Housing Needs Assessment 2006 - Westminster City Council

Westminster – Housing Needs Assessment 2006In total it is estimated that 6,972 households are headed by a key worker (head of household takenas survey respondent). These households are subject to further analysis in the sections below.15.3 Housing characteristics of key worker householdsThe table below shows various household and housing characteristics of key worker households.The results indicate that a large proportion of key worker households are currently living in owneroccupiedaccommodation and are more likely at 56.1% to be owner-occupiers (with mortgage) thannon-key workers (42.9%). Key worker households are more likely than non-key worker householdsto be living in the social rented sector and are much less likely to live in private rentedaccommodation.In terms of household composition key worker households are more likely than non-key workers tolive in households with two or more adults with or without children. As a result key workerhouseholds have a greater requirement for properties with three or more bedrooms than non-keyworker households, and a lower requirement for one bedroom dwellings.In terms of the geographical location of key worker households the data reveals that suchhouseholds are particularly likely to be living in the Central Strip.In terms of age, key worker household heads are much more likely to be in the 40 to 49 age bracket,with 42.1% being in this range, compared to 19.5% of non-key workers household heads. Non-keyworker household heads are more likely than key worker household heads to be over 60; which isnot surprising given the group will contain a large proportion of retirees that will not be present inthe key workers households.PAGE 136