The annual survey of nearly 20,000 households was carried out for the ODPM by the National Centre for Social Research and included new questions on energy efficiency, car ownership and access to amenities, disability and gardening for wildlife.

It is estimated that 152 thousand English households had a second home in England in 2001/02 (excluding those held solely as an investment) with a similar number of second homes outside Great Britain, 147 thousand. While the number of households with second homes in England has remained comparatively stable in recent years the number with second homes outside Great Britain has been increasing steadily. The most common reasons given for having a second home were as a holiday home or retirement cottage (60 per cent), or working away from home (17 per cent).

In 2001/2, there were 1.2 million recent first-time buyers (those who had acquired their accommodation since 1998) representing 9 per cent of all owners in England. Most were aged under 35, but in the case of former Council-Housing Association sitting tenants, the majority was aged 35 or more.

Other key findings of the survey include:

The number of households in England rose from 17.2m in 1981 to 20.3m in 2001/2. This increase, which exceeded the modest growth in population, reflects the tendency for the average household size to decline.

Home ownership, which had increased substantially during the 1980's, grew more slowly during the 1990's, from 68% of all households in 1991 to 70% (14.3m) in 2001/2. Most of this growth was in households owning outright as mortgages taken out in earlier decades were paid off.

The number of households renting from councils fell from 5.1m (30%of all households) in 1981 to 2.8m (14%) in 2001/2, reflecting both "Right to buy" purchases by tenants and direct transfer of Council dwellings to Registered Social Landlords (mainly Housing Associations).

The proportion of privately renting households was 8.6% (1.6m) in 1989 and at 9.7% (2m) in 2001/2. Most of this increase took place in the early 1990's, largely in response to the changes introduced by the 1988 Housing Act.

Access to a local hospital was seen as more difficult than access to other local services (22 per cent found this "very fairly difficult" and 9 per cent "very difficult"). Those with the use of a car generally had few problems accessing local services. However 20 per cent still found access to a local hospital fairly difficult, and 6 per cent very difficult.

In 2001/2, 85% of households had a garden, and 66% of this figure encouraged wildlife by feeding the birds.