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Condition of the Dwelling Stock in Lancashire

April 2008

Introduction

Information on the size of the dwelling stock and its condition in each local authority area is collected by the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) from the annual Housing Investment Programme "Housing Strategy Statistical Appendix" and the Housing Revenue Account Business Plan Statistical Appendix. The full dataset has dwelling stock numbers for 354 local authorities in England as at 1st April 2006, and covers 22,085,741dwellings. Unfortunately, for 17 of the authorities (including Chorley) there were no figures for unfit dwellings.

Local authorities use the results as the basis for action against unfit houses, to guide decisions on the declaration of renewal areas and for other purposes including the assessment of the condition of the housing stock.

The numbers have been obtained from the (External) Neighbourhood section of the (External) Office for National Statistics website . Selected details for the Lancashire authorities have been used in this article whilst the complete results for Lancashire authorities, including a back series of figures to 2001, have been placed in the Data Download Centre .

The Current Statutory Minimum Standard for Housing

Dwellings are deemed unfit if they fail to meet one or more of the following fitness criteria:

• It is structurally stable
• It is free from serious disrepair
• It is free from dampness prejudicial to the health of the occupants
• It has adequate lighting, heating and ventilation
• It has an adequate supply of wholesome water
• It has satisfactory facilities for the preparation and cooking of food, including a sink with a satisfactory supply of hot and cold water
• It has a suitably located water-closet for occupants' exclusive use
• It has a suitably located fixed bath or shower and hand-wash basin each of which is provided with a satisfactory supply of hot and cold water for the exclusive use of the occupants
• It has an effective system for draining foul waste/surface water

Lancashire Results

In 2006 there were an estimated 47,015 dwellings in the Lancashire NUTS-2 area sub-region (excluding Chorley) deemed to be statutorily unfit for habitation. At the local authority level, Blackburn with Darwen recorded the largest number of unfit dwellings (10,124), which represented 17.2% of the dwelling stock. In numeric terms, the number of unfit dwellings is far higher than any other Lancashire authority, but in percentage terms Pendle (16.6%) and Hyndburn (15.9%) recorded similar high rates.

In comparison to the England average of 4.2% of dwellings classified as unfit, only South Ribble (3.6%) and West Lancashire (3.0%) recorded rates in Lancashire that were lower the national average.

Photograph of Nelson in Pendle

Comparisons with Other Local Authority Areas

The Role of Elevate in East Lancashire

To address the problem of sub-standard housing in East Lancashire and in other parts of the country, the government set up nine housing market renewal pathfinders charged with finding innovative solutions to the problem of low demand, negative equity, and housing market collapse. (External) Elevate East Lancashire is one of the nine pathfinders and covers the 5 authorities of Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Hyndburn, Pendle and Rossendale. Elevate has an ambitious programme to revitalise failing neighbourhoods and for more information please visit

In order to offer some appreciation of the scale of the problem of unfit dwellings in parts of Lancashire, percentage rates are ranked in Table 2 alongside other local housing authorities in England with high percentage rates. The table dramatically emphasises the poor position of much of East Lancashire with local districts occupying the top three places in the national ranking. Blackburn with Darwen is in top spot with Pendle and Hyndburn close behind.

Rossendale, Burnley and Blackpool are also ranked in the top 50, whilst Preston and Fylde are included in the top 100.

Energy Efficiency

Photograph of demoloition work in the Bank Top area of Blackburn

The 2006 data set contains figures for calculating an energy rating using the government's Standard Assessment Procedure. It represents a measure of the overall energy efficiency of dwellings and is independent of both heat loss from the dwelling and the performance of the heating system. It ranges from 1 (highly inefficient) to 120 (highly efficient).

A total of 23 authorities had no recorded figures (including Blackpool), and a further two had results that were so at variance with the other 329 data sets that they have been discounted. Table 3 reveals that Preston, with a score of 59, is considered on average, to have the most energy efficient housing in Lancashire whilst Hyndburn, with a figure of 44, recorded the lowest figure in Lancashire and one of the lowest figures in England.

It is difficult from the data set to derive underlying reasons why particular areas recorded high or low figures. The affluence of an area or the type of housing stock do not appear to be factors that lead to identifiable variations between authorities. In Lancashire, Burnley and Ribble Valley recorded the same figures (51) yet from the points of view of overall wealth, housing type and price, the two authorities have little in common.

This page was compiled by Bryan Moulding .

All enquiries from the media should be sent to Corporate.Communications@lancashire.gov.uk .

Any other questions about the content of this page may be sent to EconInfo@lancashire.gov.uk .

For all enquiries about the county council's services , contact the Customer Service Centre on 0845 0530000 (01772 530000) or at Enquiries@css.lancscc.gov.uk .

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