Vulnerable households living in social housing

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Last updated 11 October 2017 - see all updates

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1. Main facts and figures

  • in 2015/16 there were 355,898 new social housing lettings in England

  • there were 99,396 new social housing lettings which were granted to vulnerable households or ‘those in priority need’

  • in 2015/16, for almost all ethnic groups, the most likely reason that a tenant was given priority for a new social housing letting was due to homelessness

  • the exception was for Bangladeshi households, where the most likely reason was currently living in unsanitary, unsatisfactory or overcrowded conditions

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).

What the data measures

This data measures the number and percentage of new lettings in social housing to tenants who have been classed as having one or more types of ‘reasonable preference’. This is also broken down by ethnicity.

‘Reasonable preference’ means priority for social housing that councils must give to certain vulnerable households.

The reasonable preference categories are:

  • people who need to move to a particular location in the district of the housing authority, where failure to meet that need would cause hardship

  • people who are homeless

  • people who the local authority has a duty to house in settled accommodation because they are unintentionally homeless and in a priority need category

  • people accepted as unintentionally homeless, not in priority need and provided with accommodation at the council’s discretion

  • people occupying unsanitary or overcrowded housing, or otherwise living in unsatisfactory housing conditions

  • people who need to move for medical reasons or for their well-being, including reasons relating to a disability

In the tables and charts here, they have been grouped into 4 categories:

  • hardship
  • homelessness
  • insanitary/unsatisfactory housing
  • medical welfare

People can be given more than one reasonable preference at the same time. The percentages, therefore, may add up to more than 100%.

‘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 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 only relates to new, permanent, general lettings of social housing.

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. Vulnerable households living in social housing by ethnicity

Location:
England
Time period:
2015/16
Source:
Social housing lettings statistics
Percentage and number of new lettings by ethnicity and priority need
Homelessness Insanitary/Unsatisfactory Housing Medical Welfare Hardship
Ethnicity Homelessness % Homelessness Number Insanitary/Unsatisfactory Housing % Insanitary/Unsatisfactory Housing Number Medical Welfare % Medical Welfare Number Hardship % Hardship Number
All 39 37,139 24 22,486 26 25,112 15 14,659
Asian 45 2,468 33 1,838 14 766 13 721
Bangladeshi 36 525 48 710 10 145 11 159
Chinese 40 71 34 58 17 30 14 25
Indian 40 319 28 221 21 169 17 134
Pakistani 54 879 26 430 14 230 13 215
Asian other 48 674 30 418 14 192 14 188
Black 48 3,828 31 2,475 14 1,149 13 1,064
Black African 50 2,164 31 1,349 11 483 13 563
Black Caribbean 46 1,124 28 677 18 453 15 374
Black other 45 540 37 449 18 213 11 127
Mixed 48 1,467 25 770 16 497 16 486
Mixed White/Asian 47 172 26 94 17 63 15 55
Mixed White/Black African 39 203 32 164 20 103 14 74
Mixed White/Black Caribbean 50 722 24 351 16 224 16 230
Mixed other 51 370 22 161 15 107 18 127
White 37 28,361 22 16,945 29 22,383 16 12,042
White British 37 26,362 22 15,450 30 21,559 16 11,409
White Irish 37 188 23 120 30 155 17 85
White Gypsy/Traveller 50 67 23 31 15 20 17 23
White other 43 1,744 33 1,313 16 649 13 525
Other 50 1,015 23 458 16 317 17 346
Arab 52 331 20 129 14 90 18 114
Any other 50 684 24 329 17 227 17 232

Download table data for ‘Vulnerable households living in social housing by ethnicity’ (CSV) Source data for ‘Vulnerable households living in social housing by ethnicity’ (CSV)

Summary of Vulnerable households living in social housing Vulnerable households living in social housing by ethnicity Summary

This data shows that:

  • for almost all ethnic groups, the most likely reason that a tenant was given priority for a new social housing letting was due to homelessness - 39% of all new social housing lettings were given for this reason which is 37,139 lettings

  • 54% of Pakistani households were given priority because of currently being homelessness, the highest percentage of any ethnic group which is 879 lettings

  • for Bangladeshi households, the most likely reason was currently living in insanitary, unsatisfactory or overcrowded conditions, at 48% which is 710 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 has been suppressed if the number of new lettings in a category (for example ethnicity and income bracket) is either 1 or 2. This is mainly to avoid possible risk of disclosure and is consistent with CORE confidentiality and disclosure practices. CORE records information anonymously and maintains absolute confidentiality on tenants’ circumstances. Access to record-level information is only available through a licence agreement.

Further information on CORE disclosure practices can be found on the Department for Communities and Local Government’s document collection on Social housing lettings on GOV.UK.

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

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

Vulnerable households living in social housing - Spreadsheet (csv) 10 KB

This file contains: ethnicity, year, value, numerator

Publication release date: 10 October 2017

Updated: 11 October 2017

full page history
  1. Technical change: Updated url to match page title.
  2. First published

From: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

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