The gap between the private rented sector and the social sector is opening up.
In 2012/2013, according to the English Housing Survey, which was published yesterday, 65% of the 22m households in England were owner occupied, 18% were privately rented and 17% socially rented.
Altogether, says the survey, there were 4m private rental households, compared with 3.7m in the social sector.
However, private tenants are far less satisfied with their tenure than home owners and social tenants.
Overall, 93% of owner occupiers are satisfied with their choice of tenure, as are 82% of social tenants. But only 52% of private tenants agreed that their current tenure was a good way of occupying a home.
That said, private tenants were generally happy with their accommodation – 84%, compared with 95% of owner occupiers and 81% of social tenants.
The report finds that both private and social tenants pay more for their housing than people with mortgages.
On average, owner occupiers buying with a mortgage spend 20% of their income on servicing their loan. Private tenants spend 40% of their income on rent, and social tenants spend 30%.
The percentages of income were so much higher among tenants because their earnings were proportionately less.
In 2012/2013, those who had taken out a mortgage within the previous five years paid an average of £187 per week. The average private tenant paid weekly rent of £163 – up £10, or 7%, in five years.
The report is also interesting on the sheer scale of movement within the private rented sector.
It says that in 2012/2013, 10% of all households moved home within the previous 12 months.
However, that broke down into 34% of private tenants, 10% of social tenants and just 4% of owner occupiers.
Two-thirds (64%) of all new households – defined as households that had not existed a year earlier – moved into the private rented sector during 2012/2013.
However, only 34% of owner occupiers buying with a mortgage had moved from privately renting in the previous year – suggesting that almost double the number of people moved into the sector than left it.
Only 7% of private rented households who had moved in the previous three years had been asked to leave by their landlord or agent. Four-fifths (81%) of private tenants said their tenancy had ended simply because they wanted to move.
The full 100-page report is here:
Only 7% of private rented households who had moved in the previous three years had been asked to leave by their landlord or agent. Four-fifths (81%) of private tenants said their tenancy had ended simply because they wanted to move.
That is a slap in the face for Shelter and Generation Rent who persistently (and wrongly) tell us tenants "live in fear" of being given notice!
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