Inadequate heating for elderly - report

A quarter of elderly people living alone and 30 per cent of local authority tenants have no central heating, a new housing report found today.

The National Survey of Household Quality was commissioned by the Department of the Environment from the ESRI. It found that although central heating was present in 90 per cent of all homes, this percentage dropped sharply among people with lower incomes.

More than 25 per cent of people in the lowest income group have no central heating, according to the report.

Asked was he concerned about the lack of adequate home heating among these groups, the Minister for Housing and Urban Renewal, Mr Ahern, said "a lot was being done" through a series of essential repair grant aid schemes.

Mr Ahern said the Special Housing Aid for the Elderly Scheme provided the installation of 1,250 heating systems in the homes of elderly persons last year.

The survey examined the quality of housing on a national level by surveying more than 40,000 households between 2001 and 2002.

The criteria examined were the quality and size of the dwelling, its affordability and the satisfaction of the occupant with where they were living.

The rapid acceleration of house building means that 43 per cent of all housing has been constructed since 1980.  In Britain only 13 per cent of all homes have been built since that date while the figure for The Netherlands is 29 per cent.

One-off detached homes remain the predominant type with one third of all dwellings reportedly in this category.

Difficulties with affordability were prevalent among those in private rented accommodation where 25 per cent of tenants were spending over one-third of their income on rent. This ratio is the broad measure of affordability use by banks and building societies.

About one in ten of recent house purchasers spent more than one-third of their income on mortgage repayments.

One-third of local authority tenants found housing costs, including utility bills, a heavy burden, while one in five "had great difficulty making ends meet".

The majority of households either own their home outright or are paying off a mortgage. In 2002 45 per cent of homeowners owned their homes outright. Another 38 per cent were paying a mortgage.

A census study in 1991, 37 per cent owned their homes outright while 42 per cent were paying a mortgage.