Indicator 11.1.1 Proportion of urban population living in slums, informal settlements or inadequate housing

Percentage of dwellings or households failing the decent homes standard

Although the 'Decent Homes Standard' does not directly address all 7 of the criteria set out in the UN metadata for the definition of 'Inadequate Housing', it provides detailed information regarding the 'habitability' aspect of the criteria. As a result is classified as a proxy.

England

Percentage (%)

Decent homes standard - For a dwelling to be considered ‘decent’ under the Decent Homes Standard it must - meet the statutory minimum standard for housing as set out in the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS), provide a reasonable degree of thermal comfort (related to insulation and heating efficiency), be in a reasonable state of repair (related to the age and condition of a range of building components including walls, roofs, windows, doors, chimneys, electrics and heating systems) and have reasonably modern facilities and services (related to the age, size and layout/location of the kitchen, bathroom and WC and any common areas for blocks of flats, and to noise insulation).

Dwelling - A unit of accommodation which may comprise one or more household spaces (a household space is the accomodation used or available for use by an individual household). A dwelling can be classified as shared or unshared.

Household - One person or a group of people (not necessarily related) who have the accomodation as their only or main residence, and (for a group) share cooking facilities and share a living room or sitting room or dining area. For the full definitions of Dwellings and Households please see the English Housing Survey headline report.

Disability Status (household) - The (GSS) harmonised "core" definition identifies a person as disabled if they have a physical or mental health condition or illness that has lasted or is expected to last 12 months or more. It must reduce their ability to carry-out day-to-day activities. It is important to note that a person who has a long-term illness that does not reduce their ability to carry-out day-to-day activities is not disabled under the definition. The GSS harmonised questions are asked of the respondent in the survey, meaning that disability status is self-reported. The GSS definition is designed to reflect the definitions that appear in legal terms in the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA) for Northern Ireland and the 2010 Equality Act for Great Britain. In this case a disabled household includes those that report any household member having a long-term illness or disability.

All breakdowns are available for each level of Decent homes criteria

Geography - Select dwellings for geography breakdowns. From 2020 data are given by Region. Prior to 2020, geography is for sub-national area (a less detailed breakdown). Urbanisation is shown for all years, and in the source datais also available aggregated to 'all city and urban centre', 'suburban residential' and 'all rural areas'.

Age - Data are shown for the oldest and youngest member of the household, and as part of 'Household composition'.

Deprivation decile - The Index of Multiple Deprivation is used. This is the official measure of relative deprivation in England. People may be considered to be living in poverty if they lack the financial resources to meet their needs, whereas people can be regarded as deprived if they lack any kind of resources, not just income.

Disability status - The GSS harmonised measure is used (see definitions and other information). A disabled household includes those that report any household member having a long-term illness or disability

Ethnicity - Ethnicity is given for the household reference person (usually the person responsible for paying the rent or mortgage). There may be people of different ethnicities in the same household.

Income quintile - Relative combined income and savings of the household reference person and any partner.

Length of residence

Poverty status - A household in poverty is defined as a household with income below 60% of the equivalised median household income (calculated before any housing costs are deducted). Income equivalisation is the adjustment of income to take into account the varied cost of living according to the size and type of household.

Workless households - Households are considered workless where no household member over the age of 16 is in work. The sample for workless households excludes cases where no-one in the household is of working age.

No calculations were performed on the source data.

Dwellings failing the minimum standard are those posing a Category 1 hazard under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS). From 2008 the survey is able to estimate the presence of 26 of the 29 HHSRS hazards. However to maintain consistency and avoid a break in the time series from 2006, Decent Homes estimates continue to be based on 15 hazards for the 'minimum standard' criterion. Estimates based on the 26 hazards covered by the survey are available in the HHSRS tables (DA4101-3). For more information see A Decent Home -Definition and guidance for implementation.

The Washington Group on Disability Statistics are often used to provide a cross-nationally comparable population-based measures of disability. Please see the article Measuring disability - comparing approaches for a comparison between the GSS Harmonised measure (used here) and the Washington Group measure.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, English Housing Survey (EHS) surveyors were unable to conduct a full internal inspection of properties in 2020 and the dwelling sample contains occupied properties only. Consequently, 2020 data has been modelled differently to the EHS 2019. See the English Housing Survey 2020 to 2021 for more details.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, English Housing Survey (EHS) surveyors were unable to conduct a full internal inspection of properties in 2021 and an 'external plus' approach was used. See the Chapter 8 of the English Housing Survey 2021 to 2022 Technical Report for more details.

Data are rounded to 1 decimal place, but data to more decimal places are available from the source. Figures may differ from the source by up to 0.1 due to differences in rounding.

This indicator is being used as an approximation of the UN SDG Indicator. Where possible, we will work to identify or develop UK data to meet the global indicator specification. This indicator has been identified in collaboration with topic experts.