Length of fixed-term tenancies in social housing
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Last updated 31 July 2020 - see all updates
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1. Main facts and figures
- in 2017/18, there were 53,827 new social housing lettings with a fixed period tenancy length where the ethnicity of the household was known
- for all ethnic groups, the most common length of new fixed-term tenancies was 3 to 5 years – overall, the percentage of fixed tenancies of 3 to 5 years has risen from 54.9% to 65.4% since 2015/16
- Bangladeshi households were most likely out of all ethnic groups to have a new fixed period tenancy of 3 to 5 years, and least likely to have one longer than 5 years – this has remained the same since 2015/16
- between 2015/16 and 2017/18, there was an increase in shorter fixed-term tenancies for most ethnic groups
- overall, 22.1% of fixed-term tenancies were for 2 years or less, 65.4% were for 3 to 5 years, 10.6% were for 6 to 9 years, and 1.9% were for 10 or more years
2. Things you need to know
What the data measures
The data measures the number and percentage of new, permanent fixed-term lettings in social housing by the length of the tenancy.
The information relates to households of either one person or a group of people sharing cooking facilities and a living room or dining area. It must be their main or only home.
Percentages have been rounded to 1 decimal place. Due to rounding, some totals may not add up to 100%.
You can read more about types of tenancy for people in housing association homes.
Not included in the data
The data does not include:
- lifetime tenancies, which made up the majority of new social housing lettings in the year ending March 2018
- lettings where a tenant started a new tenancy agreement but stayed in the same property
- lettings where the ethnicity of the main tenant was not known (5% of households)
- mutual exchanges, conversions of starter or introductory tenancies to assured or secure tenancies, successions by assignment, and temporary general needs housing
Data has been suppressed (not shown) if there are only 1 or 2 people in a particular ethnic group. This is to protect people’s confidentiality.
The ethnic groups used in the data
This data uses the 18 standardised ethnic groups from the 2011 Census.
Each household’s ethnic group is the ethnicity of the main tenant. In joint tenancies, the main tenant is the person who is either employed, or unemployed and looking for work. If both tenants have the same employment status, the main tenant is the oldest person.
The ethnicity of the main tenant was not known for 5% of all new social housing lettings.
Methodology
Read the detailed methodology document for the data used on this page.
The data has been weighted so it is representative of the population of England. Read more about how weighting is used to make survey data more representative of the whole group being studied.
In the data file
See Download the data for data for the years ending March 2016 and March 2017.
3. By ethnicity
| 2 years or less | 3 to 5 years | 6 to 9 years | 10 or more years | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ethnicity | 2 years or less % | 2 years or less Number | 3 to 5 years % | 3 to 5 years Number | 6 to 9 years % | 6 to 9 years Number | 10 or more years % | 10 or more years Number |
| All | 22.1 | 11,915 | 65.4 | 35,206 | 10.6 | 5,693 | 1.9 | 1,013 |
| Asian | 20.3 | 536 | 66.8 | 1,767 | 11.3 | 299 | 1.7 | 44 |
| Bangladeshi | 11.4 | 66 | 80.9 | 467 | 4.2 | 24 | 3.5 | 20 |
| Chinese | 18.1 | 17 | 67.0 | 63 | 11.7 | 11 | 3.2 | 3 |
| Indian | 30.3 | 118 | 57.1 | 222 | 11.3 | 44 | 1.3 | 5 |
| Pakistani | 25.4 | 170 | 62.4 | 418 | 11.8 | 79 | 0.4 | 3 |
| Asian other | 18.1 | 166 | 65.2 | 598 | 15.4 | 141 | 1.3 | 12 |
| Black | 19.3 | 812 | 69.9 | 2,941 | 9.6 | 405 | 1.1 | 48 |
| Black African | 17.6 | 415 | 71.5 | 1,683 | 10.0 | 236 | 0.9 | 21 |
| Black Caribbean | 21.2 | 300 | 70.0 | 992 | 7.5 | 106 | 1.4 | 20 |
| Black other | 22.3 | 96 | 61.7 | 266 | 14.6 | 63 | 1.4 | 6 |
| Mixed | 24.0 | 500 | 65.5 | 1,363 | 8.6 | 179 | 1.8 | 38 |
| Mixed White/Asian | 29.1 | 74 | 58.3 | 148 | 11.0 | 28 | 1.6 | 4 |
| Mixed White/Black African | 24.7 | 81 | 65.9 | 216 | 7.9 | 26 | 1.5 | 5 |
| Mixed White/Black Caribbean | 23.4 | 223 | 66.8 | 636 | 8.3 | 79 | 1.5 | 14 |
| Mixed other | 22.3 | 122 | 66.5 | 363 | 8.4 | 46 | 2.7 | 15 |
| White | 22.5 | 9,958 | 64.8 | 28,748 | 10.7 | 4,764 | 2.0 | 879 |
| White British | 23.0 | 9,547 | 64.2 | 26,679 | 10.8 | 4,466 | 2.0 | 836 |
| White Irish | 30.5 | 76 | 60.6 | 151 | 7.6 | 19 | 1.2 | 3 |
| White Gypsy/Traveller | 23.7 | 18 | 67.1 | 51 | 9.2 | 7 | 0.0 | 0 |
| White other | 12.7 | 317 | 74.8 | 1,867 | 10.9 | 272 | 1.6 | 40 |
| Other | 19.9 | 109 | 70.7 | 387 | 8.6 | 47 | 0.7 | 4 |
| Arab | 21.4 | 53 | 69.8 | 173 | 7.7 | 19 | 1.2 | 3 |
| Any other | 18.8 | 56 | 71.8 | 214 | withheld to protect confidentiality | withheld to protect confidentiality | withheld to protect confidentiality | withheld to protect confidentiality |
Download table data for ‘By ethnicity’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity’ (CSV)
Summary of Length of fixed-term tenancies in social housing By ethnicity Summary
This data shows that:
- in 2017/18, there were 53,827 new social housing lettings with a fixed period tenancy length where the ethnicity of the household was known
- for all ethnic groups, the most common length of new fixed-term tenancies was 3 to 5 years
- 80.9% of Bangladeshi households had a tenancy length of 3 to 5 years (the highest percentage out of all ethnic groups), while 7.6% of Bangladeshi households had a tenancy of longer than 5 years (the lowest percentage) – this has remained the same since 2015/16
- overall, 22.1% of fixed-term tenancies were for 2 years or less, 65.4% were for 3 to 5 years, 10.6% were for 6 to 9 years, and 1.9% were for 10 or more years
4. By ethnicity over time
| 2 years or less | 3 to 5 years | 6 to 9 years | 10 or more years | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ethnicity | 2 years or less 2015/16 % | 2 years or less 2016/17 % | 2 years or less 2017/18 % | 3 to 5 years 2015/16 % | 3 to 5 years 2016/17 % | 3 to 5 years 2017/18 % | 6 to 9 years 2015/16 % | 6 to 9 years 2016/17 % | 6 to 9 years 2017/18 % | 10 or more years 2015/16 % | 10 or more years 2016/17 % | 10 or more years 2017/18 % |
| All | 25.0 | 23.4 | 22.1 | 54.9 | 63.3 | 65.4 | 17.7 | 11.5 | 10.6 | 2.4 | 1.8 | 1.9 |
| Asian | 18.2 | 17.8 | 20.3 | 63.0 | 71.6 | 66.8 | 16.4 | 10.0 | 11.3 | 2.4 | 0.6 | 1.7 |
| Bangladeshi | 11.6 | 11.5 | 11.4 | 75.4 | 80.3 | 80.9 | 10.1 | 7.5 | 4.2 | 2.9 | 0.7 | 3.5 |
| Chinese | 18.7 | 16.1 | 18.1 | 55.1 | 73.7 | 67.0 | 23.6 | 10.2 | 11.7 | 2.6 | 0.0 | 3.2 |
| Indian | 23.3 | 22.0 | 30.3 | 57.1 | 65.6 | 57.1 | 17.6 | 12.1 | 11.3 | 2.0 | withheld to protect confidentiality | 1.3 |
| Pakistani | 23.4 | 20.7 | 25.4 | 59.1 | 69.9 | 62.4 | 15.3 | 9.1 | 11.8 | 2.2 | withheld to protect confidentiality | 0.4 |
| Asian other | 17.3 | 18.9 | 18.1 | 58.6 | 68.3 | 65.2 | 21.7 | 11.8 | 15.4 | 2.3 | 0.9 | 1.3 |
| Black | 18.7 | 21.0 | 19.3 | 56.4 | 65.4 | 69.9 | 22.5 | 12.8 | 9.6 | 2.3 | 0.8 | 1.1 |
| Black African | 16.7 | 18.8 | 17.6 | 59.2 | 67.1 | 71.5 | 22.0 | 13.2 | 10.0 | 2.0 | 0.9 | 0.9 |
| Black Caribbean | 21.7 | 23.6 | 21.2 | 51.6 | 64.0 | 70.0 | 23.9 | 11.8 | 7.5 | 2.8 | 0.6 | 1.4 |
| Black other | 19.2 | 24.3 | 22.3 | 58.0 | 61.0 | 61.7 | 20.5 | 13.8 | 14.6 | 2.3 | 0.9 | 1.4 |
| Mixed | 24.8 | 25.2 | 24.0 | 55.0 | 64.3 | 65.5 | 18.0 | 9.5 | 8.6 | 2.1 | 1.0 | 1.8 |
| Mixed White/Asian | 27.7 | 30.4 | 29.1 | 52.1 | 61.0 | 58.3 | 17.9 | 8.6 | 11.0 | 2.2 | 0.0 | 1.6 |
| Mixed White/Black African | 22.6 | 19.2 | 24.7 | 55.0 | 67.3 | 65.9 | 18.4 | 11.5 | 7.9 | 4.0 | 2.0 | 1.5 |
| Mixed White/Black Caribbean | 27.1 | 28.6 | 23.4 | 54.1 | 62.9 | 66.8 | 17.3 | 7.8 | 8.3 | 1.4 | 0.8 | 1.5 |
| Mixed other | 21.0 | 20.2 | 22.3 | 57.9 | 66.8 | 66.5 | 19.1 | 12.0 | 8.4 | 2.0 | 1.0 | 2.7 |
| White | 26.4 | 23.9 | 22.5 | 54.0 | 62.5 | 64.8 | 17.2 | 11.6 | 10.7 | 2.4 | 2.0 | 2.0 |
| White British | 27.1 | 24.5 | 23.0 | 53.3 | 61.8 | 64.2 | 17.1 | 11.6 | 10.8 | 2.5 | 2.0 | 2.0 |
| White Irish | 28.5 | 25.4 | 30.5 | 52.2 | 63.8 | 60.6 | 17.0 | 10.5 | 7.6 | 2.4 | withheld to protect confidentiality | 1.2 |
| White Gypsy/Traveller | 17.9 | 21.7 | 23.7 | 51.3 | 62.7 | 67.1 | 30.8 | 14.4 | 9.2 | 0.0 | withheld to protect confidentiality | 0.0 |
| White other | 15.3 | 14.0 | 12.7 | 64.4 | 72.6 | 74.8 | 18.7 | 12.3 | 10.9 | 1.7 | 1.1 | 1.6 |
| Other | 22.5 | 25.0 | 19.9 | 60.7 | 65.4 | 70.7 | 15.5 | 8.1 | 8.6 | 1.3 | 1.5 | 0.7 |
| Arab | 19.4 | 26.0 | 21.4 | 68.3 | 64.7 | 69.8 | 11.2 | 7.1 | 7.7 | 1.1 | 2.3 | 1.2 |
| Any other | 23.6 | 24.6 | 18.8 | 58.0 | 65.7 | 71.8 | 17.1 | 8.5 | withheld to protect confidentiality | 1.4 | 1.2 | withheld to protect confidentiality |
Download table data for ‘By ethnicity over time’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity over time’ (CSV)
Summary of Length of fixed-term tenancies in social housing By ethnicity over time Summary
This data shows that:
- overall, between 2015/16 and 2017/18, there was an increase in fixed-term tenancies of 5 years or less in all ethnic groups, and a corresponding decrease in tenancies of 6 years or more
- in this period, the percentage of new fixed-term tenancies that were for 3 to 5 years increased from 54.9% to 65.4% – Black Caribbean households had the biggest increase, at 18.4 percentage points
- in the same period, the overall percentage of new fixed-term tenancies that were for 6 to 9 years decreased from 17.7% to 10.6% – White Gypsy/Traveller households had the biggest decrease, at 21.6 percentage points, but it is not possible to draw firm conclusions about this group due to the small number of households involved
5. Data sources
Source
Social housing lettings in England: April 2017 to March 2018
Type of data
Administrative data
Type of statistic
National Statistics
Publisher
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
Publication frequency
Yearly
Purpose of data source
The aim of Continuous Recording of Lettings and Sales in Social Housing in England (CORE) is to provide information about new social housing lettings, sales, tenants and buyers across England.
This information is used by government bodies and organisations to inform social housing funding, regulatory and housing policy decisions.
6. Download the data
This files contains the following: Measure, Time, Time_type, Ethnicity, Ethnicity_type, Tenancy Length, Value, Numerator