El sentido político de la sociedad: justicia

The following section looks at the data for Nottingham in terms of number of homes; current tenure; property size; levels of overcrowding; conditions; and rent levels.

Previous accommodation

We asked people to indicate how many different homes they had lived in since they had been in Nottingham, including their current property. The number of properties people had lived in ranged from one to ten different properties (see Table 47).

Table 47: Number of homes No. % One 59 25 Two 72 31 Three 56 24 Four 25 11 Five 13 6 Six 4 2 Ten 1 <1 No response given 5 2 Total 235 100

There appeared to be no pattern between length of time people had lived in

Nottingham and the number of homes they had lived in. The majority of people (80%) had lived in one to three different homes since their arrival in Nottingham, with two homes being the most common response.

Current tenure

In line with previous research (see Chapter 3), the sample in Nottingham shows a dominance of the private rented sector (73%). With regards to the remaining respondents, 9% were currently living in socially rented accommodation, with the same percentage currently buying their own home (either alone or through a shared ownership scheme). Ten respondents (4%) were currently living in employer or agency provided accommodation, while six people (3%) did not have their own accommodation so were staying with family or friends.

Table 48 below outlines the current tenure of respondents. The latter two columns include data taken from the Census 2001 in relation to private renting, social renting and owner occupation levels for Nottingham but also England as a whole. The

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Census data reveals that Nottingham has a higher percentage of the population living in social and private rented accommodation.

Table 48: Current tenure

No. % Nottingham % (Census 2001) England % (Census 2001) Private rented 171 73 13.1 8.8

Socially rented (Council/HA) 22 9 33.4 19.3

Owner occupation 14 6 50 68.7

Employer/agency provided 10 4

Shared ownership 6 3

Staying with friends/family 6 3

Other 5 2

No response given 1 <1

Total 235 100

With regards to those who indicated they had some other form of accommodation, three referred to “room share”, but did not provide any additional information and one respondent indicated that they were staying in a “backpacker hostel”. The remaining respondent did not elaborate on where they were living. Interestingly, there was no discernible pattern between length of time in the UK and current tenure.

We asked those who were currently living in some form of rented accommodation if they had a tenancy agreement; 85% of respondents indicated that they did. Looking at the tenure of respondents shows that all of the socially rented tenants had a tenancy agreement, compared to 87% of private tenants. With regards to the

respondents whose accommodation was provided by an employer/agency, three did not have a tenancy agreement, while two did not know if they had one. The majority of those living in ‘Other’ types of accommodation did not have a tenancy agreement. We also wanted to ascertain how people had found their current home in Nottingham, from a range of options including both formal and informal methods (see Table 49).

Table 49: How did you find your current home in Nottingham? No. % From friends/family already living in Nottingham 98 42

Via local estate agent 37 16

Via local newspaper 26 11

Via local letting agent 25 11

UK employer arranged it for me 8 3

Arranged for me before I arrived in the UK 5 2

Other 36 15

Total 235 100

People’s social networks clearly play a key role in finding accommodation with 42% of people finding their current home through friends or family. There were, however, a wide range of other methods referred to; for example, estate/letting agents and local newspapers. With regards to those whose accommodation had been arranged prior to arrival in the UK, two respondents indicated that this had been done by their employer, while the remaining three respondents did not specify who had arranged it for them.

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The respondents who found their accommodation through ‘other’ means, primarily referred to finding accommodation through the internet (58%). This was followed by adverts on shops/buildings/properties (17%) or through Nottingham City Council (17%). One respondent indicated that they had built their own home.

Rent or mortgage payments

Table 50 and Graph 4 below show the rent or mortgage levels being paid per person per month by the respondents in Nottingham.

Table 50: Rent or mortgage level paid per month All No. % Mortgage No. Less than £200 30 13 - £201 - £250 26 11 - £251 - £300 17 7 - £301 - £350 22 9 1 £351 - £400 27 12 2 £401 - £450 47 20 1 £451 - £500 30 13 5 £501 - £550 14 6 - £551 - £600 3 1 1 £601+ 6 3 1 Don’t know 5 2 2

Don’t pay rent 7 3 -

No response given 2 1 1

Total 235 100 14

The rent or mortgage payments people were making varied from less than £200 per month to more than £600, with no particular amount standing out as most common. Looking at current tenure indicates that those who were paying a mortgage were paying between £301 and £601 or more, with the majority paying £451 – £500 per month. Interestingly, of the six people paying £601 or more, four were currently renting from a private landlord, one had their accommodation provided by an employer and one was currently buying their own home.

Five respondents indicated that they did not know how much rent/mortgage they were paying (two were currently paying a mortgage, while three were renting). Seven people indicated that they did not pay rent for their current accommodation (two were staying with friends/family, two were living in some ‘Other’ type of

accommodation, two were living in employer provided accommodation and one was living in private rented accommodation).

79 Graph 4: Rent or mortgage level paid per month

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 Less than £200 £251 - £300 £351 - £400 £451 - £500 £551 - £600 Don’t know No response given A m o u n t p a id Percentage

Of the respondents who were currently paying rent for a property (not a mortgage), 21% indicated that their rent also included bills.

Living arrangements

The majority of respondents were currently living in properties which had two or three bedrooms (65%). Just a small number of people lived in a property with more than five bedrooms (see Table 51).

Table 51: Number of bedrooms No. % One 44 19 Two 89 38 Three 64 27 Four 30 13 Five 6 3 Seven 1 <1 No response given 1 <1 Total 235 100

The maximum number of people who were currently sharing a bedroom was four people, with two respondents referring to this living arrangement. These

respondents were both living in private rented accommodation and sharing a room with family members. One was living in a one bedroom house and one was living in a four bedroom house, which had seven people sharing.

Twenty-five respondents (11%) referred to three people sharing a room. The remaining respondents had either one or two people sharing a room.

Twenty respondents (9%) made reference to themselves, or people within their household, sharing bedrooms with non-family members.

We also asked people to indicate whether or not their current property gave them enough space (see Table 52 below).

80 Table 52: Does your home have enough space?

No. % Yes 170 72 No 60 26 Don’t know 4 2 No response given 1 <1 Total 235 100

Just over a quarter of the sample (26%) stated that they did not have enough space in their current home. We asked those who did not currently have enough space to elaborate on why this was the case. The main reasons given included: rooms being too small (37%); needing additional rooms (28%); the property generally being too small (20%); and, too many people living in the property (10%). With regards to those who indicated that rooms were too small or the property in general was too small, unfortunately they did not elaborate on whether or not this related to issues of overcrowding; however, the following provides examples of some of the comments that were made:

“[The] bedrooms are too small, [there’s] only one bathroom…my two daughters are living together, their room [is] too small.”

“I have six children and they want private rooms.”

“Brothers [are] sharing [a] room…little sister still lives in parents room.”

Overall satisfaction with property

We wanted to explore people’s overall satisfaction with their current property (see Table 53 below).

Table 53: Overall satisfaction with current property No. %

Very satisfied 67 29

Fairly satisfied 108 46

Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied 37 16

Fairly dissatisfied 14 6

Very dissatisfied 7 3

No response given 2 1

Total 235 100

Three quarters of the sample stated that they were fairly or very satisfied with their current accommodation, with just 9% indicating that they were dissatisfied. With regards to the respondents who were dissatisfied with their current property, the majority (86%) were currently living in private rented accommodation.

Stakeholder consultation suggested that migrant workers sometimes have lower expectations in relation to accommodation. One employer also highlighted that some workers were living in what would be regarded as overcrowded conditions because it enabled them to retain more of their income.

81 General housing problems and issues

Finally, we wanted to explore if people had experienced any problems in relation to accommodation in Nottingham. Fifty respondents (21%) made reference to specific problems that they had experienced whilst living in Nottingham.

With regards to the types of problems people had experienced, thirty-seven people (16% of the sample) expressed dissatisfaction with their treatment by landlords or letting agencies, particularly in relation to not carrying out repairs and non-return of deposits:

“Not abiding [by] contract regulations, conditions and terms by landlords.” “Letting agency did not comply with obligations included in [the] agreement.” “Problems with [the] landlord, [he/she] does not care about [the] house condition.”

“Dispute with [the] landlord...[We] haven’t received the deposit from [the] last home we lived in”

“I had [a] problem with bed bugs at the house, I’ve been asking the landlord to fix this problem, but he never helped me.”

“I had [a] problem with one of the landlords, he asked me to pay rent for six months.”

“[My] previous house [was] rented through [an] agency, they did not give back the deposit.”

“Problems with contacting [the] landlord, [he/she is] not available, not picking up [the phone], [they] promised to come but [are] not picking up.”

One respondent made reference to debts that they had accrued because of a landlord:

“I had a big problem with my previous landlord. I have been paying rent every month and I also gave money for gas, but the landlord never paid this bill and now I have a big problem with debts.”

Three respondents (6%) made specific reference to problems they had experienced in relation to socially rented accommodation. Two of these made reference to customer service issues, while one talked about the length of the waiting list for a council property:

“We’ve been trying to get a council house, but [I] don’t like the way the council treated me.”

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One respondent was currently experiencing a problem in relation to their rent payments:

“[I am] receiving letters saying I owe rent, but when I ring up they say I’m in credit.”

The other problems that were mentioned related to issues with neighbours or crime that had been experienced (for example, burglary).