Housing
Half of older people households own their home
House tenure by age of the household reference person, Great Britain, 2007
The majority of older people households (where the household reference person was someone aged 50 and over) in Great Britain were owner-occupied in 2007. More than half of the older people households owned their homes outright and just under a quarter were buying their home with a mortgage. But the percentage of owner-occupied households decreases with age from 79 per cent for those aged 50-64, to 63 per cent for those aged 85 and over.
A fifth of older people households rented from the social sector, only one in 20 rented privately. The percentage of older people households that were in social rented accommodation increased with age. Among those households where the household reference person was aged 50 to 64, 16 per cent were social renters. This percentage increased to 22 per cent for those aged 65 to 84 and to 32 per cent for those aged 85 and over.
Partnership status affects older peoples' housing tenure. Where the household reference person was aged 50 and over, widowed were most likely to live in homes owned outright (63 per cent), followed by couples, including same sex couples, civil partners, married or cohabiting couples (58 per cent). About a third of the single, separated, divorced or formerly civil partnered older households were living in social rented accommodation.
House adaptation by age of the household reference person, England, 2006
With the growth in the number of older people in the UK and with increasing numbers of them living in their own homes, their accommodation must be suitable for their needs. Two thirds of the oldest households (where the household reference person was aged 85 and over) had very or fairly easy access to a corner shop, a large supermarket, post office and to a doctor, compared with more than 90 per cent of households where the household reference person was aged 50 to 64. The most common house adaptations in older households were hand rails, bathroom modifications and alerting devices such as button alarms. The percentage of houses with adaptations increased with the age of the household. About 30 per cent of the households where a core member was aged 75 and over had access to hand rails, 26 per cent had bathroom modifications and 14 per cent had alerting devices installed. Source: General Household Survey, 2007, Office for National Statistics; Survey of English Housing, 2005/06, Department for Communities and Local Government; English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, Wave 3, 2005/06
Notes: From 2001-02, the concept of household reference person (HRP) was adopted on all government-sponsored surveys, in place of head of household.
The household reference person is the household member who owns the accommodation; or is legally responsible for the rent; or occupies the accommodation as reward of their employment, or through some relationship to its owner who is not a member of the household. If there are joint householders, the one with the highest income is the household reference person. If their income is the same, then the eldest one is the household reference person.
Household level analysis using the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) was based on responses from one of the core members of the household. Core members are people aged 50 and over who: i) lived in the household since the time the first sample was drawn or ii) entered the Study in 2006 through the 'refreshment sample'.
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