Saturday, 15 September 2012

UK households

Just for completeness, I have compressed the figures from here into a simpler table.

My latest blogpost: UK householdsTweet this! Posted by Mark Wadsworth at 10:59

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11 comments:

Bayard said...

What's a "non-dependent child" when it's at home?

15 September 2012 at 11:05
Mark Wadsworth said...

B, it means a child over 18, or a 'boomerang' child.

15 September 2012 at 11:10
Kj said...

almost a third is pensioners. downsizing could really free up some room.

15 September 2012 at 12:04
Bayard said...

What's the difference, then, between an "non-dependent child" and an adult? For example how is a household that consists of a mother and daughter (mother 40, daughter 20, say), different from two unrelated women of the same ages lodging together?

15 September 2012 at 12:06
Mark Wadsworth said...

Kj, that's fighting talk! From here:

"According to oigures based on the English Housing Survey, England's households held over 25 million surplus bedrooms in 2009/10.

The government has a measure of overcrowding called the ‘bedroom standard’ : this is a method of calculating housing need for single people, couples and families with children.

The definition of ‘under­‐occupied’ usually means that households have at least two bedrooms more than they require. Even according to this, more generous, measure there were over 18 million surplus bedrooms in ‘under­‐occupied’ houses in 2009/10."

B, agreed, I could have just lumped those in with "two adults, no children", that might be even better.

15 September 2012 at 12:11
Mark Wadsworth said...

Kj, in other words, 18 million bedrooms is equivalent to 6 million extra houses, i.e. nearly a quarter of UK housing stock, or enough for population growth for the next fifty years at least.

I wonder if there's some sort of tax we could introduce to encourage more efficient use of existing land and buildings?

15 September 2012 at 12:13
Bayard said...

"or enough for population growth for the next fifty years at least."

Not really, you haven't taken the "over-occupied" houses into account, all thouse couples with two children in a two-bedroom flat and the like.

15 September 2012 at 13:10
Mark Wadsworth said...

B, you can look up how many bedrooms there are, let's call it 27 million homes x 3 = 81 million.

There are (say) 14 million couple households, so they need 14 million bedrooms for 28 million people. The population is 62 million, so that leaves 34 million people who need one bedroom each, total bedrooms required 44 million.

So assuming each couple gets one bedroom pr couple and everybody else (whether child, adult or pensioner) needs one bedroom each, nearly half of bedrooms are spare, or at least, not being used as bedrooms (I'm typing this from a spare bedroom-cum-office.

Sp let's give each of 26 million households a spare bedroom (for study, guests, hobby, whatever) and we still have 9 million surplus bedrooms, which is the equivalent of 3 million new homes.

It strikes me, as a nation, we are better off using existing stuff more efficiently than building ever more surplus stuff.

15 September 2012 at 13:22
Bayard said...

"(for study, guests, hobby, whatever)"

or boomerang child.

"we are better off using existing stuff more efficiently than building ever more surplus stuff."

I remember my mother railing against this in the 80s, saying why did developers insist on building 3 and 4 bed detached houses with double garages when there was such a demand from single people or childless couples for somewhere to live. Needless to say, most of the 3 and 4 bedders built round us were bought by retired couples moving to the countryside.

15 September 2012 at 17:52
Mark Wadsworth said...

B, the mentality flipped over in the 1990s, "people" started saying that there aren't enough flats and so on, the government had targets for building more flats and hardly any houses, so now we've go the opposite problem in many cities.

To a large degree, we have enough of everything, people can bend and adjust, so if there are too many houses and not enough flats, kids leave home a bit later or their rent a house with friends instead of a flat for themselves. If there are too many flats, kids leave home a bit earlier but then put off having a family etc.

It'll never be perfect, but it's the sort of thing which LVT-man will sort out.

15 September 2012 at 18:30
Kj said...

That aussie film, Realestate4ransom, also points to the intentional manufacturing of a sense of scarcity of flats.

15 September 2012 at 19:15

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