Barriers to housing sub-domain

Barriers to Housing is a sub-domain of the Barriers to Housing and Services domain, which is one of the domains that makes up the Index of Multiple Deprivation 2019 (IMD 2019).

Key points

No Herefordshire LSOAs [1] are amongst the 25% most deprived in England in terms of wider barriers to housing compared a figure of 19 recorded in 2015. Indeed, only eight LSOAs were within the 50% most deprived a cross England, six in Hereford and two in Leominster.

Of the 12 LSOAs which represent the most deprived 10% in Herefordshire, nine were within the 10% most deprived in 2015, although in 2015 all were within the most deprived 25% nationally. Of these 12 LSOAs all but one are in urban areas, with seven in Hereford, and two each in Leominster and Ross-on-Wye.

Conversely, 75 LSOAs are in the least 25% deprived nationally, of which 16 are in the least 10% deprived of which over two thirds are rural in character. Fifty five of these LSOAs are in rural areas, representing 75% of all LSOAs in this quartile.

Although these patterns may indicate improvements across Herefordshire, it is not possible to rule out that it is a result of the worsening of conditions in other parts of the country.

The Barriers to Housing sub-domain measures issues relating to access to housing such as affordability and is made up of the following indicators:

• Household overcrowding: The proportion of all households in a Lower-layer Super Output Area which are judged to have insufficient space to meet the household’s needs
• Homelessness: Local Authority District level rate of acceptances for housing assistance under the homelessness provisions of the 1996 Housing Act, assigned to the constituent Lower-layer Super Output Areas
• Housing affordability: Difficulty of access to owner-occupation or the private rental market, expressed as the inability to afford to enter owner-occupation or the private rental market.

Figure 1:  Maps showing the 10% most deprived areas of Herefordshire according to the Barriers to Housing sub-domain of the IMD 2019.

Source: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

[1] Lower Super Output Areas (LSOAs) are fixed statistical geographies of about 1,500 people designed by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). For more information please see the useful definitions page.