10 September 2004
Almost 5% of homes owned by councils or housing associations are overcrowded, according to a report.
The survey of English housing for 2003/04, carried out by the National Centre for Social Research, shows that social housing is more likely to be overcrowded than privately owned or rented properties.
According to provisional results published by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, 4.9% of homes in the social sector are overcrowded, compared with 1.4% of privately owned and 4.2% of privately rented properties.
The overall percentage of overcrowded households in England — defined by the number of bedrooms for the people living in a house — is 2.4%. This rises to 6.1% in London.
A total of 3.9 million households rent from a council or a registered social landlord, compared with 14.4 million owner occupiers and 2.1 million who rent privately.
Sixty-five per cent of council tenants and 75% of RSL tenants are very or fairly satisfied with their landlord. The rating for private landlords is 77%.
About two-thirds of households in the social sector do not contain anyone who is in work.
PFsep2004
