Renting from a local authority or housing association (‘social housing’)

Published 10 October 2017

Last updated 23 February 2018 - see all updates

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Contents

1. Main facts and figures

• 3.9 million (17%) of the estimated 22.6 million households in England rented their home from a local authority or housing association ('social housing') in the time period studied

• some ethnic minority households were more likely to rent social housing than White British households, while others were less likely

• across most socio-economic groups, income bands and age groups, White British households were less likely to rent social housing than all other ethnic groups

• ethnic minority households in London and the North West of England were more likely to rent social housing than White British households

Things you need to know

Compared with White British households, ethnic minority households tend to:

• be younger
• have lived in England for a shorter time
• be located in urban areas
• live in larger households
• live in rented accommodation

To ensure that there is a large enough number of ethnic minority households to produce reliable findings, the data is drawn from the English Housing Survey (EHS) 2014/15 and 2015/16.

Information about households available from the EHS Headline and Annual Reports is normally based on a 12-month period (April to March) of the survey. Because of this some of the statistics cited here may not match those in the Headline and Annual Reports.

The commentary only includes findings based on subgroups of at least 30 households to ensure that we report reliable findings.

The number of people from Gypsy and Irish Traveller households interviewed is very small. To avoid disclosing personal information about individuals in those groups, information about them is not presented in some of the tables or charts.

The EHS is a ‘sample survey’: it collects information from a random sample of the population to make generalisations (reach 'findings’) about the total population.

For example, EHS findings might include the percentage of households who get help from their family to buy their own home.

The commentary for this data only includes reliable, or ‘statistically significant’, findings.

Findings are statistically significant when we can be confident that they are reflective of the total population rather than just the survey sample.

What the data measures

This data measures how likely people in different ethnic groups are to rent their home from a local authority or housing association (that is, rent ‘social housing’).

Social housing includes property rented from local authorities (including Arms’ Length Management Organisations and housing action trusts), housing associations, local housing companies, co-operatives and charitable trusts.

The figures are drawn from the 2014/15 and 2015/16 English Housing Survey (EHS). The survey involves face-to-face interviews with about 13,300 randomly selected households every year.

These are used to make estimates for the 22.6 million households in England as a whole.

The EHS is a national survey of people's housing circumstances and the condition and energy efficiency of homes in England.

The information relates to households. A household is one person or a group of people (not necessarily related) who have the accommodation as their only or main residence. If they are a group they also must share cooking facilities and a living room, sitting room, or dining area.

The EHS has ethnicity information on the household reference person as well as all other members of the household. The household reference person is the person in whose name the dwelling is owned or rented or who is otherwise responsible for the accommodation.

Some households contain people from different ethnic backgrounds; in these circumstances, we have used the ethnic background of the household reference person to define the ethnic background of the household.

Nearly all the household reference persons – more than 99.8% interviewed – provided information on their ethnicity.

The data is shown for the 9 regions of England: North East, North West, Yorkshire and the Humber, East Midlands, West Midlands, East, London, South East and the South West.

The ethnic categories used in this data

For comparisons made at national level, this data uses the standardised ethnic groups based on the 2011 Census.

White:

• English/Welsh/Scottish/Northern Irish/British
• Irish
• Gypsy, Traveller or Irish Traveller
• Any other White background

Mixed/Multiple ethnic groups:

• White and Black Caribbean
• White and Black African
• White and Asian
• Any other Mixed/Multiple ethnic background

Asian/Asian British:

• Indian
• Pakistani
• Bangladeshi
• Chinese
• Any other Asian background

Black/African/Caribbean/Black British:

• African
• Caribbean
• Any other Black/African/Caribbean background

Other ethnic group:

• Arab
• Any other ethnic group

For data analysed both by ethnicity and by income, socio-economic group, region and age, the following 2 ethnic groups have been used:

• White British
• Other – all other ethnic groups (including White ethnic minorities and all other ethnic minorities)

This is because the number of people that were surveyed to generate estimates for the population as a whole becomes too small to be reliable when broken down both by ethnicity (in either detailed or broad categories) and by another factor like socio-economic group or income.

Data is therefore grouped to a size where estimates become reliable. In this case, information broken down by ethnicity and another factor compares White British with Other.

2. Households renting social housing by ethnicity

• Location: England
• Time period: 2014/15 and 2015/16 (combined)
• Source: English Housing Survey

Percentage and number of households renting social housing by ethnicity

Ethnicity	%	Social housing households	All households
Asian
Bangladeshi	42	41,000	98,000
Chinese	9	11,000	129,000
Indian	7	37,000	504,000
Pakistani	11	35,000	333,000
Asian other	14	30,000	218,000
Black
Black African	48	176,000	368,000
Black Caribbean	45	129,000	289,000
Black other	45	17,000	38,000
Mixed
Mixed White/Asian	18	12,000	66,000
Mixed White/Black African	35	28,000	80,000
Mixed White/Black Caribbean	37	37,000	99,000
Mixed other	34	11,000	32,000
White
White British	16	3,080,000	18,808,000
White Irish	32	58,000	184,000
White Gypsy/Traveller
White other	13	143,000	1,078,000
Other
Arab	29	18,000	63,000
Any other	21	48,000	227,000

Data withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Renting from a local authority or housing association (‘social housing’) Households renting social housing by ethnicity Summary

This data shows that:

• 16% of White British households rented their home from a local authority or housing association ('social housing')

• Black African, Black Caribbean, Other Black and Bangladeshi households all had higher rates of renting social housing, at 48%, 45%, 45% and 42% respectively

• Pakistani, Chinese and Indian households all had lower rates of renting social housing, at 11%, 9% and 7% respectively

• although the chart and table show households from the Other Asian ethnic group were less likely to rent social housing compared to White British households, the sample size for this group was too small to draw firm conclusions

• similarly, although the chart and table show that Mixed White and Asian households, Arab households, and those from the Any Other ethnic group were more likely to rent social housing than White British households, the sample sizes for these groups were too small to draw firm conclusions

3. Households renting social housing by ethnicity and socio-economic group

• Location: England
• Time period: 2014/15 and 2015/16 (combined)
• Source: English Housing Survey

Percentage and number of households renting social housing by ethnicity and socio-economic group

	White British			All other ethnic groups
Socio-economic group	White British %	White British Social housing households	White British All households	All other ethnic groups %	All other ethnic groups Social housing households	All other ethnic groups All households
Higher managerial, administrative and professional occupations	5	373,673	7,635,539	10	138,604	1,400,849
Intermediate occupations	12	480,178	3,857,408	20	137,349	702,682
Routine and manual occupations	30	1,886,724	6,260,530	32	425,116	1,311,313

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Renting from a local authority or housing association (‘social housing’) Households renting social housing by ethnicity and socio-economic group Summary

This data shows that:

• White British households in higher managerial, administrative and professional occupations and intermediate occupations were less likely to rent social housing than ethnic minority households

• although the chart and table show differences in the rates of renting social housing for householders in routine and manual occupations, the sample sizes for these groups were too small to draw firm conclusions

4. Households renting social housing by ethnicity and income

• Location: England
• Time period: 2014/15 and 2015/16 (combined)
• Source: English Housing Survey

Percentage and number of households renting social housing by ethnicity and weekly income

	White British			All other ethnic groups
Weekly income	White British %	White British Social housing households	White British All households	All other ethnic groups %	All other ethnic groups Social housing households	All other ethnic groups All households
Up to £99	60	110,302	183,039	64	41,296	64,744
£100 to £199	46	740,427	1,623,813	43	136,667	319,019
£200 to £299	32	728,441	2,290,104	41	156,866	382,066
£300 to £399	23	484,822	2,121,559	30	144,997	490,875
£400 to £499	18	320,623	1,793,046	27	108,329	399,204
£500 to £599	14	234,904	1,641,076	22	76,241	343,358
£600 to £699	10	159,142	1,521,753	19	60,762	312,920
£700 to £799	7	86,599	1,234,900	12	30,937	266,681
£800 to £899	6	64,484	1,099,098	11	22,388	209,729
£900 to £999	4	35,884	875,735	10	18,509	188,360
£1000 and above	3	114,161	4,424,028	4	34,930	831,408

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Renting from a local authority or housing association (‘social housing’) Households renting social housing by ethnicity and income Summary

This data shows that:

• White British households with weekly incomes of £200 to £699, and £900 to £999, were less likely to rent social housing than ethnic minority households

• although the chart and table show differences in the rates of renting social housing for households earning less than £199 a week, £700 to £899 a week, and more than £1000 a week, the sample sizes for these groups were too small to draw firm conclusions

5. Households renting social housing by ethnicity and age group

• Location: England
• Time period: 2014/15 and 2015/16 (combined)
• Source: English Housing Survey

Percentage and number of households renting social housing by ethnicity and age group

	White British			All other ethnic groups
Age group	White British %	White British Social housing households	White British All households	All other ethnic groups %	All other ethnic groups Social housing households	All other ethnic groups All households
16 - 24 yrs old	25	136,808	547,604	18	36,730	209,064
25 - 34 yrs old	17	402,620	2,400,150	17	147,555	888,814
35 - 44 yrs old	16	456,426	2,909,500	21	224,017	1,043,931
45 - 54 yrs old	16	602,611	3,746,787	27	213,987	795,069
55 - 64 yrs old	15	497,746	3,240,797	24	101,873	426,164
65 yrs old or over	16	983,576	5,963,859	24	107,760	445,322

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Renting from a local authority or housing association (‘social housing’) Households renting social housing by ethnicity and age group Summary

• in nearly all age groups, White British households were less likely to rent social housing than ethnic minority households

• although the chart and table show differences in the rates of renting social housing for those aged under 35 years, the sample sizes for these groups were too small to draw firm conclusions

6. Households renting social housing by ethnicity and area

• Location: England
• Time period: 2014/15 and 2015/16 (combined)
• Source: English Housing Survey

Percentage and number of households renting social housing by ethnicity and area

	White British			All other ethnic groups
Region	White British %	White British Social housing households	White British All households	All other ethnic groups %	All other ethnic groups Social housing households	All other ethnic groups All households
North East	23	246,001	1,082,079	27	16,381	60,660
North West	17	476,902	2,726,087	23	76,662	332,876
Yorkshire and The Humber	18	356,670	1,993,215	20	49,254	251,038
East Midlands	15	262,599	1,716,315	20	43,814	223,700
West Midlands	18	353,855	1,973,387	22	78,641	355,356
East of England	16	340,564	2,179,257	15	49,018	316,271
London	19	332,566	1,721,643	27	433,213	1,615,633
South East	13	425,686	3,196,339	12	56,845	492,775
South West	13	284,944	2,220,374	18	28,093	160,054

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Renting from a local authority or housing association (‘social housing’) Households renting social housing by ethnicity and area Summary

This data shows that:

• in London and the North West, White British households were less likely to rent social housing than ethnic minority households

• although the chart and table show differences in the rates of renting social housing in other regions of England, the sample sizes for these groups were too small to draw firm conclusions

7. Methodology

The EHS consists of:

• face-to-face interviews with a random sample of about 13,300 households a year
• a physical inspection of the homes of about 6,000 of the interviewed households – these are selected at random and carried out by a surveyor

The surveyor also inspects a random sample of about 200 properties identified by the interviewer as vacant.

Weighting:

Weighting is used to adjust the results of a survey to make them representative of the population.

For example, a survey which contains 25% females and 75% males will not accurately reflect the views of the general population, which we know is around 50% male and 50% female.

Statisticians rebalance or ‘weight’ the survey results to more accurately represent the general population. This helps to make them more reliable.

Survey weights are usually applied to make sure the survey sample has broadly the same gender, age, ethnic and geographic make up as the general population.

In the EHS, weighting makes the results more representative of the 22.6 million households in England.

Suppression rules and disclosure control

Estimates based on less than 30 households have not been included in these statistics, because small numbers of households make it impossible to draw meaningful conclusions. The analysis has been done by binary classification only where broken down by socio-economic group, income, region or age. This prevents small numbers appearing in the table and avoids the potential for identification of individuals.

More detailed data, including some potentially disclosive data, is protected by a range of disclosure controls. See the guidance on English Housing Survey: datasets for information accessing this data.

Rounding

Estimates in the charts and tables are given to the nearest whole number. You can get more detailed estimates to 1 decimal place if you download the data.

Quality and methodology information

8. Data sources

Source

English Housing Survey

Type of data

Survey data

Type of statistic

National Statistics

Publisher

Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

Note on corrections or updates

Information published in the EHS headline report and other annual reports is usually based on a 12-month period, rather than the 2 years’ combined data used here. As a result, the statistics shown here may not match those in the EHS reports.

Publication frequency

Yearly

Purpose of data source

The English Housing Survey is a continuous national survey commissioned by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. It collects information about people’s housing circumstances and the condition and energy efficiency of housing in England.

9. Download the data

Social housing - Spreadsheet (csv) 15 KB

This file contains the following: ethnicity, year, geography, age group, NS-SEC (socio-economic group), income, region, value, denominator, numerator and sample size

Publication release date: 10 October 2017

Updated: 23 February 2018

full page history

1. 23 February 2018 Minor updates for style and accuracy
2. 23 February 2018 Minor updates for style and accuracy
3. 11 October 2017 Technical change: Updated url to match page title.
4. 10 October 2017 First published

From: Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

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