The English Housing Survey (EHS) collects data on English households through an interview survey and physical inspection of homes. It is led by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) and Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC). The EHS includes over 13,000 household interviews and 6,200 physical surveys each year. It provides data on topics like tenure, housing costs, energy efficiency, and more. The data is used by government departments, academics, and others to inform policies related to housing, welfare, climate change, and other issues.

1. The English Housing
Survey

2. The EHS…
• is commissioned by DCLG and sponsored
by DECC
• a 35 minute face-to-face survey of
households in England and a
comprehensive physical survey of homes
• is a national statistic

3. The EHS Team
•
•
•
•
•
DCLG
DECC
ONS / NatCen Social Research
CAD Housing Surveys
Building Research Establishment

4. Structure of EHS (2013-14)
13,300 EHS household
interviews
Sub sampling
by tenure
6,200
physical
surveys
Aggregated
data for
reports
EHS Database
Anonymised
dataset to
UKDA

5. The EHS sample
• Representative sample of the population of
England
• NatCen using half-England sample from 2012-13
• Unclustered design
• Drawn from Postcode Address File
• Subsampling by tenure

6. Interview Survey: fieldwork
• Fieldwork operates in 8 waves each year
• Around 100 interviewers in each wave
• Interviewers carry out a 35 minute interview
• Interview Household Reference Person or partner
• Identify vacant properties
• Around 60% response rate
• Interviewers make appointment for surveyor visit

7. Physical Survey: fieldwork
•
•
•
•
Conducted by around 150 professional surveyors
Appointment made with householder by interviewer
Internal and external inspection plus photographs
Dwelling based includes occupied households and
vacant properties
• Data collected using digital pens

8. Topics
tenure
overcrowding
and underoccupation
wellbeing
energy
efficiency of
housing stock
income and
earnings (incl.
benefits)
fuel poverty
type, size and
age of
housing stock
housing size
and condition
housing costs
and arrears
second
homes
accessibility
and
adaptations
satisfaction
with housing,
local area and
landlord
housing
aspirations
negative
equity
fire safety
disrepair and
repair costs
homelessnes
s and waiting
lists
housing flows
within and
between
tenure
demographic
details of HRP
age, sex,
marital status,
sexual
identity
nationality
and country
of birth
details of
household
members
health and
disability
ethnicity and
religion

9. Interview Survey – rotating modules
To keep the interview to a concise length, some sets of
questions are rotated:
•Tenancy deposits (2011-12 and 2014-15)
• Problems in neighbourhood (2014-15)
• Adaptations for disability (2011-12 and 2014-15)
• Second homes (2012-13 and 2013-14)
• Fire (2013-14)
• Energy efficiency (2011-12 and 2012-13)

10. EHS user group
•
•
•
•
A user group comprising main policy and analysis customers in DCLG
and DECC
Meetings held individually with DCLG and DECC teams in
September/October 2013 to ensure:
– questionnaire and physical survey content for 2014-15 survey year
meets anticipated future policy priorities
– 2012-13 headline and annual reports are useful and relevant for
customers
Combined user group meeting with all policy teams held in November
2013 in which changes to 2014-15 questionnaire content approved
The content for headline and annual reports is still under discussion we
welcome feedback at today’s event on what to include

11. Consultation on interview survey questionnaire
•
•
•
Identify need for new questions (fill evidence gaps that will be relevant in 2016)
Release capacity on the survey (remove/rotate questions not required by users)
Canvas views on presentation and usability to maximise value of data collected
Community and
Voluntary sector
DECC and DCLG policy and
analysis teams
Social rented
sector
Private rented
sector
Social rented
sector
allocations
Private rented
sector taskforce
Welfare reform
Universal Credit
Large scale
voluntary
transfer
Evictions
Illegal subletting
Rogue landlords
Park homes
Commercial
space
Repairs, decent
homes
Tenancy types
Owner occupiers
DECC
Negative equity
Fuel poverty
British Legion
Support for
mortgage
interest
Energy
efficiency
Shelter
Mortgage
rescue scheme
Leasehold
Equity share
Help into home
ownership
schemes
National
Housing
Federation
Building and
Social Housing
Foundation
Foundations

12. Consultation on physical survey
•
•
Identify need for new items on physical survey (fill evidence gaps that will be relevant in
2016)
Canvas views on presentation and usability to maximise value of data collected
DECC and DCLG policy and
analysis teams
Fire
Sustainable
buildings
Housing
condition
Smoke alarms
Insulation
HHSRS
Carbon
monoxide
Renewable
energy
Decent homes
Overheating
Adaptations for
elderly & disabled
Fuel poverty
Disabled
facilities grant
Financial
assistance
Ageing
population
Boilers

13. Emerging themes from 2013 meetings
•
Social rented sector:
–
–
–
•
Private rented sector:
–
–
–
–
•
–
Overcharging of leaseholders by freeholders
Barriers to selling an equity share home
Help into home ownership – awareness of government schemes, bank of Mum and
Dad
Barriers to owning
Armed forces
–
•
Are householders content with their tenure at their current life stage?
What proportion in private rented sector out of choice, what proportion out of
necessity?
Churn, stability of tenure, length of tenancy
Quality of accommodation, decent homes measure
Owner occupiers:
–
–
–
•
Mobility, willingness to move, to seek work in other areas
Are we ready for Welfare Reform – Universal Credit, Personal Independence
Payment, localisation of Council Tax Rebate?
What is the right occupancy measure?
Monitoring The Armed Forces Covenant for equality of outcomes
Energy
–
DECC schemes on energy efficiency improvements, hard-to-treat properties,
renewable energy

14. Interview survey: new questions
Private rented sector
– Length of tenancy and notice period, and whether suitable
– Upfront-fees (charged by agent or landlord) total and reasons for
– Repairs, retaliatory evictions and recourse to local authority for tenants with
negligent landlords
– Where tenancies have ended acrimoniously
Help into home-ownership
– Awareness of government schemes: NewBuy, Help to Buy
– Reasons for not being offered a mortgage, help from parents
Social rented sector
– Reasons considered for moving home
– Households without access to the internet
Armed forces
– Capturing type of service, regular/reserve, when served

15. Physical survey: new questions
Insulation
– Refine wall insulation questions to collect proportion of walls in property that
are insulated
– Stone construction type added to improve analysis on hard-to-treat walls
Renewable energy sources
– Data collection on solar panels expanded to include surface area of panels
– Add extra biomass categories to primary heating fuels
Boilers
– Question added asking households whether boilers works
Carbon monoxide
– Question added about whether a carbon monoxide detector in dwelling

16. Questions removed in 2014-15 to make capacity
The questions are removed from 2014-15 but will be included in a rotating module in
future years subject to demand:
•
Private landlord contact details
– Name, address, telephone (for Private Landlords Survey, last run in 2010, no plan to
repeat in near future)
•
Satisfaction with area questions
– Have wellbeing questions now
– Not used by policy teams
•
Energy efficiency
– Work carried out to improve energy efficiency
– Which jobs do you think would help to make your home cheaper to heat and easier to
keep warm

17. Key outputs
• Headline report published in February
followed by detailed Annual Reports in July
• Available on the
English Housing Survey pages of the DCLG websit
• Anonymised data set available on
UK Data Archive (UKDA) website

18. 1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2008-09
2009-10
2010-11
2011-12
million households
General trends in tenure
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
owner occupiers
social renters
private renters

19. Housing aspirations
• 20% of social renters expect to buy a
home at some point in the future
compared with 59% of private renters

20. Overcrowding
10
9
8
percentage
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12
owner occupiers
social renters
private renters
all
households

21. Under-occupation
60
50
percentage
40
30
20
10
0
2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12
owner occupiers
social renters
private renters
all
households

22. Stock profile
17%
54%
20%
9%

23. Decent homes
100
90
percentage
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
2006
2007
owner occupied
2008
private rented
2009
2010
social rented
2011
all tenures

24. Non-decent homes are more likely to be:
•
•
•
•
Privately rented
Built prior to 1919
Converted flats
In a rural area

25. Non-decent homes are more likely to be
occupied by people who:
• have lived in their home for a very short
time OR a very long time
• have a low income

26. Who uses the English Housing Survey?
Commercial
companies
Secure Data
Service
Academics
Defra
e.g. on flood risk
ONS
User e.g. on overcrowding
Group
Home Office
e.g. on nationality
Government
departments
UK Data
Service
DfE
e.g. on child poverty
Students
Research
organisations
General
public
Charities
RAW DATA
DWP
e.g. on welfare reform
DCLG
Analysts
Policy
DECC
Ministers
RAW DATA & REPORTS
Media
Local
authorities
REPORTS

27. EHS queries from external organisations
5%
5%
5%
5%
commercial researcher
25%
25%
7%
7%
Commercial researcher
central government
Central Gov researcher
researcher
academic researcher
Academic researcher
9%
9%
non-profit organisation
Non-profit organisation
researcher
researcher
general public public query
Other general enquiries
Freedom of Information request
Freedom of Information
request
11%
11%
22%
22%
local government researcher
Local Gov researcher
Parliament Questions
Parliament Questions
17%
17%

28. • Climate Adaptation
– EHS data on buildings characteristics was used when investigating the
potential damages to buildings during strong wind events. Researcher, Met
Office
– EHS data collected from the physical survey was used to look at the
proportion and number of households below street surface level split either
geographically or by water company. Consultant
• Poverty
– EHS data was used to re-examine the role of planning obligations in
providing housing for those on the lowest incomes. Detailed analysis was
made possible by using local authority and postcode variables. PhD student
• Welfare reform
– EHS data on recent movers was used to support evidence in the increase in
tenancy changes that the company was noticing. The researcher wanted to
know whether the recent social reforms and ‘spare room subsidy’ played a
part. Researcher, energy company