 of the sector) which were over 150m2 This reflects the proportion of semi-detached and detached owner occupied homes which tend to be large Social sector homes were most likely to have a floor area of less than 50m2 compared with those in the private sector (28 and 8 respectively)

28 Homes in England were most likely to be located in suburban residential areas and least likely to be found in rural areas (59 and 3 respectively)

Energy efficiency of the housing stock

Heating and insulation29 Key ways of increasing the energy efficiency of existing homes are

improvements to their heating systems and levels of insulation For heating the type of heating system boiler in use and the fuel used are all related to energy performance

210 Central heating is the predominant main heating system present in 199 million homes (89 of the housing stock) in 2008 see Annex Table 3 This was followed by storage heaters present in 16 million (7) of homes and room heaters in 700000 homes (3) Central heating is generally considered to be the most cost effective and relatively efficient method of heating whereas room heaters tend to be the least cost effective and relatively inefficient method of heating

28 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

211 In 2008 92 of owner occupied homes had central heating systems compared to 88 of social and 80 of private rented homes see Annex Table 4 In part this reflects the higher proportion of flats in the rented sectors compared with owner occupation with 23 of flats using storage heaters

212 Condensing boilers are generally the most efficient boiler type and are now mandatory for new and replacement boilers (for gas fired boilers since 2005 for oil fired boilers since 2007) However even prior to these requirements the less efficient standard and back boilers were decreasing in use with the growing popularity of standard combination types Figure 9 Recent years have seen rapidly expanding take up of condensing and particularly combination condensing boilers In 2008 37 million homes (17 of the stock) had one of the two types of condensing boilers

Figure 9 Boiler types 1996-2008

no boiler

condensing-combination boiler condensing boilercombination boilerback boiler (to fire or stove)standard boiler (floor or wall)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

20082007200620052004200320011996

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes underpinning data is presented in Annex Table 5Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

213 For a home to provide optimum energy performance a high level of thermal insulation needs to be present alongside an efficient heating system Standard insulation measures include cavity wall insulation loft insulation and double glazing which have all improved in the stock since 1996 Figure 10

214 In 2008 155 million homes (70) had external walls of cavity construction 74 million homes (33 of the stock) had cavity wall insulation 47 million homes (21) had 200mm or more of loft insulation and 157 million homes (71) had full double glazing with an additional 29 million homes (13) having more than half double glazed Figure 10

Section 2 Housing stock | 29

Figure 10 Insulation measures 1996-2008

20082007200620052004200320011996

entire housedouble glazing

200mm or moreof loft insulation

cavity walls withinsulation

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes1) Only 89 of dwellings have lofts and 70 of dwellings have cavity walls2) Underpinning data is presented in annex Table 7Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

215 In 2008 the social rented sector had the greatest proportion of homes with cavity wall insulation (local authority 42 housing association 44) 200mm or more of loft insulation (local authority 24 housing association 29) and full double glazing (local authority 75 housing association 83) whereas the private rented sector had the lowest proportion of all three standard insulation measures cavity wall insulation (17) 200mm or more of loft insulation (13) and full double glazing (61) Figure 11

30 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Figure 11 Percentage of dwellings with efficient insulation measures by tenure 2008

full double glazing200mm or moreloft insulation

cavity withinsulation

cavity wall

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

housing associationlocal authorityprivate rentedowner occupied0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Base all dwellingsSource English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

SAP Rating

216 The energy efficiency of the housing stock continued to improve between 1996 and 2008 the average SAP rating of a home increased by 9 SAP points from 42 to 51 Table 11 The social sector was on average more energy efficient than the private sector and saw the greatest improvement with the average SAP rating increasing by 12 SAP points from 47 to 59

Table 11 Energy efficiency average SAP rating by tenure 2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

owner occupied 411 444 450 456 461 469 481 496private rented 379 419 444 457 460 466 481 502all private 407 441 449 456 461 468 481 497

local authority 457 496 520 539 553 558 562 580housing association 509 564 567 573 589 593 595 603all social 468 519 539 553 569 574 578 592

all tenures 421 457 466 474 481 487 498 514

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Section 2 Housing stock | 31

217 There has been a significant increase in the proportion of homes achieving the highest Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands in 2008 10 (23 million) of homes achieved the highest (EER) Bands A to C3 compared with 7 (16 million) in 2006 Table 12 The number of homes in the lowest EER Bands (F and G) fell by a million over the same period The majority of homes (73) continue to be in the EER Bands D or E

Table 12 Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 35 35 77Band C (69-80) 1545 1710 2229Band D (55-68) 6555 7316 7865Band E (39-54) 9072 8859 8310Band F (21-38) 3838 3389 2972Band G (1-20) 943 881 786Total 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 02 02 03Band C (69-80) 70 77 100Band D (55-68) 298 330 354Band E (39-54) 413 399 374Band F (21-38) 175 153 134Band G (1-20) 43 40 35Total 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 2006 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Housing health and safety rating system

218 A potentially serious (Category 1) hazard as measured under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System was present in around 48 million homes in 2008 22 of the housing stock

2 EER Bands are used in the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) The Certificate provides among other indicators an energy efficiency rating for the home on a scale from A-G (where A is the most efficient and G the least efficient)

32 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Housing conditions

Housing Health and Safety Rating System219 There was no significant change in the proportion of homes with any Category

1 hazard between 2006 and 2008 Hazards tend to be more common in older housing stock for example stairs are more likely to be steep and narrow in older housing making lsquofalls on stairsrsquo more likely or heating and insulation measures tend to be less effective in older stock making lsquoexcess coldrsquo a more serious hazard Therefore it is not surprising that hazards are more common in the private sector where the older housing stock is concentrated Almost a quarter of housing in the private sector had at least one category 1 hazard in 2008 (24) compared to around 13 in the social sector Table 14 Privately rented homes were most likely to have Category 1 hazards present compared to housing association homes (31 and 13 respectively)

220 The most common type of hazard in all four tenures was falls (see annex Table 10 for details of which hazards are included in this category) Overall 13 of homes have at least one type of falls hazard present

Decent homes221 In 2008 74 million homes (33) were non-decent4 Table 13 Housing

association housing was the least likely to be non-decent (23) while private rented housing was in the worst condition with 44 of homes being non-decent Overall social sector homes were in a better condition than private sector homes with 27 being non-decent compared to 34

222 The number of non-decent homes fell from 77 million in 2006 to 74 million in 20085 Conditions in the social sector improved with the proportion of homes failing the standard falling by two percentage points from 29 in 2006 to 27 in 2008 Private sector homes also improved from 36 non-decent in 2006 to 34 non-decent in 2008

4 Estimates from the EHS are based soley on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors subject to any limitations of the information they collect The EHS estimates in this report do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property

5 In 2006 the Housing Health and Safety Rating System replaced the Fitness Standard as the statutory minimum standard for housing Earlier estimates based on the original definition are not comparable therefore any change in the number of decent homes can only be referenced back to 2006 Figures for decent homes prior to 2006 can be found in the 2006 English House Condition Survey Annual Report available at wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

Section 2 Housing stock | 33

Table 13 Non-decent homes by tenure 2006 ndash 2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5335 5304 4842private rented 1223 1244 1449all private 6558 6548 6291

local authority 676 652 625housing association 465 486 444all social 1142 1138 1069

all tenures 7700 7686 7360

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 346 341 323private rented 468 454 440all private 363 358 344

local authority 324 328 315housing association 252 255 228all social 290 292 272

all tenures 350 346 331

Notes1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties between 2007 and 2008 are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates See Annex Table 11Sources2006 ndash 2007 English House Condition Survey2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Reasons for failing decent homes223 Of the four components required to meet the decent homes standard the

presence of one or more category 1 hazards under the HHSRS was the most commonly failed Table 14 This is particularly the case for private sector homes where 24 of homes had one or more Category 1 hazards present compared to 13 of social sector homes

34 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 14 Homes failing decent homes criteria by tenure 2008

all dwellings

Category 1 hazard (HHSRS)

thermal comfort

modern facilities repair all non-decent

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 3342 1773 379 817 4842private rented 978 637 160 369 1449all private 4320 2411 539 1186 6291

local authority 298 227 138 146 625housing association 224 199 50 86 444all social 522 426 188 231 1069

all tenures 4842 2837 727 1417 7360

percentages

owner occupied 223 118 25 54 323private rented 297 193 49 112 440all private 236 132 29 65 344

local authority 150 115 70 74 315housing association 115 102 25 44 228all social 133 108 48 59 272

all tenures 218 128 33 64 331

Note The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoids a break in the time series See Annex Table 12 for estimate based on 26 hazardsSource English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

224 There was significant progress in the thermal comfort of homes between 2006 and 2008 The proportion of homes failing thermal comfort fell to 13 in 2008 from 16 in 2006 Improvement has been made across all tenures

Private sector vulnerable households225 In 2008 31 million lsquovulnerablersquo households6 were living in the private sector of

which 12 million (39) were living in non-decent homes the remaining 19 million (61) were living in decent accommodation Table 15 There has been no significant change since 2006

226 Vulnerable households who privately rent their accommodation were more likely to live in non-decent homes compared to social tenants (51 and 26 respectively) Table 15

6 Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

Section 2 Housing stock | 35

Table 15 Households living in decent homes 2006-2008

all dwellings

number (000s) percentage ()

2006 2007 2008 2006 2007 2008

decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 1543 1575 1428 630 649 653private rented 334 354 429 450 482 490all private vulnerable 1877 1929 1857 588 610 606

private non- vulnerableowner occupied 8418 8531 8494 664 667 683private rented 922 985 1246 567 566 588all private non-vulnerable 9340 9516 9740 653 655 669

all owner occupied 9961 10106 9922 658 664 678all private rented 1256 1339 1675 530 541 559all private 11217 11445 11597 641 647 658all social 2690 2649 2798 722 719 740all households 13907 14094 14395 655 659 672

non-decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 905 851 760 370 351 347private rented 408 380 447 550 518 510all private vulnerable 1313 1231 1207 412 390 394

private non-vulnerableowner occupied 4262 4264 3946 336 333 317private rented 704 754 874 433 434 412all private non-vulnerable 4966 5018 4820 347 345 331

all owner occupied 5167 5115 4706 342 336 322all private rented 1112 1134 1321 470 459 441all private 6279 6249 6027 359 353 342

all social 1034 1037 985 278 281 260all households 7313 7286 7012 345 341 328

Notes 1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoid a break in the time series See Annex Table 13 for further detailsSource English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

36 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Damp and mould growth227 The proportion of homes with damp problems has reduced from 13 in 1996

to 8 in 2008 Table 16

Table 16 Number and percentage of homes with damp problems in one or more rooms 1996-2008

all dwellings

rising damp

penetrating damp

condensation mould

any damp problems

thousands of dwellings1996 858 1271 1145 26012001 625 1032 860 20322003 740 1066 1003 22832004 750 1035 951 22512005 759 952 941 22102006 724 886 947 21582007 640 833 881 19162008 584 759 865 1746

percentage of dwellings1996 42 63 56 1282001 29 49 41 962003 34 50 47 1062004 35 48 44 1042005 35 44 43 1012006 33 40 43 982007 29 38 40 862008 26 34 39 78

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

228 Privately rented homes were more likely to experience damp problems compared to other tenures Figure 11 Privately rented homes were more likely to be older homes and experience problems with rising or penetrating damp due to defects in the damp proof course roof covering gutters and down pipes which would affect at least one room in the property

229 In the social sector damp problems were more likely to be caused by serious condensation and mould growth rather than by rising damp Figure 12

Section 2 Housing stock | 37

Figure 12 Percentage of homes with a damp problem by tenure 2008

rising damp penetrating damp condensationmould

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

alltenures

housingassociation

localauthority

privaterented

owneroccupied

per

cen

tage

of

ho

mes

wit

h d

amp

pro

ble

ms

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

38 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex tables

Households

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

Annex Table 2 Economic Status of working age HRP by tenure 2008-09

Energy efficiency

Annex Table 3 Heating Type 1996-2008

Annex Table 4 Main Heating System by tenure 2008

Annex Table 5 Boiler Types 1996-2008

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

Annex Table 8 Cavity Wall insulation by tenure 2008

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

Housing Health and Safety Rating System

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 HHSRS hazards present (comparison of estimates based on any one of 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Non-decent homes in deprived areas

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes in deprived areas by tenure 2006-2008

Annex tables | 39

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent

child(ren)

couple with dependent

child(ren)

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)

other multi-

person households

all one-person

households

all household

types

percentageown outright 46 9 7 24 37 31buying with mortgage 35 66 27 25 23 36social renters 9 13 44 20 25 18private renters 10 12 22 31 15 14

all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 2 Economic status of working age HRP by tenure

all households

working un-employed retired other inactive Total percentage

own outright 74 2 14 10 100buying with mortgage 94 1 1 4 100social renters 49 12 1 37 100private renters 75 5 1 19 100all tenures 80 4 3 13 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 3 Heating type 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingscentral heating 16178 18177 18604 18919 19179 19553 19862 19862storage heater 1643 1600 1587 1616 1609 1532 1552 1641fixed roomportable heater 2515 2001 1294 1078 993 904 776 736Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingscentral heating 796 860 866 875 881 889 895 893storage heater 81 76 74 75 74 70 70 74fixed roomportable heating heater 124 95 60 50 46 41 35 33Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

40 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 4 Main heating system by tenure 2008

all dwellings

central heating storage heaterfixed room

heatingportable

heating only all dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 13788 790 411 19 15007 private rented 2630 441 208 17 3296 all private 16418 1232 619 36 18304

local authority 1776 160 46 2 1984 housing association 1669 249 33 1 1951 all social 3445 409 79 3 3935

all tenures 19862 1641 698 38 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 919 53 27 01 1000 private rented 798 134 63 05 1000 all private 897 67 34 02 1000

local authority 895 80 23 01 1000 housing association 855 128 17 00 1000 all social 875 104 20 01 1000

all tenures 893 74 31 02 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 5 Boiler types 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsstandard boiler 10447 10338 9642 9635 9425 9014 8782 8072back boiler 2773 2759 2580 2409 2181 2131 1944 1688combination boiler 2810 4431 5492 5934 6254 6312 6287 6082condensing boiler ndash 155 154 202 300 460 698 948condensing-combination boiler ndash 318 373 417 727 1297 1837 2773no boiler 4305 3140 3244 3016 2894 2775 2642 2676Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsstandard boiler 514 489 449 446 433 410 396 363back boiler 136 130 120 111 100 97 88 76combination boiler 138 210 256 275 287 287 283 273condensing boiler 00 07 07 09 14 21 31 43condensing-combination boiler 00 15 17 19 33 59 83 125no boiler 212 149 151 140 133 126 119 120Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 41

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

all dwellings

standard boiler

back boiler

combination boiler

condensing boiler

condensing-combination

boilerno

boilerall

dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 6223 1045 3984 713 1756 1286 15007 private rented 817 149 1112 73 429 716 3296 all private 7040 1194 5096 787 2185 2002 18304

local authority 499 271 481 90 335 309 1984 housing association 533 223 505 72 254 365 1951 all social 1032 494 986 162 589 674 3935

all 8072 1688 6082 948 2773 2676 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 415 70 265 48 117 86 1000 private rented 248 45 337 22 130 217 1000 all private 385 65 278 43 119 109 1000

local authority 251 136 242 45 169 156 1000 housing association 273 114 259 37 130 187 1000 all social 262 125 250 41 150 171 1000

all 363 76 273 43 125 120 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 2853 5210 5334 5825 5974 6644 7267 7418200mm or more of loft insulation 583 1256 2034 2530 2919 3520 4258 4685entire house double glazing 6169 10753 11915 12846 13486 13924 14850 15747

all dwellings 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 140 246 248 270 274 302 327 334200mm or more of loft insulation 29 59 95 117 134 160 192 211entire house double glazing 303 509 555 594 619 633 669 708

all dwellings 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

42 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 8 Cavity wall insulation by tenure

all dwellings

cavity with insulation

cavity uninsulated other all

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5161 5483 4364 15007private rented 566 1213 1517 3296private 5727 6696 5882 18304

local authority 834 657 493 1984housing association 857 720 374 1951social 1691 1378 867 3935

total 7418 8073 6749 22239

percentage of dwellingsowner occupied 344 365 291 100private rented 172 368 460 100private 313 366 321 100

local authority 420 331 248 100housing association 439 369 192 100social 430 350 220 100

total 334 363 303 100

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 43

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

all dwellings

no loftno

insulationless than

50mm50 up to

99mm

100 up to

149mm

150 up to

199mm200mm or more

all dwellings

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 748 442 432 3009 5147 2007 3223 15007 private rented 672 175 66 857 813 281 434 3296 private 1420 617 497 3866 5960 2288 3657 18304

local authority 614 33 19 171 471 206 470 1984 housing association 467 20 16 143 482 265 558 1951 social 1081 53 35 314 953 471 1028 3935

total 2501 670 532 4179 6913 2759 4685 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 50 29 29 200 343 134 215 1000private rented 204 53 20 260 247 85 132 1000private 78 34 27 211 326 125 200 1000

local authority 309 17 10 86 237 104 237 1000housing association 239 10 08 73 247 136 286 1000social 275 14 09 80 242 120 261 1000

total 112 30 24 188 311 124 211 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

44 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

hazard presentnumber of homes (000s) each hazard is present in

falling on stairs 2025excess cold 1966falling on level surfaces 788falling between levels 443fire 318

entry by intruders

flames hot surfacesleaddamp and mould growth 50 to 100 eachcollision and entrapmentradiationfalls associated with baths

crowding and space

food safetypersonal hygiene sanitation and drainage 20 to 50 eachnoisedomestic hygiene pests and refuseelectrical hazards

structural collapse and falling elements

water supplycarbon monoxide and fuel combustion productsposition and operability of amenities less thanexcess heat 20 eachlightinguncombusted fuel gasexplosions

any of the 15 hazards 4842

any of the 26 hazards 5039

Note For 2006 and 2007 the survey reported on 15 hazards only The 2008 EHS can provide estimates for 26 hazards - the additional hazards are marked with an asterisk The three remaining hazards not included in the survey are presence of asbestos biocides or volatile organic compounds For reporting purposes HHSRS and non-decent estimates will be based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with previous years and avoid a break in the time seriesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 45

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 4842 4925private rented 1449 1478all private 6291 6403

local authority 625 640housing association 444 464all social 1069 1104

all tenures 7360 7507

percentagesowner occupied 323 328private rented 440 448all private 344 350

local authority 315 323housing association 228 238all social 272 281

all tenures 331 338

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

46 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 hazards present (compariosn of estimates based on any one to the 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 3342 3452private rented 978 1013all private 4320 4465

local authority 298 326RSL 224 248all social 522 574

all tenures 4842 5039

percentagesowner occupied 223 230private rented 297 307all private 236 244

local authority 150 164RSL 115 127all social 133 146

all tenures 218 227

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 47

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all households

15 hazards 26 hazards

number (000s) percentage () number (000s) percentage ()

decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 1428 653 1413 646private rented 429 490 417 476all private vulnerable 1857 606 1830 597 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 8494 683 8425 677private rented 1246 588 1232 581all private non-vulnerable 9740 669 9657 663 all owner occupied 9922 678 9839 673all private rented 1675 559 1648 550all private 11597 658 11487 663all social 2798 740 2766 731

all households 14395 672 14253 666

non-decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 760 347 775 354private rented 447 510 459 524all private vulnerable 1207 394 1234 403 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 3946 317 4015 323private rented 874 412 888 419all private non-vulnerable 4820 331 4903 337 all owner occupied 4706 322 4790 327all private rented 1321 441 1347 450all private 6027 342 6137 348all social 985 260 1017 269

all households 7012 328 7154 334

Note For reporting purposes decent homes estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

48 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes1 by deprived and other districts by tenure 2006-2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsSocial NRF88 662 652 605Other districts 480 486 464 Private NRF88 2544 2621 2442Other districts 4013 3928 3849

percentages of dwellingsSocial NRF88 313 304 278Other districts 264 278 263 Private NRF88 381 380 361Other districts 353 344 333

Note NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving Neighbourhood Renewal Funding 2001-2006Source English House Condition Survey 2006-2007English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub sample)

Technical annex | 49

Technical annex

General description

The survey consists of three main elements an initial interview survey of 17700 households with a follow up physical inspection and a desk based market valuation of a sub-sample of 8000 of these dwellings including vacant dwellings The interview survey sample forms part of ONSrsquos Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the core questions from the IHS form part of the EHS questionnaire More information about the IHS is available from its webpage wwwstatisticsgovukCCInuggetaspID=936ampPos=1ampColRank=1ampRank=224

The EHS interview content covers the key topics included under the former SEH and EHCS The content of the physical and market value components remains very largely unchanged from the former EHCS

Sampling and grossing

2008-09 Sample1 The initial sample for 2008-09 consisted of 32100 addresses drawn as a systematic

random sample from the Postcode Address File (small users) Interviews were attempted at all of these addresses over the course of the survey year from April 2008 to March 2009 A proportion of addresses were found not to be valid residential properties (eg demolished properties secondholiday homes small businesses not yet built)

2 Of the 17691 addresses where interviews were achieved (the lsquofull household samplersquo) all social rented properties and a sub-sample of private properties were regarded as eligible for the physical survey and the respondentrsquos consent was sought A proportion of vacant properties were also sub-sampled Physical surveys were completed in 7972 cases and these cases contribute to the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo (see below)

3 The principal differences in sampling methodology between the EHS and its predecessors the SEH and EHCS are that

bull The EHS uses an unclustered sample This enables a smaller sample to be used with no loss of precision ie without sampling errors being increased The more scattered sample does however have some implications for fieldwork organisation

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 27: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

Section 2 Housing stock | 27

Figure 8 Age of housing stock by tenure 2008

0 10 20 30 40 50percentage

60 70 80 90 100

housing association

local authority

private rented

owner occupied

post 19901981-901965-801945-641919-44pre 1919

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

27 Some 44 million (29) of owner occupied homes had a floor area greater than 110m2 including 18 million (12 of the sector) which were over 150m2 This reflects the proportion of semi-detached and detached owner occupied homes which tend to be large Social sector homes were most likely to have a floor area of less than 50m2 compared with those in the private sector (28 and 8 respectively)

28 Homes in England were most likely to be located in suburban residential areas and least likely to be found in rural areas (59 and 3 respectively)

Energy efficiency of the housing stock

Heating and insulation29 Key ways of increasing the energy efficiency of existing homes are

improvements to their heating systems and levels of insulation For heating the type of heating system boiler in use and the fuel used are all related to energy performance

210 Central heating is the predominant main heating system present in 199 million homes (89 of the housing stock) in 2008 see Annex Table 3 This was followed by storage heaters present in 16 million (7) of homes and room heaters in 700000 homes (3) Central heating is generally considered to be the most cost effective and relatively efficient method of heating whereas room heaters tend to be the least cost effective and relatively inefficient method of heating

28 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

211 In 2008 92 of owner occupied homes had central heating systems compared to 88 of social and 80 of private rented homes see Annex Table 4 In part this reflects the higher proportion of flats in the rented sectors compared with owner occupation with 23 of flats using storage heaters

212 Condensing boilers are generally the most efficient boiler type and are now mandatory for new and replacement boilers (for gas fired boilers since 2005 for oil fired boilers since 2007) However even prior to these requirements the less efficient standard and back boilers were decreasing in use with the growing popularity of standard combination types Figure 9 Recent years have seen rapidly expanding take up of condensing and particularly combination condensing boilers In 2008 37 million homes (17 of the stock) had one of the two types of condensing boilers

Figure 9 Boiler types 1996-2008

no boiler

condensing-combination boiler condensing boilercombination boilerback boiler (to fire or stove)standard boiler (floor or wall)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

20082007200620052004200320011996

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes underpinning data is presented in Annex Table 5Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

213 For a home to provide optimum energy performance a high level of thermal insulation needs to be present alongside an efficient heating system Standard insulation measures include cavity wall insulation loft insulation and double glazing which have all improved in the stock since 1996 Figure 10

214 In 2008 155 million homes (70) had external walls of cavity construction 74 million homes (33 of the stock) had cavity wall insulation 47 million homes (21) had 200mm or more of loft insulation and 157 million homes (71) had full double glazing with an additional 29 million homes (13) having more than half double glazed Figure 10

Section 2 Housing stock | 29

Figure 10 Insulation measures 1996-2008

20082007200620052004200320011996

entire housedouble glazing

200mm or moreof loft insulation

cavity walls withinsulation

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes1) Only 89 of dwellings have lofts and 70 of dwellings have cavity walls2) Underpinning data is presented in annex Table 7Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

215 In 2008 the social rented sector had the greatest proportion of homes with cavity wall insulation (local authority 42 housing association 44) 200mm or more of loft insulation (local authority 24 housing association 29) and full double glazing (local authority 75 housing association 83) whereas the private rented sector had the lowest proportion of all three standard insulation measures cavity wall insulation (17) 200mm or more of loft insulation (13) and full double glazing (61) Figure 11

30 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Figure 11 Percentage of dwellings with efficient insulation measures by tenure 2008

full double glazing200mm or moreloft insulation

cavity withinsulation

cavity wall

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

housing associationlocal authorityprivate rentedowner occupied0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Base all dwellingsSource English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

SAP Rating

216 The energy efficiency of the housing stock continued to improve between 1996 and 2008 the average SAP rating of a home increased by 9 SAP points from 42 to 51 Table 11 The social sector was on average more energy efficient than the private sector and saw the greatest improvement with the average SAP rating increasing by 12 SAP points from 47 to 59

Table 11 Energy efficiency average SAP rating by tenure 2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

owner occupied 411 444 450 456 461 469 481 496private rented 379 419 444 457 460 466 481 502all private 407 441 449 456 461 468 481 497

local authority 457 496 520 539 553 558 562 580housing association 509 564 567 573 589 593 595 603all social 468 519 539 553 569 574 578 592

all tenures 421 457 466 474 481 487 498 514

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Section 2 Housing stock | 31

217 There has been a significant increase in the proportion of homes achieving the highest Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands in 2008 10 (23 million) of homes achieved the highest (EER) Bands A to C3 compared with 7 (16 million) in 2006 Table 12 The number of homes in the lowest EER Bands (F and G) fell by a million over the same period The majority of homes (73) continue to be in the EER Bands D or E

Table 12 Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 35 35 77Band C (69-80) 1545 1710 2229Band D (55-68) 6555 7316 7865Band E (39-54) 9072 8859 8310Band F (21-38) 3838 3389 2972Band G (1-20) 943 881 786Total 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 02 02 03Band C (69-80) 70 77 100Band D (55-68) 298 330 354Band E (39-54) 413 399 374Band F (21-38) 175 153 134Band G (1-20) 43 40 35Total 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 2006 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Housing health and safety rating system

218 A potentially serious (Category 1) hazard as measured under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System was present in around 48 million homes in 2008 22 of the housing stock

2 EER Bands are used in the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) The Certificate provides among other indicators an energy efficiency rating for the home on a scale from A-G (where A is the most efficient and G the least efficient)

32 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Housing conditions

Housing Health and Safety Rating System219 There was no significant change in the proportion of homes with any Category

1 hazard between 2006 and 2008 Hazards tend to be more common in older housing stock for example stairs are more likely to be steep and narrow in older housing making lsquofalls on stairsrsquo more likely or heating and insulation measures tend to be less effective in older stock making lsquoexcess coldrsquo a more serious hazard Therefore it is not surprising that hazards are more common in the private sector where the older housing stock is concentrated Almost a quarter of housing in the private sector had at least one category 1 hazard in 2008 (24) compared to around 13 in the social sector Table 14 Privately rented homes were most likely to have Category 1 hazards present compared to housing association homes (31 and 13 respectively)

220 The most common type of hazard in all four tenures was falls (see annex Table 10 for details of which hazards are included in this category) Overall 13 of homes have at least one type of falls hazard present

Decent homes221 In 2008 74 million homes (33) were non-decent4 Table 13 Housing

association housing was the least likely to be non-decent (23) while private rented housing was in the worst condition with 44 of homes being non-decent Overall social sector homes were in a better condition than private sector homes with 27 being non-decent compared to 34

222 The number of non-decent homes fell from 77 million in 2006 to 74 million in 20085 Conditions in the social sector improved with the proportion of homes failing the standard falling by two percentage points from 29 in 2006 to 27 in 2008 Private sector homes also improved from 36 non-decent in 2006 to 34 non-decent in 2008

4 Estimates from the EHS are based soley on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors subject to any limitations of the information they collect The EHS estimates in this report do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property

5 In 2006 the Housing Health and Safety Rating System replaced the Fitness Standard as the statutory minimum standard for housing Earlier estimates based on the original definition are not comparable therefore any change in the number of decent homes can only be referenced back to 2006 Figures for decent homes prior to 2006 can be found in the 2006 English House Condition Survey Annual Report available at wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

Section 2 Housing stock | 33

Table 13 Non-decent homes by tenure 2006 ndash 2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5335 5304 4842private rented 1223 1244 1449all private 6558 6548 6291

local authority 676 652 625housing association 465 486 444all social 1142 1138 1069

all tenures 7700 7686 7360

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 346 341 323private rented 468 454 440all private 363 358 344

local authority 324 328 315housing association 252 255 228all social 290 292 272

all tenures 350 346 331

Notes1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties between 2007 and 2008 are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates See Annex Table 11Sources2006 ndash 2007 English House Condition Survey2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Reasons for failing decent homes223 Of the four components required to meet the decent homes standard the

presence of one or more category 1 hazards under the HHSRS was the most commonly failed Table 14 This is particularly the case for private sector homes where 24 of homes had one or more Category 1 hazards present compared to 13 of social sector homes

34 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 14 Homes failing decent homes criteria by tenure 2008

all dwellings

Category 1 hazard (HHSRS)

thermal comfort

modern facilities repair all non-decent

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 3342 1773 379 817 4842private rented 978 637 160 369 1449all private 4320 2411 539 1186 6291

local authority 298 227 138 146 625housing association 224 199 50 86 444all social 522 426 188 231 1069

all tenures 4842 2837 727 1417 7360

percentages

owner occupied 223 118 25 54 323private rented 297 193 49 112 440all private 236 132 29 65 344

local authority 150 115 70 74 315housing association 115 102 25 44 228all social 133 108 48 59 272

all tenures 218 128 33 64 331

Note The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoids a break in the time series See Annex Table 12 for estimate based on 26 hazardsSource English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

224 There was significant progress in the thermal comfort of homes between 2006 and 2008 The proportion of homes failing thermal comfort fell to 13 in 2008 from 16 in 2006 Improvement has been made across all tenures

Private sector vulnerable households225 In 2008 31 million lsquovulnerablersquo households6 were living in the private sector of

which 12 million (39) were living in non-decent homes the remaining 19 million (61) were living in decent accommodation Table 15 There has been no significant change since 2006

226 Vulnerable households who privately rent their accommodation were more likely to live in non-decent homes compared to social tenants (51 and 26 respectively) Table 15

6 Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

Section 2 Housing stock | 35

Table 15 Households living in decent homes 2006-2008

all dwellings

number (000s) percentage ()

2006 2007 2008 2006 2007 2008

decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 1543 1575 1428 630 649 653private rented 334 354 429 450 482 490all private vulnerable 1877 1929 1857 588 610 606

private non- vulnerableowner occupied 8418 8531 8494 664 667 683private rented 922 985 1246 567 566 588all private non-vulnerable 9340 9516 9740 653 655 669

all owner occupied 9961 10106 9922 658 664 678all private rented 1256 1339 1675 530 541 559all private 11217 11445 11597 641 647 658all social 2690 2649 2798 722 719 740all households 13907 14094 14395 655 659 672

non-decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 905 851 760 370 351 347private rented 408 380 447 550 518 510all private vulnerable 1313 1231 1207 412 390 394

private non-vulnerableowner occupied 4262 4264 3946 336 333 317private rented 704 754 874 433 434 412all private non-vulnerable 4966 5018 4820 347 345 331

all owner occupied 5167 5115 4706 342 336 322all private rented 1112 1134 1321 470 459 441all private 6279 6249 6027 359 353 342

all social 1034 1037 985 278 281 260all households 7313 7286 7012 345 341 328

Notes 1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoid a break in the time series See Annex Table 13 for further detailsSource English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

36 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Damp and mould growth227 The proportion of homes with damp problems has reduced from 13 in 1996

to 8 in 2008 Table 16

Table 16 Number and percentage of homes with damp problems in one or more rooms 1996-2008

all dwellings

rising damp

penetrating damp

condensation mould

any damp problems

thousands of dwellings1996 858 1271 1145 26012001 625 1032 860 20322003 740 1066 1003 22832004 750 1035 951 22512005 759 952 941 22102006 724 886 947 21582007 640 833 881 19162008 584 759 865 1746

percentage of dwellings1996 42 63 56 1282001 29 49 41 962003 34 50 47 1062004 35 48 44 1042005 35 44 43 1012006 33 40 43 982007 29 38 40 862008 26 34 39 78

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

228 Privately rented homes were more likely to experience damp problems compared to other tenures Figure 11 Privately rented homes were more likely to be older homes and experience problems with rising or penetrating damp due to defects in the damp proof course roof covering gutters and down pipes which would affect at least one room in the property

229 In the social sector damp problems were more likely to be caused by serious condensation and mould growth rather than by rising damp Figure 12

Section 2 Housing stock | 37

Figure 12 Percentage of homes with a damp problem by tenure 2008

rising damp penetrating damp condensationmould

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

alltenures

housingassociation

localauthority

privaterented

owneroccupied

per

cen

tage

of

ho

mes

wit

h d

amp

pro

ble

ms

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

38 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex tables

Households

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

Annex Table 2 Economic Status of working age HRP by tenure 2008-09

Energy efficiency

Annex Table 3 Heating Type 1996-2008

Annex Table 4 Main Heating System by tenure 2008

Annex Table 5 Boiler Types 1996-2008

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

Annex Table 8 Cavity Wall insulation by tenure 2008

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

Housing Health and Safety Rating System

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 HHSRS hazards present (comparison of estimates based on any one of 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Non-decent homes in deprived areas

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes in deprived areas by tenure 2006-2008

Annex tables | 39

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent

child(ren)

couple with dependent

child(ren)

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)

other multi-

person households

all one-person

households

all household

types

percentageown outright 46 9 7 24 37 31buying with mortgage 35 66 27 25 23 36social renters 9 13 44 20 25 18private renters 10 12 22 31 15 14

all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 2 Economic status of working age HRP by tenure

all households

working un-employed retired other inactive Total percentage

own outright 74 2 14 10 100buying with mortgage 94 1 1 4 100social renters 49 12 1 37 100private renters 75 5 1 19 100all tenures 80 4 3 13 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 3 Heating type 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingscentral heating 16178 18177 18604 18919 19179 19553 19862 19862storage heater 1643 1600 1587 1616 1609 1532 1552 1641fixed roomportable heater 2515 2001 1294 1078 993 904 776 736Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingscentral heating 796 860 866 875 881 889 895 893storage heater 81 76 74 75 74 70 70 74fixed roomportable heating heater 124 95 60 50 46 41 35 33Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

40 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 4 Main heating system by tenure 2008

all dwellings

central heating storage heaterfixed room

heatingportable

heating only all dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 13788 790 411 19 15007 private rented 2630 441 208 17 3296 all private 16418 1232 619 36 18304

local authority 1776 160 46 2 1984 housing association 1669 249 33 1 1951 all social 3445 409 79 3 3935

all tenures 19862 1641 698 38 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 919 53 27 01 1000 private rented 798 134 63 05 1000 all private 897 67 34 02 1000

local authority 895 80 23 01 1000 housing association 855 128 17 00 1000 all social 875 104 20 01 1000

all tenures 893 74 31 02 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 5 Boiler types 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsstandard boiler 10447 10338 9642 9635 9425 9014 8782 8072back boiler 2773 2759 2580 2409 2181 2131 1944 1688combination boiler 2810 4431 5492 5934 6254 6312 6287 6082condensing boiler ndash 155 154 202 300 460 698 948condensing-combination boiler ndash 318 373 417 727 1297 1837 2773no boiler 4305 3140 3244 3016 2894 2775 2642 2676Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsstandard boiler 514 489 449 446 433 410 396 363back boiler 136 130 120 111 100 97 88 76combination boiler 138 210 256 275 287 287 283 273condensing boiler 00 07 07 09 14 21 31 43condensing-combination boiler 00 15 17 19 33 59 83 125no boiler 212 149 151 140 133 126 119 120Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 41

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

all dwellings

standard boiler

back boiler

combination boiler

condensing boiler

condensing-combination

boilerno

boilerall

dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 6223 1045 3984 713 1756 1286 15007 private rented 817 149 1112 73 429 716 3296 all private 7040 1194 5096 787 2185 2002 18304

local authority 499 271 481 90 335 309 1984 housing association 533 223 505 72 254 365 1951 all social 1032 494 986 162 589 674 3935

all 8072 1688 6082 948 2773 2676 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 415 70 265 48 117 86 1000 private rented 248 45 337 22 130 217 1000 all private 385 65 278 43 119 109 1000

local authority 251 136 242 45 169 156 1000 housing association 273 114 259 37 130 187 1000 all social 262 125 250 41 150 171 1000

all 363 76 273 43 125 120 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 2853 5210 5334 5825 5974 6644 7267 7418200mm or more of loft insulation 583 1256 2034 2530 2919 3520 4258 4685entire house double glazing 6169 10753 11915 12846 13486 13924 14850 15747

all dwellings 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 140 246 248 270 274 302 327 334200mm or more of loft insulation 29 59 95 117 134 160 192 211entire house double glazing 303 509 555 594 619 633 669 708

all dwellings 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

42 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 8 Cavity wall insulation by tenure

all dwellings

cavity with insulation

cavity uninsulated other all

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5161 5483 4364 15007private rented 566 1213 1517 3296private 5727 6696 5882 18304

local authority 834 657 493 1984housing association 857 720 374 1951social 1691 1378 867 3935

total 7418 8073 6749 22239

percentage of dwellingsowner occupied 344 365 291 100private rented 172 368 460 100private 313 366 321 100

local authority 420 331 248 100housing association 439 369 192 100social 430 350 220 100

total 334 363 303 100

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 43

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

all dwellings

no loftno

insulationless than

50mm50 up to

99mm

100 up to

149mm

150 up to

199mm200mm or more

all dwellings

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 748 442 432 3009 5147 2007 3223 15007 private rented 672 175 66 857 813 281 434 3296 private 1420 617 497 3866 5960 2288 3657 18304

local authority 614 33 19 171 471 206 470 1984 housing association 467 20 16 143 482 265 558 1951 social 1081 53 35 314 953 471 1028 3935

total 2501 670 532 4179 6913 2759 4685 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 50 29 29 200 343 134 215 1000private rented 204 53 20 260 247 85 132 1000private 78 34 27 211 326 125 200 1000

local authority 309 17 10 86 237 104 237 1000housing association 239 10 08 73 247 136 286 1000social 275 14 09 80 242 120 261 1000

total 112 30 24 188 311 124 211 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

44 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

hazard presentnumber of homes (000s) each hazard is present in

falling on stairs 2025excess cold 1966falling on level surfaces 788falling between levels 443fire 318

entry by intruders

flames hot surfacesleaddamp and mould growth 50 to 100 eachcollision and entrapmentradiationfalls associated with baths

crowding and space

food safetypersonal hygiene sanitation and drainage 20 to 50 eachnoisedomestic hygiene pests and refuseelectrical hazards

structural collapse and falling elements

water supplycarbon monoxide and fuel combustion productsposition and operability of amenities less thanexcess heat 20 eachlightinguncombusted fuel gasexplosions

any of the 15 hazards 4842

any of the 26 hazards 5039

Note For 2006 and 2007 the survey reported on 15 hazards only The 2008 EHS can provide estimates for 26 hazards - the additional hazards are marked with an asterisk The three remaining hazards not included in the survey are presence of asbestos biocides or volatile organic compounds For reporting purposes HHSRS and non-decent estimates will be based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with previous years and avoid a break in the time seriesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 45

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 4842 4925private rented 1449 1478all private 6291 6403

local authority 625 640housing association 444 464all social 1069 1104

all tenures 7360 7507

percentagesowner occupied 323 328private rented 440 448all private 344 350

local authority 315 323housing association 228 238all social 272 281

all tenures 331 338

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

46 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 hazards present (compariosn of estimates based on any one to the 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 3342 3452private rented 978 1013all private 4320 4465

local authority 298 326RSL 224 248all social 522 574

all tenures 4842 5039

percentagesowner occupied 223 230private rented 297 307all private 236 244

local authority 150 164RSL 115 127all social 133 146

all tenures 218 227

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 47

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all households

15 hazards 26 hazards

number (000s) percentage () number (000s) percentage ()

decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 1428 653 1413 646private rented 429 490 417 476all private vulnerable 1857 606 1830 597 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 8494 683 8425 677private rented 1246 588 1232 581all private non-vulnerable 9740 669 9657 663 all owner occupied 9922 678 9839 673all private rented 1675 559 1648 550all private 11597 658 11487 663all social 2798 740 2766 731

all households 14395 672 14253 666

non-decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 760 347 775 354private rented 447 510 459 524all private vulnerable 1207 394 1234 403 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 3946 317 4015 323private rented 874 412 888 419all private non-vulnerable 4820 331 4903 337 all owner occupied 4706 322 4790 327all private rented 1321 441 1347 450all private 6027 342 6137 348all social 985 260 1017 269

all households 7012 328 7154 334

Note For reporting purposes decent homes estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

48 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes1 by deprived and other districts by tenure 2006-2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsSocial NRF88 662 652 605Other districts 480 486 464 Private NRF88 2544 2621 2442Other districts 4013 3928 3849

percentages of dwellingsSocial NRF88 313 304 278Other districts 264 278 263 Private NRF88 381 380 361Other districts 353 344 333

Note NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving Neighbourhood Renewal Funding 2001-2006Source English House Condition Survey 2006-2007English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub sample)

Technical annex | 49

Technical annex

General description

The survey consists of three main elements an initial interview survey of 17700 households with a follow up physical inspection and a desk based market valuation of a sub-sample of 8000 of these dwellings including vacant dwellings The interview survey sample forms part of ONSrsquos Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the core questions from the IHS form part of the EHS questionnaire More information about the IHS is available from its webpage wwwstatisticsgovukCCInuggetaspID=936ampPos=1ampColRank=1ampRank=224

The EHS interview content covers the key topics included under the former SEH and EHCS The content of the physical and market value components remains very largely unchanged from the former EHCS

Sampling and grossing

2008-09 Sample1 The initial sample for 2008-09 consisted of 32100 addresses drawn as a systematic

random sample from the Postcode Address File (small users) Interviews were attempted at all of these addresses over the course of the survey year from April 2008 to March 2009 A proportion of addresses were found not to be valid residential properties (eg demolished properties secondholiday homes small businesses not yet built)

2 Of the 17691 addresses where interviews were achieved (the lsquofull household samplersquo) all social rented properties and a sub-sample of private properties were regarded as eligible for the physical survey and the respondentrsquos consent was sought A proportion of vacant properties were also sub-sampled Physical surveys were completed in 7972 cases and these cases contribute to the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo (see below)

3 The principal differences in sampling methodology between the EHS and its predecessors the SEH and EHCS are that

bull The EHS uses an unclustered sample This enables a smaller sample to be used with no loss of precision ie without sampling errors being increased The more scattered sample does however have some implications for fieldwork organisation

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 28: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

28 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

211 In 2008 92 of owner occupied homes had central heating systems compared to 88 of social and 80 of private rented homes see Annex Table 4 In part this reflects the higher proportion of flats in the rented sectors compared with owner occupation with 23 of flats using storage heaters

212 Condensing boilers are generally the most efficient boiler type and are now mandatory for new and replacement boilers (for gas fired boilers since 2005 for oil fired boilers since 2007) However even prior to these requirements the less efficient standard and back boilers were decreasing in use with the growing popularity of standard combination types Figure 9 Recent years have seen rapidly expanding take up of condensing and particularly combination condensing boilers In 2008 37 million homes (17 of the stock) had one of the two types of condensing boilers

Figure 9 Boiler types 1996-2008

no boiler

condensing-combination boiler condensing boilercombination boilerback boiler (to fire or stove)standard boiler (floor or wall)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

20082007200620052004200320011996

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes underpinning data is presented in Annex Table 5Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

213 For a home to provide optimum energy performance a high level of thermal insulation needs to be present alongside an efficient heating system Standard insulation measures include cavity wall insulation loft insulation and double glazing which have all improved in the stock since 1996 Figure 10

214 In 2008 155 million homes (70) had external walls of cavity construction 74 million homes (33 of the stock) had cavity wall insulation 47 million homes (21) had 200mm or more of loft insulation and 157 million homes (71) had full double glazing with an additional 29 million homes (13) having more than half double glazed Figure 10

Section 2 Housing stock | 29

Figure 10 Insulation measures 1996-2008

20082007200620052004200320011996

entire housedouble glazing

200mm or moreof loft insulation

cavity walls withinsulation

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes1) Only 89 of dwellings have lofts and 70 of dwellings have cavity walls2) Underpinning data is presented in annex Table 7Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

215 In 2008 the social rented sector had the greatest proportion of homes with cavity wall insulation (local authority 42 housing association 44) 200mm or more of loft insulation (local authority 24 housing association 29) and full double glazing (local authority 75 housing association 83) whereas the private rented sector had the lowest proportion of all three standard insulation measures cavity wall insulation (17) 200mm or more of loft insulation (13) and full double glazing (61) Figure 11

30 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Figure 11 Percentage of dwellings with efficient insulation measures by tenure 2008

full double glazing200mm or moreloft insulation

cavity withinsulation

cavity wall

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

housing associationlocal authorityprivate rentedowner occupied0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Base all dwellingsSource English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

SAP Rating

216 The energy efficiency of the housing stock continued to improve between 1996 and 2008 the average SAP rating of a home increased by 9 SAP points from 42 to 51 Table 11 The social sector was on average more energy efficient than the private sector and saw the greatest improvement with the average SAP rating increasing by 12 SAP points from 47 to 59

Table 11 Energy efficiency average SAP rating by tenure 2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

owner occupied 411 444 450 456 461 469 481 496private rented 379 419 444 457 460 466 481 502all private 407 441 449 456 461 468 481 497

local authority 457 496 520 539 553 558 562 580housing association 509 564 567 573 589 593 595 603all social 468 519 539 553 569 574 578 592

all tenures 421 457 466 474 481 487 498 514

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Section 2 Housing stock | 31

217 There has been a significant increase in the proportion of homes achieving the highest Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands in 2008 10 (23 million) of homes achieved the highest (EER) Bands A to C3 compared with 7 (16 million) in 2006 Table 12 The number of homes in the lowest EER Bands (F and G) fell by a million over the same period The majority of homes (73) continue to be in the EER Bands D or E

Table 12 Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 35 35 77Band C (69-80) 1545 1710 2229Band D (55-68) 6555 7316 7865Band E (39-54) 9072 8859 8310Band F (21-38) 3838 3389 2972Band G (1-20) 943 881 786Total 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 02 02 03Band C (69-80) 70 77 100Band D (55-68) 298 330 354Band E (39-54) 413 399 374Band F (21-38) 175 153 134Band G (1-20) 43 40 35Total 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 2006 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Housing health and safety rating system

218 A potentially serious (Category 1) hazard as measured under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System was present in around 48 million homes in 2008 22 of the housing stock

2 EER Bands are used in the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) The Certificate provides among other indicators an energy efficiency rating for the home on a scale from A-G (where A is the most efficient and G the least efficient)

32 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Housing conditions

Housing Health and Safety Rating System219 There was no significant change in the proportion of homes with any Category

1 hazard between 2006 and 2008 Hazards tend to be more common in older housing stock for example stairs are more likely to be steep and narrow in older housing making lsquofalls on stairsrsquo more likely or heating and insulation measures tend to be less effective in older stock making lsquoexcess coldrsquo a more serious hazard Therefore it is not surprising that hazards are more common in the private sector where the older housing stock is concentrated Almost a quarter of housing in the private sector had at least one category 1 hazard in 2008 (24) compared to around 13 in the social sector Table 14 Privately rented homes were most likely to have Category 1 hazards present compared to housing association homes (31 and 13 respectively)

220 The most common type of hazard in all four tenures was falls (see annex Table 10 for details of which hazards are included in this category) Overall 13 of homes have at least one type of falls hazard present

Decent homes221 In 2008 74 million homes (33) were non-decent4 Table 13 Housing

association housing was the least likely to be non-decent (23) while private rented housing was in the worst condition with 44 of homes being non-decent Overall social sector homes were in a better condition than private sector homes with 27 being non-decent compared to 34

222 The number of non-decent homes fell from 77 million in 2006 to 74 million in 20085 Conditions in the social sector improved with the proportion of homes failing the standard falling by two percentage points from 29 in 2006 to 27 in 2008 Private sector homes also improved from 36 non-decent in 2006 to 34 non-decent in 2008

4 Estimates from the EHS are based soley on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors subject to any limitations of the information they collect The EHS estimates in this report do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property

5 In 2006 the Housing Health and Safety Rating System replaced the Fitness Standard as the statutory minimum standard for housing Earlier estimates based on the original definition are not comparable therefore any change in the number of decent homes can only be referenced back to 2006 Figures for decent homes prior to 2006 can be found in the 2006 English House Condition Survey Annual Report available at wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

Section 2 Housing stock | 33

Table 13 Non-decent homes by tenure 2006 ndash 2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5335 5304 4842private rented 1223 1244 1449all private 6558 6548 6291

local authority 676 652 625housing association 465 486 444all social 1142 1138 1069

all tenures 7700 7686 7360

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 346 341 323private rented 468 454 440all private 363 358 344

local authority 324 328 315housing association 252 255 228all social 290 292 272

all tenures 350 346 331

Notes1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties between 2007 and 2008 are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates See Annex Table 11Sources2006 ndash 2007 English House Condition Survey2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Reasons for failing decent homes223 Of the four components required to meet the decent homes standard the

presence of one or more category 1 hazards under the HHSRS was the most commonly failed Table 14 This is particularly the case for private sector homes where 24 of homes had one or more Category 1 hazards present compared to 13 of social sector homes

34 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 14 Homes failing decent homes criteria by tenure 2008

all dwellings

Category 1 hazard (HHSRS)

thermal comfort

modern facilities repair all non-decent

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 3342 1773 379 817 4842private rented 978 637 160 369 1449all private 4320 2411 539 1186 6291

local authority 298 227 138 146 625housing association 224 199 50 86 444all social 522 426 188 231 1069

all tenures 4842 2837 727 1417 7360

percentages

owner occupied 223 118 25 54 323private rented 297 193 49 112 440all private 236 132 29 65 344

local authority 150 115 70 74 315housing association 115 102 25 44 228all social 133 108 48 59 272

all tenures 218 128 33 64 331

Note The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoids a break in the time series See Annex Table 12 for estimate based on 26 hazardsSource English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

224 There was significant progress in the thermal comfort of homes between 2006 and 2008 The proportion of homes failing thermal comfort fell to 13 in 2008 from 16 in 2006 Improvement has been made across all tenures

Private sector vulnerable households225 In 2008 31 million lsquovulnerablersquo households6 were living in the private sector of

which 12 million (39) were living in non-decent homes the remaining 19 million (61) were living in decent accommodation Table 15 There has been no significant change since 2006

226 Vulnerable households who privately rent their accommodation were more likely to live in non-decent homes compared to social tenants (51 and 26 respectively) Table 15

6 Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

Section 2 Housing stock | 35

Table 15 Households living in decent homes 2006-2008

all dwellings

number (000s) percentage ()

2006 2007 2008 2006 2007 2008

decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 1543 1575 1428 630 649 653private rented 334 354 429 450 482 490all private vulnerable 1877 1929 1857 588 610 606

private non- vulnerableowner occupied 8418 8531 8494 664 667 683private rented 922 985 1246 567 566 588all private non-vulnerable 9340 9516 9740 653 655 669

all owner occupied 9961 10106 9922 658 664 678all private rented 1256 1339 1675 530 541 559all private 11217 11445 11597 641 647 658all social 2690 2649 2798 722 719 740all households 13907 14094 14395 655 659 672

non-decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 905 851 760 370 351 347private rented 408 380 447 550 518 510all private vulnerable 1313 1231 1207 412 390 394

private non-vulnerableowner occupied 4262 4264 3946 336 333 317private rented 704 754 874 433 434 412all private non-vulnerable 4966 5018 4820 347 345 331

all owner occupied 5167 5115 4706 342 336 322all private rented 1112 1134 1321 470 459 441all private 6279 6249 6027 359 353 342

all social 1034 1037 985 278 281 260all households 7313 7286 7012 345 341 328

Notes 1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoid a break in the time series See Annex Table 13 for further detailsSource English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

36 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Damp and mould growth227 The proportion of homes with damp problems has reduced from 13 in 1996

to 8 in 2008 Table 16

Table 16 Number and percentage of homes with damp problems in one or more rooms 1996-2008

all dwellings

rising damp

penetrating damp

condensation mould

any damp problems

thousands of dwellings1996 858 1271 1145 26012001 625 1032 860 20322003 740 1066 1003 22832004 750 1035 951 22512005 759 952 941 22102006 724 886 947 21582007 640 833 881 19162008 584 759 865 1746

percentage of dwellings1996 42 63 56 1282001 29 49 41 962003 34 50 47 1062004 35 48 44 1042005 35 44 43 1012006 33 40 43 982007 29 38 40 862008 26 34 39 78

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

228 Privately rented homes were more likely to experience damp problems compared to other tenures Figure 11 Privately rented homes were more likely to be older homes and experience problems with rising or penetrating damp due to defects in the damp proof course roof covering gutters and down pipes which would affect at least one room in the property

229 In the social sector damp problems were more likely to be caused by serious condensation and mould growth rather than by rising damp Figure 12

Section 2 Housing stock | 37

Figure 12 Percentage of homes with a damp problem by tenure 2008

rising damp penetrating damp condensationmould

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

alltenures

housingassociation

localauthority

privaterented

owneroccupied

per

cen

tage

of

ho

mes

wit

h d

amp

pro

ble

ms

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

38 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex tables

Households

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

Annex Table 2 Economic Status of working age HRP by tenure 2008-09

Energy efficiency

Annex Table 3 Heating Type 1996-2008

Annex Table 4 Main Heating System by tenure 2008

Annex Table 5 Boiler Types 1996-2008

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

Annex Table 8 Cavity Wall insulation by tenure 2008

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

Housing Health and Safety Rating System

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 HHSRS hazards present (comparison of estimates based on any one of 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Non-decent homes in deprived areas

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes in deprived areas by tenure 2006-2008

Annex tables | 39

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent

child(ren)

couple with dependent

child(ren)

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)

other multi-

person households

all one-person

households

all household

types

percentageown outright 46 9 7 24 37 31buying with mortgage 35 66 27 25 23 36social renters 9 13 44 20 25 18private renters 10 12 22 31 15 14

all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 2 Economic status of working age HRP by tenure

all households

working un-employed retired other inactive Total percentage

own outright 74 2 14 10 100buying with mortgage 94 1 1 4 100social renters 49 12 1 37 100private renters 75 5 1 19 100all tenures 80 4 3 13 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 3 Heating type 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingscentral heating 16178 18177 18604 18919 19179 19553 19862 19862storage heater 1643 1600 1587 1616 1609 1532 1552 1641fixed roomportable heater 2515 2001 1294 1078 993 904 776 736Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingscentral heating 796 860 866 875 881 889 895 893storage heater 81 76 74 75 74 70 70 74fixed roomportable heating heater 124 95 60 50 46 41 35 33Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

40 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 4 Main heating system by tenure 2008

all dwellings

central heating storage heaterfixed room

heatingportable

heating only all dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 13788 790 411 19 15007 private rented 2630 441 208 17 3296 all private 16418 1232 619 36 18304

local authority 1776 160 46 2 1984 housing association 1669 249 33 1 1951 all social 3445 409 79 3 3935

all tenures 19862 1641 698 38 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 919 53 27 01 1000 private rented 798 134 63 05 1000 all private 897 67 34 02 1000

local authority 895 80 23 01 1000 housing association 855 128 17 00 1000 all social 875 104 20 01 1000

all tenures 893 74 31 02 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 5 Boiler types 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsstandard boiler 10447 10338 9642 9635 9425 9014 8782 8072back boiler 2773 2759 2580 2409 2181 2131 1944 1688combination boiler 2810 4431 5492 5934 6254 6312 6287 6082condensing boiler ndash 155 154 202 300 460 698 948condensing-combination boiler ndash 318 373 417 727 1297 1837 2773no boiler 4305 3140 3244 3016 2894 2775 2642 2676Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsstandard boiler 514 489 449 446 433 410 396 363back boiler 136 130 120 111 100 97 88 76combination boiler 138 210 256 275 287 287 283 273condensing boiler 00 07 07 09 14 21 31 43condensing-combination boiler 00 15 17 19 33 59 83 125no boiler 212 149 151 140 133 126 119 120Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 41

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

all dwellings

standard boiler

back boiler

combination boiler

condensing boiler

condensing-combination

boilerno

boilerall

dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 6223 1045 3984 713 1756 1286 15007 private rented 817 149 1112 73 429 716 3296 all private 7040 1194 5096 787 2185 2002 18304

local authority 499 271 481 90 335 309 1984 housing association 533 223 505 72 254 365 1951 all social 1032 494 986 162 589 674 3935

all 8072 1688 6082 948 2773 2676 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 415 70 265 48 117 86 1000 private rented 248 45 337 22 130 217 1000 all private 385 65 278 43 119 109 1000

local authority 251 136 242 45 169 156 1000 housing association 273 114 259 37 130 187 1000 all social 262 125 250 41 150 171 1000

all 363 76 273 43 125 120 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 2853 5210 5334 5825 5974 6644 7267 7418200mm or more of loft insulation 583 1256 2034 2530 2919 3520 4258 4685entire house double glazing 6169 10753 11915 12846 13486 13924 14850 15747

all dwellings 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 140 246 248 270 274 302 327 334200mm or more of loft insulation 29 59 95 117 134 160 192 211entire house double glazing 303 509 555 594 619 633 669 708

all dwellings 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

42 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 8 Cavity wall insulation by tenure

all dwellings

cavity with insulation

cavity uninsulated other all

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5161 5483 4364 15007private rented 566 1213 1517 3296private 5727 6696 5882 18304

local authority 834 657 493 1984housing association 857 720 374 1951social 1691 1378 867 3935

total 7418 8073 6749 22239

percentage of dwellingsowner occupied 344 365 291 100private rented 172 368 460 100private 313 366 321 100

local authority 420 331 248 100housing association 439 369 192 100social 430 350 220 100

total 334 363 303 100

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 43

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

all dwellings

no loftno

insulationless than

50mm50 up to

99mm

100 up to

149mm

150 up to

199mm200mm or more

all dwellings

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 748 442 432 3009 5147 2007 3223 15007 private rented 672 175 66 857 813 281 434 3296 private 1420 617 497 3866 5960 2288 3657 18304

local authority 614 33 19 171 471 206 470 1984 housing association 467 20 16 143 482 265 558 1951 social 1081 53 35 314 953 471 1028 3935

total 2501 670 532 4179 6913 2759 4685 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 50 29 29 200 343 134 215 1000private rented 204 53 20 260 247 85 132 1000private 78 34 27 211 326 125 200 1000

local authority 309 17 10 86 237 104 237 1000housing association 239 10 08 73 247 136 286 1000social 275 14 09 80 242 120 261 1000

total 112 30 24 188 311 124 211 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

44 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

hazard presentnumber of homes (000s) each hazard is present in

falling on stairs 2025excess cold 1966falling on level surfaces 788falling between levels 443fire 318

entry by intruders

flames hot surfacesleaddamp and mould growth 50 to 100 eachcollision and entrapmentradiationfalls associated with baths

crowding and space

food safetypersonal hygiene sanitation and drainage 20 to 50 eachnoisedomestic hygiene pests and refuseelectrical hazards

structural collapse and falling elements

water supplycarbon monoxide and fuel combustion productsposition and operability of amenities less thanexcess heat 20 eachlightinguncombusted fuel gasexplosions

any of the 15 hazards 4842

any of the 26 hazards 5039

Note For 2006 and 2007 the survey reported on 15 hazards only The 2008 EHS can provide estimates for 26 hazards - the additional hazards are marked with an asterisk The three remaining hazards not included in the survey are presence of asbestos biocides or volatile organic compounds For reporting purposes HHSRS and non-decent estimates will be based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with previous years and avoid a break in the time seriesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 45

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 4842 4925private rented 1449 1478all private 6291 6403

local authority 625 640housing association 444 464all social 1069 1104

all tenures 7360 7507

percentagesowner occupied 323 328private rented 440 448all private 344 350

local authority 315 323housing association 228 238all social 272 281

all tenures 331 338

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

46 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 hazards present (compariosn of estimates based on any one to the 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 3342 3452private rented 978 1013all private 4320 4465

local authority 298 326RSL 224 248all social 522 574

all tenures 4842 5039

percentagesowner occupied 223 230private rented 297 307all private 236 244

local authority 150 164RSL 115 127all social 133 146

all tenures 218 227

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 47

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all households

15 hazards 26 hazards

number (000s) percentage () number (000s) percentage ()

decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 1428 653 1413 646private rented 429 490 417 476all private vulnerable 1857 606 1830 597 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 8494 683 8425 677private rented 1246 588 1232 581all private non-vulnerable 9740 669 9657 663 all owner occupied 9922 678 9839 673all private rented 1675 559 1648 550all private 11597 658 11487 663all social 2798 740 2766 731

all households 14395 672 14253 666

non-decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 760 347 775 354private rented 447 510 459 524all private vulnerable 1207 394 1234 403 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 3946 317 4015 323private rented 874 412 888 419all private non-vulnerable 4820 331 4903 337 all owner occupied 4706 322 4790 327all private rented 1321 441 1347 450all private 6027 342 6137 348all social 985 260 1017 269

all households 7012 328 7154 334

Note For reporting purposes decent homes estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

48 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes1 by deprived and other districts by tenure 2006-2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsSocial NRF88 662 652 605Other districts 480 486 464 Private NRF88 2544 2621 2442Other districts 4013 3928 3849

percentages of dwellingsSocial NRF88 313 304 278Other districts 264 278 263 Private NRF88 381 380 361Other districts 353 344 333

Note NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving Neighbourhood Renewal Funding 2001-2006Source English House Condition Survey 2006-2007English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub sample)

Technical annex | 49

Technical annex

General description

The survey consists of three main elements an initial interview survey of 17700 households with a follow up physical inspection and a desk based market valuation of a sub-sample of 8000 of these dwellings including vacant dwellings The interview survey sample forms part of ONSrsquos Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the core questions from the IHS form part of the EHS questionnaire More information about the IHS is available from its webpage wwwstatisticsgovukCCInuggetaspID=936ampPos=1ampColRank=1ampRank=224

The EHS interview content covers the key topics included under the former SEH and EHCS The content of the physical and market value components remains very largely unchanged from the former EHCS

Sampling and grossing

2008-09 Sample1 The initial sample for 2008-09 consisted of 32100 addresses drawn as a systematic

random sample from the Postcode Address File (small users) Interviews were attempted at all of these addresses over the course of the survey year from April 2008 to March 2009 A proportion of addresses were found not to be valid residential properties (eg demolished properties secondholiday homes small businesses not yet built)

2 Of the 17691 addresses where interviews were achieved (the lsquofull household samplersquo) all social rented properties and a sub-sample of private properties were regarded as eligible for the physical survey and the respondentrsquos consent was sought A proportion of vacant properties were also sub-sampled Physical surveys were completed in 7972 cases and these cases contribute to the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo (see below)

3 The principal differences in sampling methodology between the EHS and its predecessors the SEH and EHCS are that

bull The EHS uses an unclustered sample This enables a smaller sample to be used with no loss of precision ie without sampling errors being increased The more scattered sample does however have some implications for fieldwork organisation

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 29: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

Section 2 Housing stock | 29

Figure 10 Insulation measures 1996-2008

20082007200620052004200320011996

entire housedouble glazing

200mm or moreof loft insulation

cavity walls withinsulation

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

Base all dwellingsNotes1) Only 89 of dwellings have lofts and 70 of dwellings have cavity walls2) Underpinning data is presented in annex Table 7Source English House Condition Survey 1996-2007 English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

215 In 2008 the social rented sector had the greatest proportion of homes with cavity wall insulation (local authority 42 housing association 44) 200mm or more of loft insulation (local authority 24 housing association 29) and full double glazing (local authority 75 housing association 83) whereas the private rented sector had the lowest proportion of all three standard insulation measures cavity wall insulation (17) 200mm or more of loft insulation (13) and full double glazing (61) Figure 11

30 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Figure 11 Percentage of dwellings with efficient insulation measures by tenure 2008

full double glazing200mm or moreloft insulation

cavity withinsulation

cavity wall

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

housing associationlocal authorityprivate rentedowner occupied0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Base all dwellingsSource English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

SAP Rating

216 The energy efficiency of the housing stock continued to improve between 1996 and 2008 the average SAP rating of a home increased by 9 SAP points from 42 to 51 Table 11 The social sector was on average more energy efficient than the private sector and saw the greatest improvement with the average SAP rating increasing by 12 SAP points from 47 to 59

Table 11 Energy efficiency average SAP rating by tenure 2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

owner occupied 411 444 450 456 461 469 481 496private rented 379 419 444 457 460 466 481 502all private 407 441 449 456 461 468 481 497

local authority 457 496 520 539 553 558 562 580housing association 509 564 567 573 589 593 595 603all social 468 519 539 553 569 574 578 592

all tenures 421 457 466 474 481 487 498 514

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Section 2 Housing stock | 31

217 There has been a significant increase in the proportion of homes achieving the highest Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands in 2008 10 (23 million) of homes achieved the highest (EER) Bands A to C3 compared with 7 (16 million) in 2006 Table 12 The number of homes in the lowest EER Bands (F and G) fell by a million over the same period The majority of homes (73) continue to be in the EER Bands D or E

Table 12 Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 35 35 77Band C (69-80) 1545 1710 2229Band D (55-68) 6555 7316 7865Band E (39-54) 9072 8859 8310Band F (21-38) 3838 3389 2972Band G (1-20) 943 881 786Total 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 02 02 03Band C (69-80) 70 77 100Band D (55-68) 298 330 354Band E (39-54) 413 399 374Band F (21-38) 175 153 134Band G (1-20) 43 40 35Total 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 2006 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Housing health and safety rating system

218 A potentially serious (Category 1) hazard as measured under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System was present in around 48 million homes in 2008 22 of the housing stock

2 EER Bands are used in the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) The Certificate provides among other indicators an energy efficiency rating for the home on a scale from A-G (where A is the most efficient and G the least efficient)

32 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Housing conditions

Housing Health and Safety Rating System219 There was no significant change in the proportion of homes with any Category

1 hazard between 2006 and 2008 Hazards tend to be more common in older housing stock for example stairs are more likely to be steep and narrow in older housing making lsquofalls on stairsrsquo more likely or heating and insulation measures tend to be less effective in older stock making lsquoexcess coldrsquo a more serious hazard Therefore it is not surprising that hazards are more common in the private sector where the older housing stock is concentrated Almost a quarter of housing in the private sector had at least one category 1 hazard in 2008 (24) compared to around 13 in the social sector Table 14 Privately rented homes were most likely to have Category 1 hazards present compared to housing association homes (31 and 13 respectively)

220 The most common type of hazard in all four tenures was falls (see annex Table 10 for details of which hazards are included in this category) Overall 13 of homes have at least one type of falls hazard present

Decent homes221 In 2008 74 million homes (33) were non-decent4 Table 13 Housing

association housing was the least likely to be non-decent (23) while private rented housing was in the worst condition with 44 of homes being non-decent Overall social sector homes were in a better condition than private sector homes with 27 being non-decent compared to 34

222 The number of non-decent homes fell from 77 million in 2006 to 74 million in 20085 Conditions in the social sector improved with the proportion of homes failing the standard falling by two percentage points from 29 in 2006 to 27 in 2008 Private sector homes also improved from 36 non-decent in 2006 to 34 non-decent in 2008

4 Estimates from the EHS are based soley on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors subject to any limitations of the information they collect The EHS estimates in this report do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property

5 In 2006 the Housing Health and Safety Rating System replaced the Fitness Standard as the statutory minimum standard for housing Earlier estimates based on the original definition are not comparable therefore any change in the number of decent homes can only be referenced back to 2006 Figures for decent homes prior to 2006 can be found in the 2006 English House Condition Survey Annual Report available at wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

Section 2 Housing stock | 33

Table 13 Non-decent homes by tenure 2006 ndash 2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5335 5304 4842private rented 1223 1244 1449all private 6558 6548 6291

local authority 676 652 625housing association 465 486 444all social 1142 1138 1069

all tenures 7700 7686 7360

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 346 341 323private rented 468 454 440all private 363 358 344

local authority 324 328 315housing association 252 255 228all social 290 292 272

all tenures 350 346 331

Notes1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties between 2007 and 2008 are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates See Annex Table 11Sources2006 ndash 2007 English House Condition Survey2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Reasons for failing decent homes223 Of the four components required to meet the decent homes standard the

presence of one or more category 1 hazards under the HHSRS was the most commonly failed Table 14 This is particularly the case for private sector homes where 24 of homes had one or more Category 1 hazards present compared to 13 of social sector homes

34 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 14 Homes failing decent homes criteria by tenure 2008

all dwellings

Category 1 hazard (HHSRS)

thermal comfort

modern facilities repair all non-decent

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 3342 1773 379 817 4842private rented 978 637 160 369 1449all private 4320 2411 539 1186 6291

local authority 298 227 138 146 625housing association 224 199 50 86 444all social 522 426 188 231 1069

all tenures 4842 2837 727 1417 7360

percentages

owner occupied 223 118 25 54 323private rented 297 193 49 112 440all private 236 132 29 65 344

local authority 150 115 70 74 315housing association 115 102 25 44 228all social 133 108 48 59 272

all tenures 218 128 33 64 331

Note The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoids a break in the time series See Annex Table 12 for estimate based on 26 hazardsSource English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

224 There was significant progress in the thermal comfort of homes between 2006 and 2008 The proportion of homes failing thermal comfort fell to 13 in 2008 from 16 in 2006 Improvement has been made across all tenures

Private sector vulnerable households225 In 2008 31 million lsquovulnerablersquo households6 were living in the private sector of

which 12 million (39) were living in non-decent homes the remaining 19 million (61) were living in decent accommodation Table 15 There has been no significant change since 2006

226 Vulnerable households who privately rent their accommodation were more likely to live in non-decent homes compared to social tenants (51 and 26 respectively) Table 15

6 Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

Section 2 Housing stock | 35

Table 15 Households living in decent homes 2006-2008

all dwellings

number (000s) percentage ()

2006 2007 2008 2006 2007 2008

decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 1543 1575 1428 630 649 653private rented 334 354 429 450 482 490all private vulnerable 1877 1929 1857 588 610 606

private non- vulnerableowner occupied 8418 8531 8494 664 667 683private rented 922 985 1246 567 566 588all private non-vulnerable 9340 9516 9740 653 655 669

all owner occupied 9961 10106 9922 658 664 678all private rented 1256 1339 1675 530 541 559all private 11217 11445 11597 641 647 658all social 2690 2649 2798 722 719 740all households 13907 14094 14395 655 659 672

non-decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 905 851 760 370 351 347private rented 408 380 447 550 518 510all private vulnerable 1313 1231 1207 412 390 394

private non-vulnerableowner occupied 4262 4264 3946 336 333 317private rented 704 754 874 433 434 412all private non-vulnerable 4966 5018 4820 347 345 331

all owner occupied 5167 5115 4706 342 336 322all private rented 1112 1134 1321 470 459 441all private 6279 6249 6027 359 353 342

all social 1034 1037 985 278 281 260all households 7313 7286 7012 345 341 328

Notes 1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoid a break in the time series See Annex Table 13 for further detailsSource English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

36 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Damp and mould growth227 The proportion of homes with damp problems has reduced from 13 in 1996

to 8 in 2008 Table 16

Table 16 Number and percentage of homes with damp problems in one or more rooms 1996-2008

all dwellings

rising damp

penetrating damp

condensation mould

any damp problems

thousands of dwellings1996 858 1271 1145 26012001 625 1032 860 20322003 740 1066 1003 22832004 750 1035 951 22512005 759 952 941 22102006 724 886 947 21582007 640 833 881 19162008 584 759 865 1746

percentage of dwellings1996 42 63 56 1282001 29 49 41 962003 34 50 47 1062004 35 48 44 1042005 35 44 43 1012006 33 40 43 982007 29 38 40 862008 26 34 39 78

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

228 Privately rented homes were more likely to experience damp problems compared to other tenures Figure 11 Privately rented homes were more likely to be older homes and experience problems with rising or penetrating damp due to defects in the damp proof course roof covering gutters and down pipes which would affect at least one room in the property

229 In the social sector damp problems were more likely to be caused by serious condensation and mould growth rather than by rising damp Figure 12

Section 2 Housing stock | 37

Figure 12 Percentage of homes with a damp problem by tenure 2008

rising damp penetrating damp condensationmould

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

alltenures

housingassociation

localauthority

privaterented

owneroccupied

per

cen

tage

of

ho

mes

wit

h d

amp

pro

ble

ms

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

38 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex tables

Households

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

Annex Table 2 Economic Status of working age HRP by tenure 2008-09

Energy efficiency

Annex Table 3 Heating Type 1996-2008

Annex Table 4 Main Heating System by tenure 2008

Annex Table 5 Boiler Types 1996-2008

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

Annex Table 8 Cavity Wall insulation by tenure 2008

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

Housing Health and Safety Rating System

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 HHSRS hazards present (comparison of estimates based on any one of 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Non-decent homes in deprived areas

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes in deprived areas by tenure 2006-2008

Annex tables | 39

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent

child(ren)

couple with dependent

child(ren)

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)

other multi-

person households

all one-person

households

all household

types

percentageown outright 46 9 7 24 37 31buying with mortgage 35 66 27 25 23 36social renters 9 13 44 20 25 18private renters 10 12 22 31 15 14

all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 2 Economic status of working age HRP by tenure

all households

working un-employed retired other inactive Total percentage

own outright 74 2 14 10 100buying with mortgage 94 1 1 4 100social renters 49 12 1 37 100private renters 75 5 1 19 100all tenures 80 4 3 13 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 3 Heating type 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingscentral heating 16178 18177 18604 18919 19179 19553 19862 19862storage heater 1643 1600 1587 1616 1609 1532 1552 1641fixed roomportable heater 2515 2001 1294 1078 993 904 776 736Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingscentral heating 796 860 866 875 881 889 895 893storage heater 81 76 74 75 74 70 70 74fixed roomportable heating heater 124 95 60 50 46 41 35 33Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

40 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 4 Main heating system by tenure 2008

all dwellings

central heating storage heaterfixed room

heatingportable

heating only all dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 13788 790 411 19 15007 private rented 2630 441 208 17 3296 all private 16418 1232 619 36 18304

local authority 1776 160 46 2 1984 housing association 1669 249 33 1 1951 all social 3445 409 79 3 3935

all tenures 19862 1641 698 38 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 919 53 27 01 1000 private rented 798 134 63 05 1000 all private 897 67 34 02 1000

local authority 895 80 23 01 1000 housing association 855 128 17 00 1000 all social 875 104 20 01 1000

all tenures 893 74 31 02 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 5 Boiler types 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsstandard boiler 10447 10338 9642 9635 9425 9014 8782 8072back boiler 2773 2759 2580 2409 2181 2131 1944 1688combination boiler 2810 4431 5492 5934 6254 6312 6287 6082condensing boiler ndash 155 154 202 300 460 698 948condensing-combination boiler ndash 318 373 417 727 1297 1837 2773no boiler 4305 3140 3244 3016 2894 2775 2642 2676Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsstandard boiler 514 489 449 446 433 410 396 363back boiler 136 130 120 111 100 97 88 76combination boiler 138 210 256 275 287 287 283 273condensing boiler 00 07 07 09 14 21 31 43condensing-combination boiler 00 15 17 19 33 59 83 125no boiler 212 149 151 140 133 126 119 120Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 41

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

all dwellings

standard boiler

back boiler

combination boiler

condensing boiler

condensing-combination

boilerno

boilerall

dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 6223 1045 3984 713 1756 1286 15007 private rented 817 149 1112 73 429 716 3296 all private 7040 1194 5096 787 2185 2002 18304

local authority 499 271 481 90 335 309 1984 housing association 533 223 505 72 254 365 1951 all social 1032 494 986 162 589 674 3935

all 8072 1688 6082 948 2773 2676 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 415 70 265 48 117 86 1000 private rented 248 45 337 22 130 217 1000 all private 385 65 278 43 119 109 1000

local authority 251 136 242 45 169 156 1000 housing association 273 114 259 37 130 187 1000 all social 262 125 250 41 150 171 1000

all 363 76 273 43 125 120 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 2853 5210 5334 5825 5974 6644 7267 7418200mm or more of loft insulation 583 1256 2034 2530 2919 3520 4258 4685entire house double glazing 6169 10753 11915 12846 13486 13924 14850 15747

all dwellings 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 140 246 248 270 274 302 327 334200mm or more of loft insulation 29 59 95 117 134 160 192 211entire house double glazing 303 509 555 594 619 633 669 708

all dwellings 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

42 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 8 Cavity wall insulation by tenure

all dwellings

cavity with insulation

cavity uninsulated other all

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5161 5483 4364 15007private rented 566 1213 1517 3296private 5727 6696 5882 18304

local authority 834 657 493 1984housing association 857 720 374 1951social 1691 1378 867 3935

total 7418 8073 6749 22239

percentage of dwellingsowner occupied 344 365 291 100private rented 172 368 460 100private 313 366 321 100

local authority 420 331 248 100housing association 439 369 192 100social 430 350 220 100

total 334 363 303 100

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 43

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

all dwellings

no loftno

insulationless than

50mm50 up to

99mm

100 up to

149mm

150 up to

199mm200mm or more

all dwellings

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 748 442 432 3009 5147 2007 3223 15007 private rented 672 175 66 857 813 281 434 3296 private 1420 617 497 3866 5960 2288 3657 18304

local authority 614 33 19 171 471 206 470 1984 housing association 467 20 16 143 482 265 558 1951 social 1081 53 35 314 953 471 1028 3935

total 2501 670 532 4179 6913 2759 4685 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 50 29 29 200 343 134 215 1000private rented 204 53 20 260 247 85 132 1000private 78 34 27 211 326 125 200 1000

local authority 309 17 10 86 237 104 237 1000housing association 239 10 08 73 247 136 286 1000social 275 14 09 80 242 120 261 1000

total 112 30 24 188 311 124 211 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

44 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

hazard presentnumber of homes (000s) each hazard is present in

falling on stairs 2025excess cold 1966falling on level surfaces 788falling between levels 443fire 318

entry by intruders

flames hot surfacesleaddamp and mould growth 50 to 100 eachcollision and entrapmentradiationfalls associated with baths

crowding and space

food safetypersonal hygiene sanitation and drainage 20 to 50 eachnoisedomestic hygiene pests and refuseelectrical hazards

structural collapse and falling elements

water supplycarbon monoxide and fuel combustion productsposition and operability of amenities less thanexcess heat 20 eachlightinguncombusted fuel gasexplosions

any of the 15 hazards 4842

any of the 26 hazards 5039

Note For 2006 and 2007 the survey reported on 15 hazards only The 2008 EHS can provide estimates for 26 hazards - the additional hazards are marked with an asterisk The three remaining hazards not included in the survey are presence of asbestos biocides or volatile organic compounds For reporting purposes HHSRS and non-decent estimates will be based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with previous years and avoid a break in the time seriesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 45

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 4842 4925private rented 1449 1478all private 6291 6403

local authority 625 640housing association 444 464all social 1069 1104

all tenures 7360 7507

percentagesowner occupied 323 328private rented 440 448all private 344 350

local authority 315 323housing association 228 238all social 272 281

all tenures 331 338

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

46 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 hazards present (compariosn of estimates based on any one to the 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 3342 3452private rented 978 1013all private 4320 4465

local authority 298 326RSL 224 248all social 522 574

all tenures 4842 5039

percentagesowner occupied 223 230private rented 297 307all private 236 244

local authority 150 164RSL 115 127all social 133 146

all tenures 218 227

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 47

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all households

15 hazards 26 hazards

number (000s) percentage () number (000s) percentage ()

decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 1428 653 1413 646private rented 429 490 417 476all private vulnerable 1857 606 1830 597 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 8494 683 8425 677private rented 1246 588 1232 581all private non-vulnerable 9740 669 9657 663 all owner occupied 9922 678 9839 673all private rented 1675 559 1648 550all private 11597 658 11487 663all social 2798 740 2766 731

all households 14395 672 14253 666

non-decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 760 347 775 354private rented 447 510 459 524all private vulnerable 1207 394 1234 403 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 3946 317 4015 323private rented 874 412 888 419all private non-vulnerable 4820 331 4903 337 all owner occupied 4706 322 4790 327all private rented 1321 441 1347 450all private 6027 342 6137 348all social 985 260 1017 269

all households 7012 328 7154 334

Note For reporting purposes decent homes estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

48 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes1 by deprived and other districts by tenure 2006-2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsSocial NRF88 662 652 605Other districts 480 486 464 Private NRF88 2544 2621 2442Other districts 4013 3928 3849

percentages of dwellingsSocial NRF88 313 304 278Other districts 264 278 263 Private NRF88 381 380 361Other districts 353 344 333

Note NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving Neighbourhood Renewal Funding 2001-2006Source English House Condition Survey 2006-2007English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub sample)

Technical annex | 49

Technical annex

General description

The survey consists of three main elements an initial interview survey of 17700 households with a follow up physical inspection and a desk based market valuation of a sub-sample of 8000 of these dwellings including vacant dwellings The interview survey sample forms part of ONSrsquos Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the core questions from the IHS form part of the EHS questionnaire More information about the IHS is available from its webpage wwwstatisticsgovukCCInuggetaspID=936ampPos=1ampColRank=1ampRank=224

The EHS interview content covers the key topics included under the former SEH and EHCS The content of the physical and market value components remains very largely unchanged from the former EHCS

Sampling and grossing

2008-09 Sample1 The initial sample for 2008-09 consisted of 32100 addresses drawn as a systematic

random sample from the Postcode Address File (small users) Interviews were attempted at all of these addresses over the course of the survey year from April 2008 to March 2009 A proportion of addresses were found not to be valid residential properties (eg demolished properties secondholiday homes small businesses not yet built)

2 Of the 17691 addresses where interviews were achieved (the lsquofull household samplersquo) all social rented properties and a sub-sample of private properties were regarded as eligible for the physical survey and the respondentrsquos consent was sought A proportion of vacant properties were also sub-sampled Physical surveys were completed in 7972 cases and these cases contribute to the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo (see below)

3 The principal differences in sampling methodology between the EHS and its predecessors the SEH and EHCS are that

bull The EHS uses an unclustered sample This enables a smaller sample to be used with no loss of precision ie without sampling errors being increased The more scattered sample does however have some implications for fieldwork organisation

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 30: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

30 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Figure 11 Percentage of dwellings with efficient insulation measures by tenure 2008

full double glazing200mm or moreloft insulation

cavity withinsulation

cavity wall

per

cen

tage

of

dw

ellin

gs

housing associationlocal authorityprivate rentedowner occupied0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Base all dwellingsSource English Housing Survey 2008 dwelling sub-sample

SAP Rating

216 The energy efficiency of the housing stock continued to improve between 1996 and 2008 the average SAP rating of a home increased by 9 SAP points from 42 to 51 Table 11 The social sector was on average more energy efficient than the private sector and saw the greatest improvement with the average SAP rating increasing by 12 SAP points from 47 to 59

Table 11 Energy efficiency average SAP rating by tenure 2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

owner occupied 411 444 450 456 461 469 481 496private rented 379 419 444 457 460 466 481 502all private 407 441 449 456 461 468 481 497

local authority 457 496 520 539 553 558 562 580housing association 509 564 567 573 589 593 595 603all social 468 519 539 553 569 574 578 592

all tenures 421 457 466 474 481 487 498 514

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Section 2 Housing stock | 31

217 There has been a significant increase in the proportion of homes achieving the highest Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands in 2008 10 (23 million) of homes achieved the highest (EER) Bands A to C3 compared with 7 (16 million) in 2006 Table 12 The number of homes in the lowest EER Bands (F and G) fell by a million over the same period The majority of homes (73) continue to be in the EER Bands D or E

Table 12 Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 35 35 77Band C (69-80) 1545 1710 2229Band D (55-68) 6555 7316 7865Band E (39-54) 9072 8859 8310Band F (21-38) 3838 3389 2972Band G (1-20) 943 881 786Total 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 02 02 03Band C (69-80) 70 77 100Band D (55-68) 298 330 354Band E (39-54) 413 399 374Band F (21-38) 175 153 134Band G (1-20) 43 40 35Total 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 2006 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Housing health and safety rating system

218 A potentially serious (Category 1) hazard as measured under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System was present in around 48 million homes in 2008 22 of the housing stock

2 EER Bands are used in the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) The Certificate provides among other indicators an energy efficiency rating for the home on a scale from A-G (where A is the most efficient and G the least efficient)

32 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Housing conditions

Housing Health and Safety Rating System219 There was no significant change in the proportion of homes with any Category

1 hazard between 2006 and 2008 Hazards tend to be more common in older housing stock for example stairs are more likely to be steep and narrow in older housing making lsquofalls on stairsrsquo more likely or heating and insulation measures tend to be less effective in older stock making lsquoexcess coldrsquo a more serious hazard Therefore it is not surprising that hazards are more common in the private sector where the older housing stock is concentrated Almost a quarter of housing in the private sector had at least one category 1 hazard in 2008 (24) compared to around 13 in the social sector Table 14 Privately rented homes were most likely to have Category 1 hazards present compared to housing association homes (31 and 13 respectively)

220 The most common type of hazard in all four tenures was falls (see annex Table 10 for details of which hazards are included in this category) Overall 13 of homes have at least one type of falls hazard present

Decent homes221 In 2008 74 million homes (33) were non-decent4 Table 13 Housing

association housing was the least likely to be non-decent (23) while private rented housing was in the worst condition with 44 of homes being non-decent Overall social sector homes were in a better condition than private sector homes with 27 being non-decent compared to 34

222 The number of non-decent homes fell from 77 million in 2006 to 74 million in 20085 Conditions in the social sector improved with the proportion of homes failing the standard falling by two percentage points from 29 in 2006 to 27 in 2008 Private sector homes also improved from 36 non-decent in 2006 to 34 non-decent in 2008

4 Estimates from the EHS are based soley on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors subject to any limitations of the information they collect The EHS estimates in this report do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property

5 In 2006 the Housing Health and Safety Rating System replaced the Fitness Standard as the statutory minimum standard for housing Earlier estimates based on the original definition are not comparable therefore any change in the number of decent homes can only be referenced back to 2006 Figures for decent homes prior to 2006 can be found in the 2006 English House Condition Survey Annual Report available at wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

Section 2 Housing stock | 33

Table 13 Non-decent homes by tenure 2006 ndash 2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5335 5304 4842private rented 1223 1244 1449all private 6558 6548 6291

local authority 676 652 625housing association 465 486 444all social 1142 1138 1069

all tenures 7700 7686 7360

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 346 341 323private rented 468 454 440all private 363 358 344

local authority 324 328 315housing association 252 255 228all social 290 292 272

all tenures 350 346 331

Notes1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties between 2007 and 2008 are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates See Annex Table 11Sources2006 ndash 2007 English House Condition Survey2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Reasons for failing decent homes223 Of the four components required to meet the decent homes standard the

presence of one or more category 1 hazards under the HHSRS was the most commonly failed Table 14 This is particularly the case for private sector homes where 24 of homes had one or more Category 1 hazards present compared to 13 of social sector homes

34 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 14 Homes failing decent homes criteria by tenure 2008

all dwellings

Category 1 hazard (HHSRS)

thermal comfort

modern facilities repair all non-decent

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 3342 1773 379 817 4842private rented 978 637 160 369 1449all private 4320 2411 539 1186 6291

local authority 298 227 138 146 625housing association 224 199 50 86 444all social 522 426 188 231 1069

all tenures 4842 2837 727 1417 7360

percentages

owner occupied 223 118 25 54 323private rented 297 193 49 112 440all private 236 132 29 65 344

local authority 150 115 70 74 315housing association 115 102 25 44 228all social 133 108 48 59 272

all tenures 218 128 33 64 331

Note The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoids a break in the time series See Annex Table 12 for estimate based on 26 hazardsSource English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

224 There was significant progress in the thermal comfort of homes between 2006 and 2008 The proportion of homes failing thermal comfort fell to 13 in 2008 from 16 in 2006 Improvement has been made across all tenures

Private sector vulnerable households225 In 2008 31 million lsquovulnerablersquo households6 were living in the private sector of

which 12 million (39) were living in non-decent homes the remaining 19 million (61) were living in decent accommodation Table 15 There has been no significant change since 2006

226 Vulnerable households who privately rent their accommodation were more likely to live in non-decent homes compared to social tenants (51 and 26 respectively) Table 15

6 Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

Section 2 Housing stock | 35

Table 15 Households living in decent homes 2006-2008

all dwellings

number (000s) percentage ()

2006 2007 2008 2006 2007 2008

decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 1543 1575 1428 630 649 653private rented 334 354 429 450 482 490all private vulnerable 1877 1929 1857 588 610 606

private non- vulnerableowner occupied 8418 8531 8494 664 667 683private rented 922 985 1246 567 566 588all private non-vulnerable 9340 9516 9740 653 655 669

all owner occupied 9961 10106 9922 658 664 678all private rented 1256 1339 1675 530 541 559all private 11217 11445 11597 641 647 658all social 2690 2649 2798 722 719 740all households 13907 14094 14395 655 659 672

non-decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 905 851 760 370 351 347private rented 408 380 447 550 518 510all private vulnerable 1313 1231 1207 412 390 394

private non-vulnerableowner occupied 4262 4264 3946 336 333 317private rented 704 754 874 433 434 412all private non-vulnerable 4966 5018 4820 347 345 331

all owner occupied 5167 5115 4706 342 336 322all private rented 1112 1134 1321 470 459 441all private 6279 6249 6027 359 353 342

all social 1034 1037 985 278 281 260all households 7313 7286 7012 345 341 328

Notes 1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoid a break in the time series See Annex Table 13 for further detailsSource English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

36 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Damp and mould growth227 The proportion of homes with damp problems has reduced from 13 in 1996

to 8 in 2008 Table 16

Table 16 Number and percentage of homes with damp problems in one or more rooms 1996-2008

all dwellings

rising damp

penetrating damp

condensation mould

any damp problems

thousands of dwellings1996 858 1271 1145 26012001 625 1032 860 20322003 740 1066 1003 22832004 750 1035 951 22512005 759 952 941 22102006 724 886 947 21582007 640 833 881 19162008 584 759 865 1746

percentage of dwellings1996 42 63 56 1282001 29 49 41 962003 34 50 47 1062004 35 48 44 1042005 35 44 43 1012006 33 40 43 982007 29 38 40 862008 26 34 39 78

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

228 Privately rented homes were more likely to experience damp problems compared to other tenures Figure 11 Privately rented homes were more likely to be older homes and experience problems with rising or penetrating damp due to defects in the damp proof course roof covering gutters and down pipes which would affect at least one room in the property

229 In the social sector damp problems were more likely to be caused by serious condensation and mould growth rather than by rising damp Figure 12

Section 2 Housing stock | 37

Figure 12 Percentage of homes with a damp problem by tenure 2008

rising damp penetrating damp condensationmould

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

alltenures

housingassociation

localauthority

privaterented

owneroccupied

per

cen

tage

of

ho

mes

wit

h d

amp

pro

ble

ms

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

38 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex tables

Households

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

Annex Table 2 Economic Status of working age HRP by tenure 2008-09

Energy efficiency

Annex Table 3 Heating Type 1996-2008

Annex Table 4 Main Heating System by tenure 2008

Annex Table 5 Boiler Types 1996-2008

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

Annex Table 8 Cavity Wall insulation by tenure 2008

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

Housing Health and Safety Rating System

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 HHSRS hazards present (comparison of estimates based on any one of 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Non-decent homes in deprived areas

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes in deprived areas by tenure 2006-2008

Annex tables | 39

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent

child(ren)

couple with dependent

child(ren)

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)

other multi-

person households

all one-person

households

all household

types

percentageown outright 46 9 7 24 37 31buying with mortgage 35 66 27 25 23 36social renters 9 13 44 20 25 18private renters 10 12 22 31 15 14

all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 2 Economic status of working age HRP by tenure

all households

working un-employed retired other inactive Total percentage

own outright 74 2 14 10 100buying with mortgage 94 1 1 4 100social renters 49 12 1 37 100private renters 75 5 1 19 100all tenures 80 4 3 13 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 3 Heating type 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingscentral heating 16178 18177 18604 18919 19179 19553 19862 19862storage heater 1643 1600 1587 1616 1609 1532 1552 1641fixed roomportable heater 2515 2001 1294 1078 993 904 776 736Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingscentral heating 796 860 866 875 881 889 895 893storage heater 81 76 74 75 74 70 70 74fixed roomportable heating heater 124 95 60 50 46 41 35 33Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

40 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 4 Main heating system by tenure 2008

all dwellings

central heating storage heaterfixed room

heatingportable

heating only all dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 13788 790 411 19 15007 private rented 2630 441 208 17 3296 all private 16418 1232 619 36 18304

local authority 1776 160 46 2 1984 housing association 1669 249 33 1 1951 all social 3445 409 79 3 3935

all tenures 19862 1641 698 38 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 919 53 27 01 1000 private rented 798 134 63 05 1000 all private 897 67 34 02 1000

local authority 895 80 23 01 1000 housing association 855 128 17 00 1000 all social 875 104 20 01 1000

all tenures 893 74 31 02 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 5 Boiler types 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsstandard boiler 10447 10338 9642 9635 9425 9014 8782 8072back boiler 2773 2759 2580 2409 2181 2131 1944 1688combination boiler 2810 4431 5492 5934 6254 6312 6287 6082condensing boiler ndash 155 154 202 300 460 698 948condensing-combination boiler ndash 318 373 417 727 1297 1837 2773no boiler 4305 3140 3244 3016 2894 2775 2642 2676Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsstandard boiler 514 489 449 446 433 410 396 363back boiler 136 130 120 111 100 97 88 76combination boiler 138 210 256 275 287 287 283 273condensing boiler 00 07 07 09 14 21 31 43condensing-combination boiler 00 15 17 19 33 59 83 125no boiler 212 149 151 140 133 126 119 120Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 41

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

all dwellings

standard boiler

back boiler

combination boiler

condensing boiler

condensing-combination

boilerno

boilerall

dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 6223 1045 3984 713 1756 1286 15007 private rented 817 149 1112 73 429 716 3296 all private 7040 1194 5096 787 2185 2002 18304

local authority 499 271 481 90 335 309 1984 housing association 533 223 505 72 254 365 1951 all social 1032 494 986 162 589 674 3935

all 8072 1688 6082 948 2773 2676 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 415 70 265 48 117 86 1000 private rented 248 45 337 22 130 217 1000 all private 385 65 278 43 119 109 1000

local authority 251 136 242 45 169 156 1000 housing association 273 114 259 37 130 187 1000 all social 262 125 250 41 150 171 1000

all 363 76 273 43 125 120 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 2853 5210 5334 5825 5974 6644 7267 7418200mm or more of loft insulation 583 1256 2034 2530 2919 3520 4258 4685entire house double glazing 6169 10753 11915 12846 13486 13924 14850 15747

all dwellings 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 140 246 248 270 274 302 327 334200mm or more of loft insulation 29 59 95 117 134 160 192 211entire house double glazing 303 509 555 594 619 633 669 708

all dwellings 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

42 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 8 Cavity wall insulation by tenure

all dwellings

cavity with insulation

cavity uninsulated other all

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5161 5483 4364 15007private rented 566 1213 1517 3296private 5727 6696 5882 18304

local authority 834 657 493 1984housing association 857 720 374 1951social 1691 1378 867 3935

total 7418 8073 6749 22239

percentage of dwellingsowner occupied 344 365 291 100private rented 172 368 460 100private 313 366 321 100

local authority 420 331 248 100housing association 439 369 192 100social 430 350 220 100

total 334 363 303 100

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 43

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

all dwellings

no loftno

insulationless than

50mm50 up to

99mm

100 up to

149mm

150 up to

199mm200mm or more

all dwellings

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 748 442 432 3009 5147 2007 3223 15007 private rented 672 175 66 857 813 281 434 3296 private 1420 617 497 3866 5960 2288 3657 18304

local authority 614 33 19 171 471 206 470 1984 housing association 467 20 16 143 482 265 558 1951 social 1081 53 35 314 953 471 1028 3935

total 2501 670 532 4179 6913 2759 4685 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 50 29 29 200 343 134 215 1000private rented 204 53 20 260 247 85 132 1000private 78 34 27 211 326 125 200 1000

local authority 309 17 10 86 237 104 237 1000housing association 239 10 08 73 247 136 286 1000social 275 14 09 80 242 120 261 1000

total 112 30 24 188 311 124 211 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

44 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

hazard presentnumber of homes (000s) each hazard is present in

falling on stairs 2025excess cold 1966falling on level surfaces 788falling between levels 443fire 318

entry by intruders

flames hot surfacesleaddamp and mould growth 50 to 100 eachcollision and entrapmentradiationfalls associated with baths

crowding and space

food safetypersonal hygiene sanitation and drainage 20 to 50 eachnoisedomestic hygiene pests and refuseelectrical hazards

structural collapse and falling elements

water supplycarbon monoxide and fuel combustion productsposition and operability of amenities less thanexcess heat 20 eachlightinguncombusted fuel gasexplosions

any of the 15 hazards 4842

any of the 26 hazards 5039

Note For 2006 and 2007 the survey reported on 15 hazards only The 2008 EHS can provide estimates for 26 hazards - the additional hazards are marked with an asterisk The three remaining hazards not included in the survey are presence of asbestos biocides or volatile organic compounds For reporting purposes HHSRS and non-decent estimates will be based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with previous years and avoid a break in the time seriesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 45

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 4842 4925private rented 1449 1478all private 6291 6403

local authority 625 640housing association 444 464all social 1069 1104

all tenures 7360 7507

percentagesowner occupied 323 328private rented 440 448all private 344 350

local authority 315 323housing association 228 238all social 272 281

all tenures 331 338

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

46 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 hazards present (compariosn of estimates based on any one to the 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 3342 3452private rented 978 1013all private 4320 4465

local authority 298 326RSL 224 248all social 522 574

all tenures 4842 5039

percentagesowner occupied 223 230private rented 297 307all private 236 244

local authority 150 164RSL 115 127all social 133 146

all tenures 218 227

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 47

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all households

15 hazards 26 hazards

number (000s) percentage () number (000s) percentage ()

decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 1428 653 1413 646private rented 429 490 417 476all private vulnerable 1857 606 1830 597 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 8494 683 8425 677private rented 1246 588 1232 581all private non-vulnerable 9740 669 9657 663 all owner occupied 9922 678 9839 673all private rented 1675 559 1648 550all private 11597 658 11487 663all social 2798 740 2766 731

all households 14395 672 14253 666

non-decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 760 347 775 354private rented 447 510 459 524all private vulnerable 1207 394 1234 403 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 3946 317 4015 323private rented 874 412 888 419all private non-vulnerable 4820 331 4903 337 all owner occupied 4706 322 4790 327all private rented 1321 441 1347 450all private 6027 342 6137 348all social 985 260 1017 269

all households 7012 328 7154 334

Note For reporting purposes decent homes estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

48 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes1 by deprived and other districts by tenure 2006-2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsSocial NRF88 662 652 605Other districts 480 486 464 Private NRF88 2544 2621 2442Other districts 4013 3928 3849

percentages of dwellingsSocial NRF88 313 304 278Other districts 264 278 263 Private NRF88 381 380 361Other districts 353 344 333

Note NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving Neighbourhood Renewal Funding 2001-2006Source English House Condition Survey 2006-2007English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub sample)

Technical annex | 49

Technical annex

General description

The survey consists of three main elements an initial interview survey of 17700 households with a follow up physical inspection and a desk based market valuation of a sub-sample of 8000 of these dwellings including vacant dwellings The interview survey sample forms part of ONSrsquos Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the core questions from the IHS form part of the EHS questionnaire More information about the IHS is available from its webpage wwwstatisticsgovukCCInuggetaspID=936ampPos=1ampColRank=1ampRank=224

The EHS interview content covers the key topics included under the former SEH and EHCS The content of the physical and market value components remains very largely unchanged from the former EHCS

Sampling and grossing

2008-09 Sample1 The initial sample for 2008-09 consisted of 32100 addresses drawn as a systematic

random sample from the Postcode Address File (small users) Interviews were attempted at all of these addresses over the course of the survey year from April 2008 to March 2009 A proportion of addresses were found not to be valid residential properties (eg demolished properties secondholiday homes small businesses not yet built)

2 Of the 17691 addresses where interviews were achieved (the lsquofull household samplersquo) all social rented properties and a sub-sample of private properties were regarded as eligible for the physical survey and the respondentrsquos consent was sought A proportion of vacant properties were also sub-sampled Physical surveys were completed in 7972 cases and these cases contribute to the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo (see below)

3 The principal differences in sampling methodology between the EHS and its predecessors the SEH and EHCS are that

bull The EHS uses an unclustered sample This enables a smaller sample to be used with no loss of precision ie without sampling errors being increased The more scattered sample does however have some implications for fieldwork organisation

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 31: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

Section 2 Housing stock | 31

217 There has been a significant increase in the proportion of homes achieving the highest Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands in 2008 10 (23 million) of homes achieved the highest (EER) Bands A to C3 compared with 7 (16 million) in 2006 Table 12 The number of homes in the lowest EER Bands (F and G) fell by a million over the same period The majority of homes (73) continue to be in the EER Bands D or E

Table 12 Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 35 35 77Band C (69-80) 1545 1710 2229Band D (55-68) 6555 7316 7865Band E (39-54) 9072 8859 8310Band F (21-38) 3838 3389 2972Band G (1-20) 943 881 786Total 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsBand AB (81-100) 02 02 03Band C (69-80) 70 77 100Band D (55-68) 298 330 354Band E (39-54) 413 399 374Band F (21-38) 175 153 134Band G (1-20) 43 40 35Total 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 2006 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Housing health and safety rating system

218 A potentially serious (Category 1) hazard as measured under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System was present in around 48 million homes in 2008 22 of the housing stock

2 EER Bands are used in the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) The Certificate provides among other indicators an energy efficiency rating for the home on a scale from A-G (where A is the most efficient and G the least efficient)

32 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Housing conditions

Housing Health and Safety Rating System219 There was no significant change in the proportion of homes with any Category

1 hazard between 2006 and 2008 Hazards tend to be more common in older housing stock for example stairs are more likely to be steep and narrow in older housing making lsquofalls on stairsrsquo more likely or heating and insulation measures tend to be less effective in older stock making lsquoexcess coldrsquo a more serious hazard Therefore it is not surprising that hazards are more common in the private sector where the older housing stock is concentrated Almost a quarter of housing in the private sector had at least one category 1 hazard in 2008 (24) compared to around 13 in the social sector Table 14 Privately rented homes were most likely to have Category 1 hazards present compared to housing association homes (31 and 13 respectively)

220 The most common type of hazard in all four tenures was falls (see annex Table 10 for details of which hazards are included in this category) Overall 13 of homes have at least one type of falls hazard present

Decent homes221 In 2008 74 million homes (33) were non-decent4 Table 13 Housing

association housing was the least likely to be non-decent (23) while private rented housing was in the worst condition with 44 of homes being non-decent Overall social sector homes were in a better condition than private sector homes with 27 being non-decent compared to 34

222 The number of non-decent homes fell from 77 million in 2006 to 74 million in 20085 Conditions in the social sector improved with the proportion of homes failing the standard falling by two percentage points from 29 in 2006 to 27 in 2008 Private sector homes also improved from 36 non-decent in 2006 to 34 non-decent in 2008

4 Estimates from the EHS are based soley on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors subject to any limitations of the information they collect The EHS estimates in this report do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property

5 In 2006 the Housing Health and Safety Rating System replaced the Fitness Standard as the statutory minimum standard for housing Earlier estimates based on the original definition are not comparable therefore any change in the number of decent homes can only be referenced back to 2006 Figures for decent homes prior to 2006 can be found in the 2006 English House Condition Survey Annual Report available at wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

Section 2 Housing stock | 33

Table 13 Non-decent homes by tenure 2006 ndash 2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5335 5304 4842private rented 1223 1244 1449all private 6558 6548 6291

local authority 676 652 625housing association 465 486 444all social 1142 1138 1069

all tenures 7700 7686 7360

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 346 341 323private rented 468 454 440all private 363 358 344

local authority 324 328 315housing association 252 255 228all social 290 292 272

all tenures 350 346 331

Notes1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties between 2007 and 2008 are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates See Annex Table 11Sources2006 ndash 2007 English House Condition Survey2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Reasons for failing decent homes223 Of the four components required to meet the decent homes standard the

presence of one or more category 1 hazards under the HHSRS was the most commonly failed Table 14 This is particularly the case for private sector homes where 24 of homes had one or more Category 1 hazards present compared to 13 of social sector homes

34 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 14 Homes failing decent homes criteria by tenure 2008

all dwellings

Category 1 hazard (HHSRS)

thermal comfort

modern facilities repair all non-decent

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 3342 1773 379 817 4842private rented 978 637 160 369 1449all private 4320 2411 539 1186 6291

local authority 298 227 138 146 625housing association 224 199 50 86 444all social 522 426 188 231 1069

all tenures 4842 2837 727 1417 7360

percentages

owner occupied 223 118 25 54 323private rented 297 193 49 112 440all private 236 132 29 65 344

local authority 150 115 70 74 315housing association 115 102 25 44 228all social 133 108 48 59 272

all tenures 218 128 33 64 331

Note The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoids a break in the time series See Annex Table 12 for estimate based on 26 hazardsSource English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

224 There was significant progress in the thermal comfort of homes between 2006 and 2008 The proportion of homes failing thermal comfort fell to 13 in 2008 from 16 in 2006 Improvement has been made across all tenures

Private sector vulnerable households225 In 2008 31 million lsquovulnerablersquo households6 were living in the private sector of

which 12 million (39) were living in non-decent homes the remaining 19 million (61) were living in decent accommodation Table 15 There has been no significant change since 2006

226 Vulnerable households who privately rent their accommodation were more likely to live in non-decent homes compared to social tenants (51 and 26 respectively) Table 15

6 Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

Section 2 Housing stock | 35

Table 15 Households living in decent homes 2006-2008

all dwellings

number (000s) percentage ()

2006 2007 2008 2006 2007 2008

decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 1543 1575 1428 630 649 653private rented 334 354 429 450 482 490all private vulnerable 1877 1929 1857 588 610 606

private non- vulnerableowner occupied 8418 8531 8494 664 667 683private rented 922 985 1246 567 566 588all private non-vulnerable 9340 9516 9740 653 655 669

all owner occupied 9961 10106 9922 658 664 678all private rented 1256 1339 1675 530 541 559all private 11217 11445 11597 641 647 658all social 2690 2649 2798 722 719 740all households 13907 14094 14395 655 659 672

non-decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 905 851 760 370 351 347private rented 408 380 447 550 518 510all private vulnerable 1313 1231 1207 412 390 394

private non-vulnerableowner occupied 4262 4264 3946 336 333 317private rented 704 754 874 433 434 412all private non-vulnerable 4966 5018 4820 347 345 331

all owner occupied 5167 5115 4706 342 336 322all private rented 1112 1134 1321 470 459 441all private 6279 6249 6027 359 353 342

all social 1034 1037 985 278 281 260all households 7313 7286 7012 345 341 328

Notes 1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoid a break in the time series See Annex Table 13 for further detailsSource English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

36 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Damp and mould growth227 The proportion of homes with damp problems has reduced from 13 in 1996

to 8 in 2008 Table 16

Table 16 Number and percentage of homes with damp problems in one or more rooms 1996-2008

all dwellings

rising damp

penetrating damp

condensation mould

any damp problems

thousands of dwellings1996 858 1271 1145 26012001 625 1032 860 20322003 740 1066 1003 22832004 750 1035 951 22512005 759 952 941 22102006 724 886 947 21582007 640 833 881 19162008 584 759 865 1746

percentage of dwellings1996 42 63 56 1282001 29 49 41 962003 34 50 47 1062004 35 48 44 1042005 35 44 43 1012006 33 40 43 982007 29 38 40 862008 26 34 39 78

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

228 Privately rented homes were more likely to experience damp problems compared to other tenures Figure 11 Privately rented homes were more likely to be older homes and experience problems with rising or penetrating damp due to defects in the damp proof course roof covering gutters and down pipes which would affect at least one room in the property

229 In the social sector damp problems were more likely to be caused by serious condensation and mould growth rather than by rising damp Figure 12

Section 2 Housing stock | 37

Figure 12 Percentage of homes with a damp problem by tenure 2008

rising damp penetrating damp condensationmould

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

alltenures

housingassociation

localauthority

privaterented

owneroccupied

per

cen

tage

of

ho

mes

wit

h d

amp

pro

ble

ms

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

38 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex tables

Households

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

Annex Table 2 Economic Status of working age HRP by tenure 2008-09

Energy efficiency

Annex Table 3 Heating Type 1996-2008

Annex Table 4 Main Heating System by tenure 2008

Annex Table 5 Boiler Types 1996-2008

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

Annex Table 8 Cavity Wall insulation by tenure 2008

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

Housing Health and Safety Rating System

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 HHSRS hazards present (comparison of estimates based on any one of 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Non-decent homes in deprived areas

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes in deprived areas by tenure 2006-2008

Annex tables | 39

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent

child(ren)

couple with dependent

child(ren)

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)

other multi-

person households

all one-person

households

all household

types

percentageown outright 46 9 7 24 37 31buying with mortgage 35 66 27 25 23 36social renters 9 13 44 20 25 18private renters 10 12 22 31 15 14

all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 2 Economic status of working age HRP by tenure

all households

working un-employed retired other inactive Total percentage

own outright 74 2 14 10 100buying with mortgage 94 1 1 4 100social renters 49 12 1 37 100private renters 75 5 1 19 100all tenures 80 4 3 13 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 3 Heating type 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingscentral heating 16178 18177 18604 18919 19179 19553 19862 19862storage heater 1643 1600 1587 1616 1609 1532 1552 1641fixed roomportable heater 2515 2001 1294 1078 993 904 776 736Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingscentral heating 796 860 866 875 881 889 895 893storage heater 81 76 74 75 74 70 70 74fixed roomportable heating heater 124 95 60 50 46 41 35 33Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

40 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 4 Main heating system by tenure 2008

all dwellings

central heating storage heaterfixed room

heatingportable

heating only all dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 13788 790 411 19 15007 private rented 2630 441 208 17 3296 all private 16418 1232 619 36 18304

local authority 1776 160 46 2 1984 housing association 1669 249 33 1 1951 all social 3445 409 79 3 3935

all tenures 19862 1641 698 38 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 919 53 27 01 1000 private rented 798 134 63 05 1000 all private 897 67 34 02 1000

local authority 895 80 23 01 1000 housing association 855 128 17 00 1000 all social 875 104 20 01 1000

all tenures 893 74 31 02 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 5 Boiler types 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsstandard boiler 10447 10338 9642 9635 9425 9014 8782 8072back boiler 2773 2759 2580 2409 2181 2131 1944 1688combination boiler 2810 4431 5492 5934 6254 6312 6287 6082condensing boiler ndash 155 154 202 300 460 698 948condensing-combination boiler ndash 318 373 417 727 1297 1837 2773no boiler 4305 3140 3244 3016 2894 2775 2642 2676Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsstandard boiler 514 489 449 446 433 410 396 363back boiler 136 130 120 111 100 97 88 76combination boiler 138 210 256 275 287 287 283 273condensing boiler 00 07 07 09 14 21 31 43condensing-combination boiler 00 15 17 19 33 59 83 125no boiler 212 149 151 140 133 126 119 120Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 41

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

all dwellings

standard boiler

back boiler

combination boiler

condensing boiler

condensing-combination

boilerno

boilerall

dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 6223 1045 3984 713 1756 1286 15007 private rented 817 149 1112 73 429 716 3296 all private 7040 1194 5096 787 2185 2002 18304

local authority 499 271 481 90 335 309 1984 housing association 533 223 505 72 254 365 1951 all social 1032 494 986 162 589 674 3935

all 8072 1688 6082 948 2773 2676 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 415 70 265 48 117 86 1000 private rented 248 45 337 22 130 217 1000 all private 385 65 278 43 119 109 1000

local authority 251 136 242 45 169 156 1000 housing association 273 114 259 37 130 187 1000 all social 262 125 250 41 150 171 1000

all 363 76 273 43 125 120 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 2853 5210 5334 5825 5974 6644 7267 7418200mm or more of loft insulation 583 1256 2034 2530 2919 3520 4258 4685entire house double glazing 6169 10753 11915 12846 13486 13924 14850 15747

all dwellings 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 140 246 248 270 274 302 327 334200mm or more of loft insulation 29 59 95 117 134 160 192 211entire house double glazing 303 509 555 594 619 633 669 708

all dwellings 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

42 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 8 Cavity wall insulation by tenure

all dwellings

cavity with insulation

cavity uninsulated other all

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5161 5483 4364 15007private rented 566 1213 1517 3296private 5727 6696 5882 18304

local authority 834 657 493 1984housing association 857 720 374 1951social 1691 1378 867 3935

total 7418 8073 6749 22239

percentage of dwellingsowner occupied 344 365 291 100private rented 172 368 460 100private 313 366 321 100

local authority 420 331 248 100housing association 439 369 192 100social 430 350 220 100

total 334 363 303 100

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 43

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

all dwellings

no loftno

insulationless than

50mm50 up to

99mm

100 up to

149mm

150 up to

199mm200mm or more

all dwellings

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 748 442 432 3009 5147 2007 3223 15007 private rented 672 175 66 857 813 281 434 3296 private 1420 617 497 3866 5960 2288 3657 18304

local authority 614 33 19 171 471 206 470 1984 housing association 467 20 16 143 482 265 558 1951 social 1081 53 35 314 953 471 1028 3935

total 2501 670 532 4179 6913 2759 4685 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 50 29 29 200 343 134 215 1000private rented 204 53 20 260 247 85 132 1000private 78 34 27 211 326 125 200 1000

local authority 309 17 10 86 237 104 237 1000housing association 239 10 08 73 247 136 286 1000social 275 14 09 80 242 120 261 1000

total 112 30 24 188 311 124 211 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

44 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

hazard presentnumber of homes (000s) each hazard is present in

falling on stairs 2025excess cold 1966falling on level surfaces 788falling between levels 443fire 318

entry by intruders

flames hot surfacesleaddamp and mould growth 50 to 100 eachcollision and entrapmentradiationfalls associated with baths

crowding and space

food safetypersonal hygiene sanitation and drainage 20 to 50 eachnoisedomestic hygiene pests and refuseelectrical hazards

structural collapse and falling elements

water supplycarbon monoxide and fuel combustion productsposition and operability of amenities less thanexcess heat 20 eachlightinguncombusted fuel gasexplosions

any of the 15 hazards 4842

any of the 26 hazards 5039

Note For 2006 and 2007 the survey reported on 15 hazards only The 2008 EHS can provide estimates for 26 hazards - the additional hazards are marked with an asterisk The three remaining hazards not included in the survey are presence of asbestos biocides or volatile organic compounds For reporting purposes HHSRS and non-decent estimates will be based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with previous years and avoid a break in the time seriesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 45

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 4842 4925private rented 1449 1478all private 6291 6403

local authority 625 640housing association 444 464all social 1069 1104

all tenures 7360 7507

percentagesowner occupied 323 328private rented 440 448all private 344 350

local authority 315 323housing association 228 238all social 272 281

all tenures 331 338

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

46 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 hazards present (compariosn of estimates based on any one to the 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 3342 3452private rented 978 1013all private 4320 4465

local authority 298 326RSL 224 248all social 522 574

all tenures 4842 5039

percentagesowner occupied 223 230private rented 297 307all private 236 244

local authority 150 164RSL 115 127all social 133 146

all tenures 218 227

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 47

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all households

15 hazards 26 hazards

number (000s) percentage () number (000s) percentage ()

decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 1428 653 1413 646private rented 429 490 417 476all private vulnerable 1857 606 1830 597 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 8494 683 8425 677private rented 1246 588 1232 581all private non-vulnerable 9740 669 9657 663 all owner occupied 9922 678 9839 673all private rented 1675 559 1648 550all private 11597 658 11487 663all social 2798 740 2766 731

all households 14395 672 14253 666

non-decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 760 347 775 354private rented 447 510 459 524all private vulnerable 1207 394 1234 403 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 3946 317 4015 323private rented 874 412 888 419all private non-vulnerable 4820 331 4903 337 all owner occupied 4706 322 4790 327all private rented 1321 441 1347 450all private 6027 342 6137 348all social 985 260 1017 269

all households 7012 328 7154 334

Note For reporting purposes decent homes estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

48 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes1 by deprived and other districts by tenure 2006-2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsSocial NRF88 662 652 605Other districts 480 486 464 Private NRF88 2544 2621 2442Other districts 4013 3928 3849

percentages of dwellingsSocial NRF88 313 304 278Other districts 264 278 263 Private NRF88 381 380 361Other districts 353 344 333

Note NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving Neighbourhood Renewal Funding 2001-2006Source English House Condition Survey 2006-2007English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub sample)

Technical annex | 49

Technical annex

General description

The survey consists of three main elements an initial interview survey of 17700 households with a follow up physical inspection and a desk based market valuation of a sub-sample of 8000 of these dwellings including vacant dwellings The interview survey sample forms part of ONSrsquos Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the core questions from the IHS form part of the EHS questionnaire More information about the IHS is available from its webpage wwwstatisticsgovukCCInuggetaspID=936ampPos=1ampColRank=1ampRank=224

The EHS interview content covers the key topics included under the former SEH and EHCS The content of the physical and market value components remains very largely unchanged from the former EHCS

Sampling and grossing

2008-09 Sample1 The initial sample for 2008-09 consisted of 32100 addresses drawn as a systematic

random sample from the Postcode Address File (small users) Interviews were attempted at all of these addresses over the course of the survey year from April 2008 to March 2009 A proportion of addresses were found not to be valid residential properties (eg demolished properties secondholiday homes small businesses not yet built)

2 Of the 17691 addresses where interviews were achieved (the lsquofull household samplersquo) all social rented properties and a sub-sample of private properties were regarded as eligible for the physical survey and the respondentrsquos consent was sought A proportion of vacant properties were also sub-sampled Physical surveys were completed in 7972 cases and these cases contribute to the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo (see below)

3 The principal differences in sampling methodology between the EHS and its predecessors the SEH and EHCS are that

bull The EHS uses an unclustered sample This enables a smaller sample to be used with no loss of precision ie without sampling errors being increased The more scattered sample does however have some implications for fieldwork organisation

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 32: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

32 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Housing conditions

Housing Health and Safety Rating System219 There was no significant change in the proportion of homes with any Category

1 hazard between 2006 and 2008 Hazards tend to be more common in older housing stock for example stairs are more likely to be steep and narrow in older housing making lsquofalls on stairsrsquo more likely or heating and insulation measures tend to be less effective in older stock making lsquoexcess coldrsquo a more serious hazard Therefore it is not surprising that hazards are more common in the private sector where the older housing stock is concentrated Almost a quarter of housing in the private sector had at least one category 1 hazard in 2008 (24) compared to around 13 in the social sector Table 14 Privately rented homes were most likely to have Category 1 hazards present compared to housing association homes (31 and 13 respectively)

220 The most common type of hazard in all four tenures was falls (see annex Table 10 for details of which hazards are included in this category) Overall 13 of homes have at least one type of falls hazard present

Decent homes221 In 2008 74 million homes (33) were non-decent4 Table 13 Housing

association housing was the least likely to be non-decent (23) while private rented housing was in the worst condition with 44 of homes being non-decent Overall social sector homes were in a better condition than private sector homes with 27 being non-decent compared to 34

222 The number of non-decent homes fell from 77 million in 2006 to 74 million in 20085 Conditions in the social sector improved with the proportion of homes failing the standard falling by two percentage points from 29 in 2006 to 27 in 2008 Private sector homes also improved from 36 non-decent in 2006 to 34 non-decent in 2008

4 Estimates from the EHS are based soley on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors subject to any limitations of the information they collect The EHS estimates in this report do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property

5 In 2006 the Housing Health and Safety Rating System replaced the Fitness Standard as the statutory minimum standard for housing Earlier estimates based on the original definition are not comparable therefore any change in the number of decent homes can only be referenced back to 2006 Figures for decent homes prior to 2006 can be found in the 2006 English House Condition Survey Annual Report available at wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

Section 2 Housing stock | 33

Table 13 Non-decent homes by tenure 2006 ndash 2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5335 5304 4842private rented 1223 1244 1449all private 6558 6548 6291

local authority 676 652 625housing association 465 486 444all social 1142 1138 1069

all tenures 7700 7686 7360

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 346 341 323private rented 468 454 440all private 363 358 344

local authority 324 328 315housing association 252 255 228all social 290 292 272

all tenures 350 346 331

Notes1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties between 2007 and 2008 are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates See Annex Table 11Sources2006 ndash 2007 English House Condition Survey2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Reasons for failing decent homes223 Of the four components required to meet the decent homes standard the

presence of one or more category 1 hazards under the HHSRS was the most commonly failed Table 14 This is particularly the case for private sector homes where 24 of homes had one or more Category 1 hazards present compared to 13 of social sector homes

34 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 14 Homes failing decent homes criteria by tenure 2008

all dwellings

Category 1 hazard (HHSRS)

thermal comfort

modern facilities repair all non-decent

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 3342 1773 379 817 4842private rented 978 637 160 369 1449all private 4320 2411 539 1186 6291

local authority 298 227 138 146 625housing association 224 199 50 86 444all social 522 426 188 231 1069

all tenures 4842 2837 727 1417 7360

percentages

owner occupied 223 118 25 54 323private rented 297 193 49 112 440all private 236 132 29 65 344

local authority 150 115 70 74 315housing association 115 102 25 44 228all social 133 108 48 59 272

all tenures 218 128 33 64 331

Note The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoids a break in the time series See Annex Table 12 for estimate based on 26 hazardsSource English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

224 There was significant progress in the thermal comfort of homes between 2006 and 2008 The proportion of homes failing thermal comfort fell to 13 in 2008 from 16 in 2006 Improvement has been made across all tenures

Private sector vulnerable households225 In 2008 31 million lsquovulnerablersquo households6 were living in the private sector of

which 12 million (39) were living in non-decent homes the remaining 19 million (61) were living in decent accommodation Table 15 There has been no significant change since 2006

226 Vulnerable households who privately rent their accommodation were more likely to live in non-decent homes compared to social tenants (51 and 26 respectively) Table 15

6 Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

Section 2 Housing stock | 35

Table 15 Households living in decent homes 2006-2008

all dwellings

number (000s) percentage ()

2006 2007 2008 2006 2007 2008

decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 1543 1575 1428 630 649 653private rented 334 354 429 450 482 490all private vulnerable 1877 1929 1857 588 610 606

private non- vulnerableowner occupied 8418 8531 8494 664 667 683private rented 922 985 1246 567 566 588all private non-vulnerable 9340 9516 9740 653 655 669

all owner occupied 9961 10106 9922 658 664 678all private rented 1256 1339 1675 530 541 559all private 11217 11445 11597 641 647 658all social 2690 2649 2798 722 719 740all households 13907 14094 14395 655 659 672

non-decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 905 851 760 370 351 347private rented 408 380 447 550 518 510all private vulnerable 1313 1231 1207 412 390 394

private non-vulnerableowner occupied 4262 4264 3946 336 333 317private rented 704 754 874 433 434 412all private non-vulnerable 4966 5018 4820 347 345 331

all owner occupied 5167 5115 4706 342 336 322all private rented 1112 1134 1321 470 459 441all private 6279 6249 6027 359 353 342

all social 1034 1037 985 278 281 260all households 7313 7286 7012 345 341 328

Notes 1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoid a break in the time series See Annex Table 13 for further detailsSource English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

36 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Damp and mould growth227 The proportion of homes with damp problems has reduced from 13 in 1996

to 8 in 2008 Table 16

Table 16 Number and percentage of homes with damp problems in one or more rooms 1996-2008

all dwellings

rising damp

penetrating damp

condensation mould

any damp problems

thousands of dwellings1996 858 1271 1145 26012001 625 1032 860 20322003 740 1066 1003 22832004 750 1035 951 22512005 759 952 941 22102006 724 886 947 21582007 640 833 881 19162008 584 759 865 1746

percentage of dwellings1996 42 63 56 1282001 29 49 41 962003 34 50 47 1062004 35 48 44 1042005 35 44 43 1012006 33 40 43 982007 29 38 40 862008 26 34 39 78

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

228 Privately rented homes were more likely to experience damp problems compared to other tenures Figure 11 Privately rented homes were more likely to be older homes and experience problems with rising or penetrating damp due to defects in the damp proof course roof covering gutters and down pipes which would affect at least one room in the property

229 In the social sector damp problems were more likely to be caused by serious condensation and mould growth rather than by rising damp Figure 12

Section 2 Housing stock | 37

Figure 12 Percentage of homes with a damp problem by tenure 2008

rising damp penetrating damp condensationmould

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

alltenures

housingassociation

localauthority

privaterented

owneroccupied

per

cen

tage

of

ho

mes

wit

h d

amp

pro

ble

ms

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

38 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex tables

Households

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

Annex Table 2 Economic Status of working age HRP by tenure 2008-09

Energy efficiency

Annex Table 3 Heating Type 1996-2008

Annex Table 4 Main Heating System by tenure 2008

Annex Table 5 Boiler Types 1996-2008

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

Annex Table 8 Cavity Wall insulation by tenure 2008

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

Housing Health and Safety Rating System

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 HHSRS hazards present (comparison of estimates based on any one of 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Non-decent homes in deprived areas

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes in deprived areas by tenure 2006-2008

Annex tables | 39

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent

child(ren)

couple with dependent

child(ren)

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)

other multi-

person households

all one-person

households

all household

types

percentageown outright 46 9 7 24 37 31buying with mortgage 35 66 27 25 23 36social renters 9 13 44 20 25 18private renters 10 12 22 31 15 14

all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 2 Economic status of working age HRP by tenure

all households

working un-employed retired other inactive Total percentage

own outright 74 2 14 10 100buying with mortgage 94 1 1 4 100social renters 49 12 1 37 100private renters 75 5 1 19 100all tenures 80 4 3 13 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 3 Heating type 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingscentral heating 16178 18177 18604 18919 19179 19553 19862 19862storage heater 1643 1600 1587 1616 1609 1532 1552 1641fixed roomportable heater 2515 2001 1294 1078 993 904 776 736Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingscentral heating 796 860 866 875 881 889 895 893storage heater 81 76 74 75 74 70 70 74fixed roomportable heating heater 124 95 60 50 46 41 35 33Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

40 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 4 Main heating system by tenure 2008

all dwellings

central heating storage heaterfixed room

heatingportable

heating only all dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 13788 790 411 19 15007 private rented 2630 441 208 17 3296 all private 16418 1232 619 36 18304

local authority 1776 160 46 2 1984 housing association 1669 249 33 1 1951 all social 3445 409 79 3 3935

all tenures 19862 1641 698 38 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 919 53 27 01 1000 private rented 798 134 63 05 1000 all private 897 67 34 02 1000

local authority 895 80 23 01 1000 housing association 855 128 17 00 1000 all social 875 104 20 01 1000

all tenures 893 74 31 02 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 5 Boiler types 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsstandard boiler 10447 10338 9642 9635 9425 9014 8782 8072back boiler 2773 2759 2580 2409 2181 2131 1944 1688combination boiler 2810 4431 5492 5934 6254 6312 6287 6082condensing boiler ndash 155 154 202 300 460 698 948condensing-combination boiler ndash 318 373 417 727 1297 1837 2773no boiler 4305 3140 3244 3016 2894 2775 2642 2676Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsstandard boiler 514 489 449 446 433 410 396 363back boiler 136 130 120 111 100 97 88 76combination boiler 138 210 256 275 287 287 283 273condensing boiler 00 07 07 09 14 21 31 43condensing-combination boiler 00 15 17 19 33 59 83 125no boiler 212 149 151 140 133 126 119 120Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 41

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

all dwellings

standard boiler

back boiler

combination boiler

condensing boiler

condensing-combination

boilerno

boilerall

dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 6223 1045 3984 713 1756 1286 15007 private rented 817 149 1112 73 429 716 3296 all private 7040 1194 5096 787 2185 2002 18304

local authority 499 271 481 90 335 309 1984 housing association 533 223 505 72 254 365 1951 all social 1032 494 986 162 589 674 3935

all 8072 1688 6082 948 2773 2676 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 415 70 265 48 117 86 1000 private rented 248 45 337 22 130 217 1000 all private 385 65 278 43 119 109 1000

local authority 251 136 242 45 169 156 1000 housing association 273 114 259 37 130 187 1000 all social 262 125 250 41 150 171 1000

all 363 76 273 43 125 120 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 2853 5210 5334 5825 5974 6644 7267 7418200mm or more of loft insulation 583 1256 2034 2530 2919 3520 4258 4685entire house double glazing 6169 10753 11915 12846 13486 13924 14850 15747

all dwellings 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 140 246 248 270 274 302 327 334200mm or more of loft insulation 29 59 95 117 134 160 192 211entire house double glazing 303 509 555 594 619 633 669 708

all dwellings 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

42 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 8 Cavity wall insulation by tenure

all dwellings

cavity with insulation

cavity uninsulated other all

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5161 5483 4364 15007private rented 566 1213 1517 3296private 5727 6696 5882 18304

local authority 834 657 493 1984housing association 857 720 374 1951social 1691 1378 867 3935

total 7418 8073 6749 22239

percentage of dwellingsowner occupied 344 365 291 100private rented 172 368 460 100private 313 366 321 100

local authority 420 331 248 100housing association 439 369 192 100social 430 350 220 100

total 334 363 303 100

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 43

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

all dwellings

no loftno

insulationless than

50mm50 up to

99mm

100 up to

149mm

150 up to

199mm200mm or more

all dwellings

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 748 442 432 3009 5147 2007 3223 15007 private rented 672 175 66 857 813 281 434 3296 private 1420 617 497 3866 5960 2288 3657 18304

local authority 614 33 19 171 471 206 470 1984 housing association 467 20 16 143 482 265 558 1951 social 1081 53 35 314 953 471 1028 3935

total 2501 670 532 4179 6913 2759 4685 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 50 29 29 200 343 134 215 1000private rented 204 53 20 260 247 85 132 1000private 78 34 27 211 326 125 200 1000

local authority 309 17 10 86 237 104 237 1000housing association 239 10 08 73 247 136 286 1000social 275 14 09 80 242 120 261 1000

total 112 30 24 188 311 124 211 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

44 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

hazard presentnumber of homes (000s) each hazard is present in

falling on stairs 2025excess cold 1966falling on level surfaces 788falling between levels 443fire 318

entry by intruders

flames hot surfacesleaddamp and mould growth 50 to 100 eachcollision and entrapmentradiationfalls associated with baths

crowding and space

food safetypersonal hygiene sanitation and drainage 20 to 50 eachnoisedomestic hygiene pests and refuseelectrical hazards

structural collapse and falling elements

water supplycarbon monoxide and fuel combustion productsposition and operability of amenities less thanexcess heat 20 eachlightinguncombusted fuel gasexplosions

any of the 15 hazards 4842

any of the 26 hazards 5039

Note For 2006 and 2007 the survey reported on 15 hazards only The 2008 EHS can provide estimates for 26 hazards - the additional hazards are marked with an asterisk The three remaining hazards not included in the survey are presence of asbestos biocides or volatile organic compounds For reporting purposes HHSRS and non-decent estimates will be based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with previous years and avoid a break in the time seriesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 45

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 4842 4925private rented 1449 1478all private 6291 6403

local authority 625 640housing association 444 464all social 1069 1104

all tenures 7360 7507

percentagesowner occupied 323 328private rented 440 448all private 344 350

local authority 315 323housing association 228 238all social 272 281

all tenures 331 338

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

46 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 hazards present (compariosn of estimates based on any one to the 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 3342 3452private rented 978 1013all private 4320 4465

local authority 298 326RSL 224 248all social 522 574

all tenures 4842 5039

percentagesowner occupied 223 230private rented 297 307all private 236 244

local authority 150 164RSL 115 127all social 133 146

all tenures 218 227

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 47

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all households

15 hazards 26 hazards

number (000s) percentage () number (000s) percentage ()

decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 1428 653 1413 646private rented 429 490 417 476all private vulnerable 1857 606 1830 597 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 8494 683 8425 677private rented 1246 588 1232 581all private non-vulnerable 9740 669 9657 663 all owner occupied 9922 678 9839 673all private rented 1675 559 1648 550all private 11597 658 11487 663all social 2798 740 2766 731

all households 14395 672 14253 666

non-decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 760 347 775 354private rented 447 510 459 524all private vulnerable 1207 394 1234 403 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 3946 317 4015 323private rented 874 412 888 419all private non-vulnerable 4820 331 4903 337 all owner occupied 4706 322 4790 327all private rented 1321 441 1347 450all private 6027 342 6137 348all social 985 260 1017 269

all households 7012 328 7154 334

Note For reporting purposes decent homes estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

48 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes1 by deprived and other districts by tenure 2006-2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsSocial NRF88 662 652 605Other districts 480 486 464 Private NRF88 2544 2621 2442Other districts 4013 3928 3849

percentages of dwellingsSocial NRF88 313 304 278Other districts 264 278 263 Private NRF88 381 380 361Other districts 353 344 333

Note NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving Neighbourhood Renewal Funding 2001-2006Source English House Condition Survey 2006-2007English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub sample)

Technical annex | 49

Technical annex

General description

The survey consists of three main elements an initial interview survey of 17700 households with a follow up physical inspection and a desk based market valuation of a sub-sample of 8000 of these dwellings including vacant dwellings The interview survey sample forms part of ONSrsquos Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the core questions from the IHS form part of the EHS questionnaire More information about the IHS is available from its webpage wwwstatisticsgovukCCInuggetaspID=936ampPos=1ampColRank=1ampRank=224

The EHS interview content covers the key topics included under the former SEH and EHCS The content of the physical and market value components remains very largely unchanged from the former EHCS

Sampling and grossing

2008-09 Sample1 The initial sample for 2008-09 consisted of 32100 addresses drawn as a systematic

random sample from the Postcode Address File (small users) Interviews were attempted at all of these addresses over the course of the survey year from April 2008 to March 2009 A proportion of addresses were found not to be valid residential properties (eg demolished properties secondholiday homes small businesses not yet built)

2 Of the 17691 addresses where interviews were achieved (the lsquofull household samplersquo) all social rented properties and a sub-sample of private properties were regarded as eligible for the physical survey and the respondentrsquos consent was sought A proportion of vacant properties were also sub-sampled Physical surveys were completed in 7972 cases and these cases contribute to the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo (see below)

3 The principal differences in sampling methodology between the EHS and its predecessors the SEH and EHCS are that

bull The EHS uses an unclustered sample This enables a smaller sample to be used with no loss of precision ie without sampling errors being increased The more scattered sample does however have some implications for fieldwork organisation

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 33: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

Section 2 Housing stock | 33

Table 13 Non-decent homes by tenure 2006 ndash 2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5335 5304 4842private rented 1223 1244 1449all private 6558 6548 6291

local authority 676 652 625housing association 465 486 444all social 1142 1138 1069

all tenures 7700 7686 7360

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 346 341 323private rented 468 454 440all private 363 358 344

local authority 324 328 315housing association 252 255 228all social 290 292 272

all tenures 350 346 331

Notes1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties between 2007 and 2008 are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates See Annex Table 11Sources2006 ndash 2007 English House Condition Survey2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Reasons for failing decent homes223 Of the four components required to meet the decent homes standard the

presence of one or more category 1 hazards under the HHSRS was the most commonly failed Table 14 This is particularly the case for private sector homes where 24 of homes had one or more Category 1 hazards present compared to 13 of social sector homes

34 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 14 Homes failing decent homes criteria by tenure 2008

all dwellings

Category 1 hazard (HHSRS)

thermal comfort

modern facilities repair all non-decent

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 3342 1773 379 817 4842private rented 978 637 160 369 1449all private 4320 2411 539 1186 6291

local authority 298 227 138 146 625housing association 224 199 50 86 444all social 522 426 188 231 1069

all tenures 4842 2837 727 1417 7360

percentages

owner occupied 223 118 25 54 323private rented 297 193 49 112 440all private 236 132 29 65 344

local authority 150 115 70 74 315housing association 115 102 25 44 228all social 133 108 48 59 272

all tenures 218 128 33 64 331

Note The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoids a break in the time series See Annex Table 12 for estimate based on 26 hazardsSource English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

224 There was significant progress in the thermal comfort of homes between 2006 and 2008 The proportion of homes failing thermal comfort fell to 13 in 2008 from 16 in 2006 Improvement has been made across all tenures

Private sector vulnerable households225 In 2008 31 million lsquovulnerablersquo households6 were living in the private sector of

which 12 million (39) were living in non-decent homes the remaining 19 million (61) were living in decent accommodation Table 15 There has been no significant change since 2006

226 Vulnerable households who privately rent their accommodation were more likely to live in non-decent homes compared to social tenants (51 and 26 respectively) Table 15

6 Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

Section 2 Housing stock | 35

Table 15 Households living in decent homes 2006-2008

all dwellings

number (000s) percentage ()

2006 2007 2008 2006 2007 2008

decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 1543 1575 1428 630 649 653private rented 334 354 429 450 482 490all private vulnerable 1877 1929 1857 588 610 606

private non- vulnerableowner occupied 8418 8531 8494 664 667 683private rented 922 985 1246 567 566 588all private non-vulnerable 9340 9516 9740 653 655 669

all owner occupied 9961 10106 9922 658 664 678all private rented 1256 1339 1675 530 541 559all private 11217 11445 11597 641 647 658all social 2690 2649 2798 722 719 740all households 13907 14094 14395 655 659 672

non-decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 905 851 760 370 351 347private rented 408 380 447 550 518 510all private vulnerable 1313 1231 1207 412 390 394

private non-vulnerableowner occupied 4262 4264 3946 336 333 317private rented 704 754 874 433 434 412all private non-vulnerable 4966 5018 4820 347 345 331

all owner occupied 5167 5115 4706 342 336 322all private rented 1112 1134 1321 470 459 441all private 6279 6249 6027 359 353 342

all social 1034 1037 985 278 281 260all households 7313 7286 7012 345 341 328

Notes 1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoid a break in the time series See Annex Table 13 for further detailsSource English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

36 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Damp and mould growth227 The proportion of homes with damp problems has reduced from 13 in 1996

to 8 in 2008 Table 16

Table 16 Number and percentage of homes with damp problems in one or more rooms 1996-2008

all dwellings

rising damp

penetrating damp

condensation mould

any damp problems

thousands of dwellings1996 858 1271 1145 26012001 625 1032 860 20322003 740 1066 1003 22832004 750 1035 951 22512005 759 952 941 22102006 724 886 947 21582007 640 833 881 19162008 584 759 865 1746

percentage of dwellings1996 42 63 56 1282001 29 49 41 962003 34 50 47 1062004 35 48 44 1042005 35 44 43 1012006 33 40 43 982007 29 38 40 862008 26 34 39 78

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

228 Privately rented homes were more likely to experience damp problems compared to other tenures Figure 11 Privately rented homes were more likely to be older homes and experience problems with rising or penetrating damp due to defects in the damp proof course roof covering gutters and down pipes which would affect at least one room in the property

229 In the social sector damp problems were more likely to be caused by serious condensation and mould growth rather than by rising damp Figure 12

Section 2 Housing stock | 37

Figure 12 Percentage of homes with a damp problem by tenure 2008

rising damp penetrating damp condensationmould

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

alltenures

housingassociation

localauthority

privaterented

owneroccupied

per

cen

tage

of

ho

mes

wit

h d

amp

pro

ble

ms

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

38 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex tables

Households

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

Annex Table 2 Economic Status of working age HRP by tenure 2008-09

Energy efficiency

Annex Table 3 Heating Type 1996-2008

Annex Table 4 Main Heating System by tenure 2008

Annex Table 5 Boiler Types 1996-2008

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

Annex Table 8 Cavity Wall insulation by tenure 2008

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

Housing Health and Safety Rating System

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 HHSRS hazards present (comparison of estimates based on any one of 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Non-decent homes in deprived areas

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes in deprived areas by tenure 2006-2008

Annex tables | 39

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent

child(ren)

couple with dependent

child(ren)

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)

other multi-

person households

all one-person

households

all household

types

percentageown outright 46 9 7 24 37 31buying with mortgage 35 66 27 25 23 36social renters 9 13 44 20 25 18private renters 10 12 22 31 15 14

all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 2 Economic status of working age HRP by tenure

all households

working un-employed retired other inactive Total percentage

own outright 74 2 14 10 100buying with mortgage 94 1 1 4 100social renters 49 12 1 37 100private renters 75 5 1 19 100all tenures 80 4 3 13 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 3 Heating type 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingscentral heating 16178 18177 18604 18919 19179 19553 19862 19862storage heater 1643 1600 1587 1616 1609 1532 1552 1641fixed roomportable heater 2515 2001 1294 1078 993 904 776 736Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingscentral heating 796 860 866 875 881 889 895 893storage heater 81 76 74 75 74 70 70 74fixed roomportable heating heater 124 95 60 50 46 41 35 33Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

40 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 4 Main heating system by tenure 2008

all dwellings

central heating storage heaterfixed room

heatingportable

heating only all dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 13788 790 411 19 15007 private rented 2630 441 208 17 3296 all private 16418 1232 619 36 18304

local authority 1776 160 46 2 1984 housing association 1669 249 33 1 1951 all social 3445 409 79 3 3935

all tenures 19862 1641 698 38 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 919 53 27 01 1000 private rented 798 134 63 05 1000 all private 897 67 34 02 1000

local authority 895 80 23 01 1000 housing association 855 128 17 00 1000 all social 875 104 20 01 1000

all tenures 893 74 31 02 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 5 Boiler types 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsstandard boiler 10447 10338 9642 9635 9425 9014 8782 8072back boiler 2773 2759 2580 2409 2181 2131 1944 1688combination boiler 2810 4431 5492 5934 6254 6312 6287 6082condensing boiler ndash 155 154 202 300 460 698 948condensing-combination boiler ndash 318 373 417 727 1297 1837 2773no boiler 4305 3140 3244 3016 2894 2775 2642 2676Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsstandard boiler 514 489 449 446 433 410 396 363back boiler 136 130 120 111 100 97 88 76combination boiler 138 210 256 275 287 287 283 273condensing boiler 00 07 07 09 14 21 31 43condensing-combination boiler 00 15 17 19 33 59 83 125no boiler 212 149 151 140 133 126 119 120Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 41

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

all dwellings

standard boiler

back boiler

combination boiler

condensing boiler

condensing-combination

boilerno

boilerall

dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 6223 1045 3984 713 1756 1286 15007 private rented 817 149 1112 73 429 716 3296 all private 7040 1194 5096 787 2185 2002 18304

local authority 499 271 481 90 335 309 1984 housing association 533 223 505 72 254 365 1951 all social 1032 494 986 162 589 674 3935

all 8072 1688 6082 948 2773 2676 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 415 70 265 48 117 86 1000 private rented 248 45 337 22 130 217 1000 all private 385 65 278 43 119 109 1000

local authority 251 136 242 45 169 156 1000 housing association 273 114 259 37 130 187 1000 all social 262 125 250 41 150 171 1000

all 363 76 273 43 125 120 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 2853 5210 5334 5825 5974 6644 7267 7418200mm or more of loft insulation 583 1256 2034 2530 2919 3520 4258 4685entire house double glazing 6169 10753 11915 12846 13486 13924 14850 15747

all dwellings 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 140 246 248 270 274 302 327 334200mm or more of loft insulation 29 59 95 117 134 160 192 211entire house double glazing 303 509 555 594 619 633 669 708

all dwellings 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

42 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 8 Cavity wall insulation by tenure

all dwellings

cavity with insulation

cavity uninsulated other all

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5161 5483 4364 15007private rented 566 1213 1517 3296private 5727 6696 5882 18304

local authority 834 657 493 1984housing association 857 720 374 1951social 1691 1378 867 3935

total 7418 8073 6749 22239

percentage of dwellingsowner occupied 344 365 291 100private rented 172 368 460 100private 313 366 321 100

local authority 420 331 248 100housing association 439 369 192 100social 430 350 220 100

total 334 363 303 100

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 43

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

all dwellings

no loftno

insulationless than

50mm50 up to

99mm

100 up to

149mm

150 up to

199mm200mm or more

all dwellings

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 748 442 432 3009 5147 2007 3223 15007 private rented 672 175 66 857 813 281 434 3296 private 1420 617 497 3866 5960 2288 3657 18304

local authority 614 33 19 171 471 206 470 1984 housing association 467 20 16 143 482 265 558 1951 social 1081 53 35 314 953 471 1028 3935

total 2501 670 532 4179 6913 2759 4685 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 50 29 29 200 343 134 215 1000private rented 204 53 20 260 247 85 132 1000private 78 34 27 211 326 125 200 1000

local authority 309 17 10 86 237 104 237 1000housing association 239 10 08 73 247 136 286 1000social 275 14 09 80 242 120 261 1000

total 112 30 24 188 311 124 211 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

44 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

hazard presentnumber of homes (000s) each hazard is present in

falling on stairs 2025excess cold 1966falling on level surfaces 788falling between levels 443fire 318

entry by intruders

flames hot surfacesleaddamp and mould growth 50 to 100 eachcollision and entrapmentradiationfalls associated with baths

crowding and space

food safetypersonal hygiene sanitation and drainage 20 to 50 eachnoisedomestic hygiene pests and refuseelectrical hazards

structural collapse and falling elements

water supplycarbon monoxide and fuel combustion productsposition and operability of amenities less thanexcess heat 20 eachlightinguncombusted fuel gasexplosions

any of the 15 hazards 4842

any of the 26 hazards 5039

Note For 2006 and 2007 the survey reported on 15 hazards only The 2008 EHS can provide estimates for 26 hazards - the additional hazards are marked with an asterisk The three remaining hazards not included in the survey are presence of asbestos biocides or volatile organic compounds For reporting purposes HHSRS and non-decent estimates will be based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with previous years and avoid a break in the time seriesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 45

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 4842 4925private rented 1449 1478all private 6291 6403

local authority 625 640housing association 444 464all social 1069 1104

all tenures 7360 7507

percentagesowner occupied 323 328private rented 440 448all private 344 350

local authority 315 323housing association 228 238all social 272 281

all tenures 331 338

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

46 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 hazards present (compariosn of estimates based on any one to the 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 3342 3452private rented 978 1013all private 4320 4465

local authority 298 326RSL 224 248all social 522 574

all tenures 4842 5039

percentagesowner occupied 223 230private rented 297 307all private 236 244

local authority 150 164RSL 115 127all social 133 146

all tenures 218 227

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 47

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all households

15 hazards 26 hazards

number (000s) percentage () number (000s) percentage ()

decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 1428 653 1413 646private rented 429 490 417 476all private vulnerable 1857 606 1830 597 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 8494 683 8425 677private rented 1246 588 1232 581all private non-vulnerable 9740 669 9657 663 all owner occupied 9922 678 9839 673all private rented 1675 559 1648 550all private 11597 658 11487 663all social 2798 740 2766 731

all households 14395 672 14253 666

non-decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 760 347 775 354private rented 447 510 459 524all private vulnerable 1207 394 1234 403 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 3946 317 4015 323private rented 874 412 888 419all private non-vulnerable 4820 331 4903 337 all owner occupied 4706 322 4790 327all private rented 1321 441 1347 450all private 6027 342 6137 348all social 985 260 1017 269

all households 7012 328 7154 334

Note For reporting purposes decent homes estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

48 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes1 by deprived and other districts by tenure 2006-2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsSocial NRF88 662 652 605Other districts 480 486 464 Private NRF88 2544 2621 2442Other districts 4013 3928 3849

percentages of dwellingsSocial NRF88 313 304 278Other districts 264 278 263 Private NRF88 381 380 361Other districts 353 344 333

Note NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving Neighbourhood Renewal Funding 2001-2006Source English House Condition Survey 2006-2007English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub sample)

Technical annex | 49

Technical annex

General description

The survey consists of three main elements an initial interview survey of 17700 households with a follow up physical inspection and a desk based market valuation of a sub-sample of 8000 of these dwellings including vacant dwellings The interview survey sample forms part of ONSrsquos Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the core questions from the IHS form part of the EHS questionnaire More information about the IHS is available from its webpage wwwstatisticsgovukCCInuggetaspID=936ampPos=1ampColRank=1ampRank=224

The EHS interview content covers the key topics included under the former SEH and EHCS The content of the physical and market value components remains very largely unchanged from the former EHCS

Sampling and grossing

2008-09 Sample1 The initial sample for 2008-09 consisted of 32100 addresses drawn as a systematic

random sample from the Postcode Address File (small users) Interviews were attempted at all of these addresses over the course of the survey year from April 2008 to March 2009 A proportion of addresses were found not to be valid residential properties (eg demolished properties secondholiday homes small businesses not yet built)

2 Of the 17691 addresses where interviews were achieved (the lsquofull household samplersquo) all social rented properties and a sub-sample of private properties were regarded as eligible for the physical survey and the respondentrsquos consent was sought A proportion of vacant properties were also sub-sampled Physical surveys were completed in 7972 cases and these cases contribute to the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo (see below)

3 The principal differences in sampling methodology between the EHS and its predecessors the SEH and EHCS are that

bull The EHS uses an unclustered sample This enables a smaller sample to be used with no loss of precision ie without sampling errors being increased The more scattered sample does however have some implications for fieldwork organisation

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 34: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

34 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table 14 Homes failing decent homes criteria by tenure 2008

all dwellings

Category 1 hazard (HHSRS)

thermal comfort

modern facilities repair all non-decent

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 3342 1773 379 817 4842private rented 978 637 160 369 1449all private 4320 2411 539 1186 6291

local authority 298 227 138 146 625housing association 224 199 50 86 444all social 522 426 188 231 1069

all tenures 4842 2837 727 1417 7360

percentages

owner occupied 223 118 25 54 323private rented 297 193 49 112 440all private 236 132 29 65 344

local authority 150 115 70 74 315housing association 115 102 25 44 228all social 133 108 48 59 272

all tenures 218 128 33 64 331

Note The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoids a break in the time series See Annex Table 12 for estimate based on 26 hazardsSource English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

224 There was significant progress in the thermal comfort of homes between 2006 and 2008 The proportion of homes failing thermal comfort fell to 13 in 2008 from 16 in 2006 Improvement has been made across all tenures

Private sector vulnerable households225 In 2008 31 million lsquovulnerablersquo households6 were living in the private sector of

which 12 million (39) were living in non-decent homes the remaining 19 million (61) were living in decent accommodation Table 15 There has been no significant change since 2006

226 Vulnerable households who privately rent their accommodation were more likely to live in non-decent homes compared to social tenants (51 and 26 respectively) Table 15

6 Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

Section 2 Housing stock | 35

Table 15 Households living in decent homes 2006-2008

all dwellings

number (000s) percentage ()

2006 2007 2008 2006 2007 2008

decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 1543 1575 1428 630 649 653private rented 334 354 429 450 482 490all private vulnerable 1877 1929 1857 588 610 606

private non- vulnerableowner occupied 8418 8531 8494 664 667 683private rented 922 985 1246 567 566 588all private non-vulnerable 9340 9516 9740 653 655 669

all owner occupied 9961 10106 9922 658 664 678all private rented 1256 1339 1675 530 541 559all private 11217 11445 11597 641 647 658all social 2690 2649 2798 722 719 740all households 13907 14094 14395 655 659 672

non-decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 905 851 760 370 351 347private rented 408 380 447 550 518 510all private vulnerable 1313 1231 1207 412 390 394

private non-vulnerableowner occupied 4262 4264 3946 336 333 317private rented 704 754 874 433 434 412all private non-vulnerable 4966 5018 4820 347 345 331

all owner occupied 5167 5115 4706 342 336 322all private rented 1112 1134 1321 470 459 441all private 6279 6249 6027 359 353 342

all social 1034 1037 985 278 281 260all households 7313 7286 7012 345 341 328

Notes 1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoid a break in the time series See Annex Table 13 for further detailsSource English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

36 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Damp and mould growth227 The proportion of homes with damp problems has reduced from 13 in 1996

to 8 in 2008 Table 16

Table 16 Number and percentage of homes with damp problems in one or more rooms 1996-2008

all dwellings

rising damp

penetrating damp

condensation mould

any damp problems

thousands of dwellings1996 858 1271 1145 26012001 625 1032 860 20322003 740 1066 1003 22832004 750 1035 951 22512005 759 952 941 22102006 724 886 947 21582007 640 833 881 19162008 584 759 865 1746

percentage of dwellings1996 42 63 56 1282001 29 49 41 962003 34 50 47 1062004 35 48 44 1042005 35 44 43 1012006 33 40 43 982007 29 38 40 862008 26 34 39 78

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

228 Privately rented homes were more likely to experience damp problems compared to other tenures Figure 11 Privately rented homes were more likely to be older homes and experience problems with rising or penetrating damp due to defects in the damp proof course roof covering gutters and down pipes which would affect at least one room in the property

229 In the social sector damp problems were more likely to be caused by serious condensation and mould growth rather than by rising damp Figure 12

Section 2 Housing stock | 37

Figure 12 Percentage of homes with a damp problem by tenure 2008

rising damp penetrating damp condensationmould

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

alltenures

housingassociation

localauthority

privaterented

owneroccupied

per

cen

tage

of

ho

mes

wit

h d

amp

pro

ble

ms

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

38 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex tables

Households

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

Annex Table 2 Economic Status of working age HRP by tenure 2008-09

Energy efficiency

Annex Table 3 Heating Type 1996-2008

Annex Table 4 Main Heating System by tenure 2008

Annex Table 5 Boiler Types 1996-2008

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

Annex Table 8 Cavity Wall insulation by tenure 2008

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

Housing Health and Safety Rating System

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 HHSRS hazards present (comparison of estimates based on any one of 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Non-decent homes in deprived areas

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes in deprived areas by tenure 2006-2008

Annex tables | 39

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent

child(ren)

couple with dependent

child(ren)

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)

other multi-

person households

all one-person

households

all household

types

percentageown outright 46 9 7 24 37 31buying with mortgage 35 66 27 25 23 36social renters 9 13 44 20 25 18private renters 10 12 22 31 15 14

all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 2 Economic status of working age HRP by tenure

all households

working un-employed retired other inactive Total percentage

own outright 74 2 14 10 100buying with mortgage 94 1 1 4 100social renters 49 12 1 37 100private renters 75 5 1 19 100all tenures 80 4 3 13 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 3 Heating type 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingscentral heating 16178 18177 18604 18919 19179 19553 19862 19862storage heater 1643 1600 1587 1616 1609 1532 1552 1641fixed roomportable heater 2515 2001 1294 1078 993 904 776 736Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingscentral heating 796 860 866 875 881 889 895 893storage heater 81 76 74 75 74 70 70 74fixed roomportable heating heater 124 95 60 50 46 41 35 33Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

40 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 4 Main heating system by tenure 2008

all dwellings

central heating storage heaterfixed room

heatingportable

heating only all dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 13788 790 411 19 15007 private rented 2630 441 208 17 3296 all private 16418 1232 619 36 18304

local authority 1776 160 46 2 1984 housing association 1669 249 33 1 1951 all social 3445 409 79 3 3935

all tenures 19862 1641 698 38 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 919 53 27 01 1000 private rented 798 134 63 05 1000 all private 897 67 34 02 1000

local authority 895 80 23 01 1000 housing association 855 128 17 00 1000 all social 875 104 20 01 1000

all tenures 893 74 31 02 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 5 Boiler types 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsstandard boiler 10447 10338 9642 9635 9425 9014 8782 8072back boiler 2773 2759 2580 2409 2181 2131 1944 1688combination boiler 2810 4431 5492 5934 6254 6312 6287 6082condensing boiler ndash 155 154 202 300 460 698 948condensing-combination boiler ndash 318 373 417 727 1297 1837 2773no boiler 4305 3140 3244 3016 2894 2775 2642 2676Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsstandard boiler 514 489 449 446 433 410 396 363back boiler 136 130 120 111 100 97 88 76combination boiler 138 210 256 275 287 287 283 273condensing boiler 00 07 07 09 14 21 31 43condensing-combination boiler 00 15 17 19 33 59 83 125no boiler 212 149 151 140 133 126 119 120Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 41

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

all dwellings

standard boiler

back boiler

combination boiler

condensing boiler

condensing-combination

boilerno

boilerall

dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 6223 1045 3984 713 1756 1286 15007 private rented 817 149 1112 73 429 716 3296 all private 7040 1194 5096 787 2185 2002 18304

local authority 499 271 481 90 335 309 1984 housing association 533 223 505 72 254 365 1951 all social 1032 494 986 162 589 674 3935

all 8072 1688 6082 948 2773 2676 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 415 70 265 48 117 86 1000 private rented 248 45 337 22 130 217 1000 all private 385 65 278 43 119 109 1000

local authority 251 136 242 45 169 156 1000 housing association 273 114 259 37 130 187 1000 all social 262 125 250 41 150 171 1000

all 363 76 273 43 125 120 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 2853 5210 5334 5825 5974 6644 7267 7418200mm or more of loft insulation 583 1256 2034 2530 2919 3520 4258 4685entire house double glazing 6169 10753 11915 12846 13486 13924 14850 15747

all dwellings 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 140 246 248 270 274 302 327 334200mm or more of loft insulation 29 59 95 117 134 160 192 211entire house double glazing 303 509 555 594 619 633 669 708

all dwellings 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

42 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 8 Cavity wall insulation by tenure

all dwellings

cavity with insulation

cavity uninsulated other all

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5161 5483 4364 15007private rented 566 1213 1517 3296private 5727 6696 5882 18304

local authority 834 657 493 1984housing association 857 720 374 1951social 1691 1378 867 3935

total 7418 8073 6749 22239

percentage of dwellingsowner occupied 344 365 291 100private rented 172 368 460 100private 313 366 321 100

local authority 420 331 248 100housing association 439 369 192 100social 430 350 220 100

total 334 363 303 100

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 43

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

all dwellings

no loftno

insulationless than

50mm50 up to

99mm

100 up to

149mm

150 up to

199mm200mm or more

all dwellings

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 748 442 432 3009 5147 2007 3223 15007 private rented 672 175 66 857 813 281 434 3296 private 1420 617 497 3866 5960 2288 3657 18304

local authority 614 33 19 171 471 206 470 1984 housing association 467 20 16 143 482 265 558 1951 social 1081 53 35 314 953 471 1028 3935

total 2501 670 532 4179 6913 2759 4685 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 50 29 29 200 343 134 215 1000private rented 204 53 20 260 247 85 132 1000private 78 34 27 211 326 125 200 1000

local authority 309 17 10 86 237 104 237 1000housing association 239 10 08 73 247 136 286 1000social 275 14 09 80 242 120 261 1000

total 112 30 24 188 311 124 211 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

44 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

hazard presentnumber of homes (000s) each hazard is present in

falling on stairs 2025excess cold 1966falling on level surfaces 788falling between levels 443fire 318

entry by intruders

flames hot surfacesleaddamp and mould growth 50 to 100 eachcollision and entrapmentradiationfalls associated with baths

crowding and space

food safetypersonal hygiene sanitation and drainage 20 to 50 eachnoisedomestic hygiene pests and refuseelectrical hazards

structural collapse and falling elements

water supplycarbon monoxide and fuel combustion productsposition and operability of amenities less thanexcess heat 20 eachlightinguncombusted fuel gasexplosions

any of the 15 hazards 4842

any of the 26 hazards 5039

Note For 2006 and 2007 the survey reported on 15 hazards only The 2008 EHS can provide estimates for 26 hazards - the additional hazards are marked with an asterisk The three remaining hazards not included in the survey are presence of asbestos biocides or volatile organic compounds For reporting purposes HHSRS and non-decent estimates will be based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with previous years and avoid a break in the time seriesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 45

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 4842 4925private rented 1449 1478all private 6291 6403

local authority 625 640housing association 444 464all social 1069 1104

all tenures 7360 7507

percentagesowner occupied 323 328private rented 440 448all private 344 350

local authority 315 323housing association 228 238all social 272 281

all tenures 331 338

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

46 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 hazards present (compariosn of estimates based on any one to the 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 3342 3452private rented 978 1013all private 4320 4465

local authority 298 326RSL 224 248all social 522 574

all tenures 4842 5039

percentagesowner occupied 223 230private rented 297 307all private 236 244

local authority 150 164RSL 115 127all social 133 146

all tenures 218 227

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 47

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all households

15 hazards 26 hazards

number (000s) percentage () number (000s) percentage ()

decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 1428 653 1413 646private rented 429 490 417 476all private vulnerable 1857 606 1830 597 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 8494 683 8425 677private rented 1246 588 1232 581all private non-vulnerable 9740 669 9657 663 all owner occupied 9922 678 9839 673all private rented 1675 559 1648 550all private 11597 658 11487 663all social 2798 740 2766 731

all households 14395 672 14253 666

non-decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 760 347 775 354private rented 447 510 459 524all private vulnerable 1207 394 1234 403 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 3946 317 4015 323private rented 874 412 888 419all private non-vulnerable 4820 331 4903 337 all owner occupied 4706 322 4790 327all private rented 1321 441 1347 450all private 6027 342 6137 348all social 985 260 1017 269

all households 7012 328 7154 334

Note For reporting purposes decent homes estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

48 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes1 by deprived and other districts by tenure 2006-2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsSocial NRF88 662 652 605Other districts 480 486 464 Private NRF88 2544 2621 2442Other districts 4013 3928 3849

percentages of dwellingsSocial NRF88 313 304 278Other districts 264 278 263 Private NRF88 381 380 361Other districts 353 344 333

Note NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving Neighbourhood Renewal Funding 2001-2006Source English House Condition Survey 2006-2007English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub sample)

Technical annex | 49

Technical annex

General description

The survey consists of three main elements an initial interview survey of 17700 households with a follow up physical inspection and a desk based market valuation of a sub-sample of 8000 of these dwellings including vacant dwellings The interview survey sample forms part of ONSrsquos Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the core questions from the IHS form part of the EHS questionnaire More information about the IHS is available from its webpage wwwstatisticsgovukCCInuggetaspID=936ampPos=1ampColRank=1ampRank=224

The EHS interview content covers the key topics included under the former SEH and EHCS The content of the physical and market value components remains very largely unchanged from the former EHCS

Sampling and grossing

2008-09 Sample1 The initial sample for 2008-09 consisted of 32100 addresses drawn as a systematic

random sample from the Postcode Address File (small users) Interviews were attempted at all of these addresses over the course of the survey year from April 2008 to March 2009 A proportion of addresses were found not to be valid residential properties (eg demolished properties secondholiday homes small businesses not yet built)

2 Of the 17691 addresses where interviews were achieved (the lsquofull household samplersquo) all social rented properties and a sub-sample of private properties were regarded as eligible for the physical survey and the respondentrsquos consent was sought A proportion of vacant properties were also sub-sampled Physical surveys were completed in 7972 cases and these cases contribute to the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo (see below)

3 The principal differences in sampling methodology between the EHS and its predecessors the SEH and EHCS are that

bull The EHS uses an unclustered sample This enables a smaller sample to be used with no loss of precision ie without sampling errors being increased The more scattered sample does however have some implications for fieldwork organisation

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 35: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

Section 2 Housing stock | 35

Table 15 Households living in decent homes 2006-2008

all dwellings

number (000s) percentage ()

2006 2007 2008 2006 2007 2008

decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 1543 1575 1428 630 649 653private rented 334 354 429 450 482 490all private vulnerable 1877 1929 1857 588 610 606

private non- vulnerableowner occupied 8418 8531 8494 664 667 683private rented 922 985 1246 567 566 588all private non-vulnerable 9340 9516 9740 653 655 669

all owner occupied 9961 10106 9922 658 664 678all private rented 1256 1339 1675 530 541 559all private 11217 11445 11597 641 647 658all social 2690 2649 2798 722 719 740all households 13907 14094 14395 655 659 672

non-decent homesprivate vulnerableowner occupied 905 851 760 370 351 347private rented 408 380 447 550 518 510all private vulnerable 1313 1231 1207 412 390 394

private non-vulnerableowner occupied 4262 4264 3946 336 333 317private rented 704 754 874 433 434 412all private non-vulnerable 4966 5018 4820 347 345 331

all owner occupied 5167 5115 4706 342 336 322all private rented 1112 1134 1321 470 459 441all private 6279 6249 6027 359 353 342

all social 1034 1037 985 278 281 260all households 7313 7286 7012 345 341 328

Notes 1) Some changes to the numbers of private rented properties are a result of changes to the grossing of the sub-sample compared to the previous EHCS See Technical annex2) The 2008 survey can provide estimates based on 26 hazards of the HHSRS (one component of decent homes) compared to 15 hazards in previous years All estimates presented here are based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with 2006 and 2007 estimates and avoid a break in the time series See Annex Table 13 for further detailsSource English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

36 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Damp and mould growth227 The proportion of homes with damp problems has reduced from 13 in 1996

to 8 in 2008 Table 16

Table 16 Number and percentage of homes with damp problems in one or more rooms 1996-2008

all dwellings

rising damp

penetrating damp

condensation mould

any damp problems

thousands of dwellings1996 858 1271 1145 26012001 625 1032 860 20322003 740 1066 1003 22832004 750 1035 951 22512005 759 952 941 22102006 724 886 947 21582007 640 833 881 19162008 584 759 865 1746

percentage of dwellings1996 42 63 56 1282001 29 49 41 962003 34 50 47 1062004 35 48 44 1042005 35 44 43 1012006 33 40 43 982007 29 38 40 862008 26 34 39 78

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

228 Privately rented homes were more likely to experience damp problems compared to other tenures Figure 11 Privately rented homes were more likely to be older homes and experience problems with rising or penetrating damp due to defects in the damp proof course roof covering gutters and down pipes which would affect at least one room in the property

229 In the social sector damp problems were more likely to be caused by serious condensation and mould growth rather than by rising damp Figure 12

Section 2 Housing stock | 37

Figure 12 Percentage of homes with a damp problem by tenure 2008

rising damp penetrating damp condensationmould

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

alltenures

housingassociation

localauthority

privaterented

owneroccupied

per

cen

tage

of

ho

mes

wit

h d

amp

pro

ble

ms

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

38 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex tables

Households

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

Annex Table 2 Economic Status of working age HRP by tenure 2008-09

Energy efficiency

Annex Table 3 Heating Type 1996-2008

Annex Table 4 Main Heating System by tenure 2008

Annex Table 5 Boiler Types 1996-2008

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

Annex Table 8 Cavity Wall insulation by tenure 2008

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

Housing Health and Safety Rating System

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 HHSRS hazards present (comparison of estimates based on any one of 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Non-decent homes in deprived areas

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes in deprived areas by tenure 2006-2008

Annex tables | 39

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent

child(ren)

couple with dependent

child(ren)

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)

other multi-

person households

all one-person

households

all household

types

percentageown outright 46 9 7 24 37 31buying with mortgage 35 66 27 25 23 36social renters 9 13 44 20 25 18private renters 10 12 22 31 15 14

all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 2 Economic status of working age HRP by tenure

all households

working un-employed retired other inactive Total percentage

own outright 74 2 14 10 100buying with mortgage 94 1 1 4 100social renters 49 12 1 37 100private renters 75 5 1 19 100all tenures 80 4 3 13 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 3 Heating type 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingscentral heating 16178 18177 18604 18919 19179 19553 19862 19862storage heater 1643 1600 1587 1616 1609 1532 1552 1641fixed roomportable heater 2515 2001 1294 1078 993 904 776 736Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingscentral heating 796 860 866 875 881 889 895 893storage heater 81 76 74 75 74 70 70 74fixed roomportable heating heater 124 95 60 50 46 41 35 33Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

40 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 4 Main heating system by tenure 2008

all dwellings

central heating storage heaterfixed room

heatingportable

heating only all dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 13788 790 411 19 15007 private rented 2630 441 208 17 3296 all private 16418 1232 619 36 18304

local authority 1776 160 46 2 1984 housing association 1669 249 33 1 1951 all social 3445 409 79 3 3935

all tenures 19862 1641 698 38 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 919 53 27 01 1000 private rented 798 134 63 05 1000 all private 897 67 34 02 1000

local authority 895 80 23 01 1000 housing association 855 128 17 00 1000 all social 875 104 20 01 1000

all tenures 893 74 31 02 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 5 Boiler types 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsstandard boiler 10447 10338 9642 9635 9425 9014 8782 8072back boiler 2773 2759 2580 2409 2181 2131 1944 1688combination boiler 2810 4431 5492 5934 6254 6312 6287 6082condensing boiler ndash 155 154 202 300 460 698 948condensing-combination boiler ndash 318 373 417 727 1297 1837 2773no boiler 4305 3140 3244 3016 2894 2775 2642 2676Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsstandard boiler 514 489 449 446 433 410 396 363back boiler 136 130 120 111 100 97 88 76combination boiler 138 210 256 275 287 287 283 273condensing boiler 00 07 07 09 14 21 31 43condensing-combination boiler 00 15 17 19 33 59 83 125no boiler 212 149 151 140 133 126 119 120Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 41

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

all dwellings

standard boiler

back boiler

combination boiler

condensing boiler

condensing-combination

boilerno

boilerall

dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 6223 1045 3984 713 1756 1286 15007 private rented 817 149 1112 73 429 716 3296 all private 7040 1194 5096 787 2185 2002 18304

local authority 499 271 481 90 335 309 1984 housing association 533 223 505 72 254 365 1951 all social 1032 494 986 162 589 674 3935

all 8072 1688 6082 948 2773 2676 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 415 70 265 48 117 86 1000 private rented 248 45 337 22 130 217 1000 all private 385 65 278 43 119 109 1000

local authority 251 136 242 45 169 156 1000 housing association 273 114 259 37 130 187 1000 all social 262 125 250 41 150 171 1000

all 363 76 273 43 125 120 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 2853 5210 5334 5825 5974 6644 7267 7418200mm or more of loft insulation 583 1256 2034 2530 2919 3520 4258 4685entire house double glazing 6169 10753 11915 12846 13486 13924 14850 15747

all dwellings 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 140 246 248 270 274 302 327 334200mm or more of loft insulation 29 59 95 117 134 160 192 211entire house double glazing 303 509 555 594 619 633 669 708

all dwellings 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

42 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 8 Cavity wall insulation by tenure

all dwellings

cavity with insulation

cavity uninsulated other all

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5161 5483 4364 15007private rented 566 1213 1517 3296private 5727 6696 5882 18304

local authority 834 657 493 1984housing association 857 720 374 1951social 1691 1378 867 3935

total 7418 8073 6749 22239

percentage of dwellingsowner occupied 344 365 291 100private rented 172 368 460 100private 313 366 321 100

local authority 420 331 248 100housing association 439 369 192 100social 430 350 220 100

total 334 363 303 100

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 43

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

all dwellings

no loftno

insulationless than

50mm50 up to

99mm

100 up to

149mm

150 up to

199mm200mm or more

all dwellings

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 748 442 432 3009 5147 2007 3223 15007 private rented 672 175 66 857 813 281 434 3296 private 1420 617 497 3866 5960 2288 3657 18304

local authority 614 33 19 171 471 206 470 1984 housing association 467 20 16 143 482 265 558 1951 social 1081 53 35 314 953 471 1028 3935

total 2501 670 532 4179 6913 2759 4685 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 50 29 29 200 343 134 215 1000private rented 204 53 20 260 247 85 132 1000private 78 34 27 211 326 125 200 1000

local authority 309 17 10 86 237 104 237 1000housing association 239 10 08 73 247 136 286 1000social 275 14 09 80 242 120 261 1000

total 112 30 24 188 311 124 211 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

44 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

hazard presentnumber of homes (000s) each hazard is present in

falling on stairs 2025excess cold 1966falling on level surfaces 788falling between levels 443fire 318

entry by intruders

flames hot surfacesleaddamp and mould growth 50 to 100 eachcollision and entrapmentradiationfalls associated with baths

crowding and space

food safetypersonal hygiene sanitation and drainage 20 to 50 eachnoisedomestic hygiene pests and refuseelectrical hazards

structural collapse and falling elements

water supplycarbon monoxide and fuel combustion productsposition and operability of amenities less thanexcess heat 20 eachlightinguncombusted fuel gasexplosions

any of the 15 hazards 4842

any of the 26 hazards 5039

Note For 2006 and 2007 the survey reported on 15 hazards only The 2008 EHS can provide estimates for 26 hazards - the additional hazards are marked with an asterisk The three remaining hazards not included in the survey are presence of asbestos biocides or volatile organic compounds For reporting purposes HHSRS and non-decent estimates will be based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with previous years and avoid a break in the time seriesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 45

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 4842 4925private rented 1449 1478all private 6291 6403

local authority 625 640housing association 444 464all social 1069 1104

all tenures 7360 7507

percentagesowner occupied 323 328private rented 440 448all private 344 350

local authority 315 323housing association 228 238all social 272 281

all tenures 331 338

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

46 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 hazards present (compariosn of estimates based on any one to the 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 3342 3452private rented 978 1013all private 4320 4465

local authority 298 326RSL 224 248all social 522 574

all tenures 4842 5039

percentagesowner occupied 223 230private rented 297 307all private 236 244

local authority 150 164RSL 115 127all social 133 146

all tenures 218 227

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 47

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all households

15 hazards 26 hazards

number (000s) percentage () number (000s) percentage ()

decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 1428 653 1413 646private rented 429 490 417 476all private vulnerable 1857 606 1830 597 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 8494 683 8425 677private rented 1246 588 1232 581all private non-vulnerable 9740 669 9657 663 all owner occupied 9922 678 9839 673all private rented 1675 559 1648 550all private 11597 658 11487 663all social 2798 740 2766 731

all households 14395 672 14253 666

non-decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 760 347 775 354private rented 447 510 459 524all private vulnerable 1207 394 1234 403 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 3946 317 4015 323private rented 874 412 888 419all private non-vulnerable 4820 331 4903 337 all owner occupied 4706 322 4790 327all private rented 1321 441 1347 450all private 6027 342 6137 348all social 985 260 1017 269

all households 7012 328 7154 334

Note For reporting purposes decent homes estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

48 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes1 by deprived and other districts by tenure 2006-2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsSocial NRF88 662 652 605Other districts 480 486 464 Private NRF88 2544 2621 2442Other districts 4013 3928 3849

percentages of dwellingsSocial NRF88 313 304 278Other districts 264 278 263 Private NRF88 381 380 361Other districts 353 344 333

Note NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving Neighbourhood Renewal Funding 2001-2006Source English House Condition Survey 2006-2007English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub sample)

Technical annex | 49

Technical annex

General description

The survey consists of three main elements an initial interview survey of 17700 households with a follow up physical inspection and a desk based market valuation of a sub-sample of 8000 of these dwellings including vacant dwellings The interview survey sample forms part of ONSrsquos Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the core questions from the IHS form part of the EHS questionnaire More information about the IHS is available from its webpage wwwstatisticsgovukCCInuggetaspID=936ampPos=1ampColRank=1ampRank=224

The EHS interview content covers the key topics included under the former SEH and EHCS The content of the physical and market value components remains very largely unchanged from the former EHCS

Sampling and grossing

2008-09 Sample1 The initial sample for 2008-09 consisted of 32100 addresses drawn as a systematic

random sample from the Postcode Address File (small users) Interviews were attempted at all of these addresses over the course of the survey year from April 2008 to March 2009 A proportion of addresses were found not to be valid residential properties (eg demolished properties secondholiday homes small businesses not yet built)

2 Of the 17691 addresses where interviews were achieved (the lsquofull household samplersquo) all social rented properties and a sub-sample of private properties were regarded as eligible for the physical survey and the respondentrsquos consent was sought A proportion of vacant properties were also sub-sampled Physical surveys were completed in 7972 cases and these cases contribute to the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo (see below)

3 The principal differences in sampling methodology between the EHS and its predecessors the SEH and EHCS are that

bull The EHS uses an unclustered sample This enables a smaller sample to be used with no loss of precision ie without sampling errors being increased The more scattered sample does however have some implications for fieldwork organisation

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 36: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

36 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Damp and mould growth227 The proportion of homes with damp problems has reduced from 13 in 1996

to 8 in 2008 Table 16

Table 16 Number and percentage of homes with damp problems in one or more rooms 1996-2008

all dwellings

rising damp

penetrating damp

condensation mould

any damp problems

thousands of dwellings1996 858 1271 1145 26012001 625 1032 860 20322003 740 1066 1003 22832004 750 1035 951 22512005 759 952 941 22102006 724 886 947 21582007 640 833 881 19162008 584 759 865 1746

percentage of dwellings1996 42 63 56 1282001 29 49 41 962003 34 50 47 1062004 35 48 44 1042005 35 44 43 1012006 33 40 43 982007 29 38 40 862008 26 34 39 78

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

228 Privately rented homes were more likely to experience damp problems compared to other tenures Figure 11 Privately rented homes were more likely to be older homes and experience problems with rising or penetrating damp due to defects in the damp proof course roof covering gutters and down pipes which would affect at least one room in the property

229 In the social sector damp problems were more likely to be caused by serious condensation and mould growth rather than by rising damp Figure 12

Section 2 Housing stock | 37

Figure 12 Percentage of homes with a damp problem by tenure 2008

rising damp penetrating damp condensationmould

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

alltenures

housingassociation

localauthority

privaterented

owneroccupied

per

cen

tage

of

ho

mes

wit

h d

amp

pro

ble

ms

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

38 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex tables

Households

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

Annex Table 2 Economic Status of working age HRP by tenure 2008-09

Energy efficiency

Annex Table 3 Heating Type 1996-2008

Annex Table 4 Main Heating System by tenure 2008

Annex Table 5 Boiler Types 1996-2008

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

Annex Table 8 Cavity Wall insulation by tenure 2008

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

Housing Health and Safety Rating System

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 HHSRS hazards present (comparison of estimates based on any one of 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Non-decent homes in deprived areas

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes in deprived areas by tenure 2006-2008

Annex tables | 39

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent

child(ren)

couple with dependent

child(ren)

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)

other multi-

person households

all one-person

households

all household

types

percentageown outright 46 9 7 24 37 31buying with mortgage 35 66 27 25 23 36social renters 9 13 44 20 25 18private renters 10 12 22 31 15 14

all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 2 Economic status of working age HRP by tenure

all households

working un-employed retired other inactive Total percentage

own outright 74 2 14 10 100buying with mortgage 94 1 1 4 100social renters 49 12 1 37 100private renters 75 5 1 19 100all tenures 80 4 3 13 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 3 Heating type 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingscentral heating 16178 18177 18604 18919 19179 19553 19862 19862storage heater 1643 1600 1587 1616 1609 1532 1552 1641fixed roomportable heater 2515 2001 1294 1078 993 904 776 736Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingscentral heating 796 860 866 875 881 889 895 893storage heater 81 76 74 75 74 70 70 74fixed roomportable heating heater 124 95 60 50 46 41 35 33Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

40 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 4 Main heating system by tenure 2008

all dwellings

central heating storage heaterfixed room

heatingportable

heating only all dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 13788 790 411 19 15007 private rented 2630 441 208 17 3296 all private 16418 1232 619 36 18304

local authority 1776 160 46 2 1984 housing association 1669 249 33 1 1951 all social 3445 409 79 3 3935

all tenures 19862 1641 698 38 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 919 53 27 01 1000 private rented 798 134 63 05 1000 all private 897 67 34 02 1000

local authority 895 80 23 01 1000 housing association 855 128 17 00 1000 all social 875 104 20 01 1000

all tenures 893 74 31 02 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 5 Boiler types 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsstandard boiler 10447 10338 9642 9635 9425 9014 8782 8072back boiler 2773 2759 2580 2409 2181 2131 1944 1688combination boiler 2810 4431 5492 5934 6254 6312 6287 6082condensing boiler ndash 155 154 202 300 460 698 948condensing-combination boiler ndash 318 373 417 727 1297 1837 2773no boiler 4305 3140 3244 3016 2894 2775 2642 2676Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsstandard boiler 514 489 449 446 433 410 396 363back boiler 136 130 120 111 100 97 88 76combination boiler 138 210 256 275 287 287 283 273condensing boiler 00 07 07 09 14 21 31 43condensing-combination boiler 00 15 17 19 33 59 83 125no boiler 212 149 151 140 133 126 119 120Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 41

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

all dwellings

standard boiler

back boiler

combination boiler

condensing boiler

condensing-combination

boilerno

boilerall

dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 6223 1045 3984 713 1756 1286 15007 private rented 817 149 1112 73 429 716 3296 all private 7040 1194 5096 787 2185 2002 18304

local authority 499 271 481 90 335 309 1984 housing association 533 223 505 72 254 365 1951 all social 1032 494 986 162 589 674 3935

all 8072 1688 6082 948 2773 2676 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 415 70 265 48 117 86 1000 private rented 248 45 337 22 130 217 1000 all private 385 65 278 43 119 109 1000

local authority 251 136 242 45 169 156 1000 housing association 273 114 259 37 130 187 1000 all social 262 125 250 41 150 171 1000

all 363 76 273 43 125 120 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 2853 5210 5334 5825 5974 6644 7267 7418200mm or more of loft insulation 583 1256 2034 2530 2919 3520 4258 4685entire house double glazing 6169 10753 11915 12846 13486 13924 14850 15747

all dwellings 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 140 246 248 270 274 302 327 334200mm or more of loft insulation 29 59 95 117 134 160 192 211entire house double glazing 303 509 555 594 619 633 669 708

all dwellings 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

42 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 8 Cavity wall insulation by tenure

all dwellings

cavity with insulation

cavity uninsulated other all

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5161 5483 4364 15007private rented 566 1213 1517 3296private 5727 6696 5882 18304

local authority 834 657 493 1984housing association 857 720 374 1951social 1691 1378 867 3935

total 7418 8073 6749 22239

percentage of dwellingsowner occupied 344 365 291 100private rented 172 368 460 100private 313 366 321 100

local authority 420 331 248 100housing association 439 369 192 100social 430 350 220 100

total 334 363 303 100

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 43

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

all dwellings

no loftno

insulationless than

50mm50 up to

99mm

100 up to

149mm

150 up to

199mm200mm or more

all dwellings

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 748 442 432 3009 5147 2007 3223 15007 private rented 672 175 66 857 813 281 434 3296 private 1420 617 497 3866 5960 2288 3657 18304

local authority 614 33 19 171 471 206 470 1984 housing association 467 20 16 143 482 265 558 1951 social 1081 53 35 314 953 471 1028 3935

total 2501 670 532 4179 6913 2759 4685 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 50 29 29 200 343 134 215 1000private rented 204 53 20 260 247 85 132 1000private 78 34 27 211 326 125 200 1000

local authority 309 17 10 86 237 104 237 1000housing association 239 10 08 73 247 136 286 1000social 275 14 09 80 242 120 261 1000

total 112 30 24 188 311 124 211 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

44 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

hazard presentnumber of homes (000s) each hazard is present in

falling on stairs 2025excess cold 1966falling on level surfaces 788falling between levels 443fire 318

entry by intruders

flames hot surfacesleaddamp and mould growth 50 to 100 eachcollision and entrapmentradiationfalls associated with baths

crowding and space

food safetypersonal hygiene sanitation and drainage 20 to 50 eachnoisedomestic hygiene pests and refuseelectrical hazards

structural collapse and falling elements

water supplycarbon monoxide and fuel combustion productsposition and operability of amenities less thanexcess heat 20 eachlightinguncombusted fuel gasexplosions

any of the 15 hazards 4842

any of the 26 hazards 5039

Note For 2006 and 2007 the survey reported on 15 hazards only The 2008 EHS can provide estimates for 26 hazards - the additional hazards are marked with an asterisk The three remaining hazards not included in the survey are presence of asbestos biocides or volatile organic compounds For reporting purposes HHSRS and non-decent estimates will be based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with previous years and avoid a break in the time seriesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 45

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 4842 4925private rented 1449 1478all private 6291 6403

local authority 625 640housing association 444 464all social 1069 1104

all tenures 7360 7507

percentagesowner occupied 323 328private rented 440 448all private 344 350

local authority 315 323housing association 228 238all social 272 281

all tenures 331 338

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

46 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 hazards present (compariosn of estimates based on any one to the 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 3342 3452private rented 978 1013all private 4320 4465

local authority 298 326RSL 224 248all social 522 574

all tenures 4842 5039

percentagesowner occupied 223 230private rented 297 307all private 236 244

local authority 150 164RSL 115 127all social 133 146

all tenures 218 227

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 47

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all households

15 hazards 26 hazards

number (000s) percentage () number (000s) percentage ()

decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 1428 653 1413 646private rented 429 490 417 476all private vulnerable 1857 606 1830 597 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 8494 683 8425 677private rented 1246 588 1232 581all private non-vulnerable 9740 669 9657 663 all owner occupied 9922 678 9839 673all private rented 1675 559 1648 550all private 11597 658 11487 663all social 2798 740 2766 731

all households 14395 672 14253 666

non-decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 760 347 775 354private rented 447 510 459 524all private vulnerable 1207 394 1234 403 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 3946 317 4015 323private rented 874 412 888 419all private non-vulnerable 4820 331 4903 337 all owner occupied 4706 322 4790 327all private rented 1321 441 1347 450all private 6027 342 6137 348all social 985 260 1017 269

all households 7012 328 7154 334

Note For reporting purposes decent homes estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

48 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes1 by deprived and other districts by tenure 2006-2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsSocial NRF88 662 652 605Other districts 480 486 464 Private NRF88 2544 2621 2442Other districts 4013 3928 3849

percentages of dwellingsSocial NRF88 313 304 278Other districts 264 278 263 Private NRF88 381 380 361Other districts 353 344 333

Note NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving Neighbourhood Renewal Funding 2001-2006Source English House Condition Survey 2006-2007English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub sample)

Technical annex | 49

Technical annex

General description

The survey consists of three main elements an initial interview survey of 17700 households with a follow up physical inspection and a desk based market valuation of a sub-sample of 8000 of these dwellings including vacant dwellings The interview survey sample forms part of ONSrsquos Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the core questions from the IHS form part of the EHS questionnaire More information about the IHS is available from its webpage wwwstatisticsgovukCCInuggetaspID=936ampPos=1ampColRank=1ampRank=224

The EHS interview content covers the key topics included under the former SEH and EHCS The content of the physical and market value components remains very largely unchanged from the former EHCS

Sampling and grossing

2008-09 Sample1 The initial sample for 2008-09 consisted of 32100 addresses drawn as a systematic

random sample from the Postcode Address File (small users) Interviews were attempted at all of these addresses over the course of the survey year from April 2008 to March 2009 A proportion of addresses were found not to be valid residential properties (eg demolished properties secondholiday homes small businesses not yet built)

2 Of the 17691 addresses where interviews were achieved (the lsquofull household samplersquo) all social rented properties and a sub-sample of private properties were regarded as eligible for the physical survey and the respondentrsquos consent was sought A proportion of vacant properties were also sub-sampled Physical surveys were completed in 7972 cases and these cases contribute to the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo (see below)

3 The principal differences in sampling methodology between the EHS and its predecessors the SEH and EHCS are that

bull The EHS uses an unclustered sample This enables a smaller sample to be used with no loss of precision ie without sampling errors being increased The more scattered sample does however have some implications for fieldwork organisation

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 37: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

Section 2 Housing stock | 37

Figure 12 Percentage of homes with a damp problem by tenure 2008

rising damp penetrating damp condensationmould

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

alltenures

housingassociation

localauthority

privaterented

owneroccupied

per

cen

tage

of

ho

mes

wit

h d

amp

pro

ble

ms

Source English Housing Survey dwelling sub-sample

38 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex tables

Households

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

Annex Table 2 Economic Status of working age HRP by tenure 2008-09

Energy efficiency

Annex Table 3 Heating Type 1996-2008

Annex Table 4 Main Heating System by tenure 2008

Annex Table 5 Boiler Types 1996-2008

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

Annex Table 8 Cavity Wall insulation by tenure 2008

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

Housing Health and Safety Rating System

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 HHSRS hazards present (comparison of estimates based on any one of 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Non-decent homes in deprived areas

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes in deprived areas by tenure 2006-2008

Annex tables | 39

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent

child(ren)

couple with dependent

child(ren)

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)

other multi-

person households

all one-person

households

all household

types

percentageown outright 46 9 7 24 37 31buying with mortgage 35 66 27 25 23 36social renters 9 13 44 20 25 18private renters 10 12 22 31 15 14

all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 2 Economic status of working age HRP by tenure

all households

working un-employed retired other inactive Total percentage

own outright 74 2 14 10 100buying with mortgage 94 1 1 4 100social renters 49 12 1 37 100private renters 75 5 1 19 100all tenures 80 4 3 13 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 3 Heating type 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingscentral heating 16178 18177 18604 18919 19179 19553 19862 19862storage heater 1643 1600 1587 1616 1609 1532 1552 1641fixed roomportable heater 2515 2001 1294 1078 993 904 776 736Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingscentral heating 796 860 866 875 881 889 895 893storage heater 81 76 74 75 74 70 70 74fixed roomportable heating heater 124 95 60 50 46 41 35 33Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

40 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 4 Main heating system by tenure 2008

all dwellings

central heating storage heaterfixed room

heatingportable

heating only all dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 13788 790 411 19 15007 private rented 2630 441 208 17 3296 all private 16418 1232 619 36 18304

local authority 1776 160 46 2 1984 housing association 1669 249 33 1 1951 all social 3445 409 79 3 3935

all tenures 19862 1641 698 38 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 919 53 27 01 1000 private rented 798 134 63 05 1000 all private 897 67 34 02 1000

local authority 895 80 23 01 1000 housing association 855 128 17 00 1000 all social 875 104 20 01 1000

all tenures 893 74 31 02 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 5 Boiler types 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsstandard boiler 10447 10338 9642 9635 9425 9014 8782 8072back boiler 2773 2759 2580 2409 2181 2131 1944 1688combination boiler 2810 4431 5492 5934 6254 6312 6287 6082condensing boiler ndash 155 154 202 300 460 698 948condensing-combination boiler ndash 318 373 417 727 1297 1837 2773no boiler 4305 3140 3244 3016 2894 2775 2642 2676Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsstandard boiler 514 489 449 446 433 410 396 363back boiler 136 130 120 111 100 97 88 76combination boiler 138 210 256 275 287 287 283 273condensing boiler 00 07 07 09 14 21 31 43condensing-combination boiler 00 15 17 19 33 59 83 125no boiler 212 149 151 140 133 126 119 120Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 41

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

all dwellings

standard boiler

back boiler

combination boiler

condensing boiler

condensing-combination

boilerno

boilerall

dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 6223 1045 3984 713 1756 1286 15007 private rented 817 149 1112 73 429 716 3296 all private 7040 1194 5096 787 2185 2002 18304

local authority 499 271 481 90 335 309 1984 housing association 533 223 505 72 254 365 1951 all social 1032 494 986 162 589 674 3935

all 8072 1688 6082 948 2773 2676 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 415 70 265 48 117 86 1000 private rented 248 45 337 22 130 217 1000 all private 385 65 278 43 119 109 1000

local authority 251 136 242 45 169 156 1000 housing association 273 114 259 37 130 187 1000 all social 262 125 250 41 150 171 1000

all 363 76 273 43 125 120 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 2853 5210 5334 5825 5974 6644 7267 7418200mm or more of loft insulation 583 1256 2034 2530 2919 3520 4258 4685entire house double glazing 6169 10753 11915 12846 13486 13924 14850 15747

all dwellings 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 140 246 248 270 274 302 327 334200mm or more of loft insulation 29 59 95 117 134 160 192 211entire house double glazing 303 509 555 594 619 633 669 708

all dwellings 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

42 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 8 Cavity wall insulation by tenure

all dwellings

cavity with insulation

cavity uninsulated other all

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5161 5483 4364 15007private rented 566 1213 1517 3296private 5727 6696 5882 18304

local authority 834 657 493 1984housing association 857 720 374 1951social 1691 1378 867 3935

total 7418 8073 6749 22239

percentage of dwellingsowner occupied 344 365 291 100private rented 172 368 460 100private 313 366 321 100

local authority 420 331 248 100housing association 439 369 192 100social 430 350 220 100

total 334 363 303 100

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 43

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

all dwellings

no loftno

insulationless than

50mm50 up to

99mm

100 up to

149mm

150 up to

199mm200mm or more

all dwellings

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 748 442 432 3009 5147 2007 3223 15007 private rented 672 175 66 857 813 281 434 3296 private 1420 617 497 3866 5960 2288 3657 18304

local authority 614 33 19 171 471 206 470 1984 housing association 467 20 16 143 482 265 558 1951 social 1081 53 35 314 953 471 1028 3935

total 2501 670 532 4179 6913 2759 4685 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 50 29 29 200 343 134 215 1000private rented 204 53 20 260 247 85 132 1000private 78 34 27 211 326 125 200 1000

local authority 309 17 10 86 237 104 237 1000housing association 239 10 08 73 247 136 286 1000social 275 14 09 80 242 120 261 1000

total 112 30 24 188 311 124 211 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

44 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

hazard presentnumber of homes (000s) each hazard is present in

falling on stairs 2025excess cold 1966falling on level surfaces 788falling between levels 443fire 318

entry by intruders

flames hot surfacesleaddamp and mould growth 50 to 100 eachcollision and entrapmentradiationfalls associated with baths

crowding and space

food safetypersonal hygiene sanitation and drainage 20 to 50 eachnoisedomestic hygiene pests and refuseelectrical hazards

structural collapse and falling elements

water supplycarbon monoxide and fuel combustion productsposition and operability of amenities less thanexcess heat 20 eachlightinguncombusted fuel gasexplosions

any of the 15 hazards 4842

any of the 26 hazards 5039

Note For 2006 and 2007 the survey reported on 15 hazards only The 2008 EHS can provide estimates for 26 hazards - the additional hazards are marked with an asterisk The three remaining hazards not included in the survey are presence of asbestos biocides or volatile organic compounds For reporting purposes HHSRS and non-decent estimates will be based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with previous years and avoid a break in the time seriesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 45

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 4842 4925private rented 1449 1478all private 6291 6403

local authority 625 640housing association 444 464all social 1069 1104

all tenures 7360 7507

percentagesowner occupied 323 328private rented 440 448all private 344 350

local authority 315 323housing association 228 238all social 272 281

all tenures 331 338

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

46 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 hazards present (compariosn of estimates based on any one to the 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 3342 3452private rented 978 1013all private 4320 4465

local authority 298 326RSL 224 248all social 522 574

all tenures 4842 5039

percentagesowner occupied 223 230private rented 297 307all private 236 244

local authority 150 164RSL 115 127all social 133 146

all tenures 218 227

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 47

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all households

15 hazards 26 hazards

number (000s) percentage () number (000s) percentage ()

decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 1428 653 1413 646private rented 429 490 417 476all private vulnerable 1857 606 1830 597 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 8494 683 8425 677private rented 1246 588 1232 581all private non-vulnerable 9740 669 9657 663 all owner occupied 9922 678 9839 673all private rented 1675 559 1648 550all private 11597 658 11487 663all social 2798 740 2766 731

all households 14395 672 14253 666

non-decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 760 347 775 354private rented 447 510 459 524all private vulnerable 1207 394 1234 403 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 3946 317 4015 323private rented 874 412 888 419all private non-vulnerable 4820 331 4903 337 all owner occupied 4706 322 4790 327all private rented 1321 441 1347 450all private 6027 342 6137 348all social 985 260 1017 269

all households 7012 328 7154 334

Note For reporting purposes decent homes estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

48 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes1 by deprived and other districts by tenure 2006-2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsSocial NRF88 662 652 605Other districts 480 486 464 Private NRF88 2544 2621 2442Other districts 4013 3928 3849

percentages of dwellingsSocial NRF88 313 304 278Other districts 264 278 263 Private NRF88 381 380 361Other districts 353 344 333

Note NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving Neighbourhood Renewal Funding 2001-2006Source English House Condition Survey 2006-2007English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub sample)

Technical annex | 49

Technical annex

General description

The survey consists of three main elements an initial interview survey of 17700 households with a follow up physical inspection and a desk based market valuation of a sub-sample of 8000 of these dwellings including vacant dwellings The interview survey sample forms part of ONSrsquos Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the core questions from the IHS form part of the EHS questionnaire More information about the IHS is available from its webpage wwwstatisticsgovukCCInuggetaspID=936ampPos=1ampColRank=1ampRank=224

The EHS interview content covers the key topics included under the former SEH and EHCS The content of the physical and market value components remains very largely unchanged from the former EHCS

Sampling and grossing

2008-09 Sample1 The initial sample for 2008-09 consisted of 32100 addresses drawn as a systematic

random sample from the Postcode Address File (small users) Interviews were attempted at all of these addresses over the course of the survey year from April 2008 to March 2009 A proportion of addresses were found not to be valid residential properties (eg demolished properties secondholiday homes small businesses not yet built)

2 Of the 17691 addresses where interviews were achieved (the lsquofull household samplersquo) all social rented properties and a sub-sample of private properties were regarded as eligible for the physical survey and the respondentrsquos consent was sought A proportion of vacant properties were also sub-sampled Physical surveys were completed in 7972 cases and these cases contribute to the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo (see below)

3 The principal differences in sampling methodology between the EHS and its predecessors the SEH and EHCS are that

bull The EHS uses an unclustered sample This enables a smaller sample to be used with no loss of precision ie without sampling errors being increased The more scattered sample does however have some implications for fieldwork organisation

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 38: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

38 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex tables

Households

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

Annex Table 2 Economic Status of working age HRP by tenure 2008-09

Energy efficiency

Annex Table 3 Heating Type 1996-2008

Annex Table 4 Main Heating System by tenure 2008

Annex Table 5 Boiler Types 1996-2008

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

Annex Table 8 Cavity Wall insulation by tenure 2008

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

Housing Health and Safety Rating System

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 HHSRS hazards present (comparison of estimates based on any one of 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

Non-decent homes in deprived areas

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes in deprived areas by tenure 2006-2008

Annex tables | 39

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent

child(ren)

couple with dependent

child(ren)

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)

other multi-

person households

all one-person

households

all household

types

percentageown outright 46 9 7 24 37 31buying with mortgage 35 66 27 25 23 36social renters 9 13 44 20 25 18private renters 10 12 22 31 15 14

all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 2 Economic status of working age HRP by tenure

all households

working un-employed retired other inactive Total percentage

own outright 74 2 14 10 100buying with mortgage 94 1 1 4 100social renters 49 12 1 37 100private renters 75 5 1 19 100all tenures 80 4 3 13 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 3 Heating type 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingscentral heating 16178 18177 18604 18919 19179 19553 19862 19862storage heater 1643 1600 1587 1616 1609 1532 1552 1641fixed roomportable heater 2515 2001 1294 1078 993 904 776 736Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingscentral heating 796 860 866 875 881 889 895 893storage heater 81 76 74 75 74 70 70 74fixed roomportable heating heater 124 95 60 50 46 41 35 33Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

40 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 4 Main heating system by tenure 2008

all dwellings

central heating storage heaterfixed room

heatingportable

heating only all dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 13788 790 411 19 15007 private rented 2630 441 208 17 3296 all private 16418 1232 619 36 18304

local authority 1776 160 46 2 1984 housing association 1669 249 33 1 1951 all social 3445 409 79 3 3935

all tenures 19862 1641 698 38 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 919 53 27 01 1000 private rented 798 134 63 05 1000 all private 897 67 34 02 1000

local authority 895 80 23 01 1000 housing association 855 128 17 00 1000 all social 875 104 20 01 1000

all tenures 893 74 31 02 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 5 Boiler types 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsstandard boiler 10447 10338 9642 9635 9425 9014 8782 8072back boiler 2773 2759 2580 2409 2181 2131 1944 1688combination boiler 2810 4431 5492 5934 6254 6312 6287 6082condensing boiler ndash 155 154 202 300 460 698 948condensing-combination boiler ndash 318 373 417 727 1297 1837 2773no boiler 4305 3140 3244 3016 2894 2775 2642 2676Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsstandard boiler 514 489 449 446 433 410 396 363back boiler 136 130 120 111 100 97 88 76combination boiler 138 210 256 275 287 287 283 273condensing boiler 00 07 07 09 14 21 31 43condensing-combination boiler 00 15 17 19 33 59 83 125no boiler 212 149 151 140 133 126 119 120Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 41

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

all dwellings

standard boiler

back boiler

combination boiler

condensing boiler

condensing-combination

boilerno

boilerall

dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 6223 1045 3984 713 1756 1286 15007 private rented 817 149 1112 73 429 716 3296 all private 7040 1194 5096 787 2185 2002 18304

local authority 499 271 481 90 335 309 1984 housing association 533 223 505 72 254 365 1951 all social 1032 494 986 162 589 674 3935

all 8072 1688 6082 948 2773 2676 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 415 70 265 48 117 86 1000 private rented 248 45 337 22 130 217 1000 all private 385 65 278 43 119 109 1000

local authority 251 136 242 45 169 156 1000 housing association 273 114 259 37 130 187 1000 all social 262 125 250 41 150 171 1000

all 363 76 273 43 125 120 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 2853 5210 5334 5825 5974 6644 7267 7418200mm or more of loft insulation 583 1256 2034 2530 2919 3520 4258 4685entire house double glazing 6169 10753 11915 12846 13486 13924 14850 15747

all dwellings 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 140 246 248 270 274 302 327 334200mm or more of loft insulation 29 59 95 117 134 160 192 211entire house double glazing 303 509 555 594 619 633 669 708

all dwellings 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

42 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 8 Cavity wall insulation by tenure

all dwellings

cavity with insulation

cavity uninsulated other all

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5161 5483 4364 15007private rented 566 1213 1517 3296private 5727 6696 5882 18304

local authority 834 657 493 1984housing association 857 720 374 1951social 1691 1378 867 3935

total 7418 8073 6749 22239

percentage of dwellingsowner occupied 344 365 291 100private rented 172 368 460 100private 313 366 321 100

local authority 420 331 248 100housing association 439 369 192 100social 430 350 220 100

total 334 363 303 100

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 43

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

all dwellings

no loftno

insulationless than

50mm50 up to

99mm

100 up to

149mm

150 up to

199mm200mm or more

all dwellings

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 748 442 432 3009 5147 2007 3223 15007 private rented 672 175 66 857 813 281 434 3296 private 1420 617 497 3866 5960 2288 3657 18304

local authority 614 33 19 171 471 206 470 1984 housing association 467 20 16 143 482 265 558 1951 social 1081 53 35 314 953 471 1028 3935

total 2501 670 532 4179 6913 2759 4685 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 50 29 29 200 343 134 215 1000private rented 204 53 20 260 247 85 132 1000private 78 34 27 211 326 125 200 1000

local authority 309 17 10 86 237 104 237 1000housing association 239 10 08 73 247 136 286 1000social 275 14 09 80 242 120 261 1000

total 112 30 24 188 311 124 211 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

44 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

hazard presentnumber of homes (000s) each hazard is present in

falling on stairs 2025excess cold 1966falling on level surfaces 788falling between levels 443fire 318

entry by intruders

flames hot surfacesleaddamp and mould growth 50 to 100 eachcollision and entrapmentradiationfalls associated with baths

crowding and space

food safetypersonal hygiene sanitation and drainage 20 to 50 eachnoisedomestic hygiene pests and refuseelectrical hazards

structural collapse and falling elements

water supplycarbon monoxide and fuel combustion productsposition and operability of amenities less thanexcess heat 20 eachlightinguncombusted fuel gasexplosions

any of the 15 hazards 4842

any of the 26 hazards 5039

Note For 2006 and 2007 the survey reported on 15 hazards only The 2008 EHS can provide estimates for 26 hazards - the additional hazards are marked with an asterisk The three remaining hazards not included in the survey are presence of asbestos biocides or volatile organic compounds For reporting purposes HHSRS and non-decent estimates will be based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with previous years and avoid a break in the time seriesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 45

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 4842 4925private rented 1449 1478all private 6291 6403

local authority 625 640housing association 444 464all social 1069 1104

all tenures 7360 7507

percentagesowner occupied 323 328private rented 440 448all private 344 350

local authority 315 323housing association 228 238all social 272 281

all tenures 331 338

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

46 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 hazards present (compariosn of estimates based on any one to the 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 3342 3452private rented 978 1013all private 4320 4465

local authority 298 326RSL 224 248all social 522 574

all tenures 4842 5039

percentagesowner occupied 223 230private rented 297 307all private 236 244

local authority 150 164RSL 115 127all social 133 146

all tenures 218 227

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 47

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all households

15 hazards 26 hazards

number (000s) percentage () number (000s) percentage ()

decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 1428 653 1413 646private rented 429 490 417 476all private vulnerable 1857 606 1830 597 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 8494 683 8425 677private rented 1246 588 1232 581all private non-vulnerable 9740 669 9657 663 all owner occupied 9922 678 9839 673all private rented 1675 559 1648 550all private 11597 658 11487 663all social 2798 740 2766 731

all households 14395 672 14253 666

non-decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 760 347 775 354private rented 447 510 459 524all private vulnerable 1207 394 1234 403 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 3946 317 4015 323private rented 874 412 888 419all private non-vulnerable 4820 331 4903 337 all owner occupied 4706 322 4790 327all private rented 1321 441 1347 450all private 6027 342 6137 348all social 985 260 1017 269

all households 7012 328 7154 334

Note For reporting purposes decent homes estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

48 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes1 by deprived and other districts by tenure 2006-2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsSocial NRF88 662 652 605Other districts 480 486 464 Private NRF88 2544 2621 2442Other districts 4013 3928 3849

percentages of dwellingsSocial NRF88 313 304 278Other districts 264 278 263 Private NRF88 381 380 361Other districts 353 344 333

Note NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving Neighbourhood Renewal Funding 2001-2006Source English House Condition Survey 2006-2007English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub sample)

Technical annex | 49

Technical annex

General description

The survey consists of three main elements an initial interview survey of 17700 households with a follow up physical inspection and a desk based market valuation of a sub-sample of 8000 of these dwellings including vacant dwellings The interview survey sample forms part of ONSrsquos Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the core questions from the IHS form part of the EHS questionnaire More information about the IHS is available from its webpage wwwstatisticsgovukCCInuggetaspID=936ampPos=1ampColRank=1ampRank=224

The EHS interview content covers the key topics included under the former SEH and EHCS The content of the physical and market value components remains very largely unchanged from the former EHCS

Sampling and grossing

2008-09 Sample1 The initial sample for 2008-09 consisted of 32100 addresses drawn as a systematic

random sample from the Postcode Address File (small users) Interviews were attempted at all of these addresses over the course of the survey year from April 2008 to March 2009 A proportion of addresses were found not to be valid residential properties (eg demolished properties secondholiday homes small businesses not yet built)

2 Of the 17691 addresses where interviews were achieved (the lsquofull household samplersquo) all social rented properties and a sub-sample of private properties were regarded as eligible for the physical survey and the respondentrsquos consent was sought A proportion of vacant properties were also sub-sampled Physical surveys were completed in 7972 cases and these cases contribute to the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo (see below)

3 The principal differences in sampling methodology between the EHS and its predecessors the SEH and EHCS are that

bull The EHS uses an unclustered sample This enables a smaller sample to be used with no loss of precision ie without sampling errors being increased The more scattered sample does however have some implications for fieldwork organisation

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 39: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

Annex tables | 39

Annex Table 1 Household type by tenure 2008-09

all households

household type

couple no dependent

child(ren)

couple with dependent

child(ren)

lone parent with

dependent child(ren)

other multi-

person households

all one-person

households

all household

types

percentageown outright 46 9 7 24 37 31buying with mortgage 35 66 27 25 23 36social renters 9 13 44 20 25 18private renters 10 12 22 31 15 14

all tenures 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 2 Economic status of working age HRP by tenure

all households

working un-employed retired other inactive Total percentage

own outright 74 2 14 10 100buying with mortgage 94 1 1 4 100social renters 49 12 1 37 100private renters 75 5 1 19 100all tenures 80 4 3 13 100

Source English Housing Survey ndash full household sample

Annex Table 3 Heating type 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingscentral heating 16178 18177 18604 18919 19179 19553 19862 19862storage heater 1643 1600 1587 1616 1609 1532 1552 1641fixed roomportable heater 2515 2001 1294 1078 993 904 776 736Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingscentral heating 796 860 866 875 881 889 895 893storage heater 81 76 74 75 74 70 70 74fixed roomportable heating heater 124 95 60 50 46 41 35 33Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

40 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 4 Main heating system by tenure 2008

all dwellings

central heating storage heaterfixed room

heatingportable

heating only all dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 13788 790 411 19 15007 private rented 2630 441 208 17 3296 all private 16418 1232 619 36 18304

local authority 1776 160 46 2 1984 housing association 1669 249 33 1 1951 all social 3445 409 79 3 3935

all tenures 19862 1641 698 38 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 919 53 27 01 1000 private rented 798 134 63 05 1000 all private 897 67 34 02 1000

local authority 895 80 23 01 1000 housing association 855 128 17 00 1000 all social 875 104 20 01 1000

all tenures 893 74 31 02 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 5 Boiler types 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsstandard boiler 10447 10338 9642 9635 9425 9014 8782 8072back boiler 2773 2759 2580 2409 2181 2131 1944 1688combination boiler 2810 4431 5492 5934 6254 6312 6287 6082condensing boiler ndash 155 154 202 300 460 698 948condensing-combination boiler ndash 318 373 417 727 1297 1837 2773no boiler 4305 3140 3244 3016 2894 2775 2642 2676Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsstandard boiler 514 489 449 446 433 410 396 363back boiler 136 130 120 111 100 97 88 76combination boiler 138 210 256 275 287 287 283 273condensing boiler 00 07 07 09 14 21 31 43condensing-combination boiler 00 15 17 19 33 59 83 125no boiler 212 149 151 140 133 126 119 120Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 41

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

all dwellings

standard boiler

back boiler

combination boiler

condensing boiler

condensing-combination

boilerno

boilerall

dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 6223 1045 3984 713 1756 1286 15007 private rented 817 149 1112 73 429 716 3296 all private 7040 1194 5096 787 2185 2002 18304

local authority 499 271 481 90 335 309 1984 housing association 533 223 505 72 254 365 1951 all social 1032 494 986 162 589 674 3935

all 8072 1688 6082 948 2773 2676 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 415 70 265 48 117 86 1000 private rented 248 45 337 22 130 217 1000 all private 385 65 278 43 119 109 1000

local authority 251 136 242 45 169 156 1000 housing association 273 114 259 37 130 187 1000 all social 262 125 250 41 150 171 1000

all 363 76 273 43 125 120 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 2853 5210 5334 5825 5974 6644 7267 7418200mm or more of loft insulation 583 1256 2034 2530 2919 3520 4258 4685entire house double glazing 6169 10753 11915 12846 13486 13924 14850 15747

all dwellings 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 140 246 248 270 274 302 327 334200mm or more of loft insulation 29 59 95 117 134 160 192 211entire house double glazing 303 509 555 594 619 633 669 708

all dwellings 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

42 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 8 Cavity wall insulation by tenure

all dwellings

cavity with insulation

cavity uninsulated other all

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5161 5483 4364 15007private rented 566 1213 1517 3296private 5727 6696 5882 18304

local authority 834 657 493 1984housing association 857 720 374 1951social 1691 1378 867 3935

total 7418 8073 6749 22239

percentage of dwellingsowner occupied 344 365 291 100private rented 172 368 460 100private 313 366 321 100

local authority 420 331 248 100housing association 439 369 192 100social 430 350 220 100

total 334 363 303 100

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 43

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

all dwellings

no loftno

insulationless than

50mm50 up to

99mm

100 up to

149mm

150 up to

199mm200mm or more

all dwellings

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 748 442 432 3009 5147 2007 3223 15007 private rented 672 175 66 857 813 281 434 3296 private 1420 617 497 3866 5960 2288 3657 18304

local authority 614 33 19 171 471 206 470 1984 housing association 467 20 16 143 482 265 558 1951 social 1081 53 35 314 953 471 1028 3935

total 2501 670 532 4179 6913 2759 4685 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 50 29 29 200 343 134 215 1000private rented 204 53 20 260 247 85 132 1000private 78 34 27 211 326 125 200 1000

local authority 309 17 10 86 237 104 237 1000housing association 239 10 08 73 247 136 286 1000social 275 14 09 80 242 120 261 1000

total 112 30 24 188 311 124 211 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

44 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

hazard presentnumber of homes (000s) each hazard is present in

falling on stairs 2025excess cold 1966falling on level surfaces 788falling between levels 443fire 318

entry by intruders

flames hot surfacesleaddamp and mould growth 50 to 100 eachcollision and entrapmentradiationfalls associated with baths

crowding and space

food safetypersonal hygiene sanitation and drainage 20 to 50 eachnoisedomestic hygiene pests and refuseelectrical hazards

structural collapse and falling elements

water supplycarbon monoxide and fuel combustion productsposition and operability of amenities less thanexcess heat 20 eachlightinguncombusted fuel gasexplosions

any of the 15 hazards 4842

any of the 26 hazards 5039

Note For 2006 and 2007 the survey reported on 15 hazards only The 2008 EHS can provide estimates for 26 hazards - the additional hazards are marked with an asterisk The three remaining hazards not included in the survey are presence of asbestos biocides or volatile organic compounds For reporting purposes HHSRS and non-decent estimates will be based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with previous years and avoid a break in the time seriesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 45

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 4842 4925private rented 1449 1478all private 6291 6403

local authority 625 640housing association 444 464all social 1069 1104

all tenures 7360 7507

percentagesowner occupied 323 328private rented 440 448all private 344 350

local authority 315 323housing association 228 238all social 272 281

all tenures 331 338

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

46 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 hazards present (compariosn of estimates based on any one to the 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 3342 3452private rented 978 1013all private 4320 4465

local authority 298 326RSL 224 248all social 522 574

all tenures 4842 5039

percentagesowner occupied 223 230private rented 297 307all private 236 244

local authority 150 164RSL 115 127all social 133 146

all tenures 218 227

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 47

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all households

15 hazards 26 hazards

number (000s) percentage () number (000s) percentage ()

decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 1428 653 1413 646private rented 429 490 417 476all private vulnerable 1857 606 1830 597 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 8494 683 8425 677private rented 1246 588 1232 581all private non-vulnerable 9740 669 9657 663 all owner occupied 9922 678 9839 673all private rented 1675 559 1648 550all private 11597 658 11487 663all social 2798 740 2766 731

all households 14395 672 14253 666

non-decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 760 347 775 354private rented 447 510 459 524all private vulnerable 1207 394 1234 403 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 3946 317 4015 323private rented 874 412 888 419all private non-vulnerable 4820 331 4903 337 all owner occupied 4706 322 4790 327all private rented 1321 441 1347 450all private 6027 342 6137 348all social 985 260 1017 269

all households 7012 328 7154 334

Note For reporting purposes decent homes estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

48 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes1 by deprived and other districts by tenure 2006-2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsSocial NRF88 662 652 605Other districts 480 486 464 Private NRF88 2544 2621 2442Other districts 4013 3928 3849

percentages of dwellingsSocial NRF88 313 304 278Other districts 264 278 263 Private NRF88 381 380 361Other districts 353 344 333

Note NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving Neighbourhood Renewal Funding 2001-2006Source English House Condition Survey 2006-2007English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub sample)

Technical annex | 49

Technical annex

General description

The survey consists of three main elements an initial interview survey of 17700 households with a follow up physical inspection and a desk based market valuation of a sub-sample of 8000 of these dwellings including vacant dwellings The interview survey sample forms part of ONSrsquos Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the core questions from the IHS form part of the EHS questionnaire More information about the IHS is available from its webpage wwwstatisticsgovukCCInuggetaspID=936ampPos=1ampColRank=1ampRank=224

The EHS interview content covers the key topics included under the former SEH and EHCS The content of the physical and market value components remains very largely unchanged from the former EHCS

Sampling and grossing

2008-09 Sample1 The initial sample for 2008-09 consisted of 32100 addresses drawn as a systematic

random sample from the Postcode Address File (small users) Interviews were attempted at all of these addresses over the course of the survey year from April 2008 to March 2009 A proportion of addresses were found not to be valid residential properties (eg demolished properties secondholiday homes small businesses not yet built)

2 Of the 17691 addresses where interviews were achieved (the lsquofull household samplersquo) all social rented properties and a sub-sample of private properties were regarded as eligible for the physical survey and the respondentrsquos consent was sought A proportion of vacant properties were also sub-sampled Physical surveys were completed in 7972 cases and these cases contribute to the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo (see below)

3 The principal differences in sampling methodology between the EHS and its predecessors the SEH and EHCS are that

bull The EHS uses an unclustered sample This enables a smaller sample to be used with no loss of precision ie without sampling errors being increased The more scattered sample does however have some implications for fieldwork organisation

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 40: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

40 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 4 Main heating system by tenure 2008

all dwellings

central heating storage heaterfixed room

heatingportable

heating only all dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 13788 790 411 19 15007 private rented 2630 441 208 17 3296 all private 16418 1232 619 36 18304

local authority 1776 160 46 2 1984 housing association 1669 249 33 1 1951 all social 3445 409 79 3 3935

all tenures 19862 1641 698 38 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 919 53 27 01 1000 private rented 798 134 63 05 1000 all private 897 67 34 02 1000

local authority 895 80 23 01 1000 housing association 855 128 17 00 1000 all social 875 104 20 01 1000

all tenures 893 74 31 02 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 5 Boiler types 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsstandard boiler 10447 10338 9642 9635 9425 9014 8782 8072back boiler 2773 2759 2580 2409 2181 2131 1944 1688combination boiler 2810 4431 5492 5934 6254 6312 6287 6082condensing boiler ndash 155 154 202 300 460 698 948condensing-combination boiler ndash 318 373 417 727 1297 1837 2773no boiler 4305 3140 3244 3016 2894 2775 2642 2676Total 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsstandard boiler 514 489 449 446 433 410 396 363back boiler 136 130 120 111 100 97 88 76combination boiler 138 210 256 275 287 287 283 273condensing boiler 00 07 07 09 14 21 31 43condensing-combination boiler 00 15 17 19 33 59 83 125no boiler 212 149 151 140 133 126 119 120Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 41

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

all dwellings

standard boiler

back boiler

combination boiler

condensing boiler

condensing-combination

boilerno

boilerall

dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 6223 1045 3984 713 1756 1286 15007 private rented 817 149 1112 73 429 716 3296 all private 7040 1194 5096 787 2185 2002 18304

local authority 499 271 481 90 335 309 1984 housing association 533 223 505 72 254 365 1951 all social 1032 494 986 162 589 674 3935

all 8072 1688 6082 948 2773 2676 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 415 70 265 48 117 86 1000 private rented 248 45 337 22 130 217 1000 all private 385 65 278 43 119 109 1000

local authority 251 136 242 45 169 156 1000 housing association 273 114 259 37 130 187 1000 all social 262 125 250 41 150 171 1000

all 363 76 273 43 125 120 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 2853 5210 5334 5825 5974 6644 7267 7418200mm or more of loft insulation 583 1256 2034 2530 2919 3520 4258 4685entire house double glazing 6169 10753 11915 12846 13486 13924 14850 15747

all dwellings 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 140 246 248 270 274 302 327 334200mm or more of loft insulation 29 59 95 117 134 160 192 211entire house double glazing 303 509 555 594 619 633 669 708

all dwellings 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

42 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 8 Cavity wall insulation by tenure

all dwellings

cavity with insulation

cavity uninsulated other all

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5161 5483 4364 15007private rented 566 1213 1517 3296private 5727 6696 5882 18304

local authority 834 657 493 1984housing association 857 720 374 1951social 1691 1378 867 3935

total 7418 8073 6749 22239

percentage of dwellingsowner occupied 344 365 291 100private rented 172 368 460 100private 313 366 321 100

local authority 420 331 248 100housing association 439 369 192 100social 430 350 220 100

total 334 363 303 100

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 43

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

all dwellings

no loftno

insulationless than

50mm50 up to

99mm

100 up to

149mm

150 up to

199mm200mm or more

all dwellings

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 748 442 432 3009 5147 2007 3223 15007 private rented 672 175 66 857 813 281 434 3296 private 1420 617 497 3866 5960 2288 3657 18304

local authority 614 33 19 171 471 206 470 1984 housing association 467 20 16 143 482 265 558 1951 social 1081 53 35 314 953 471 1028 3935

total 2501 670 532 4179 6913 2759 4685 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 50 29 29 200 343 134 215 1000private rented 204 53 20 260 247 85 132 1000private 78 34 27 211 326 125 200 1000

local authority 309 17 10 86 237 104 237 1000housing association 239 10 08 73 247 136 286 1000social 275 14 09 80 242 120 261 1000

total 112 30 24 188 311 124 211 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

44 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

hazard presentnumber of homes (000s) each hazard is present in

falling on stairs 2025excess cold 1966falling on level surfaces 788falling between levels 443fire 318

entry by intruders

flames hot surfacesleaddamp and mould growth 50 to 100 eachcollision and entrapmentradiationfalls associated with baths

crowding and space

food safetypersonal hygiene sanitation and drainage 20 to 50 eachnoisedomestic hygiene pests and refuseelectrical hazards

structural collapse and falling elements

water supplycarbon monoxide and fuel combustion productsposition and operability of amenities less thanexcess heat 20 eachlightinguncombusted fuel gasexplosions

any of the 15 hazards 4842

any of the 26 hazards 5039

Note For 2006 and 2007 the survey reported on 15 hazards only The 2008 EHS can provide estimates for 26 hazards - the additional hazards are marked with an asterisk The three remaining hazards not included in the survey are presence of asbestos biocides or volatile organic compounds For reporting purposes HHSRS and non-decent estimates will be based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with previous years and avoid a break in the time seriesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 45

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 4842 4925private rented 1449 1478all private 6291 6403

local authority 625 640housing association 444 464all social 1069 1104

all tenures 7360 7507

percentagesowner occupied 323 328private rented 440 448all private 344 350

local authority 315 323housing association 228 238all social 272 281

all tenures 331 338

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

46 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 hazards present (compariosn of estimates based on any one to the 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 3342 3452private rented 978 1013all private 4320 4465

local authority 298 326RSL 224 248all social 522 574

all tenures 4842 5039

percentagesowner occupied 223 230private rented 297 307all private 236 244

local authority 150 164RSL 115 127all social 133 146

all tenures 218 227

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 47

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all households

15 hazards 26 hazards

number (000s) percentage () number (000s) percentage ()

decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 1428 653 1413 646private rented 429 490 417 476all private vulnerable 1857 606 1830 597 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 8494 683 8425 677private rented 1246 588 1232 581all private non-vulnerable 9740 669 9657 663 all owner occupied 9922 678 9839 673all private rented 1675 559 1648 550all private 11597 658 11487 663all social 2798 740 2766 731

all households 14395 672 14253 666

non-decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 760 347 775 354private rented 447 510 459 524all private vulnerable 1207 394 1234 403 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 3946 317 4015 323private rented 874 412 888 419all private non-vulnerable 4820 331 4903 337 all owner occupied 4706 322 4790 327all private rented 1321 441 1347 450all private 6027 342 6137 348all social 985 260 1017 269

all households 7012 328 7154 334

Note For reporting purposes decent homes estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

48 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes1 by deprived and other districts by tenure 2006-2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsSocial NRF88 662 652 605Other districts 480 486 464 Private NRF88 2544 2621 2442Other districts 4013 3928 3849

percentages of dwellingsSocial NRF88 313 304 278Other districts 264 278 263 Private NRF88 381 380 361Other districts 353 344 333

Note NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving Neighbourhood Renewal Funding 2001-2006Source English House Condition Survey 2006-2007English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub sample)

Technical annex | 49

Technical annex

General description

The survey consists of three main elements an initial interview survey of 17700 households with a follow up physical inspection and a desk based market valuation of a sub-sample of 8000 of these dwellings including vacant dwellings The interview survey sample forms part of ONSrsquos Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the core questions from the IHS form part of the EHS questionnaire More information about the IHS is available from its webpage wwwstatisticsgovukCCInuggetaspID=936ampPos=1ampColRank=1ampRank=224

The EHS interview content covers the key topics included under the former SEH and EHCS The content of the physical and market value components remains very largely unchanged from the former EHCS

Sampling and grossing

2008-09 Sample1 The initial sample for 2008-09 consisted of 32100 addresses drawn as a systematic

random sample from the Postcode Address File (small users) Interviews were attempted at all of these addresses over the course of the survey year from April 2008 to March 2009 A proportion of addresses were found not to be valid residential properties (eg demolished properties secondholiday homes small businesses not yet built)

2 Of the 17691 addresses where interviews were achieved (the lsquofull household samplersquo) all social rented properties and a sub-sample of private properties were regarded as eligible for the physical survey and the respondentrsquos consent was sought A proportion of vacant properties were also sub-sampled Physical surveys were completed in 7972 cases and these cases contribute to the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo (see below)

3 The principal differences in sampling methodology between the EHS and its predecessors the SEH and EHCS are that

bull The EHS uses an unclustered sample This enables a smaller sample to be used with no loss of precision ie without sampling errors being increased The more scattered sample does however have some implications for fieldwork organisation

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 41: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

Annex tables | 41

Annex Table 6 Boiler types by tenure 2008

all dwellings

standard boiler

back boiler

combination boiler

condensing boiler

condensing-combination

boilerno

boilerall

dwellings

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 6223 1045 3984 713 1756 1286 15007 private rented 817 149 1112 73 429 716 3296 all private 7040 1194 5096 787 2185 2002 18304

local authority 499 271 481 90 335 309 1984 housing association 533 223 505 72 254 365 1951 all social 1032 494 986 162 589 674 3935

all 8072 1688 6082 948 2773 2676 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 415 70 265 48 117 86 1000 private rented 248 45 337 22 130 217 1000 all private 385 65 278 43 119 109 1000

local authority 251 136 242 45 169 156 1000 housing association 273 114 259 37 130 187 1000 all social 262 125 250 41 150 171 1000

all 363 76 273 43 125 120 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex Table 7 Insulation measures 1996-2008

all dwellings

1996 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 2853 5210 5334 5825 5974 6644 7267 7418200mm or more of loft insulation 583 1256 2034 2530 2919 3520 4258 4685entire house double glazing 6169 10753 11915 12846 13486 13924 14850 15747

all dwellings 20335 21140 21484 21613 21781 21989 22189 22239

percentages of dwellingsinsulated cavity walls 140 246 248 270 274 302 327 334200mm or more of loft insulation 29 59 95 117 134 160 192 211entire house double glazing 303 509 555 594 619 633 669 708

all dwellings 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Source English House Condition Survey 1996 to 2007 English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

42 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 8 Cavity wall insulation by tenure

all dwellings

cavity with insulation

cavity uninsulated other all

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5161 5483 4364 15007private rented 566 1213 1517 3296private 5727 6696 5882 18304

local authority 834 657 493 1984housing association 857 720 374 1951social 1691 1378 867 3935

total 7418 8073 6749 22239

percentage of dwellingsowner occupied 344 365 291 100private rented 172 368 460 100private 313 366 321 100

local authority 420 331 248 100housing association 439 369 192 100social 430 350 220 100

total 334 363 303 100

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 43

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

all dwellings

no loftno

insulationless than

50mm50 up to

99mm

100 up to

149mm

150 up to

199mm200mm or more

all dwellings

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 748 442 432 3009 5147 2007 3223 15007 private rented 672 175 66 857 813 281 434 3296 private 1420 617 497 3866 5960 2288 3657 18304

local authority 614 33 19 171 471 206 470 1984 housing association 467 20 16 143 482 265 558 1951 social 1081 53 35 314 953 471 1028 3935

total 2501 670 532 4179 6913 2759 4685 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 50 29 29 200 343 134 215 1000private rented 204 53 20 260 247 85 132 1000private 78 34 27 211 326 125 200 1000

local authority 309 17 10 86 237 104 237 1000housing association 239 10 08 73 247 136 286 1000social 275 14 09 80 242 120 261 1000

total 112 30 24 188 311 124 211 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

44 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

hazard presentnumber of homes (000s) each hazard is present in

falling on stairs 2025excess cold 1966falling on level surfaces 788falling between levels 443fire 318

entry by intruders

flames hot surfacesleaddamp and mould growth 50 to 100 eachcollision and entrapmentradiationfalls associated with baths

crowding and space

food safetypersonal hygiene sanitation and drainage 20 to 50 eachnoisedomestic hygiene pests and refuseelectrical hazards

structural collapse and falling elements

water supplycarbon monoxide and fuel combustion productsposition and operability of amenities less thanexcess heat 20 eachlightinguncombusted fuel gasexplosions

any of the 15 hazards 4842

any of the 26 hazards 5039

Note For 2006 and 2007 the survey reported on 15 hazards only The 2008 EHS can provide estimates for 26 hazards - the additional hazards are marked with an asterisk The three remaining hazards not included in the survey are presence of asbestos biocides or volatile organic compounds For reporting purposes HHSRS and non-decent estimates will be based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with previous years and avoid a break in the time seriesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 45

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 4842 4925private rented 1449 1478all private 6291 6403

local authority 625 640housing association 444 464all social 1069 1104

all tenures 7360 7507

percentagesowner occupied 323 328private rented 440 448all private 344 350

local authority 315 323housing association 228 238all social 272 281

all tenures 331 338

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

46 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 hazards present (compariosn of estimates based on any one to the 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 3342 3452private rented 978 1013all private 4320 4465

local authority 298 326RSL 224 248all social 522 574

all tenures 4842 5039

percentagesowner occupied 223 230private rented 297 307all private 236 244

local authority 150 164RSL 115 127all social 133 146

all tenures 218 227

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 47

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all households

15 hazards 26 hazards

number (000s) percentage () number (000s) percentage ()

decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 1428 653 1413 646private rented 429 490 417 476all private vulnerable 1857 606 1830 597 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 8494 683 8425 677private rented 1246 588 1232 581all private non-vulnerable 9740 669 9657 663 all owner occupied 9922 678 9839 673all private rented 1675 559 1648 550all private 11597 658 11487 663all social 2798 740 2766 731

all households 14395 672 14253 666

non-decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 760 347 775 354private rented 447 510 459 524all private vulnerable 1207 394 1234 403 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 3946 317 4015 323private rented 874 412 888 419all private non-vulnerable 4820 331 4903 337 all owner occupied 4706 322 4790 327all private rented 1321 441 1347 450all private 6027 342 6137 348all social 985 260 1017 269

all households 7012 328 7154 334

Note For reporting purposes decent homes estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

48 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes1 by deprived and other districts by tenure 2006-2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsSocial NRF88 662 652 605Other districts 480 486 464 Private NRF88 2544 2621 2442Other districts 4013 3928 3849

percentages of dwellingsSocial NRF88 313 304 278Other districts 264 278 263 Private NRF88 381 380 361Other districts 353 344 333

Note NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving Neighbourhood Renewal Funding 2001-2006Source English House Condition Survey 2006-2007English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub sample)

Technical annex | 49

Technical annex

General description

The survey consists of three main elements an initial interview survey of 17700 households with a follow up physical inspection and a desk based market valuation of a sub-sample of 8000 of these dwellings including vacant dwellings The interview survey sample forms part of ONSrsquos Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the core questions from the IHS form part of the EHS questionnaire More information about the IHS is available from its webpage wwwstatisticsgovukCCInuggetaspID=936ampPos=1ampColRank=1ampRank=224

The EHS interview content covers the key topics included under the former SEH and EHCS The content of the physical and market value components remains very largely unchanged from the former EHCS

Sampling and grossing

2008-09 Sample1 The initial sample for 2008-09 consisted of 32100 addresses drawn as a systematic

random sample from the Postcode Address File (small users) Interviews were attempted at all of these addresses over the course of the survey year from April 2008 to March 2009 A proportion of addresses were found not to be valid residential properties (eg demolished properties secondholiday homes small businesses not yet built)

2 Of the 17691 addresses where interviews were achieved (the lsquofull household samplersquo) all social rented properties and a sub-sample of private properties were regarded as eligible for the physical survey and the respondentrsquos consent was sought A proportion of vacant properties were also sub-sampled Physical surveys were completed in 7972 cases and these cases contribute to the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo (see below)

3 The principal differences in sampling methodology between the EHS and its predecessors the SEH and EHCS are that

bull The EHS uses an unclustered sample This enables a smaller sample to be used with no loss of precision ie without sampling errors being increased The more scattered sample does however have some implications for fieldwork organisation

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 42: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

42 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 8 Cavity wall insulation by tenure

all dwellings

cavity with insulation

cavity uninsulated other all

thousands of dwellingsowner occupied 5161 5483 4364 15007private rented 566 1213 1517 3296private 5727 6696 5882 18304

local authority 834 657 493 1984housing association 857 720 374 1951social 1691 1378 867 3935

total 7418 8073 6749 22239

percentage of dwellingsowner occupied 344 365 291 100private rented 172 368 460 100private 313 366 321 100

local authority 420 331 248 100housing association 439 369 192 100social 430 350 220 100

total 334 363 303 100

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 43

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

all dwellings

no loftno

insulationless than

50mm50 up to

99mm

100 up to

149mm

150 up to

199mm200mm or more

all dwellings

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 748 442 432 3009 5147 2007 3223 15007 private rented 672 175 66 857 813 281 434 3296 private 1420 617 497 3866 5960 2288 3657 18304

local authority 614 33 19 171 471 206 470 1984 housing association 467 20 16 143 482 265 558 1951 social 1081 53 35 314 953 471 1028 3935

total 2501 670 532 4179 6913 2759 4685 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 50 29 29 200 343 134 215 1000private rented 204 53 20 260 247 85 132 1000private 78 34 27 211 326 125 200 1000

local authority 309 17 10 86 237 104 237 1000housing association 239 10 08 73 247 136 286 1000social 275 14 09 80 242 120 261 1000

total 112 30 24 188 311 124 211 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

44 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

hazard presentnumber of homes (000s) each hazard is present in

falling on stairs 2025excess cold 1966falling on level surfaces 788falling between levels 443fire 318

entry by intruders

flames hot surfacesleaddamp and mould growth 50 to 100 eachcollision and entrapmentradiationfalls associated with baths

crowding and space

food safetypersonal hygiene sanitation and drainage 20 to 50 eachnoisedomestic hygiene pests and refuseelectrical hazards

structural collapse and falling elements

water supplycarbon monoxide and fuel combustion productsposition and operability of amenities less thanexcess heat 20 eachlightinguncombusted fuel gasexplosions

any of the 15 hazards 4842

any of the 26 hazards 5039

Note For 2006 and 2007 the survey reported on 15 hazards only The 2008 EHS can provide estimates for 26 hazards - the additional hazards are marked with an asterisk The three remaining hazards not included in the survey are presence of asbestos biocides or volatile organic compounds For reporting purposes HHSRS and non-decent estimates will be based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with previous years and avoid a break in the time seriesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 45

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 4842 4925private rented 1449 1478all private 6291 6403

local authority 625 640housing association 444 464all social 1069 1104

all tenures 7360 7507

percentagesowner occupied 323 328private rented 440 448all private 344 350

local authority 315 323housing association 228 238all social 272 281

all tenures 331 338

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

46 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 hazards present (compariosn of estimates based on any one to the 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 3342 3452private rented 978 1013all private 4320 4465

local authority 298 326RSL 224 248all social 522 574

all tenures 4842 5039

percentagesowner occupied 223 230private rented 297 307all private 236 244

local authority 150 164RSL 115 127all social 133 146

all tenures 218 227

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 47

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all households

15 hazards 26 hazards

number (000s) percentage () number (000s) percentage ()

decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 1428 653 1413 646private rented 429 490 417 476all private vulnerable 1857 606 1830 597 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 8494 683 8425 677private rented 1246 588 1232 581all private non-vulnerable 9740 669 9657 663 all owner occupied 9922 678 9839 673all private rented 1675 559 1648 550all private 11597 658 11487 663all social 2798 740 2766 731

all households 14395 672 14253 666

non-decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 760 347 775 354private rented 447 510 459 524all private vulnerable 1207 394 1234 403 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 3946 317 4015 323private rented 874 412 888 419all private non-vulnerable 4820 331 4903 337 all owner occupied 4706 322 4790 327all private rented 1321 441 1347 450all private 6027 342 6137 348all social 985 260 1017 269

all households 7012 328 7154 334

Note For reporting purposes decent homes estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

48 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes1 by deprived and other districts by tenure 2006-2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsSocial NRF88 662 652 605Other districts 480 486 464 Private NRF88 2544 2621 2442Other districts 4013 3928 3849

percentages of dwellingsSocial NRF88 313 304 278Other districts 264 278 263 Private NRF88 381 380 361Other districts 353 344 333

Note NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving Neighbourhood Renewal Funding 2001-2006Source English House Condition Survey 2006-2007English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub sample)

Technical annex | 49

Technical annex

General description

The survey consists of three main elements an initial interview survey of 17700 households with a follow up physical inspection and a desk based market valuation of a sub-sample of 8000 of these dwellings including vacant dwellings The interview survey sample forms part of ONSrsquos Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the core questions from the IHS form part of the EHS questionnaire More information about the IHS is available from its webpage wwwstatisticsgovukCCInuggetaspID=936ampPos=1ampColRank=1ampRank=224

The EHS interview content covers the key topics included under the former SEH and EHCS The content of the physical and market value components remains very largely unchanged from the former EHCS

Sampling and grossing

2008-09 Sample1 The initial sample for 2008-09 consisted of 32100 addresses drawn as a systematic

random sample from the Postcode Address File (small users) Interviews were attempted at all of these addresses over the course of the survey year from April 2008 to March 2009 A proportion of addresses were found not to be valid residential properties (eg demolished properties secondholiday homes small businesses not yet built)

2 Of the 17691 addresses where interviews were achieved (the lsquofull household samplersquo) all social rented properties and a sub-sample of private properties were regarded as eligible for the physical survey and the respondentrsquos consent was sought A proportion of vacant properties were also sub-sampled Physical surveys were completed in 7972 cases and these cases contribute to the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo (see below)

3 The principal differences in sampling methodology between the EHS and its predecessors the SEH and EHCS are that

bull The EHS uses an unclustered sample This enables a smaller sample to be used with no loss of precision ie without sampling errors being increased The more scattered sample does however have some implications for fieldwork organisation

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 43: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

Annex tables | 43

Annex Table 9 Loft insulation by tenure 2008

all dwellings

no loftno

insulationless than

50mm50 up to

99mm

100 up to

149mm

150 up to

199mm200mm or more

all dwellings

thousands of dwellings

owner occupied 748 442 432 3009 5147 2007 3223 15007 private rented 672 175 66 857 813 281 434 3296 private 1420 617 497 3866 5960 2288 3657 18304

local authority 614 33 19 171 471 206 470 1984 housing association 467 20 16 143 482 265 558 1951 social 1081 53 35 314 953 471 1028 3935

total 2501 670 532 4179 6913 2759 4685 22239

percentages of dwellingsowner occupied 50 29 29 200 343 134 215 1000private rented 204 53 20 260 247 85 132 1000private 78 34 27 211 326 125 200 1000

local authority 309 17 10 86 237 104 237 1000housing association 239 10 08 73 247 136 286 1000social 275 14 09 80 242 120 261 1000

total 112 30 24 188 311 124 211 1000

Source English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

44 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

hazard presentnumber of homes (000s) each hazard is present in

falling on stairs 2025excess cold 1966falling on level surfaces 788falling between levels 443fire 318

entry by intruders

flames hot surfacesleaddamp and mould growth 50 to 100 eachcollision and entrapmentradiationfalls associated with baths

crowding and space

food safetypersonal hygiene sanitation and drainage 20 to 50 eachnoisedomestic hygiene pests and refuseelectrical hazards

structural collapse and falling elements

water supplycarbon monoxide and fuel combustion productsposition and operability of amenities less thanexcess heat 20 eachlightinguncombusted fuel gasexplosions

any of the 15 hazards 4842

any of the 26 hazards 5039

Note For 2006 and 2007 the survey reported on 15 hazards only The 2008 EHS can provide estimates for 26 hazards - the additional hazards are marked with an asterisk The three remaining hazards not included in the survey are presence of asbestos biocides or volatile organic compounds For reporting purposes HHSRS and non-decent estimates will be based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with previous years and avoid a break in the time seriesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 45

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 4842 4925private rented 1449 1478all private 6291 6403

local authority 625 640housing association 444 464all social 1069 1104

all tenures 7360 7507

percentagesowner occupied 323 328private rented 440 448all private 344 350

local authority 315 323housing association 228 238all social 272 281

all tenures 331 338

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

46 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 hazards present (compariosn of estimates based on any one to the 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 3342 3452private rented 978 1013all private 4320 4465

local authority 298 326RSL 224 248all social 522 574

all tenures 4842 5039

percentagesowner occupied 223 230private rented 297 307all private 236 244

local authority 150 164RSL 115 127all social 133 146

all tenures 218 227

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 47

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all households

15 hazards 26 hazards

number (000s) percentage () number (000s) percentage ()

decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 1428 653 1413 646private rented 429 490 417 476all private vulnerable 1857 606 1830 597 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 8494 683 8425 677private rented 1246 588 1232 581all private non-vulnerable 9740 669 9657 663 all owner occupied 9922 678 9839 673all private rented 1675 559 1648 550all private 11597 658 11487 663all social 2798 740 2766 731

all households 14395 672 14253 666

non-decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 760 347 775 354private rented 447 510 459 524all private vulnerable 1207 394 1234 403 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 3946 317 4015 323private rented 874 412 888 419all private non-vulnerable 4820 331 4903 337 all owner occupied 4706 322 4790 327all private rented 1321 441 1347 450all private 6027 342 6137 348all social 985 260 1017 269

all households 7012 328 7154 334

Note For reporting purposes decent homes estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

48 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes1 by deprived and other districts by tenure 2006-2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsSocial NRF88 662 652 605Other districts 480 486 464 Private NRF88 2544 2621 2442Other districts 4013 3928 3849

percentages of dwellingsSocial NRF88 313 304 278Other districts 264 278 263 Private NRF88 381 380 361Other districts 353 344 333

Note NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving Neighbourhood Renewal Funding 2001-2006Source English House Condition Survey 2006-2007English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub sample)

Technical annex | 49

Technical annex

General description

The survey consists of three main elements an initial interview survey of 17700 households with a follow up physical inspection and a desk based market valuation of a sub-sample of 8000 of these dwellings including vacant dwellings The interview survey sample forms part of ONSrsquos Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the core questions from the IHS form part of the EHS questionnaire More information about the IHS is available from its webpage wwwstatisticsgovukCCInuggetaspID=936ampPos=1ampColRank=1ampRank=224

The EHS interview content covers the key topics included under the former SEH and EHCS The content of the physical and market value components remains very largely unchanged from the former EHCS

Sampling and grossing

2008-09 Sample1 The initial sample for 2008-09 consisted of 32100 addresses drawn as a systematic

random sample from the Postcode Address File (small users) Interviews were attempted at all of these addresses over the course of the survey year from April 2008 to March 2009 A proportion of addresses were found not to be valid residential properties (eg demolished properties secondholiday homes small businesses not yet built)

2 Of the 17691 addresses where interviews were achieved (the lsquofull household samplersquo) all social rented properties and a sub-sample of private properties were regarded as eligible for the physical survey and the respondentrsquos consent was sought A proportion of vacant properties were also sub-sampled Physical surveys were completed in 7972 cases and these cases contribute to the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo (see below)

3 The principal differences in sampling methodology between the EHS and its predecessors the SEH and EHCS are that

bull The EHS uses an unclustered sample This enables a smaller sample to be used with no loss of precision ie without sampling errors being increased The more scattered sample does however have some implications for fieldwork organisation

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 44: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

44 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 10 Frequency of HHSRS hazards 2008

hazard presentnumber of homes (000s) each hazard is present in

falling on stairs 2025excess cold 1966falling on level surfaces 788falling between levels 443fire 318

entry by intruders

flames hot surfacesleaddamp and mould growth 50 to 100 eachcollision and entrapmentradiationfalls associated with baths

crowding and space

food safetypersonal hygiene sanitation and drainage 20 to 50 eachnoisedomestic hygiene pests and refuseelectrical hazards

structural collapse and falling elements

water supplycarbon monoxide and fuel combustion productsposition and operability of amenities less thanexcess heat 20 eachlightinguncombusted fuel gasexplosions

any of the 15 hazards 4842

any of the 26 hazards 5039

Note For 2006 and 2007 the survey reported on 15 hazards only The 2008 EHS can provide estimates for 26 hazards - the additional hazards are marked with an asterisk The three remaining hazards not included in the survey are presence of asbestos biocides or volatile organic compounds For reporting purposes HHSRS and non-decent estimates will be based on 15 hazards to maintain consistency with previous years and avoid a break in the time seriesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 45

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 4842 4925private rented 1449 1478all private 6291 6403

local authority 625 640housing association 444 464all social 1069 1104

all tenures 7360 7507

percentagesowner occupied 323 328private rented 440 448all private 344 350

local authority 315 323housing association 228 238all social 272 281

all tenures 331 338

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

46 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 hazards present (compariosn of estimates based on any one to the 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 3342 3452private rented 978 1013all private 4320 4465

local authority 298 326RSL 224 248all social 522 574

all tenures 4842 5039

percentagesowner occupied 223 230private rented 297 307all private 236 244

local authority 150 164RSL 115 127all social 133 146

all tenures 218 227

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 47

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all households

15 hazards 26 hazards

number (000s) percentage () number (000s) percentage ()

decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 1428 653 1413 646private rented 429 490 417 476all private vulnerable 1857 606 1830 597 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 8494 683 8425 677private rented 1246 588 1232 581all private non-vulnerable 9740 669 9657 663 all owner occupied 9922 678 9839 673all private rented 1675 559 1648 550all private 11597 658 11487 663all social 2798 740 2766 731

all households 14395 672 14253 666

non-decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 760 347 775 354private rented 447 510 459 524all private vulnerable 1207 394 1234 403 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 3946 317 4015 323private rented 874 412 888 419all private non-vulnerable 4820 331 4903 337 all owner occupied 4706 322 4790 327all private rented 1321 441 1347 450all private 6027 342 6137 348all social 985 260 1017 269

all households 7012 328 7154 334

Note For reporting purposes decent homes estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

48 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes1 by deprived and other districts by tenure 2006-2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsSocial NRF88 662 652 605Other districts 480 486 464 Private NRF88 2544 2621 2442Other districts 4013 3928 3849

percentages of dwellingsSocial NRF88 313 304 278Other districts 264 278 263 Private NRF88 381 380 361Other districts 353 344 333

Note NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving Neighbourhood Renewal Funding 2001-2006Source English House Condition Survey 2006-2007English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub sample)

Technical annex | 49

Technical annex

General description

The survey consists of three main elements an initial interview survey of 17700 households with a follow up physical inspection and a desk based market valuation of a sub-sample of 8000 of these dwellings including vacant dwellings The interview survey sample forms part of ONSrsquos Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the core questions from the IHS form part of the EHS questionnaire More information about the IHS is available from its webpage wwwstatisticsgovukCCInuggetaspID=936ampPos=1ampColRank=1ampRank=224

The EHS interview content covers the key topics included under the former SEH and EHCS The content of the physical and market value components remains very largely unchanged from the former EHCS

Sampling and grossing

2008-09 Sample1 The initial sample for 2008-09 consisted of 32100 addresses drawn as a systematic

random sample from the Postcode Address File (small users) Interviews were attempted at all of these addresses over the course of the survey year from April 2008 to March 2009 A proportion of addresses were found not to be valid residential properties (eg demolished properties secondholiday homes small businesses not yet built)

2 Of the 17691 addresses where interviews were achieved (the lsquofull household samplersquo) all social rented properties and a sub-sample of private properties were regarded as eligible for the physical survey and the respondentrsquos consent was sought A proportion of vacant properties were also sub-sampled Physical surveys were completed in 7972 cases and these cases contribute to the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo (see below)

3 The principal differences in sampling methodology between the EHS and its predecessors the SEH and EHCS are that

bull The EHS uses an unclustered sample This enables a smaller sample to be used with no loss of precision ie without sampling errors being increased The more scattered sample does however have some implications for fieldwork organisation

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 45: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

Annex tables | 45

Annex Table 11 Non-decent homes by tenure (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 4842 4925private rented 1449 1478all private 6291 6403

local authority 625 640housing association 444 464all social 1069 1104

all tenures 7360 7507

percentagesowner occupied 323 328private rented 440 448all private 344 350

local authority 315 323housing association 228 238all social 272 281

all tenures 331 338

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub-sample)

46 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 hazards present (compariosn of estimates based on any one to the 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 3342 3452private rented 978 1013all private 4320 4465

local authority 298 326RSL 224 248all social 522 574

all tenures 4842 5039

percentagesowner occupied 223 230private rented 297 307all private 236 244

local authority 150 164RSL 115 127all social 133 146

all tenures 218 227

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 47

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all households

15 hazards 26 hazards

number (000s) percentage () number (000s) percentage ()

decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 1428 653 1413 646private rented 429 490 417 476all private vulnerable 1857 606 1830 597 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 8494 683 8425 677private rented 1246 588 1232 581all private non-vulnerable 9740 669 9657 663 all owner occupied 9922 678 9839 673all private rented 1675 559 1648 550all private 11597 658 11487 663all social 2798 740 2766 731

all households 14395 672 14253 666

non-decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 760 347 775 354private rented 447 510 459 524all private vulnerable 1207 394 1234 403 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 3946 317 4015 323private rented 874 412 888 419all private non-vulnerable 4820 331 4903 337 all owner occupied 4706 322 4790 327all private rented 1321 441 1347 450all private 6027 342 6137 348all social 985 260 1017 269

all households 7012 328 7154 334

Note For reporting purposes decent homes estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

48 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes1 by deprived and other districts by tenure 2006-2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsSocial NRF88 662 652 605Other districts 480 486 464 Private NRF88 2544 2621 2442Other districts 4013 3928 3849

percentages of dwellingsSocial NRF88 313 304 278Other districts 264 278 263 Private NRF88 381 380 361Other districts 353 344 333

Note NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving Neighbourhood Renewal Funding 2001-2006Source English House Condition Survey 2006-2007English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub sample)

Technical annex | 49

Technical annex

General description

The survey consists of three main elements an initial interview survey of 17700 households with a follow up physical inspection and a desk based market valuation of a sub-sample of 8000 of these dwellings including vacant dwellings The interview survey sample forms part of ONSrsquos Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the core questions from the IHS form part of the EHS questionnaire More information about the IHS is available from its webpage wwwstatisticsgovukCCInuggetaspID=936ampPos=1ampColRank=1ampRank=224

The EHS interview content covers the key topics included under the former SEH and EHCS The content of the physical and market value components remains very largely unchanged from the former EHCS

Sampling and grossing

2008-09 Sample1 The initial sample for 2008-09 consisted of 32100 addresses drawn as a systematic

random sample from the Postcode Address File (small users) Interviews were attempted at all of these addresses over the course of the survey year from April 2008 to March 2009 A proportion of addresses were found not to be valid residential properties (eg demolished properties secondholiday homes small businesses not yet built)

2 Of the 17691 addresses where interviews were achieved (the lsquofull household samplersquo) all social rented properties and a sub-sample of private properties were regarded as eligible for the physical survey and the respondentrsquos consent was sought A proportion of vacant properties were also sub-sampled Physical surveys were completed in 7972 cases and these cases contribute to the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo (see below)

3 The principal differences in sampling methodology between the EHS and its predecessors the SEH and EHCS are that

bull The EHS uses an unclustered sample This enables a smaller sample to be used with no loss of precision ie without sampling errors being increased The more scattered sample does however have some implications for fieldwork organisation

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 46: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

46 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 12 Homes with Category 1 hazards present (compariosn of estimates based on any one to the 15 hazards and any one of 26 hazards) 2008

all dwellings

15 hazards 26 hazards

thousandsowner occupied 3342 3452private rented 978 1013all private 4320 4465

local authority 298 326RSL 224 248all social 522 574

all tenures 4842 5039

percentagesowner occupied 223 230private rented 297 307all private 236 244

local authority 150 164RSL 115 127all social 133 146

all tenures 218 227

Note For reporting purposes HHSRS estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

Annex tables | 47

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all households

15 hazards 26 hazards

number (000s) percentage () number (000s) percentage ()

decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 1428 653 1413 646private rented 429 490 417 476all private vulnerable 1857 606 1830 597 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 8494 683 8425 677private rented 1246 588 1232 581all private non-vulnerable 9740 669 9657 663 all owner occupied 9922 678 9839 673all private rented 1675 559 1648 550all private 11597 658 11487 663all social 2798 740 2766 731

all households 14395 672 14253 666

non-decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 760 347 775 354private rented 447 510 459 524all private vulnerable 1207 394 1234 403 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 3946 317 4015 323private rented 874 412 888 419all private non-vulnerable 4820 331 4903 337 all owner occupied 4706 322 4790 327all private rented 1321 441 1347 450all private 6027 342 6137 348all social 985 260 1017 269

all households 7012 328 7154 334

Note For reporting purposes decent homes estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

48 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes1 by deprived and other districts by tenure 2006-2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsSocial NRF88 662 652 605Other districts 480 486 464 Private NRF88 2544 2621 2442Other districts 4013 3928 3849

percentages of dwellingsSocial NRF88 313 304 278Other districts 264 278 263 Private NRF88 381 380 361Other districts 353 344 333

Note NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving Neighbourhood Renewal Funding 2001-2006Source English House Condition Survey 2006-2007English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub sample)

Technical annex | 49

Technical annex

General description

The survey consists of three main elements an initial interview survey of 17700 households with a follow up physical inspection and a desk based market valuation of a sub-sample of 8000 of these dwellings including vacant dwellings The interview survey sample forms part of ONSrsquos Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the core questions from the IHS form part of the EHS questionnaire More information about the IHS is available from its webpage wwwstatisticsgovukCCInuggetaspID=936ampPos=1ampColRank=1ampRank=224

The EHS interview content covers the key topics included under the former SEH and EHCS The content of the physical and market value components remains very largely unchanged from the former EHCS

Sampling and grossing

2008-09 Sample1 The initial sample for 2008-09 consisted of 32100 addresses drawn as a systematic

random sample from the Postcode Address File (small users) Interviews were attempted at all of these addresses over the course of the survey year from April 2008 to March 2009 A proportion of addresses were found not to be valid residential properties (eg demolished properties secondholiday homes small businesses not yet built)

2 Of the 17691 addresses where interviews were achieved (the lsquofull household samplersquo) all social rented properties and a sub-sample of private properties were regarded as eligible for the physical survey and the respondentrsquos consent was sought A proportion of vacant properties were also sub-sampled Physical surveys were completed in 7972 cases and these cases contribute to the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo (see below)

3 The principal differences in sampling methodology between the EHS and its predecessors the SEH and EHCS are that

bull The EHS uses an unclustered sample This enables a smaller sample to be used with no loss of precision ie without sampling errors being increased The more scattered sample does however have some implications for fieldwork organisation

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 47: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

Annex tables | 47

Annex Table 13 Households living in decent homes (comparison of estimates based on 15 HHSRS hazards and 26 HHSRS hazards) 2008

all households

15 hazards 26 hazards

number (000s) percentage () number (000s) percentage ()

decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 1428 653 1413 646private rented 429 490 417 476all private vulnerable 1857 606 1830 597 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 8494 683 8425 677private rented 1246 588 1232 581all private non-vulnerable 9740 669 9657 663 all owner occupied 9922 678 9839 673all private rented 1675 559 1648 550all private 11597 658 11487 663all social 2798 740 2766 731

all households 14395 672 14253 666

non-decent homes private vulnerable owner occupied 760 347 775 354private rented 447 510 459 524all private vulnerable 1207 394 1234 403 private non-vulnerable owner occupied 3946 317 4015 323private rented 874 412 888 419all private non-vulnerable 4820 331 4903 337 all owner occupied 4706 322 4790 327all private rented 1321 441 1347 450all private 6027 342 6137 348all social 985 260 1017 269

all households 7012 328 7154 334

Note For reporting purposes decent homes estimates are based on 15 hazards to provide consistency with previous yearsrsquo estimatesSource English Housing Survey (dwelling sub-sample)

48 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes1 by deprived and other districts by tenure 2006-2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsSocial NRF88 662 652 605Other districts 480 486 464 Private NRF88 2544 2621 2442Other districts 4013 3928 3849

percentages of dwellingsSocial NRF88 313 304 278Other districts 264 278 263 Private NRF88 381 380 361Other districts 353 344 333

Note NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving Neighbourhood Renewal Funding 2001-2006Source English House Condition Survey 2006-2007English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub sample)

Technical annex | 49

Technical annex

General description

The survey consists of three main elements an initial interview survey of 17700 households with a follow up physical inspection and a desk based market valuation of a sub-sample of 8000 of these dwellings including vacant dwellings The interview survey sample forms part of ONSrsquos Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the core questions from the IHS form part of the EHS questionnaire More information about the IHS is available from its webpage wwwstatisticsgovukCCInuggetaspID=936ampPos=1ampColRank=1ampRank=224

The EHS interview content covers the key topics included under the former SEH and EHCS The content of the physical and market value components remains very largely unchanged from the former EHCS

Sampling and grossing

2008-09 Sample1 The initial sample for 2008-09 consisted of 32100 addresses drawn as a systematic

random sample from the Postcode Address File (small users) Interviews were attempted at all of these addresses over the course of the survey year from April 2008 to March 2009 A proportion of addresses were found not to be valid residential properties (eg demolished properties secondholiday homes small businesses not yet built)

2 Of the 17691 addresses where interviews were achieved (the lsquofull household samplersquo) all social rented properties and a sub-sample of private properties were regarded as eligible for the physical survey and the respondentrsquos consent was sought A proportion of vacant properties were also sub-sampled Physical surveys were completed in 7972 cases and these cases contribute to the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo (see below)

3 The principal differences in sampling methodology between the EHS and its predecessors the SEH and EHCS are that

bull The EHS uses an unclustered sample This enables a smaller sample to be used with no loss of precision ie without sampling errors being increased The more scattered sample does however have some implications for fieldwork organisation

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 48: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

48 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Annex Table 14 Non-decent homes1 by deprived and other districts by tenure 2006-2008

all dwellings

2006 2007 2008

thousands of dwellingsSocial NRF88 662 652 605Other districts 480 486 464 Private NRF88 2544 2621 2442Other districts 4013 3928 3849

percentages of dwellingsSocial NRF88 313 304 278Other districts 264 278 263 Private NRF88 381 380 361Other districts 353 344 333

Note NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving Neighbourhood Renewal Funding 2001-2006Source English House Condition Survey 2006-2007English Housing Survey 2008 (dwelling sub sample)

Technical annex | 49

Technical annex

General description

The survey consists of three main elements an initial interview survey of 17700 households with a follow up physical inspection and a desk based market valuation of a sub-sample of 8000 of these dwellings including vacant dwellings The interview survey sample forms part of ONSrsquos Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the core questions from the IHS form part of the EHS questionnaire More information about the IHS is available from its webpage wwwstatisticsgovukCCInuggetaspID=936ampPos=1ampColRank=1ampRank=224

The EHS interview content covers the key topics included under the former SEH and EHCS The content of the physical and market value components remains very largely unchanged from the former EHCS

Sampling and grossing

2008-09 Sample1 The initial sample for 2008-09 consisted of 32100 addresses drawn as a systematic

random sample from the Postcode Address File (small users) Interviews were attempted at all of these addresses over the course of the survey year from April 2008 to March 2009 A proportion of addresses were found not to be valid residential properties (eg demolished properties secondholiday homes small businesses not yet built)

2 Of the 17691 addresses where interviews were achieved (the lsquofull household samplersquo) all social rented properties and a sub-sample of private properties were regarded as eligible for the physical survey and the respondentrsquos consent was sought A proportion of vacant properties were also sub-sampled Physical surveys were completed in 7972 cases and these cases contribute to the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo (see below)

3 The principal differences in sampling methodology between the EHS and its predecessors the SEH and EHCS are that

bull The EHS uses an unclustered sample This enables a smaller sample to be used with no loss of precision ie without sampling errors being increased The more scattered sample does however have some implications for fieldwork organisation

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 49: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

Technical annex | 49

Technical annex

General description

The survey consists of three main elements an initial interview survey of 17700 households with a follow up physical inspection and a desk based market valuation of a sub-sample of 8000 of these dwellings including vacant dwellings The interview survey sample forms part of ONSrsquos Integrated Household Survey (IHS) and the core questions from the IHS form part of the EHS questionnaire More information about the IHS is available from its webpage wwwstatisticsgovukCCInuggetaspID=936ampPos=1ampColRank=1ampRank=224

The EHS interview content covers the key topics included under the former SEH and EHCS The content of the physical and market value components remains very largely unchanged from the former EHCS

Sampling and grossing

2008-09 Sample1 The initial sample for 2008-09 consisted of 32100 addresses drawn as a systematic

random sample from the Postcode Address File (small users) Interviews were attempted at all of these addresses over the course of the survey year from April 2008 to March 2009 A proportion of addresses were found not to be valid residential properties (eg demolished properties secondholiday homes small businesses not yet built)

2 Of the 17691 addresses where interviews were achieved (the lsquofull household samplersquo) all social rented properties and a sub-sample of private properties were regarded as eligible for the physical survey and the respondentrsquos consent was sought A proportion of vacant properties were also sub-sampled Physical surveys were completed in 7972 cases and these cases contribute to the lsquodwelling sub-samplersquo (see below)

3 The principal differences in sampling methodology between the EHS and its predecessors the SEH and EHCS are that

bull The EHS uses an unclustered sample This enables a smaller sample to be used with no loss of precision ie without sampling errors being increased The more scattered sample does however have some implications for fieldwork organisation

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 50: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

50 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

bull The SEH was an interview survey with no subsequent physical survey element It typically had an initial clustered sample of 30000 cases and 18000 achieved interviews The slightly smaller unclustered sample achieved in the EHS will give more robust estimates for many measures from the household sample

bull The SEH aimed to interview all households at multi-household addresses In privately renting households with more than one tenancy group the SEH also attempted to conduct interviews with each tenancy group In contrast the EHS selects one dwelling per address and one household per dwelling and interviews only the household reference person (HRP) of that household or their partner

bull The EHCS issued sample (also clustered) was smaller and designed to deliver around 8000 paired cases (interviewvacant with physical survey) cases with interviews but no physical survey were not reported separately Survey errors associated with measures from the EHS physical survey remain largely the same as for the EHCS

Combined sub-sample (lsquo2008rsquo)4 Analyses of the dwellings sub-sample in this report are presented using two

yearsrsquo data to enable more detailed analyses to be carried out This is in line with past practice in the EHCS For this transition year data from 2007-08 EHCS were combined with the 2008-09 EHS data Details of the EHCS sample design can be found in EHCS Technical Reports

5 This combined sample is referred to throughout the report as the 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample (reflecting the April 2008 mid-point for fieldwork carried out from April 2007 to March 2009) The sub-sample comprises 16150 occupied or vacant dwellings where surveyors have carried out a physical inspection and includes 15523 cases where an interview with the household was also secured (in either 2007-08 or 2008-09)

Grossing methodology6 The grossing methodology reverses the sampling and sub-sampling and adjusts for

any identifiable non-response bias at each stage of the survey Household results are then weighted to population totals by region and age by sex and to the tenure distribution of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) there is consistency between the LFS and EHS estimates with respect to this tenure distribution This method is very similar to that of the SEH the main difference being that much more detailed bias adjustment is carried out in the EHS

7 For the dwellings sub-sample household weights are first derived as above then dwelling weights are derived using CLGrsquos dwelling estimates and adjusted to be comparable with the household weights using the household to dwelling relationships found in the survey Overall this methodology is very similar to that of the EHCS except that the final calibration is now firstly to household totals rather than solely to the CLG dwelling totals To create weights for the two-year dwellings sub-sample the 2007-08 EHCS data were regrossed using the EHS methodology before being combined with the 2008-2009 EHS data

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 51: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

8 As part of data validation prior to the grossing tenure corrections are made where cases are reported as LA tenancies but where the LA is known to have transferred all its stock to an HA under a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) Similarly where an LArsquos stock is known to be managed by an Armrsquos Length Management Organisation (ALMO) cases where an ALMO is reported as the landlord are coded as LA tenancies This results in a more robust split between the LA and HA stock and is consistent with EHCS past practice but not that of the SEH

Impact of methodological changes9 The EHS questionnaire and methodology were designed to ensure maximum

continuity with its predecessors the SEH and EHCS whilst introducing improvements where appropriate Despite this it is inevitable that there will be some minor discontinuities between the EHS and its predecessors To help examine this data for the two-year EHS dwellings sub-sample were regrossed using the EHCS methodology and the 2007-2008 SEH data were regrossed using the EHS methodology A selection of tabulations was produced for comparison

10 There was some shift in estimates for the full household sample resulting from the change in grossing Tables T1 and T2 In the main estimates were comparable but there were some differences and this could lead to some discontinuities Further investigation into the reason for these differences is continuing

Table T1 Household composition by tenure - grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

SEH grossing EHS grossing

household composition owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

owneroccupied

privaterented

socialrented

alltenures

numbers of households (lsquo000s)couple no dependent child(ren) 6460 692 705 7857 6410 682 699 7791couple with dependent child(ren) 3404 431 562 4397 3517 458 583 4558lone parent with dependent child(ren) 470 296 706 1472 455 285 674 1414other multi-person households 870 392 339 1601 858 391 328 1577one male 1374 457 705 2536 1305 390 670 2365one female 1886 307 946 3139 1909 288 953 3150all households 14464 2575 3963 21002 14453 2494 3908 20855

percentages of each tenure groupcouple no dependent child(ren) 447 269 178 374 443 274 179 374couple with dependent child(ren) 235 167 142 209 243 184 149 219lone parent with dependent child(ren) 32 115 178 70 31 114 173 68other multi-person households 60 152 86 76 59 157 84 76one male 95 177 178 121 90 157 171 113one female 130 119 239 149 132 116 244 151all households 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source SEH 2007-08 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied Technical annex | 51

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 52: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

52 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Table T2 Number of households by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2007-08

tenure

SEH grossing

EHSgrossing

numbers of households (lsquo000s)owner occupied 14466 14453private rented 2576 2494social rented 3963 3908all households 21005 20855

percentagesowner occupied 689 693private rented 123 120social rented 189 187all households 1000 1000

Source SEH 200708 with EHS grossing retrospectively applied

11 Initial results from the headline report show that both EHCS and EHS grossing methodologies for 2008 produce similar estimates for core indicators of housing energy performance and condition (eg average energy efficiency rating and the proportion of homes that are non-decentproportion of households living in non-decent homes) Tables T3 to T5 Any differences in these core indicators are small and well within margins of error entailed in the survey

12 However the change to calibrating households to tenure proportions from the LFS then deriving dwelling weights has resulted in a some increase in estimates of the numbers of private sector rented dwellings and their households These tenure estimates from the dwelling sub-sample (April 2008) are consistent with those from the EHS full household sample (2008-09) and the 2008 (April-June) Labour Force Survey see Table 1 of the Headline Report

13 A full technical report will be available later in the year

Table T3 Decent homes by tenure ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of dwellings (000s)decent 10517 1625 12142 2863 15005 10166 1847 12013 2866 14879non-decent 5064 1281 6345 1048 7393 4842 1449 6291 1069 7360all dwellings 15581 2906 18487 3911 22398 15007 3296 18304 3935 22239

percentages of each tenure groupdecent 675 559 657 732 670 677 560 656 728 669non-decent 325 441 343 268 330 323 440 344 272 331all dwellings 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 53: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

Technical annex | 53

Table T4 Decent homes by tenure and vulnerability ndash grossing methodologies compared 2008

EHCS grossing EHS grossing

owner

occupiedprivate rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

owner occupied

private rented

all private

social rented

all tenures

numbers of households (000s)vulnerable ndash decent 1536 388 1924 1977 3901 1428 429 1857 1955 3813ndash non-decent 817 406 1223 681 1904 760 447 1207 683 1890all vulnerable 2353 794 3147 2658 5805 2188 876 3064 2639 5703non-vulnerable ndash decent 8785 1037 9823 779 10602 8494 1246 9740 843 10583ndash non-decent 4062 735 4797 282 5079 3946 874 4820 302 5122all non-vulnerable 12848 1772 14620 1062 15681 12440 2120 14560 1144 15704

percentages of each tenure groupvulnerable ndash decent 653 489 611 744 672 653 490 606 741 669ndash non-decent 347 511 389 256 328 347 510 394 259 331all vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000non-vulnerable ndash decent 684 585 672 734 676 683 588 669 736 674ndash non-decent 316 415 328 266 324 317 412 331 264 326all non-vulnerable 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

all households 15201 2566 17767 3720 21487 14628 2996 17624 3783 21407

Source 2008 EHS dwelling sub-sample

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 54: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

54 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Glossary

Bedroom standard The lsquoBedroom standardrsquo is used as an indicator of occupation density A standard number of bedrooms is calculated for each household in accordance with its agesexmarital status composition and the relationship of the members to one another A separate bedroom is allowed for each married or cohabiting couple any other person aged 21 or over each pair of adolescents aged 10-20 of the same sex and each pair of children under 10 Any unpaired person aged 10-20 is notionally paired if possible with a child under 10 of the same sex or if that is not possible he or she is counted as requiring a separate bedroom as is any unpaired child under 10 This notional standard number of bedrooms is then compared with the actual number of bedrooms (including bed-sitters) available for the sole use of the household and differences are tabulated Bedrooms converted to other uses are not counted as available unless they have been denoted as bedrooms by the informants bedrooms not actually in use are counted unless uninhabitable

Damp and mould Damp and mould falls into three main categories

a) rising damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of rising damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Rising damp occurs when water from the ground rises up into the walls or floors because damp proof courses in walls or damp proof membranes in floors are either not present or faulty

b) penetrating damp where the surveyor has noted the presence of penetrating damp in at least one of the rooms surveyed during the physical survey Penetrating damp is caused by leaks from faulty components of the external fabric eg roof covering gutters etc or leaks from internal plumbing eg water pipes radiators etc

c) condensation or mould caused by water vapour generated by activities like cooking and bathing condensing on cold surfaces like windows and walls Virtually all homes have some level of condensation occurring Only serious levels of condensation or mould are considered as a problem in this report

Decent home is one that meets all of the following four criteria

a) meets the current statutory minimum standard for housing From April 2006 the fitness standard was replaced by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 55: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

Glossary | 55

b) is in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls roofs windows doors chimneys electrics and heating systems)

c) has reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age size and layoutlocation of the kitchen bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats and to noise insulation)

d) provides a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency)

The detailed definition for each of these criteria is included in A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006

From 2006 the definition of decent homes was updated with the replacement of the Fitness Standard by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) as the statutory criterion of decency Estimates using the updated definition of decent homes are not comparable with those based on the original definition Accordingly any change in the number of decent and non-decent homes will be referenced to 2006 only Estimates for 1996 to 2006 using the original definition are available in the 2006 English House Condition Survey headline and annual reports

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousing2006headlinereport

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationscorporatestatisticsehcs2006annualreport

Estimates from the EHS are based solely on whether a home meets the four stated requirements set out in the updated definition of decent home (see A Decent Home Definition and guidance for implementation CLG June 2006) and is an assessment of the property as observed by surveyors and subject to any limitations of the information they collect These estimates do not take into account any practical considerations for making the home decent the wishes of the occupants as to any necessary work being carried out nor any planned action the owner may have for the property In not taking into account such factors the EHS estimates differ from social landlordrsquos own statistical returns These differences have been evaluated and are published on the CLG website

wwwcommunitiesgovukpublicationshousingdecenthomessocialsector

Dependent children Dependent children are persons aged under 16 or single persons aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education

Deprived districts The Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) aimed to enable Englandrsquos most deprived local authorities to improve services narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country NRF88 refers to the 88 local authorities receiving NRF 2001-2006 From 2008 Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) replaced NRF

Deprived local areas Areas are Lower Super Output Areas ranked by 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation and grouped into ten equal numbers of such areas

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 56: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

56 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Economic activity Respondents self-report their economic status in the seven days prior to the interview and can give more than one answer If a respondent gives multiple responses during an interview priority is assigned in the following order

1) Full time student

2) Retired

3) Registered unemployed

4) Government training scheme

5) Full time (30 hours a week or more)

6) Part time (less than 30 hours a week)

7) Not working because of long term sickness or disability

8) Not registered unemployed but seeking work

9) At homenot seeking work (including looking after the home or family)

These categories are then grouped as follows

bull Working full-timepart-time The distinction between full-time and part-time is based on respondentsrsquo own opinions Working full-time includes those on a government training scheme

bull Unemployed Those coding themselves as either registered unemployed or not registered unemployed but seeking work

bull Retired This category includes all those over the Statutory Pensionable Age (SPA ndash 65 years for men and 63 for women) regardless of any other reported activity Those recording retired but under the SPA are coded as in FTPT work or long term sick if one of these responses has also been recorded

bull Other inactive All others they include people who recorded they were sick or disabled at homenot seeking work (including those looking after the family or home) and any other activity

The approach to classifying those who have provided more than one response to the economic status question is as adopted for the previous EHCS but differs slightly from that adopted in the former SEH The final classification for EHS reporting purposes is under consideration and may be revised for the annual report

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 57: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

Glossary | 57

Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Bands The energy efficiency rating is also presented in an A-G banding system for an Energy Performance Certificate where Band A rating represents low energy costs (ie the most efficient band) and Band G rating represents high energy costs (the least efficient band) The break points in SAP used the EER bands are

bull Band A (92-100)bull Band B (81-91)bull Band C (69-90)bull Band D (55-68)bull Band E (39-54)bull Band F (21-38)bull Band G (1-20)

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a risk assessment tool used to assess potential risks to the health and safety of occupants in residential properties in England and Wales It replaced the Fitness Standard in April 2006

The purpose of the HHSRS assessment is not to set a standard but to generate objective information in order to determine and inform enforcement decisions There are 29 categories of hazard each of which is separately rated based on the risk to the potential occupant who is most vulnerable to that hazard The individual hazard scores are grouped into 10 bands where the highest bands (A-C representing scores of 1000 or more) are considered to pose Category 1 hazards Local authorities have a duty to act where Category 1 hazards are present local authorities may take into account the vulnerability of the actual occupant in determining the best course of action

For the purposes of the decent homes standard homes posing a Category 1 hazard are non-decent on its criterion that a home must meet the statutory minimum requirements

The EHS is not able to replicate the HHSRS assessment in full as part of a large scale survey Its assessment employs a mix of hazards that are directly assessed by surveyors in the field and others that are indirectly assessed from detailed related information collected For 2006 and 2007 the survey (the then English House Condition Survey) produced estimates based on 15 of the 29 hazards From 2008 the survey is able to provide a more comprehensive assessment based on 26 of the 29 hazards ndash see Annex Table 10 for a list of the hazards covered However to maintain consistency with previous reporting and avoid a break in the time series in particular for decent homes the EHS will report estimates based on the 15 hazards only

An overview and links to more detailed guidance on the HHSRS are available from

wwwcommunitiesgovukhhsrs

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 58: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

58 | English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008ndash09

Household A household is defined as one person or a group of people who have the accommodation as their only or main residence and (for a group) either share at least one meal a day or share the living accommodation that is a living room or sitting room

Household membership People are regarded as living at the address if they (or the informant) consider the address to be their only or main residence There are however certain rules which take priority over this criterion

(a) Children aged 16 or over who live away from home for the purposes of work or study and come home only for the holidays are not included at the parental address under any circumstances

(b) Children of any age away from home in a temporary job and children under 16 at boarding school are always included in the parental household

(c) People who have been away from the address continuously for six months or longer are excluded

(d) People who have been living continuously at the address for six months or longer are included even if they have their main residence elsewhere

(e) Addresses used only as second homes are never counted as main residences

Household reference person (HRP) The household reference person is defined as a ldquohouseholderrdquo (that is a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented) For households with joint householders it is the person with the highest income if two or more householders have exactly the same income the older is selected Thus the household reference person definition unlike the old head of household definition no longer gives automatic priority to male partners

Household type The main classification of household type uses the following categories

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with no children or with non-dependent child(ren) only

bull Marriedcohabiting couple with dependent child(ren)

bull Lone parent family (one parent with dependent child(ren)

bull Other multi-person household (includes flat sharers lone parents with non-dependent children only and households containing more than one couple or lone parent family) ndash previously referred to as lsquolarge adult householdrsquo

bull One male

bull One female

bull The marriedcohabiting couple and lone parent household types (the first three categories above) may include one-person family units in addition to the couplelone parent family

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 59: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

Glossary | 59

SAP is the energy cost rating as determined by the Governmentrsquos Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) and is used to monitor the energy efficiency of homes It is an index based on calculated annual space and water heating costs for a standard heating regime and is expressed on a scale of 1 (highly inefficient) to 100 (highly efficient with 100 representing zero energy cost)

The method for calculating SAP was comprehensively updated in 2005 SAP data based on the 2005 methodology was first published in the 2005 EHCS Headline Report (January 2007) Any data published before that was based on the SAP 2001 methodology and is therefore inconsistent

Tenure(a) Owner occupiers Owner occupied accommodation is accommodation

which is either owned outright being bought with a mortgage or being bought as part of a shared ownership scheme

(b) Social renters This category includes households renting from

ndash local authority including Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and Housing Action Trusts

ndash housing associations (mostly Registered Social Landlords ndash RSLs) Local Housing Companies co-operatives and charitable trusts Note that the term lsquoRSLsrsquo was used in place of lsquohousing associationsrsquo from 1997-08 but the more all-encompassing description of lsquohousing associationsrsquo is now seen as more appropriate

(c) Private renters This sector covers all other tenants including all whose accommodation is tied to their job It also includes people living rent-free (for example people living in a flat belonging to a relative) and squatters

Vulnerable households are households in receipt of at least one of the principal means tested or disability related benefits

The definition of vulnerable households for was households in receipt of income support housing benefit attendance allowance disability living allowance industrial injuries disablement benefit war disablement pension pension credit child tax credit and working tax credit For child tax credit and working tax credit the household is only considered vulnerable if the household has a relevant income of less than the threshold amount (pound15460 for 2008)

The focus of the report is on vulnerable households in the private housing sector where choice and achievable standards are constrained by resources available to the household This focus reflects the Government target to increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes

The survey has not been able to include two benefits listed in the decent homes guidance (A Decent Home ndash the definition and guidance for implementation Communities and Local Government June 2006) council tax benefit and income based job seekers allowance Any households in receipt of either of these two benefits only will therefore be excluded from the surveyrsquos estimate of vulnerable households

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary
Page 60: English Housing Survey€¦ · English Housing to form the English Housing Survey (EHS). This report provides the first headline findings from the new survey. 2. The report is split

ISBN 978-1-4098-2245-5

  • English Housing Survey Headline Report 2008-09
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction
    • Key findings
    • Section 1 Households
    • Section 2 Housing stock
    • Annex tables
    • Technical annex
    • Glossary