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UK households renters more than doubled since 2001

The scale of the rise of “generation rent” has been laid bare by the 2021 census, revealing that the number of households renting has more than doubled in the last two decades in England and Wales as homeownership rates fell.

In England and Wales, 5m households are privately renting – equivalent to one in five – up from 3.9m in 2011 and 1.9m in 2001. Nine hundred thousand more households call a flat, maisonette or apartment home than a decade ago – the fastest-growing type of home. More than half of households in London rent.

Amid concerns over the health risks caused by cold and rising energy bills, the figures also showed 367,000 households had no central heating – which the Office for National Statistics has estimated affects close to 700,000 people. After the Isles of Scilly, where one in six households have no central heating, Westminster was the next worst, with one in 25 lacking a system.

Despite repeated pledges from Conservative-led governments to boost home ownership, it fell slightly, with 62.5% of households owning their accommodation, down from 64.3% in 2011 – equivalent to half a million fewer home-owning households. The latest housebuilding rates are well below targets set by the government to build 300,000 homes a year. In the last year, 140,000 private homes were completed in England, 31,000 by housing associations and just 1,300 by councils.

The newly released census results, focusing on housing, also revealed the rise of the multi-car family, with 2.3m households owning three or more cars or vans, up from 1.7m a decade ago. Just 233,000 households used any renewable energy sources for central heating – with one hotspot in Ceredigion, west Wales. Ninety-nine thousand households were revealed to only use renewable energy sources, just under one in every 200.

The figures reveal in stark detail the scale of the shift in how people own their homes in England and Wales. The 2010s began with twice as many mortgage holders as private renters. Ten years later, the gap has narrowed dramatically, with just 50% more mortgage holders than private renters, a trend likely to increase in an era of higher interest rates.

There was also an increase of 900,000 in the number of households that own their homes outright – without any mortgage debt or loans – to 8.1m.

The homeownership hotspots were Monmouthshire in Wales and areas such as the New Forest and Wealden in southern England. London had the lowest levels of home ownership.

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