Substantial improvement has been made in the overall condition of the housing stock in England since 1996, according to the 2001 English House Condition Survey published by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister today.

However, the survey also highlights environmental problems experienced by a large number of households with some:

• 2.5 million dwellings affected by heavy traffic and parking.
• 1 million affected by poorly maintained/neglected buildings, private gardens and public spaces.
• 0.5 million affected by vandalism, graffiti and other forms of anti-social behaviour.
• About 2.4 million dwellings are situated in 'poor neighbourhoods' where there are relative concentrations of housing or environmental problems.

Housing Minister Keith Hill said the survey shows the number of non-decent homes in the social sector fell from 2.3 million to 1.6 million since 1996. In the private sector the proportion of vulnerable households in non-decent homes dropped from 58 per cent to 43 per cent, compared with an average of 32 per cent for the sector as a whole.

“This means a substantial improvement to the quality of life for many thousands of people. It means more people now have better homes that are in good repair and are warm and comfortable to live in.”

“The survey provides a solid baseline against which we can track progress towards delivering the Government's target of making all social sector homes decent by 2010 and progressively increase the proportion of private sector vulnerable households living in decent homes.”

Mr Hill said the Sustainable Communities Plan, launched by the Deputy Prime Minister last February, committed £22 billion to tackle poor housing and neighbourhoods and environmental problems.

“We have invested this money not only to reverse the effects of decades of neglect in our parks and public spaces, but to ensure the designs for our new communities feature clean, safe attractive spaces for all to enjoy.”

“Delivery of the Plan is well underway. If we had continued at the rate of improvement shown by this survey we would have not met the 2010 target. This is why we carried out the PSA Plus Review to create the step change in delivery and we are now back on track to deliver by 2010.”

“Since April 2001 councils estimate they have reduced non-decent homes by 200,000. Agreed stock transfer schemes, Arms Length Management Organisations and Private Finance schemes will tackle a further 180,000 homes and over a further 250,000 homes are in the pipeline.”

The Minister said that all available evidence suggested the Government meeting the 2004 milestone of reducing the number of non-decent homes by one third.