English Housing Survey

You can read the latest reports for 2023-24 and reports going back to 2009 on the GOV.UK website. The English Housing Survey (EHS) is commissioned by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

The EHS is carried out by the National Centre for Social Research, working with Building Research Establishment and CA Design Services.

About the study

The English Housing Survey (EHS) is a national survey of people’s housing circumstances and the condition and energy efficiency of housing in England. It is one of the longest standing government surveys and was first run in 1967. Initial findings from the English Housing Survey 2023 to 2024 on the profile of household and dwellings, household demographics, housing costs and affordability, household moves, and wellbeing.

Key findings from the latest reports

• Owner occupation remained the largest tenure group in England at 65% of households, with the social rented sector (16%) being the smallest, and the private rented sector remaining a similar proportion (19%) since 2013-14. 
• In 2023, there were 1.2 million vacant dwellings, making up 5% of dwellings in England. 
  The proportion of households with savings remained higher than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic. Outright owners were most likely to have savings (85%), compared to those buying with a mortgage (71%), private renters (52%) and social renters (28%). 
• This past year, households reported higher mortgage and rental costs, compared to five years ago (2018-19). The average weekly mortgage payments across England increased significantly (by £71 for London and £47 for the rest of England) and the average weekly rents increased by £36 for private renters and £16 for social renters. 
• In 2023-24 private renters and mortgagors saw the biggest increase in those reporting difficulty affording their housing costs compared to last year (2022-23), with private renters the most likely across all tenures to be struggling (32%), followed by social renters (27%) and mortgagors the least (14%).
• In 2023-24 a higher proportion of households contained someone with a long term illness or disability – more than a third of households (37%) up from 34% in in the pre-pandemic period (2019-20). 
• Owner occupiers had higher scores for life satisfaction, thinking life is worthwhile, happiness, and lower scores for anxiety, than other tenures. Owner occupiers were also less likely to report feeling often or always lonely than in other tenures.

Methodology

The EHS is a large-scale complex survey with two stages: an interview in all selected homes and a visual inspection by a qualified surveyor of a subsample of homes. The EHS is conducted throughout the year across England. The sample is scientifically chosen to represent the wider English population. The EHS is currently carried out by a consortium of the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen), Building Research Establishment (BRE) and CA Design Services (CADS).