English Housing Survey Home adaptations report, 2019-20

The English Housing Survey (EHS) is a national survey of people’s housing circumstances and the condition and energy efficiency of housing in England, and is one of the longest-standing government surveys. The most recent survey was for 2019-20, a year impacted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

This report investigates the circumstances of households that has a person/s with long-standing physical or mental health condition that required them to need adaptations to their home and examines whether these households had the adaptations they required and whether their home was suitable for their needs.

It then describes the types of adaptations needed inside and outside the home, looks at those households that did not have the adaptations they needed and explores the characteristics of households that wanted to move to more suitable accommodation.

The main findings outlined in the report, include:

• Around 1.9 million households in England had one or more people with a health condition that required adaptations to their home
• Most households that required adaptations felt their home was suitable for their needs
• Younger people were more likely than older people to report that their accommodation was unsuitable for their needs and were more likely to want to move to more suitable accommodation.
• Owner occupiers who required adaptations were less likely to say that their home was unsuitable for their needs.
• The most common adaptation needed inside the home was hand or grab rails in the kitchen or bathroom.
• he number of households that reported that they did not have all the adaptations that they needed has increased.
• Middle income households were most likely to not have all the adaptations they needed.