English Housing Survey, 2020 to 2021: feeling safe from fire
Published 7 July 2022
Applies to England
© Crown copyright 2022
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/english-housing-survey-2020-to-2021-feeling-safe-from-fire/english-housing-survey-2020-to-2021-feeling-safe-from-fire
In this release
In 2020-21, DLUHC’s English Housing Survey collected data on whether people felt safe from fire in their homes. We found that:
- Most people feel safe in their home and do not fear that a fire will break out.
- Only a small proportion of respondents (5%) felt unsafe and feared that a fire would break out.
- Renters were more likely to feel unsafe at home (8% for both private and social renters) than owner occupiers (4%).
- Those who live in low (10%) and high (26%) rise flats were more likely than those who live in other dwelling types (e.g., houses) to feel unsafe in their homes.
- Those from an ethnic minority background were more concerned than those from a White background (13% compared to 5%).
- It is likely that all these findings are related. For example, those from an ethnic minority background are more likely to be renters and renters are more likely to live in flats.
Release date: 7 July 2022
Date of next release: July 2023
Contact: ehs@levellingup.gov.uk
Media enquiries: 0303 444 1209 NewsDesk@levellingup.gov.uk
Introduction
This release provides information on whether people feel safe from fire in their homes, and whether this varies by tenure, dwelling type, age and ethnicity. Data was collected between April 2020 and March 2021 as part of the English Housing Survey (EHS). The 2020-21 EHS data was collected during the COVID-19 pandemic which affected the way the survey was run. For example, face-to-face interviews were replaced with telephone interviews. Typically changes such as this would be thoroughly tested to examine the impact on response rates, data collection and reporting. As this was not possible, it is not clear to what extent changes in the 2020-21 data are the result in the change of mode (how the survey was carried out) or real change (such as change of opinion over time). Further details on the impact of COVID-19 on the EHS can be found in the Technical Note published alongside this release.
The EHS is a national survey of people’s housing circumstances and the condition and energy efficiency of housing in England. It is one of the longest standing government surveys and was first run in 1967.
This release provides findings from the 2020-21 survey, where respondents were asked whether they agreed or disagreed with the following statement: ‘I do not feel safe at home because I fear that a fire may break out’. Those who strongly agree or tend to agree with the statement are considered to feel unsafe in their home. This was the second time this question had been included in the EHS, following its introduction in 2019-20.
Feeling safe from fire
Most people feel safe in their home and do not fear that a fire will break out. In 2020-21, 87% of households said they felt safe from fire in their home and 8% said that they neither agreed nor disagreed that they felt safe at home. However, 5% of households said they felt unsafe in their home because they fear that a fire may break out. This is unchanged from 2019-20 when the question was first asked in the English Housing Survey.
Tenure
Renters were more likely to (strongly or tend to) agree that they did not feel safe at home because they fear that a fire may break out than owner occupiers. In 2020-21, 8% of social renters and 8% of private renters agreed with the statement, compared to 4% of owner occupiers. This is unchanged from 2019-20.
Table 1: Agreement with statement ‘I do not feel safe at home because I fear that a fire may break out’, by tenure, 2020-21
| Strongly agree | Tend to agree | All who agree | Neither agree nor disagree | Tend to disagree | Strongly disagree | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Owner occupiers | 0.8% | 3.3% | 4.1% | 7.8% | 19.1% | 69.1% |
| Social renters | 1.1% | 6.9% | 8.1% | 9.2% | 26.3% | 56.5% |
| Private renters | u | 7.8% | 8.3% | 7.4% | 23.0% | 61.4% |
| Total | 0.8% | 4.7% | 5.5% | 7.9% | 21.0% | 65.6% |
Notes:
1) u indicates sample size too small for reliable estimate
2) see data tables published alongside this release for further details on sample sizes
Source: English Housing Survey, half household sample
Dwelling type
Respondents living in flats were more likely than respondents in houses and bungalows to feel unsafe in their homes due to fear of a fire breaking out. In 2020-21, 16% of those in flats felt unsafe, compared to 4% of those in houses and bungalows. Respondents living in high rise purpose-built flats reported the highest proportion of feeling unsafe at 26%, compared to 10% of those in low rise purpose-built flats. Figures for other types of dwellings were much lower. For example, 2% of those in detached houses and 5% of those in bungalows (strongly or tended to) agree that they did not feel safe at home because they feared a fire breaking out.
Table 2: Agreement with statement ‘I do not feel safe at home because I fear that a fire may break out’, by dwelling type, 2020-21
| Strongly agree | Tend to agree | All who agree | Neither agree nor disagree | Tend to disagree | Strongly disagree | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small terraced house | 0% | 7.0% | 7.0% | 7.6% | 23.5% | 61.8% |
| Medium/large terraced house | u | 4.9% | 5.2% | 7.8% | 19.8% | 67.3% |
| Semi-detached house | u | 1.4% | 2.3% | 6.2% | 21.8% | 69.7% |
| Detached house | u | 1.7% | 2.0% | 7.7% | 15.9% | 74.4% |
| Bungalow | 0% | 4.9% | 4.9% | 8.6% | 21.7% | 64.8% |
| Converted flat | u | 10.4% | 13.0% | 5.9% | 30.6% | 50.5% |
| Purpose built flat, low rise | u | 9.2% | 10.2% | 8.3% | 27.1% | 54.4% |
| Purpose built flat, high rise | u | 18.4% | 25.6% | 9.9% | 22.1% | 42.4% |
Notes:
1) u indicates sample size too small for reliable estimate
2) see data tables published alongside this release for further details on sample sizes
3)a cell count of ‘0’ or ‘0%’ means that there were no cases in the sample: these scenarios, although less prevalent, may exist in households in England.
4)counts for dwelling type are lower than for other variables as the figures only include households where a physical survey was carried out
Source: English Housing Survey, half household sample
Age
In 2020-21, there were no statistically significant differences in the proportion of respondents who felt unsafe because they feared a fire breaking out by age, aside from a difference between those aged 35-44 (7%) and those aged 65 and over (3%). This is a different pattern than observed in 2019-20, and is likely due to the smaller sample in 2020-21 (see technical note ).
Table 3: Agreement with statement ‘I do not feel safe at home because I fear that a fire may break out’, by age, 2020-21
| Strongly agree | Tend to agree | All who agree | Neither agree nor disagree | Tend to disagree | Strongly disagree | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16-24 | 0.0% | 13.7% | 13.7% | 11.6% | 16.8% | 57.8% |
| 25-34 | 1.5% | 5.7% | 7.2% | 7.6% | 21.8% | 63.4% |
| 35-44 | u | 6.4% | 7.2% | 5.6% | 26.0% | 61.2% |
| 45-54 | u | 4.9% | 5.6% | 7.8% | 17.8% | 68.8% |
| 55-64 | u | 3.2% | 5.6% | 10.4% | 16.6% | 68.8% |
| 65+ | 0.4% | 2.9% | 3.3% | 7.6% | 22.9% | 66.2% |
Notes:
1) u indicates sample size too small for reliable estimate
2) see data tables published alongside this release for further details on sample sizes
3) a cell count of ‘0’ or ‘0%’ means that there were no cases in the sample: these scenarios, although less prevalent, may exist in households in England
Source: English Housing Survey, half household sample
Ethnicity
Those from an ethnic minority background were more likely than those from a White background to report feeling unsafe at home due to fear that a fire might break out (5% of White HRPs compared to 13% of ethnic minority HRPs). This is unchanged from 2019-20 and is likely due to the fact that those from an ethnic minority background are more likely to live in flats.
Table 4: Agreement with statement ‘I do not feel safe at home because I fear that a fire may break out’, by ethnicity, 2020-21
| Strongly agree | Tend to agree | All who agree | Neither agree nor disagree | Tend to disagree | Strongly disagree | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| White | 0.7% | 4.0% | 4.7% | 8.3% | 21.2% | 65.8% |
| Ethnic minority | u | 10.8% | 12.9% | 4.7% | 19.0% | 63.4% |
Notes:
1) u indicates sample size too small for reliable estimate
2) see data tables published alongside this release for further details on sample sizes
Source: English Housing Survey, half household sample