The latest English Housing Survey report on the private rental sector gives the lie to the perception that most tenants are unhappy.

The results were published by the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities just before the weekend, and show that:

– The private rental sector now consists of 4.4m households – 19 per cent of all households in England; 

– Four fifths (80 per cent) of private renters are satisfied with their current accommodation – in contrast only 75 per cent of social housing renters are satisfied;

– 63 per cent of private renters are ‘satisfied with their tenure’ – the social housing figure is 79 per cent;

– Some 17 per cent of private tenants have considered masking a complaint to their landlord or letting agency and over three quarters of those actually did make such a complaint;

– In 2020 (the year of the survey) 23 per cent of occupied homes in the private rented sector did not meet the Decent Homes Standard. This is higher than the proportion of owner occupied (14 per cent) and social rented homes (11 per cent);

– The private rented sector also has the greatest proportion of homes built before 1919, and 32 per cent of homes built before 1919 are non-decent;

– The average cost to make a home decent is £7,720, though this varies by tenure, dwelling age and dwelling type;

– There is a strong relationship between energy efficiency and housing quality, and most homes (of all tenures) with poor energy efficiency do not meet the Decent Homes Standard;

– In 2020, 96 per cent per cent of homes with an energy efficiency rating of band F or G failed the Decent Homes Standard, as did 38 per cent of homes in EER band E. In contrast, only seven per cent of homes with an EER band C and 15 per cent in EER band D were non-decent.