Communities and Local Government

• Housing
• Housing research and statistics
• Housing statistics
• Definition of general housing terms

Definition of general housing terms

Dwelling

For dwelling data, unless specifically stated, the definition used follows the Census' definition applicable at that time. The Census' definition has changed several times. For example, the 1991 Census defined a dwelling as structurally separate accommodation. This was determined primarily by considering the type of accommodation, as well as separate and shared access to multi-occupied properties.  The 2001 Census defined dwellings as either containing a single household space or several household spaces sharing some facilities.

"A household's accommodation (a household space) is defined as being in a shared dwelling if it has accommodation type 'part of a converted or shared house', not all the rooms (including bathroom and toilet, if any) are behind a door that only that household can use and there is at least one other such household space at the same address with which it can be combined to form the shared dwelling. If any of these conditions is not met, the household space forms an unshared dwelling . Therefore a dwelling can consist of one household space (an unshared dwelling) or two or more household spaces (a shared dwelling)."

In all stock figures, vacant dwellings are included.  Permanent second homes are included but for housebuilding statistics, only data on permanent dwellings are collected.

A permanent dwelling relates to a building whose structure should satisfy at least one of the following criteria:

• the walls are of brick, stone and mortar, concrete, breeze block, or similar material
• the roof is of ceramic tiles, slate, thatch, shingle, or concrete
• the length of the shortest wall is least 15 feet; or
• it has over 60 years of life span
  

Non-permanent or temporary dwellings (or structures) include caravans, mobile homes, converted railway carriages and houseboats.

Communal establishments are excluded. These cover universities/colleges, hospitals, hostels/homes, hotels, holiday complexes, defence establishments (but not married quarters) and prisons. However, hostel type or staff accommodation (eg owned by Ministry of Defence or Hospital Trusts) would be included in stock figures if it is self-contained and not supervised.

Ancillary dwellings such as granny annexes have not been consistently allocated. Before April 2001, whether they were counted as dwellings or not was determined by those who provided the data. However, this ambiguity is considered insignificant at regional and national level, although sometimes important at local level. In principle, they should be counted as a dwelling if they are self-contained, whether physically separated from the main residence or not, provided the access to the annexe is not shared by outside residents eg a shared hallway. Since April 2001, forms for collecting this data have spelt this out clearly.

Type of Dwelling

Houses, bungalows, flats, maisonettes, and bedsits are types of accommodation used in the census but no clear definition of these is provided. Houses include single storey bungalows. A flat is very difficult to define and there are many types. However, the Building Regulations 2000 (SI 2000 no.2531) give the following definition:

"A flat is a separate and self-contained premises constructed or adapted for use for residential purposes and forming part of a building from some other part of which it is divided horizontally."

In other words, flats have to have at least two storeys.

For the purposes of statistics of housebuilding, old persons' flatlets (one- or two-room flats with certain shared facilities) are counted as separate one-bedroom flats, although they are not entirely self-contained. Flats include maisonettes; maisonettes are flats containing more than one storey.

Household

A household comprises one person living alone, or a group of people (not necessarily related) living at the same address who either share at least one meal a day or share living accommodation, that is, a living or sitting room.  The occupant(s) of a bedsit who do not share a sitting or living room with anyone else comprise a single household.

Tenure

There are up to four tenure categories for dwelling stock and household figures. These are:

i) owner-occupied (or private enterprise in the case of housebuilding statistics ie dwellings built for owner occupiers or for private landlords, whether persons or companies).  This includes accommodation that is owned outright or is being bought with a mortgage

ii) rented privately (defined as all non-owner-occupied property other than that rented from local authorities and RSLs plus that rented from private or public bodies by virtue of employment.  This includes property occupied rent-free by someone other than the owner)

iii) rented from Registered Social Landlords (RSLs defined below, but for stock figures non-registered Housing Associations are excluded and subsumed within owner-occupied); and

iv) rented from Local Authorities (see definition below). In Scotland dwellings rented from local authorities include those rented from Scottish Homes, formerly the Scottish Special Housing Association.

Note on Registered Social Landlords (RSLs)

Although Housing Associations (HAs) not registered with the Housing Corporation/Scottish Homes are strictly not RSLs, unless it is otherwise stated (eg stock figures, see iii above), RSLs' data normally represent all HA-owned dwellings whether they are registered or not, and Local Housing Companies. Figures for Northern Ireland relate solely to those associations registered with the Housing Associations Branch of the Department for Social Development.

HAs are societies, bodies of trustees or companies established for the purpose of providing housing accommodation on a non-profit-making basis. They provide housing for the employees of associated industrial and other undertakings, for special groups such as the aged, disabled or single persons, or housing on a mutual and self-build basis. Fair rent societies and co-ownership associations set up with the assistance of the Housing Corporation are included, as are associations formed specially for providing homes on behalf of local authorities. (Stock owned by Scottish Homes, which replaced the Scottish Special Housing Association and the Housing Corporation in Scotland in 1989, is considered to be public authority stock and therefore included as a local authority stock (q.v.).) The number of dwellings owned and built by non-registered HA is insignificant compared with those that are registered.

Local Housing Companies are independent, non-profit companies that manage tenanted housing. They are run by a board that is normally split three ways to ensure that tenants, councillors and local independent professionals are all represented. A number of these companies have been set up to run single ex-local authority estates, transferred to the local housing company using the Estates Renewal Challenge Fund.

Note on Local Authorities

This category represents all dwellings owned and built by local housing authorities under the Housing Act 1985. Although dwellings built by New Towns and Other Government Departments (eg Armed Forces such as Ministry of Defence and prison authorities etc) were collected separately, their estimates have been included in this category for presentational purposes. Historically it is considered reasonable to include these in the same category because either the numbers involved are insignificant or they no longer exist (see details below).

In England and Wales, local housing authorities are the unitary authorities, district councils, the Council of the Isles of Scilly, the London Borough councils, the Common Council of the City of London and, until its abolition at the end of March 1986, the Greater London Council.

The number of local housing authorities in Great Britain (the last administrative change was at 1 April 1998) is shown in the table below.

Number of Local Authorities in Great Britain (As at 1 April 1998)

In Scotland, prior to April 1996 local housing authorities were the district councils and island areas; from 1 April 1996 onwards they are the unitary authority areas. Scottish Homes, which replaced the Scottish Special Housing Association and the Housing Corporation in Scotland, because it is a statutory body assisting local authorities in their housing programmes, is treated as a local authority for the purposes of these statistics. Although Scottish Homes still own dwellings, they are no longer building new houses and the last new dwelling was completed in 1991.

In Northern Ireland, the Northern Ireland Housing Executive took over in the early 1970s the housing functions previously exercised by local and public authorities. The Northern Ireland Housing Executive is the Northern Ireland equivalent of Local Authority housing providers in GB but is organised in a divisional structure which is not directly comparable with Northern Ireland District Council areas.

The term New Towns includes development corporations established under the New Town Acts. All New Towns have ceased to exist (England from April 1992, Wales April 1996 and Scotland December 1996 with no housebuilding in Scotland since 1995) and their housing functions and stocks have been transferred to local authorities or to HA, or to Scottish Homes in Scotland. There are no New Towns in Northern Ireland.

Government departments dwellings are those provided or authorised by government departments for the families of police, prison staff, the armed forces and certain other services. In the stock figures, these are treated as rented privately. Data on their housebuilding is no longer collected as a separate tenure as there had been virtually no houses built by government departments in England and Wales since 1996 and 1993 respectively. Although historically these had been counted as local authorities built (see above), current such new building is classified as private enterprise.

Public and Private Sectors

All local authority dwellings are public sector dwellings.

Where the term "private sector" is used in housing policy and housing statistics, it is generally meant "private housing" sector or non-social housing sector ie owner-occupied dwellings and those rented privately including those that go with a job or business and not those owned by RSLs/HAs.

However, in government accounting (the Blue Book), RSLs/HAs are treated as private sector even though they are engaged in the provision of social housing. To save confusion, it is best to disregard this unless the usage refers to public account rather than housing.

The Blue Book published by the Office for National Statistics, in connection with the National Accounts, is available at:

www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/Product.asp?vlnk=1143  (external link)

For housing data, RSLs/HAs are generally separately out to identify the extent of social housing. For housebuilding starts and completions data, especially the former, there is a small possibility that some dwellings built for RSLs/HAs could have been counted as "private enterprise" and vice versa.  This is because sometimes the builders themselves are not sure of the precise ownership or the ownership may keep evolving and it is not final until it was sold.

Social and Affordable Housing

Social housing comprises those dwellings owned by RSLs and Local Authorities as defined above. Affordable housing is subsidised or "low" cost housing of any tenure. Figures of social housing can be derived in the tables but this grouping should not be confused with affordable housing, which cannot be derived from the tables. The following definitions come from Communities and Local Government's Good Practice Guide to Local Housing Needs Assessment.

"Social housing is housing of an adequate standard which is provided to rent (or on a shared ownership basis) at below market cost for households in need by Local Authorities or Registered Social Landlords operating on a basis of accepted and regulated standards of good practice in relation to physical conditions, management, allocation, equal opportunities and accountability to tenants and other stakeholders".

"Affordable housing is housing of an adequate standard which is cheaper than that which is generally available in the local housing market. This can comprise a combination of subsidised rented housing, subsidised low cost home ownership including shared ownership, and in some market situations cheap housing for sale. Local planning policies can provide for the provision of appropriate quantities of affordable housing in this sense".