The English Housing Survey has published a Headline Report on
the findings from its 2017-18 survey. This is the first release of
data from the 2017-18 survey which will be followed up with a
series of more detailed topic reports in July.
The Survey reports that there remains a lower proportion of
non-decent homes in the social sector than in the private rented
and owner-occupied sectors. In 2017, 13% of dwellings in the social
rented sector failed to meet the Decent Homes Standard compared to
25% of dwellings in the private rented sector and 19% in the
owner-occupied sector.
The social rented sector had the highest rate of overcrowding -
8% of households in the social rented sector compared with 6% of
households in the private rented sector and 1% in the
owner-occupied sector.
10% of homes in the social rented sector were under-occupied
(i.e. with two or more spare bedrooms) compared to 54% of
owner-occupied homes and 15% in the private rented sector. However,
under-occupation in the social rented sector increased from 8% to
10% between 2016-17 and 2017-18.
The survey also showed that the proportion of social renters who
expect to buy has declined - down from 30% in 2016-17 to 25% in
2017-18.
In 2017 there were an estimated 23.9 million dwellings in
England:
- 63% owner-occupied
- 20% private rented
- 10% housing association
- 7% local authority
The social rented sector remains the smallest tenure at 17% of
total housing stock (4 million households) but the composition of
the social rented sector has changed significantly in recent
years:
- In 2008-09, 2million households rented from housing
associations and 1.9million from local authorities
- In 2017-18 2.4 million households rented from housing
associations and only 1.6 million from local authorities.
Among social renters, 41% were working and over a quarter (28%)
of social renters were retired. A further quarter (25%) were
economically inactive as a result of long-term illness or
disability and those caring for or looking after the
family.
The energy efficiency of English homes has increased
significantly in the last 20 years but overall has not increased
since 2015. In 2017 the social rented sector had an average SAP
rating of 68 - higher than the private sector stock which had an
average SAP rating of 61.
Read the full findings of the English Housing
Survey Headline Report 2017-18