Housing in England 2002/3. A report principally from the 2002/2003 Survey of English Housing. October housing

Transcription

1 Housing in England 2002/3 A report principally from the 2002/2003 Survey of English Housing October 2004 housing

2 Statistics Publications from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister Local Government Financial Statistics Annual This publication presents details of local authority expenditure and income during the last financial year. The main figures relate to local authorities in England, but summary figures are also shown separately for the various types of authority (counties and districts, metropolitan and nonmetropolitan) in both England and Wales. Further tables set the total of local authority expenditure in the context of the whole of the national economy, and relate present levels of expenditure with those recorded in earlier years. Projections of Households in England to 2021 The latest in an occasional series of publications giving summary results of the Department s 1996 based household estimates for England and the regions. Estimates are given for certain years between 1981 and It includes a description of the method of calculation. Land Use Change in England This bulletin presents the results of the Department s statistics on changes in land use, based on data recorded by Ordnance Survey as part of its work on map revision. Development Control Statistics This annual publication provides details of planning statistics handled by local planning authorities in England. It also contains information on planning appeals and data on land with outstanding planning permission for private housing development. Housing Statistics Annual This annual compendium of housing statistics (usually out in December) covers all aspects of housing in England. Basic or physical data include dwelling stocks and vacant dwellings, and housing flow data such as house building, demolitions and conversions. The wide range of social related data includes homelessness, housing renewals and disabled facilities grants, social housing sales and rents, and household projections and characteristics. Those of the economic or finance related type contain housing market data such as house and housing land prices, mortgages, household income, rent and mortgage payments, plus grants and expenditures on housing. Some data could fall under more than one type of statistics. Most of the data are collected from routing returns from local authorities or in two large surveys carried out for the ODPM, the Survey of English Housing and the Survey of Mortgage Lenders. Where consistent data are available, tables also cover Great Britain and the United Kingdom. All the tables and charts are a selection from the set of live tables already published in our housing statistics web pages. The tables are snapshots or extracts of these live tables. They are presented in this volume because they are considered most useful or popular. This publication is intended as a handy reference and to either concentrate on the specific items to show how they have changed over the past decade or to highlight their latest year figures. For the latest figures, users are advised to consult the relevant live table as indicated. The above publications are available from: ODPM Publications PO Box 236 Wetherby West Yorkshire LS23 7NB Fax: Textphone: The above publications are available from: (mail, telephone) PO Box 29 Norwich NR3 1GN

3 Housing in England 2002/3 A report principally from the 2002/2003 Survey of English Housing carried out by the National Centre for Social Research on behalf of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister Chloe Robinson and Alun Humphrey (National Centre) Edward Kafka, Robin Oliver and Shuvro Bose (ODPM) October 2004 Office of the Deputy Prime Minister

4 A service of statistical information and advice is provided to the Government by specialist staffs employed in the statistics divisions of individual Departments. Statistics are made generally available through their publication and further information and advice on them can be obtained from the Departments concerned. Queries about this volume should be addressed to: Survey of English Housing Housing Data and Statistics Division Office of the Deputy Prime Minister Zone 1/J2 Eland House Bressenden Place London SW1E 5DU Office of the Deputy Prime Minister Eland House Bressenden Place London SW1E 5DU Telephone Web site Queen s Printer and Controller of Her Majesty s Stationery Office 2004 Copyright in the typographical arrangement and design rests in the Crown. This 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. For any other use of this material, please write to HMSO, The Copyright Unit, St Clements House, 2 16 Colegate, Norwich NR3 1BQ. Fax: or copyright@hmso.gov.uk. This is a value added publication which falls outside the scope of the HMSO Class Licence. Enquiries about orders and subscriptions for this and other TSO publications should be made to: TSO PO Box 29 Norwich NR3 1GN ISBN Printed in Great Britain on material containing 75% post consumer and 25% ECF pulp.

5 SURVEY OF ENGLISH HOUSING CONTENTS Acknowledgements 5 Notes to tables 5 Introduction 7 1 Trends in tenure, cross tenure and new topics 11 Trends in tenure 12 Distribution of household characteristics across tenures 14 Demographic and economic profile of tenure groups, Profile of accommodation characteristics in 2002/3 16 Individual level data 17 New topics 18 Mortgages and mortgage protection 18 Social housing 19 Housing and disability 19 Double glazing and major repairs 20 Housing and car ownership/parking 20 2 New and recently moving households 23 Trends in moving households 24 Owner-occupiers 24 Social renters 24 Private renters 26 Types of move 27 Characteristics of movers 27 New households 28 Continuing households 30 Recent movers 30 3 Owner-occupiers (including second homes) 33 Trends in home ownership 34 Recent entrants to owner-occupation 35 Recent first-time buyers 36 Characteristics of recent owners 36 Movers within the owner-occupied sector 37 Length of time for house purchase to be completed 37 Right-to-buy scheme 37 Sources of finance 37 Mortgages 38 Repossession 39 Leaseholders 40 Movers leaving the owner-occupied sector 40 Second homes 41 4 Social renters 43 Demographic and economic characteristics of social sector tenants 44 Moves within the social rented sector 45 3

6 HOUSING IN ENGLAND 2002/3 Allocation of social sector tenancies 46 Tenants attitudes towards rents 50 Tenants attitudes towards landlord service provision 50 5 Private renters 53 Size of sector and type of tenancy 54 Recently moving tenants 55 Rents 56 Housing Benefit 56 Recently moving tenants and Housing Benefit 57 Deposits 58 6 Households in the most deprived wards 59 Characteristics of those living in the most deprived wards 60 Household characteristics by whether living in the most deprived wards 63 7 Attitudes to the local area 67 Satisfaction with area 68 Problems in the area 68 Improvements to the area 68 8 Tenants views of their landlord 71 Annex tables 75 Appendix A Definitions and terms 191 Appendix B Survey design and response 201 Appendix C Grossing and weighting 205 Appendix D Sampling errors 209 Appendix E Questionnaire 221 List of tables and figures 259 SEH tables available on the ODPM website 267 4

7 SURVEY OF ENGLISH HOUSING Acknowledgements A large scale survey is a collaborative effort and the authors wish to thank the interviewers and other members of the SEH team within the National Centre for Social Research. The authors would also like to thank colleagues in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for their support and guidance. Finally, as with all surveys, this report would not have been possible without the co-operation of the general public who gave up their time to be interviewed and their help is gratefully acknowledged. Notes to tables 1. The following conventions have been used in tables: * (For percentages, means etc.) Figure not shown because the unweighted base is small (under 30) 0 No cases, or less than half the final digit shown.. Data not available 2. The tables exclude households for whom information is missing for the items analysed. This means that the number of cases in a category may vary slightly from table to table. 3. Unless otherwise stated, changes and differences mentioned in the text are statistically significant at the 95% confidence level. 4. Some tables give an area type classification based on CACI ACORN codes, CACI Limited 1994 All rights reserved. Source: ONS and GRO (S) Crown Copyright 1991 All rights reserved. 5

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9 SURVEY OF ENGLISH HOUSING Introduction This report is mostly based on information from 19,640 households who were interviewed for the SEH in the year beginning 12 April The SEH is a continuous survey which started in April It is currently carried out by the National Centre for Social Research for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) which has responsibility for housing policy in England (the first six annual surveys, from 1993/4 to 1998/9, were carried out for DETR by the Social Survey Division of the Office for National Statistics). The survey provides key housing data on tenure, owner occupation and the social rented sector, and is the principal source of information about the private rented sector. In addition, there are some tables which have been constructed using data from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) or the Family Resources Survey (FRS). The LFS has a larger sample than the SEH while the FRS collects data relating to income in greater detail. Chapter 1, in particular, includes a number of tables derived from the LFS because this chapter covers the broader housing topics on which data are collected by the LFS. The SEH has been used for more specific and detailed housing analyses. See Appendix A for more information on the FRS and LFS. Contents of this report Each chapter provides a short summary of the topics detailed below. Trends in tenure; cross-tenure comparisons of characteristics of households and their accommodation; individual level data as well as new topics type of mortgage, mortgage protection insurance, LA/HA waiting lists, double glazing, funding of major repairs and availability of parking (Chapter 1) Mobility among all households, movement between tenures, the characteristics of recent movers and the distance moved (Chapter 2) Owners: trends; recent entrants to the sector; characteristics of those moving within the sector; the length of time between an offer being accepted and moving in; right-to-buy purchasers; sources of finance, other than a mortgage; mortgage details; arrears and repossessions; leaseholders; moves out of owneroccupation (Chapter 3) Social renters: characteristics of social tenants; movement into, within and out of the sector; tenants views on the length of time they had to wait to be allocated accommodation and the choice offered; receipt of Housing Benefit; rent arrears; attitudes towards transfers from councils to RSLs; attitudes towards Tenant Participation Compacts (Chapter 4) Private renters: number and characteristics of the main tenancy types; recently moving tenants; rents charged; receipt of Housing Benefit; deposits (Chapter 5) Characteristics of the households living in the 10 per cent most deprived wards in England; the measure of deprivation used is the Index of Multiple Deprivation (Chapter 6) Views on the local area: general levels of satisfaction with local area; suggested improvements to the local area (Chapter 7). Tenants view of their landlord: general satisfaction and satisfaction with handling of repairs, provision of information, responsiveness to tenants views (Chapter 8) In addition, there is a large set of annex tables, which can be found after the main chapters, and there are also appendices giving technical details of the survey. Sample design and response The sample was designed to give a nationally representative sample of about 20,000 private households in England. It was selected in two stages: first, a sample of postcode sectors was selected from the Postcode Address File (PAF); then, a sample of addresses was selected within the sampled sectors. The design provides a nationally representative sample in each quarter of the year. Approximately 29,400 addresses were selected in 2002/3; this yielded about 27,200 households eligible for interview. Interviews were achieved with 72 per cent (19,640). Twenty per cent of households refused to co-operate, 4 per cent could not be contacted and 4 per cent were unproductive for 7

10 HOUSING IN ENGLAND 2002/3 other reasons (such as illness, language problems). A more detailed description of the sample design and response breakdown is given in Appendix B. Data collection Unless the householder contacted the office to say they did not wish to take part, each address selected in the sample was visited by an interviewer. An interview was carried out with the householder or partner at households which agreed to co-operate with the survey. If the address contained more than one household, interviews were attempted with each household. The survey used Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI), that is, questions were displayed on a laptop computer and the informant s answers were keyed in by the interviewer. The interview took about 25 minutes for most informants. At households containing private renters, an additional interview was carried out with the tenant or partner in each tenancy group in the household. This interview lasted about 15 minutes. Changes to the questionnaire Most of the factual questions in the previous surveys were repeated in 2002/3. A number of questions were added that were either new or had been reinstated from previous years. These include questions on flexible mortgages, year mortgage started, mortgage protection policies, all-in-one accounts, funding of major repair work and parking facilities. The questionnaire is shown in Appendix E. Weighting and grossing Most of the tables in this report show both the percentages of households and the estimated total numbers of households for the groups being described. (Analyses of the housing attitude questions generally show percentages only since the main interest is in comparing the views of different groups.) The method used to obtain the grossed figures is described in Appendix C. Some trend tables show two rows for 2001/2 (ow old weight and nw new weight). The old weight row is based on mid-year population estimates for The new weight row incorporates the weighting and grossing procedure used throughout the report, which is based on the mid-year 2001 population estimates the first set of population estimates to incorporate the results of the 2001 Census, whereas the 2000 population estimates were based on the 1991 Census. It will be seen that in general there is little difference between the two rows but where the old weight row is shown, this is to retain consistency with earlier years which were also based on population estimates derived from the 1991 Census. The 2002/3 row is based on mid-year estimates for 2002 which incorporate the 2001 Census. Data presentation and interpretation Precision of the data Data collected through surveys are subject to both sampling and non-sampling error; the sampling errors for key variables are given in Appendix D. As noted earlier, most tables show percentages and the estimated total number of households rounded to the nearest thousand. This is a higher degree of precision than the sampling error warrants but the figures are presented in this way to allow the user to add and subtract figures in tables without further loss of accuracy. When grossed figures are referred to in the text, they are usually rounded to the nearest 10,000. Definitions A list of definitions and terms used can be found in Appendix A. Sample bases Readers may find it helpful to note that, since approximately one in a thousand households was sampled (allowing for non-response), the unweighted base for a percentage is generally similar to the corresponding number of thousands shown in the table. 8

11 SURVEY OF ENGLISH HOUSING Trend information Some tables and charts show figures for years before the SEH started. They are mostly taken from Housing Trailers to the Labour Force Survey 1 and the 1992 Housing Attitudes Survey 2. As far as possible, the SEH used the same questions and definitions as these earlier surveys. Any differences which are likely to affect comparability are noted in the text. Notes: 1 Department of the Environment. Housing Trailers to the 1981 and 1984 Labour Force Surveys. HMSO, 1988 and Department of Environment. Housing in England: The Housing Trailers to the 1988 and 1991 Labour Force Surveys. HMSO, Department of the Environment. Housing Attitudes Survey. HMSO,

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13 SURVEY OF ENGLISH HOUSING CHAPTER 1 Trends in tenure, cross tenure and new topics 11

14 HOUSING IN ENGLAND 2002/3 Most of this report has been written using data from the Survey of English Housing (SEH). However in certain cases, in order to present the best available statistics, tables have been constructed using data from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) or the Family Resources Survey (FRS). The LFS has a larger sample than the SEH while the FRS collects data relating to income in greater detail. Chapter 1, in particular, includes a number of tables derived from the LFS because this chapter covers the broader housing topics on which data are collected by the LFS. The SEH has been used for more specific and detailed housing analyses. See Appendix A for more information on the FRS and LFS. Trends in tenure Although there was only a modest growth in the population, the tendency for the average household size to decline over the last two decades has resulted in a considerable increase in the total number of households in England. The number rose by over two million in the 1980s from 17.2 million households in 1981 to 19.3 million in This growth continued at a slower rate in the 1990s reaching a total of 20.9 million households in 2003 (Table 1A). OWNERS Home ownership was increasing throughout the twentieth century and by the 1960s had become the predominant tenure in England. By the 1980s more than half of households were owners. Further increases in the 1980s took the percentage of owners from 57 per cent of all households (9.9 million) in 1981 to 68 per cent of all households (13.1 million) in The proportion of mortgagors rose from 32 per cent (5.5 million) in 1981 to 43 per cent (8.3 million) in 1991, whereas the proportion of those who owned their home outright remained relatively constant at 25 per cent of all households. The growth in home ownership slowed down considerably in the 1990s and has slowed further since. The total number of owners (both mortgagors and outright owners) rose by 1.8 million, increasing from 13.1 million (68 per cent of all households) in 1991 to 14.9 million (71 per cent) in 2003 (Table 1A); most of the increase was accounted for by outright owners, and since 2000 there has been no increase in the number of mortgagors. Further analysis of the owner-occupied sector is given in Chapter 3 of this report. SOCIAL RENTED SECTOR TENANTS The number of households renting from the council reached a peak (5.1 million, 30 per cent of all households) in 1981 and then fell by a quarter during the 1980s to 3.9 million (20 per cent) in The decrease in council tenants in the 1980s can be attributed to the right-to-buy scheme where council tenants were given the opportunity to buy their own home; this also contributed to the increase in the number of mortgagors mentioned above. The number of council tenants continued to decline in the 1990s, falling to 2.6 million (12 per cent) by The number of Registered Social Landlord (RSL) properties has increased significantly since There were 0.4 million (2 per cent) households renting from an RSL in 1981, increasing to 0.6 million (3 per cent) in 1991 and more rapidly to 1.2 million (6 per cent) in This was partly due to the transfer of local authority housing to RSLs during the 1990s (Table 1A). Overall (council and RSL tenants combined), there has been a decrease in the number of social rented sector tenants since The biggest decline occurred in the 1980s when the total proportion fell from 32 per cent of all households (5.5 million) in 1981 to 23 per cent (4.4 million) in Since then the drop in the number of council tenants has been largely offset by a rise in the number of RSL tenants, so that the rate of decline in the number of social tenants has been much reduced. The proportion in the social rented sector in 2003 was 18 per cent (3.8 million) (Table 1A and Figure 1.1). Further analysis of the social rented sector is given in Chapter 4. PRIVATE RENTERS The proportion of privately renting households, which had declined throughout the 20th century, continued to decline in the 1980s, but the rate of decline was much slower than in previous decades. 12

15 SURVEY OF ENGLISH HOUSING Table 1A Household characteristics: trends in tenure 1918 to 2003 All households Year Tenure Owner-occupied Social rented Private rented Owned Buying with All Council RSL All Unfurnished Furnished All Total outright a mortgage thousands 1918 N/A N/A N/A N/A percentages , Derived from figures for England and Wales. It has been assumed that the percentage in each tenure in England was the same as for England and Wales as a whole. 2 Share of dwellings rather than households. The share of owner-occupiers is a maximum estimate; allowing for this, and for the fact that owner-occupation represents a higher proportion of dwellings than of households, owner-occupier households may have been below 20 per cent of all households with a corresponding increase in the share of private renters. 3 Includes a small proportion (under 1 per cent of all households) renting from RSLs. In this table, households with unknown tenure have been pro-rated.this means that the number of cases in a category may vary slightly from other tables. Sources: 1918: Estimates by Alan Holmans of Cambridge University Department of Land Economy 1939 to 1971: "Housing Policy in Britain", Alan Holmans, Table V1. Sources: 1981 to 1991: DOE Labour Force Survey Housing Trailer 1993 to 2003: ONS Labour Force Survey In 1988 it reached a low point of 9 per cent (1.7 million) 1. Since the beginning of the 1990s, the proportion and number of households renting privately has increased modestly from 9 per cent (1.8 million) in 1991 to 11 per cent (2.1 million) in Since then, despite the popularity of buy-tolet mortgages, there has been relatively little change in the overall number of private renters which stood at 11 per cent (2.3 million) in The upturn of private renters in the 1980s was partly due to the 1988 legislation which increased the supply of privately rented property by ending rent regulation for new lettings, and also ending 13

16 HOUSING IN ENGLAND 2002/3 Figure 1.1 Trends in tenure: 1953 to 2003 All households 16 Number (millions) Owners Social renters Private renters indefinite security of tenure for a new type of tenancy (Assured Shorthold) which quite quickly became the predominant tenancy type. In addition, due to the downturn in the housing market, younger households were postponing entering owneroccupation, increasing demand for privately rented accommodation. There was also an increase in the supply from owner-occupiers who were having difficulty selling. As the housing market stabilised during the 1990s, so did the proportion of private renters (Table 1A and Figure 1.1). Further analysis of the private rented sector is given in Chapter 5. Distribution of household characteristics across tenures Table 1B shows how the different age groups are represented within each tenure. Eighty per cent of household reference persons aged between 45 and 64 were owners. Sixty-five per cent of household reference persons aged over 65 owned their own home outright, while most of the rest (25 per cent) were social sector tenants. Forty-nine per cent of household reference persons aged were private renters and 27 per cent were social renters. The majority of household reference persons buying with a mortgage worked full-time (86 per cent). In line with the age trend above, 57 per cent of outright owners were retired. Social sector tenants were least likely to be working (30 per cent). Six per cent of social sector tenants were unemployed, 34 per cent were retired and 30 per cent were economically inactive for other reasons. Reflecting this, social renting households had the lowest weekly average income ( 216) (Tables A1.1 and A1.2). Forty-seven per cent of lone parents were social renters. The majority (73 per cent) of couples with dependent children were buying with a mortgage. Eighty-three per cent of couples without dependent children were owners; this was divided equally between those who owned their home outright (42 per cent) and those buying with a mortgage (41 per cent). Other multi-person households had the highest proportion of private renters at 27 per cent (Table 1C). There were also differences between ethnic groups; Indian household reference persons were more likely to be owners (78 per cent). Similar proportions of White British and Pakistani household reference persons were likely to be owners (73 and 70 per cent respectively). Black African and Bangladeshi household reference persons were least likely to be owners (27 per cent and 29 per cent respectively) than any other ethnic group. Along with Chinese household reference persons, Indian household reference persons were least likely to be social 14

17 SURVEY OF ENGLISH HOUSING Table 1B Age of household reference person by tenure All households England 2003 Tenure Age of household reference person 16 to to to to to and over Total percentages Owned outright Buying with a mortgage All owners Rented from: council RSL All social rented sector tenants Rented privately: unfurnished furnished All rented privately All tenures Source: ONS Labour Force Survey Table 1C Household type by tenure All households England 2003 Tenure Household type Couple, no Couple with Lone parent Other All one dependent dependent with dependent multi-person One One person children children children household male female households Total percentages Owned outright Buying with a mortgage All owners Rented from: council RSL All social rented sector tenants Rented privately: unfurnished furnished All rented privately All tenures Source: ONS Labour Force Survey renters (9 per cent for both groups). Bangladeshi household reference persons were most likely to be social renters (63 per cent) and least likely to be private renters (8 per cent). Chinese household reference persons were most likely to be private renters (41 per cent) (Table A1.3). 15

18 HOUSING IN ENGLAND 2002/3 Demographic and economic profile of tenure groups, 2003 The following section summarises results shown in Tables A1.1, A1.2, and A1.4 to A1.6. OUTRIGHT OWNERS 58 per cent were married or cohabiting and 26 per cent were widowed 51 per cent were couples with no dependent children 93 per cent were aged 45 years or over and 56 per cent aged 65 years or over 57 per cent were retired the average gross income of the household reference person (and partner) was 433 per week MORTGAGORS 75 per cent were married or cohabiting and 11 per cent were divorced or separated 35 per cent were couples with no dependent children and another 39 per cent were couples with dependent children 97 per cent were aged under 65 years and 59 per cent were aged under per cent were working full-time the average gross income of the household reference person (and partner) was 709 per week SOCIAL RENTED SECTOR TENANTS Council and RSL tenants have similar characteristics and the profile is therefore given for the group as a whole. 33 per cent were married or cohabiting and a further 44 per cent were previously married (21 per cent widowed and 23 per cent divorced or separated) there were similar proportions of social tenants within each household type (17 per cent were couples without dependent children, 15 per cent were couples with dependent children, 17 per cent were lone parents with dependent children, 19 per cent were men living alone and 25 per cent were women living alone) 34 per cent were aged over 65 and 40 per cent were aged under per cent of households contained a nonworking household reference person the average gross income of the household reference person (and partner) was 216 per week PRIVATE RENTED SECTOR TENANTS 40 per cent were married or cohabitating and 16 per cent were divorced or separated 25 per cent were couples without dependent children 71 per cent were aged under per cent were working full-time the average gross income of the household reference person (and partner) was 381 per week Profile of accommodation characteristics in 2002/3 This section summarises the data shown in Tables A1.7 to A1.13. OWNERS 92 per cent lived in a house, including 29 per cent who lived in a detached house 42 per cent lived in pre-war accommodation only 13 per cent lived in a property in the lowest council tax band (valued up to 40,000 as at April 1991) the average number of rooms per person was 3 higher than in any other group, 3.6 for outright owners and 2.6 for those buying with a mortgage 7 per cent had no central heating (8 per cent of outright owners compared with 6 per cent of those buying with a mortgage) 95 per cent were very or fairly satisfied with their accommodation COUNCIL TENANTS 63 per cent lived in a house and 33 per cent lived in a purpose built flat 10 per cent lived in blocks with four or more floors 42 per cent lived in accommodation built between 1945 and

19 SURVEY OF ENGLISH HOUSING 56 per cent lived in accommodation valued in the lowest council tax band the average number of rooms per person was per cent had no central heating 81 per cent were satisfied with their accommodation RSL TENANTS 57 per cent lived in a house and 32 per cent lived in a purpose built flat 7 per cent lived in blocks with four or more floors 30 per cent lived in accommodation built since 1985, a much higher proportion than in any other tenure group 42 per cent lived in property valued in the lowest council tax band the average number of rooms per person was per cent had no central heating 84 per cent were satisfied with their accommodation PRIVATE RENTERS 62 per cent lived in a house and 33 per cent lived in a flat 39 per cent lived in accommodation built before per cent lived in property valued in the lowest council tax band the average number of rooms per person was per cent had no central heating 82 per cent were satisfied with their accommodation Individual level data Most of the tables in this report use the household as the base unit of analysis because of the subject matter. However, housing affects all household members and, therefore, Tables A1.14 and A1.15 show tenure and position within the household by age and sex at an individual level. In total, 49.6 million individuals are included in this analysis. These tables show that 6.9 million children under 16 lived in owner-occupying households, 2.2 million lived in the social rented sector and about 861 thousand lived in the private rented sector. They also show that 26 per cent of individuals who were not the household reference person or their partner were aged between 16 and 24. This compares with 2 per cent of individuals who were not the household reference person or their partner who were aged over 65. Over half, 20.7 million, of all individuals over the age of 15 were married (52 per cent), 9.1 million were single, 2.9 million were divorced or separated and 2.9 million were widowed (Table A1.16). There were more females than males living in households interviewed (25.0 million versus 24.6 million). More women lived alone (3.3 million) than men (2.8 million); 2.0 million women lived in other multi-person households compared with 2.2 million men (Table A1.17). Some 14.8 million individuals lived in two-person households and three-quarters of these were owneroccupied (11.3 million). A further 11.6 million individuals lived in four-person households (the second highest overall) with 2.6 million living in households with six or more people (Table A1.18). A greater number of men worked full-time (11.3 million) than women (5.9 million). Women were more likely than men to be in part-time employment (4.7 million), retired (4.8 million) or economically inactive for some other reason (3.8 million) (Table A1.19). The majority of adults were white and living in owned accommodation (26.7 million). A greater proportion of people in social and privately rented housing were from minority ethnic groups (13 per cent and 14 per cent respectively) than in owneroccupied housing (6 per cent) (Table A1.20). Nearly 43 million individuals were living in houses, and 5.4 million were in flats or maisonettes. More people lived in semi-detached houses than any other type of accommodation (17.3 million) (Table A1.21). Across all tenure types more people lived in housing built between 1965 and 1984, 11.2 million residents, than in housing built in any other period. Over 9.7 million lived in properties built before 1919 these 17

20 HOUSING IN ENGLAND 2002/3 made up a high proportion of people living in privately rented properties (40 per cent as compared with 20 per cent for all tenures). A further 6.8 million lived in properties built after 1985 (Table A1.22). Most (91 per cent) people had their main living accommodation at street level. Those whose main living accommodation was on the first floor or above most commonly lived in social rented accommodation. Sixty-eight per cent of all individuals who lived on the fourth floor or above were social renters (261 thousand) (Table A1.23). Most people (42.1 million) had central heating in all their living rooms and bedrooms, 3.1 million had it in some but not all rooms with the remaining 3.5 million having no central heating at all. Proportionally, those in unfurnished private rented accommodation were less likely to have central heating compared with the other tenure groups (Table A1.24). New topics This next section mainly contains analyses on questions which were introduced in 2002/3, but there are also certain previously unpublished results based on old questions. New questions were asked on: Year mortgage started Type of mortgage: all-in-one accounts (i.e. offset or current account) identified as a separate category for the first time Mortgage protection insurance LA/HA waiting lists Double glazing Funding of major repairs Availability of parking Mortgages and mortgage protection Table A1.25 shows the very strong movement away from endowment mortgages in recent years. Between 2001 and 2003, 74 per cent of new mortgages were repayment, and only 10 per cent were endowment mortgages. In contrast, in the period 1985 to 1989, 59 per cent of new mortgages were endowment and 31 per cent were repayment. The increase in recent years (i.e. from the mid- 1990s onwards) in the proportion of new mortgages that were both interest only and repayment probably reflects the tendency to take out such mortgages to replace endowment mortgages in cases where the endowment policy was no longer expected to cover the original loan. Overall, 29 per cent of households currently buying on a mortgage have increased the amount borrowed since the property was purchased. Taking out a further advance in addition to the original mortgage was the most common method (16 per cent) but 12 per cent of households had remortgaged for a larger amount. Not surprisingly, the percentage of households that have increased the amount borrowed rises with the number of years resident, so that 58 per cent of households that bought in 1979 or earlier have increased the amount borrowed, and this percentage falls to 6 per cent for households that bought between 2001 and the first quarter of 2003 (Table A1.26). An increasing proportion of new mortgages are said by the respondent to be flexible; 37 per cent of mortgages taken out between 2001 and 2003 were said to be flexible. This compares with 24 per cent of mortgages taken out in 1994 or earlier. Overall, 29 per cent of mortgages held by households who purchased in 1995 or later were said to be flexible. Of the new mortgages taken out between 2001 and 2003, 8 per cent were all-in-one mortgages (i.e. offset mortgages or current account mortgages) (Table A1.27). In addition, all households buying on a mortgage were asked whether their mortgage had any flexible features. The most common flexible feature was the ability to make overpayments (42 per cent). Twentythree per cent had the ability to increase the 18

21 SURVEY OF ENGLISH HOUSING amount borrowed and 21 per cent had their interest calculated daily (Table A1.28). (Note, not all respondents who had the ability to make overpayments regarded their mortgage as flexible ; it looks as though in some cases respondents only considered their mortgage to be flexible if it had several flexible features.) The SEH, in 2002/3, asked a series of questions to find out if households buying with a mortgage had mortgage protection insurance or, alternatively, if they had any other type of insurance cover (or both or neither). The results are shown in Table A1.29. Most households buying with a mortgage had insurance policies giving life cover (85 per cent had mortgage protection life insurance). The true percentage is probably less than the 85 per cent shown in Table A1.29 since not all mortgages that are both interest only and repayment include life cover in the package (as was assumed). The switch away from endowment mortgages and towards repayment mortgages in recent years has resulted in the increasing use of non-endowment life policies. The more recently a household had taken out their mortgage, the more likely they were to have critical illness, sickness or accident or unemployment or redundancy insurance. Overall, 58 per cent of households buying with a mortgage had sickness or accident insurance (either mortgage protection or another type of policy). Fifty-two per cent of households had critical illness insurance and 36 per cent had unemployment or redundancy. Social housing HOMELESSNESS Of the 1.1 million households who had moved into the social sector in the last three years, a quarter (26 per cent) had been accepted as homeless by the council before they were allocated their home. This was highest among lone parents (41 per cent) and lowest among couples without dependent children and single females (10 per cent and 12 per cent respectively) (Table A1.30). WAITING LISTS In 2002/3, 4 per cent of households contained someone who was on a local authority or housing association waiting list. In most cases, this was the household reference person or their partner, but in some cases this was someone else in the household. Around a third (30 per cent) of households where the household reference person or their partner was on a list were private renters, 39 per cent were renting from the council and 23 per cent from a housing association. Around half of households where someone other than the household reference person or their partner was on a list were in owneroccupied accommodation (Table A1.31). Almost half (46 per cent) of applications on a local authority list had been on the list for two years or more. This compares with 35 per cent of housing association applications (Table A1.32). In terms of ethnicity, households with a black household reference person were more likely to be on a waiting list (15 per cent compared with 4 per cent of the population as a whole) (Table A1.33). Housing and disability Table A1.34 shows the number of individuals in England with a medical condition or disability that required specially adapted accommodation. In total, 1.4 million individuals had such a disability. The majority were aged over 45, and 620 thousand lived in the social rented sector. Around three-quarters (74 per cent) of them lived in accommodation that was suitable. This was higher for those who lived in sheltered accommodation (93 per cent) and those who were older (over 80 per cent of those aged 75 or more). 19

22 HOUSING IN ENGLAND 2002/3 Double glazing and major repairs DOUBLE GLAZING In 2002/3, 13.2 million households (64 per cent) had double glazing in all windows. Fourteen per cent had double glazing in some windows and 21 per cent had no double glazing. Owners were more than likely to have double glazing; 70 per cent of owners had double glazing in all windows. Those living in the private rented sector were less than likely to have double glazing in all windows (41 per cent). Fifty-eight per cent of all social renters had double glazing in all windows. Within the social rented sector, there was a significant difference between the number of council and RSL properties with double glazing. Fifty-four per cent of council tenants reported having double glazing in all windows compared with 67 per cent of respondents living in RSL accommodation (Table A1.35). Generally, the larger the property the more likely it was to have double glazing in all windows. Seventyfour per cent of detached houses had double glazing in all windows. This compared with 70 per cent of semi-detached houses, 58 per cent of terrace houses, 59 per cent of purpose-built flats and 32 per cent of converted flats (Table A1.36). MAJOR REPAIRS Owner-occupiers were asked how they would finance a major repair to their home that they could not readily afford and that was not covered by insurance. Around half (47 per cent) would have considered a loan from a commercial lender and 42 per cent said they would draw on savings. Households with older household reference persons were much more likely to say they would draw on savings, and less likely to consider a loan from a commercial lender (60 per cent and 19 per cent of those aged 70 or over respectively) (Table A1.37). When asked specifically if they would consider a soft loan from the council, were such loans to become available, 60 per cent said they would (Table A1.38). This declined with age to only 40 per cent of those with household reference persons aged 70 or over. The main reason for not considering such a loan (given by 48 per cent of respondents) was an unwillingness of getting into debt (Table A1.39). Housing and car ownership/parking In 2002/3, three-quarters of all households had access to at least one car or van. Table A1.40 shows the relationship between car ownership and tenure. Owners buying with a mortgage had the highest level of car ownership (only 7 per cent without a car/van), and council tenants had the lowest (62 per cent of households without a car/van). There was a high proportion of multi-car households among those buying with a mortgage; in this tenure group there were more households with three or more cars than without a vehicle, and more households with two or more cars than with one car. The differences in car ownership were probably largely a reflection of differences in household income between tenures. Thirty-two per cent of all households had no private parking facilities available to them. Not surprisingly, this proportion almost doubled for households without access to a car or van (63 per cent), but 37 per cent of households who do not currently need private parking had it nonetheless. The most common types of private parking facility available were a garage or a private drive (44 per cent had a garage and 45 per cent had a private drive) (Table A1.41). Of the 44 per cent of households with a garage, most had a detached garage (55 per cent). Twentyseven per cent had an attached garage and 18 per cent had an integral garage (Table A1.42). Few households had communal parking facilities available for their use (83 per cent of all households had no communal parking facilities). Residents of flats were more likely to have access to some form of communal parking (44 per cent compared with 11 per cent of households living in a house). Within each type of accommodation there were nominal differences between households with or without access to a vehicle in terms of whether they had communal parking facilities available to them, but 20

23 SURVEY OF ENGLISH HOUSING households without access to a vehicle were more likely to live in a flat or maisonette hence 23 per cent of such households had communal parking available, in contrast to 14 per cent of households with a vehicle (Table A1.43). Eighty-eight per cent of households were able to park in the street near their accommodation. Sixtythree per cent reported the street parking was adequate. Again, there were no significant differences between those with or without a vehicle (Table A1.44). Most households had no parking restrictions in their street (83 per cent). If they did have parking restrictions it was most likely to be double yellow lines or no parking at any time (8 per cent). It would appear there is a correlation between car ownership and parking restrictions in the street (23 per cent of households without a car or van were subject to parking restrictions in their street compared with 16 per cent with at least one car or van) (Table A1.45). Note: 1 D. Down, A. Holmans and H. Small. Trends in the size of the private rented sector in England. Housing Finance No 22, May

24 HOUSING IN ENGLAND 2002/3 22

25 SURVEY OF ENGLISH HOUSING CHAPTER 2 New and recently moving households 23

26 HOUSING IN ENGLAND 2002/3 Trends in moving households Between 1984 and 1988 the number of households moving each year increased from 1.8 million to 2.1 million, before dropping back to 1.8 million by From 1993 onwards there was a steady increase in the number of movers, peaking at 2.4 million each year between 1997/8 and 1999/00. Figures for 2000/1 showed a decrease to 2.3 million, and again to 2.2 million in 2001/2. It remained at 2.2 million in 2002/3 (Table 2A). (NB: the tables in this chapter do not take account of households who moved more than once in the year before interview so that the number of moving households each year is less than the number of moves made.) Owner-occupiers Between 1984 and 1988 the proportion of current owner-occupiers who had moved in the last year rose from 8 per cent to 12 per cent. By 1991 this had decreased to 5 per cent. Since the early 1990s there has been little change in the proportion moving. In 2002/3, 7 per cent of all current owneroccupiers had moved in the last year (Table 2C). The housing market in the mid-1990s saw growth in the number of owners who moved (over 1.0 million moving by 1997/8) but since then there has been no further growth and the number dipped slightly to 969 thousand in 2002/3 (Table 2B). The current house price boom, unlike previous periods of rapidly increasing house prices, has not been accompanied by an increase in the number of moves into and within the owner-occupied sector. Social renters The proportion of current social renters who moved in the previous year reached 13 per cent in 1996/7 but has since tended to decline. In 2002/3, 10 per cent of social renters had moved in the previous year (Table 2C). In 1984 nearly a quarter of all those who had moved in the previous year were currently council tenants (420 thousand) (Table 2B). Since then, reflecting the decline in the overall size of the sector, the proportion of movers who are council tenants has gradually decreased, falling to 11 per cent in 2002/3 (235 thousand). The growth of the RSL sector has resulted in an increase in the number of tenants moving into accommodation in this sector. In 1984, 50 thousand Figure 2.1 Trends in numbers of moving households: 1984 to 2002/3 Household reference persons resident less than a year 2.5 Millions Continuing household reference persons New household reference persons /4 1994/5 1995/6 1996/7 1997/8 1998/9 1999/ /1 2001/2 ow 2001/2 nw 2002/3 1 Before 1995/6, new households were defined as people who were not household reference persons in their previous accommodation. In 1995/6, an extra question was asked to check whether the previous accommodation was a temporary arrangement. If so, the classification was based on the tenure of the previous permanent accommodation. This resulted in 180 thousand household reference persons being classified as continuing rather than new in 1995/6. 24