Written question asked by Sadiq Khan (Labour) on Tuesday, 22 November 2005, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 24 November 2005. It was answered by Yvette Cooper (Labour) on Wednesday, 1 February 2006 on behalf of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

Housing

Question: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what his most recent estimate is of the number of children living in overcrowded housing conditions in (a) London and (b) England.

Answer: There are two measures of overcrowding—the statutory definition and the bedroom standard.Based on the bedroom standard, the number of children living in overcrowded households over the three-year period 2002–03, 2003–04 and 2004–05 was (a) 275,000 in London and (b) 880,000 in England. The total number of overcrowded households in England on this basis is estimated to be around 500,000.Information on compliance with the statutory standard is not collected centrally. Using data from the ““Survey of English Housing”” for the period 1997–98 to 1999–2000 and from the 1996 ““English House Condition Survey”” it was estimated that there were 25,000 households in England that were so overcrowded that the statutory standard was breached. However, reliable estimates for London on this basis are not available—neither are figures for the number of children that live in statutory overcrowded households.

Secondary information