Social Rented Housing – Parliamentary Written Answer

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the evidential basis is for his Department's finding that 34,000 households with incomes of over £60,000 are living in social housing; and if he will make a statement.

Grant Shapps [holding answer 28 June 2012]: The estimated number of social tenants with incomes over £60,000 is based on two surveys, the English Housing Survey (data for 2008-09 and 2009-10) and the Department for Work and Pensions' Family Resources Survey 2008-09. Almost 10,000 households living in the social rented sector were sampled in total. Incomes over £60,000 are relatively uncommon in the social sector so comparatively few respondents met these criteria. The range of households with incomes above this level, between 12,000 and 34,000, is therefore our best estimate of the actual number of high income tenants.  Datasets from both surveys are deposited at the UK Data Archive and are available to external users.