Fall In Social Housing Under-Occupation

The proportion of social housing households under-occupying their homes according to overcrowding standards has fallen to the lowest level on record. English Housing Survey findings show 8.6% of social housing households were under-occupying their homes by two bedrooms or more in 2014/15. This equates to 338,000 households and is the lowest level since 1995/96 when the survey statistics started. It suggests that welfare policies such as the bedroom tax, introduced in April 2013, could be having an effect on the proportion of social housing tenants under-occupying their homes. However, the under-occupying definition used in the statistics allows households to have one ‘spare’ bedroom before judged to be under-occupying, as opposed to the more stringent bedroom tax criteria, which don’t allow any. Download the Survey report from the CLG website.