The English Housing Survey

The EHS…

• is commissioned by DCLG and sponsored by DECC

• a 35 minute face-to-face survey of households in England and a comprehensive physical survey of homes

• is a national statistic

The EHS Team

• DCLG• DECC• ONS / NatCen Social Research • CAD Housing Surveys• Building Research Establishment

13,300 EHS household interviews

Sub sampling by tenure

6,200 physical surveys

Structure of EHS (2013-14)

EHS DatabaseAnonymised dataset to UKDA

Aggregated data for reports

The EHS sample

• Representative sample of the population of England

• NatCen using half-England sample from 2012-13• Unclustered design• Drawn from Postcode Address File • Subsampling by tenure

Interview Survey: fieldwork

• Fieldwork operates in 8 waves each year

• Around 100 interviewers in each wave

• Interviewers carry out a 35 minute interview

• Interview Household Reference Person or partner

• Identify vacant properties

• Around 60% response rate

• Interviewers make appointment for surveyor visit

Physical Survey: fieldwork

• Conducted by around 150 professional surveyors• Appointment made with householder by interviewer• Internal and external inspection plus photographs• Dwelling based includes occupied households and

vacant properties• Data collected using digital pens

Topicstenure overcrowding

and under-occupation

wellbeing energy efficiency of

housing stock

income and earnings (incl.

benefits)

fuel poverty

type, size and age of

housing stock

housing size and condition

housing costs and arrears

second homes

accessibility and

adaptations

satisfaction with housing, local area and

landlord

housing aspirations

negative equity

fire safety disrepair and repair costs

homelessness and waiting

lists

housing flows within and between tenure

demographic details of HRP

age, sex, marital status,

sexual identity

nationality and country

of birth

details of household members

health and disability

ethnicity and religion

Interview Survey – rotating modules

To keep the interview to a concise length, some sets of questions are rotated:

•Tenancy deposits (2011-12 and 2014-15)

• Problems in neighbourhood (2014-15)

• Adaptations for disability (2011-12 and 2014-15)

• Second homes (2012-13 and 2013-14)

• Fire (2013-14)

• Energy efficiency (2011-12 and 2012-13)

EHS user group• A user group comprising main policy and analysis customers in DCLG

and DECC

• Meetings held individually with DCLG and DECC teams in September/October 2013 to ensure:

– questionnaire and physical survey content for 2014-15 survey year meets anticipated future policy priorities

– 2012-13 headline and annual reports are useful and relevant for customers

• Combined user group meeting with all policy teams held in November 2013 in which changes to 2014-15 questionnaire content approved

• The content for headline and annual reports is still under discussion we welcome feedback at today’s event on what to include

DECC and DCLG policy and analysis teams

Social rented sector

Private rented sector

Owner occupiers DECC

Social rented sector allocations

Welfare reform

Universal Credit

Large scale voluntary transfer

Evictions

Illegal subletting

Private rented sector taskforce

Rogue landlords

Park homes

Commercial space

Repairs, decent homes

Tenancy types

Negative equity

Support for mortgage interest

Mortgage rescue scheme

Leasehold

Equity share

Help into home ownership schemes

Community and Voluntary sector

British Legion

Shelter

National Housing Federation

Building and Social Housing Foundation

Foundations

Consultation on interview survey questionnaire

• Identify need for new questions (fill evidence gaps that will be relevant in 2016)• Release capacity on the survey (remove/rotate questions not required by users) • Canvas views on presentation and usability to maximise value of data collected

Fuel poverty

Energy efficiency

• Identify need for new items on physical survey (fill evidence gaps that will be relevant in 2016)

• Canvas views on presentation and usability to maximise value of data collected

Consultation on physical survey

DECC and DCLG policy and analysis teams

FireSustainable

buildingsHousing condition

Adaptations for elderly & disabled

Smoke alarms

Carbon monoxide

Insulation

Renewable energy

HHSRS

Decent homes

Overheating

Fuel poverty

Financial assistance

Boilers

Disabled facilities grant

Ageing population

• Social rented sector:– Mobility, willingness to move, to seek work in other areas– Are we ready for Welfare Reform – Universal Credit, Personal Independence

Payment, localisation of Council Tax Rebate?– What is the right occupancy measure?

• Private rented sector: – Are householders content with their tenure at their current life stage?– What proportion in private rented sector out of choice, what proportion out of

necessity? – Churn, stability of tenure, length of tenancy– Quality of accommodation, decent homes measure

• Owner occupiers: – Overcharging of leaseholders by freeholders – Barriers to selling an equity share home– Help into home ownership – awareness of government schemes, bank of Mum and

Dad– Barriers to owning

• Armed forces– Monitoring The Armed Forces Covenant for equality of outcomes

• Energy– DECC schemes on energy efficiency improvements, hard-to-treat properties,

renewable energy

Emerging themes from 2013 meetings

Private rented sector– Length of tenancy and notice period, and whether suitable– Upfront-fees (charged by agent or landlord) total and reasons for– Repairs, retaliatory evictions and recourse to local authority for tenants with

negligent landlords– Where tenancies have ended acrimoniously

Help into home-ownership– Awareness of government schemes: NewBuy, Help to Buy– Reasons for not being offered a mortgage, help from parents

Social rented sector – Reasons considered for moving home– Households without access to the internet

Armed forces– Capturing type of service, regular/reserve, when served

Interview survey: new questions

Insulation – Refine wall insulation questions to collect proportion of walls in property that

are insulated – Stone construction type added to improve analysis on hard-to-treat walls

Renewable energy sources– Data collection on solar panels expanded to include surface area of panels– Add extra biomass categories to primary heating fuels

Boilers– Question added asking households whether boilers works

Carbon monoxide – Question added about whether a carbon monoxide detector in dwelling

Physical survey: new questions

The questions are removed from 2014-15 but will be included in a rotating module in future years subject to demand:

• Private landlord contact details– Name, address, telephone (for Private Landlords Survey, last run in 2010, no plan to

repeat in near future)

• Satisfaction with area questions– Have wellbeing questions now

– Not used by policy teams

• Energy efficiency– Work carried out to improve energy efficiency

– Which jobs do you think would help to make your home cheaper to heat and easier to keep warm

Questions removed in 2014-15 to make capacity

Key outputs

• Headline report published in February followed by detailed Annual Reports in July

• Available on the English Housing Survey pages of the DCLG website

• Anonymised data set available on UK Data Archive (UKDA) website

General trends in tenure

0

2

4

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8

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12

14

16

19

81

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82

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83

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84

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85

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86

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89

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90

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91

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20

01

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-09

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-10

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-11

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11

-12

mill

ion

ho

us

eh

old

s

owner occupiers social renters private renters

Housing aspirations

• 20% of social renters expect to buy a home at some point in the future compared with 59% of private renters

Overcrowding

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12

pe

rce

nta

ge

owner occupiers social renters private renters all households

Under-occupation

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12

pe

rce

nta

ge

owner occupiers social renters private renters all households

Stock profile

54%

17%

9%

20%

Decent homes

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

pe

rce

nta

ge

owner occupied private rented social rented all tenures

Non-decent homes are more likely to be:

• Privately rented• Built prior to 1919• Converted flats• In a rural area

Non-decent homes are more likely to be occupied by people who:

• have lived in their home for a very short time OR a very long time

• have a low income

DECC

DCLG

RAW DATA RAW DATA & REPORTS REPORTS

UK DataService

Charities

Commercialcompanies

Researchorganisations

Generalpublic Media

Secure DataService Academics

DWPe.g. on welfare reform

DfEe.g. on child poverty

Home Officee.g. on nationality

Governmentdepartments

Local authorities

Students

RAW DATA RAW DATA & REPORTS

Analysts

Policy

Ministers

User Group

ONSe.g. on overcrowding

Defrae.g. on flood risk

Who uses the English Housing Survey?

25%

22%

17%

11%

9%

7%

5%5%

Commercial researcher

Central Gov researcher

Academic researcher

Non-profit organisationresearcher

Other general public query

Freedom of Information request

Local Gov researcher

Parliament Questions

25%

22%

17%

11%

9%

7%

5%5%

commercial researcher

central governmentresearcher

academic researcher

non-profit organisationresearcher

general public enquiries

Freedom of Informationrequest

local government researcher

Parliament Questions

EHS queries from external organisations

• Climate Adaptation– EHS data on buildings characteristics was used when investigating the potential damages to buildings during strong wind events. Researcher, Met Office

– EHS data collected from the physical survey was used to look at the proportion and number of households below street surface level split either geographically or by water company. Consultant

• Poverty– EHS data was used to re-examine the role of planning obligations in providing housing for those on the lowest incomes. Detailed analysis was made possible by using local authority and postcode variables. PhD student

• Welfare reform– EHS data on recent movers was used to support evidence in the increase in tenancy changes that the company was noticing. The researcher wanted to know whether the recent social reforms and ‘spare room subsidy’ played a part. Researcher, energy company