Ministers are facing demands for urgent action to ensure the nation has homes fit to live in, after shock figures showed that almost a quarter of private rented properties – almost 1 million houses and flats – failed to meet basic standards of decency.
The English Housing Survey found that 14 per cent of homes – a total of 3.4 million – fell short of standards on cold, damp, disrepair, noise or lack of basic amenities. These included 2 million owner-occupied homes (13 per cent) and 380,000 social rentals (10 per cent).
