Routes into social housing
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Social housing lettings.
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1. Main facts and figures
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in 2015/16 there were 355,898 new social housing lettings in England
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for almost all ethnic groups, the most likely route for getting social housing was the tenant applying directly themselves
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the only exception was for Bangladeshi households, where the most likely route was being nominated by a local housing authority
Things you need to know
These figures are based on the Continuous Recording of Lettings and Sales in Social Housing (CORE). CORE is a complete census of new social housing lettings.
There may be some inaccuracy in the administrative data used to compile these statistics due to missing responses or reporting errors when the data was entered.
Tenants can refuse to give information on their ethnicity. The data used here excludes any records where ethnicity was refused or where information on ethnicity is missing. This means that figures for new lettings may be different from other published figures on social housing.
Social housing is provided by local authorities and private registered providers (mainly housing associations). Local authorities and Private Registered Providers (PRPs) are responsible for framing and operating their own policies for allocating social housing. The allocation of social housing by local authorities is governed by a statutory framework (Part 6 of the Housing Act 1996). For PRPs, it is regulated by the Homes and Communities Agency’s Tenancy Standard. PRPs have a duty to co-operate with local authorities in housing those who have priority under the local authority’s allocation scheme. They usually do this by making available a proportion of their vacancies to local authority nominations. To access social housing through the local authority waiting list, a household has to be eligible under centrally set rules, qualify under rules determined locally, and have sufficient priority under the local authority’s allocation scheme
Some categories were combined with the category ‘Other’. This is because the figures for those categories were small enough that an individual’s identity could be revealed. These categories are:
- relocated through recognised national, regional or sub-regional housing mobility scheme
- youth offending team
- community mental health team
- health service
A full list of the possible routes into social housing is on page 39 of the CORE Manual 2015/16 (PDF opens in a new window or tab).
What the data measures
This data measures the percentage of new lettings in social housing by source of referral, for each ethnic group.
‘Source of referral’ refers to the main route that tenants used to get social housing. For example, they may have applied directly themselves, or been referred by a local housing authority.
‘Ethnicity’ refers to the ethnic origin of the main tenant. For a single tenancy, this is the named tenant.
For a joint tenancy, the main tenant is:
- the economically active or working person
- the oldest person if both tenants are working or both are not working
The data excludes those where the tenant refused to give their ethnicity, or where the information was missing.
It also does not include lettings where a tenant starts a new tenancy agreement but stays in the same property (after their previous tenancy agreement ended).
The figures come from the Continuous Recording of Lettings and Sales in Social Housing in England (CORE) in 2015/16, which records:
- social housing lettings
- affordable housing lettings
- sales by private registered providers
The CORE data used here relates to new, permanent general lettings of social housing. It doesn’t include other types of letting, except temporary lettings where a household moves into supported housing. Supported housing is housing that is either purpose designed or designated for a particular type of tenant.
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 it is a group, they must share cooking facilities and also share a living room, sitting room or dining area.
While the raw data has been taken from CORE, the statistics presented on this page have not been published before.
The ethnic categories used in this data
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
2. Routes into social housing by ethnicity
| Ethnicity | Internal transfer | Nominated by local housing authority | Other | Other social landlord | Police, probation, prison | Referred by local authority housing department | Social services | Tenant applied direct | Voluntary agency |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| % | % | % | % | % | % | % | % | % | |
| All | 13 | 26 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 44 | 2 |
| Asian | 11 | 29 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 40 | 4 |
| Bangladeshi | 13 | 39 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 35 | 2 |
| Chinese | 15 | 29 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 41 | 1 |
| Indian | 10 | 24 | 10 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 41 | 4 |
| Pakistani | 8 | 26 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 42 | 5 |
| Asian other | 11 | 27 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 42 | 3 |
| Black | 14 | 27 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 3 | 37 | 3 |
| Black African | 12 | 28 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 40 | 3 |
| Black Caribbean | 15 | 27 | 11 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 3 | 32 | 3 |
| Black other | 18 | 20 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 43 | 2 |
| Mixed | 11 | 29 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 3 | 36 | 3 |
| Mixed White/Asian | 11 | 30 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 2 | 38 | 3 |
| Mixed White/Black African | 12 | 26 | 10 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 40 | 3 |
| Mixed White/Black Caribbean | 11 | 27 | 10 | 1 | 3 | 8 | 4 | 34 | 4 |
| Mixed other | 9 | 33 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 3 | 37 | 2 |
| White | 14 | 26 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 45 | 2 |
| White British | 14 | 25 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 45 | 2 |
| White Irish | 18 | 19 | 10 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 4 | 36 | 4 |
| White Gypsy/Traveller | 8 | 34 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 3 | 36 | 4 |
| White other | 9 | 30 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 50 | 2 |
| Other | 11 | 20 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 47 | 4 |
| Arab | 11 | 23 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 3 | 41 | 4 |
| Any other | 11 | 19 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 49 | 4 |
Download table data for ‘Routes into social housing by ethnicity’ (CSV) Source data for ‘Routes into social housing by ethnicity’ (CSV)
Summary of Routes into social housing Routes into social housing by ethnicity Summary
This data shows that:
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in 2015/16 there were 355,898 new social housing lettings in England
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for almost all ethnic groups the most likely route into social housing was through the tenant applying directly - overall 44% of new social housing lettings which is 155,639 lettings, happened this way
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for almost all ethnic groups the second most likely route into social housing was by being nominated by a local a housing authority - 26% of new social housing lettings which is 91,594 lettings, happened this way
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However, for Bangladeshi households the most likely route into social housing was being by being nominated by a local housing authority - 39% of new social lettings which is 1,285 lettings, happened this way
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in all ethnic groups, these routes into social housing are typical for more than half of all new social housing lettings; for White Other households these routes were typical for around 80% of all new social housing lettings - 11,926 lettings
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Black Caribbean households were least likely to apply directly to get a new social housing letting, with 32% doing so, which is 2,835 lettings
3. Methodology
The three main types of housing tenure in England are:
- owner occupiers
- private renters
- social renters
This data refers to new lettings to social renters only. The data is based on the data collected from providers via the on-line COntinuous REcording of Lettings and Sales in Social Housing in England (CORE) system. CORE was first set up in 1989 and initially only required private registered providers (PRPs) to submit social housing lettings and sales information to support the government’s regulatory function. CORE’s remit expanded in 2004 to include local authority information.
Some questions on the CORE questionnaire are not compulsory. In particular, data on household characteristics (age, sex, economic status, ethnicity and nationality) may not be available to the housing officer or may be refused by the tenant.
The totals for 'new lettings' used in this data differs from other published totals for new lettings, as this data does not use imputed data for ethnicity and excludes those where ethnicity was refused. Information on lettings of social housing in England is provided by local authorities and private registered providers (previously known as housing associations). Information about the tenancy, the tenants and the property is collected by data providers each time there is a new letting of a social housing property.
Imputation:
When data is missing it can be imputed, that is replaced with an estimated value based on other available information. For this measure data at the local authority level on age and on income have been imputed, whereas other data including all data at the national and regional level have not been imputed.
Weighting:
Weighting is used to adjust the results of a survey to make them representative of the population and improve their accuracy.
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.
Data here has been weighted at the national level, but not at the regional or local authority area level. Weights are calculated for groups of similar local authorities, where these groups are defined by the Office of National Statistics UK area classifications, and they are based on the comparison with data from another Department for Communities and Local Government source on social housing data (Local Authority Housing Statistics).
For further information on the weighting and imputation methodologies, please see the Quality Report (PDF opens in a new window or tab).
Suppression rules and disclosure control
Data presented here as counts and their related percentages have been suppressed if counts are either 1 or 2, mainly to avoid possible risk of disclosure. This is consistent with the way the confidentiality of CORE data is maintained.
CORE records information anonymously and absolute confidentiality on tenants’ circumstances is maintained. Access to record-level information is only available via a licence agreement and the data is released via the UK Data Archive’s UK Data Service and the Office for National Statistics Virtual Microdata Lab. This allows users to access record-level data via different layers of protection to meet different user needs.
Three licences are available and each has different disclosure controls, access and use restrictions:
- the End-User Licence is for access to datasets that are not private information as defined by the Code of Practice for Official Statistics
- Special Licence and Secure Access are for access to micro-data with ‘private’ information as defined by the Code of Practice for Official Statistics
Further detail can be found on CORE disclosure practices.
Rounding
Data on counts has been rounded to nearest whole number and data on percentages has been rounded to 1 decimal place. Due to rounding, percentages may not add up to 100%.
Related publications
Social housing lettings in England: April 2015 to March 2016 (revised 30 March 2017)
Quality and methodology information
4. Data sources
Source
Social housing lettings statistics
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
Continuous Recording of Lettings and Sales in Social Housing in England (CORE) provides valuable information about new social housing lettings, sales, tenants and buyers across England.
This national information is used by government bodies and organisations to inform social housing funding, regulatory and housing policy decisions.
5. Download the data
This file contains: ethnicity, year, value, numerator