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Written question asked by Jack Dromey (Labour) on Thursday, 24 May 2012, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 11 June 2012. It was answered by Lord Stunell (Liberal Democrat) on Monday, 11 June 2012 on behalf of the Department for Communities and Local Government.

Housing

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what estimate he has made of the number and proportion of (a) households and (b) people in the (i) private rented, (ii) social rented and (iii) owner-occupier sector living in overcrowded conditions in (A) 2010 and (B) 2011.

[110382]

Answer

Levels of overcrowding and under-occupation are measured using the ‘bedroom standard’, which is the difference between the number of bedrooms needed to avoid undesirable sharing (given the number, ages and relationship of the household members) and the number of bedrooms actually available to the household.

The answer is taken from the English Housing Survey 2010-11. Due to small sample sizes it is necessary to combine three years of data (2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11) together to form the estimates. Even so, there is uncertainty around these figures due to sampling effects. It was estimated that in private rented sector over a three year period, 187,000 households (5.6%) lived in overcrowded conditions, in the social rented sector it was 278,000 households (7.3%), and in the owner occupied sector it was 191,000 households (1.3%).

It was estimated that in the private rented sector over a three year period, 787,000 people (10.0%) lived in overcrowded conditions, in the social rented sector it was 1,269,000 people (15.1%), and in the owner occupied sector it was 969,000 people (2.8%).

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
110382; 546 c8W
Session
2012-13
Related items
Housing: Overcrowding
Monday, 3 September 2012
Written questions
House of Commons
Subjects
Housing Overcrowding
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk