National Housing Federation report highlights scale of overcrowding in social housing

The National Housing Federation (NHF) has revealed that more than 310,000 children in England are forced to share beds with other family members, due to severe overcrowding, which it argues is caused by a “critical shortage of affordable homes”.

The NHF is calling for a long term, national plan for meeting housing need, with the aim of driving a “drastic increase” in the number of affordable homes over the next decade.

The report published this week (19 April) found that one in every six children are being “forced to live in cramped conditions with no personal space because their family cannot access a suitable and affordable home”.

A quarter of parents in overcrowded homes are regularly forced to sleep in a living room, bathroom, hallway or kitchen because of the lack of space, the report revealed.

The NHF said the findings also demonstrate “grave structural inequalities in our society”, with households from ethnic minority backgrounds three times more likely to be affected by overcrowding than white households.

Taking into account the Bedroom Standard in the Housing (Overcrowding) Bill, families are considered to be overcrowded if more than two children under the age of 10 are sharing a room, two teenagers of different sexes are sharing a room, or two adults (aged 16 years or over), who are not in a relationship, are sharing a room.

The NHF report includes polling carried out by market research company Savanta which, it notes, “reveals the detrimental impact that living in overcrowded conditions has on the health, wellbeing and daily lives of those affected”.

The polling revealed:

• In just under half (41%) of overcrowded homes, children or teenagers are sharing a bedroom with their parents. This could affect more than 300,000 families and half a million children, including 142,000 teenagers.
• Parents in more than half (53%) of overcrowded homes worry that their children are too embarrassed to bring friends home. This could affect more than one million children.
• In almost half (48%) of overcrowded homes, children struggle to do their homework because of the lack of space. This could affect 900,000 children.
• Over two thirds (70%) of overcrowded families say they have experienced both poor mental and poor physical health as a direct result of overcrowding. This could affect over half a million families.

Kate Henderson, Chief Executive at the National Housing Federation, said: “Our homes are meant to be places of comfort, safety and security. For children growing up in overcrowded homes they instead become chaotic and stressful environments with little personal space or privacy. This can have a devastating impact on a child’s self-esteem, wellbeing, and future life changes, as well as affecting family relationships and making it harder for parents to nurture their child’s growth.

“Every child deserves the right to have a home that is suitable for their needs and allows them to grow as individuals. Overcrowding is a direct result of our broken housing system, caused by underfunding by successive governments and a failure to prioritise building new homes for people on low incomes. As a country, we are failing these families and these children and this must stop. We need an urgent, long term, national plan aimed at drastically increasing the number of affordable and social homes across England.”

The report revealed that families already living in social housing are the most likely to be overcrowded, as there are no larger social homes available for them to move to and they cannot afford any other type of home.

The NHF said: “They make up around half (48%) of all overcrowded families. Families on low incomes who cannot access a social home are forced to rent privately, where rents can be more than double that of social housing, meaning many cannot afford a suitable sized home. A third (33%) of overcrowded families live in private rented homes.”

There are now 4.2 million people in need of social housing in England, including those in overcrowded, unaffordable and unsuitable homes, and homeless people.

Research by the NHF and Crisis shows that 90,000 homes for social rent need to be built in England each year “to meet existing demand and house all those in need”.

A spokesperson for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said: “It’s unacceptable for anyone to be living in an overcrowded home and councils have a duty to find people living in these conditions somewhere fit for purpose.

“To ease pressures, we are increasing the supply of affordable housing. Our £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme will deliver thousands of affordable homes for both rent and to buy right across the country.”

Lottie Winson