Housing Needs Assessment 2006 - Westminster City Council

6. Financial information and affordability6. Financial information and affordability6.1 IntroductionThe previous chapter studied the local housing market. The results from that chapter are broughttogether with household financial information to make an assessment of affordability for eachindividual household. The issue of affordability is crucial in assessing both backlog and newlyarising need in the Council area. It should be noted that student households have been excludedfrom the analysis in this chapter as they do not contribute to the need for affordable housing.Having set out the financial information collected in the survey the section continues byconcentrating on the methodology behind the assessment of affordability.ODPMGuide‘An accurate estimate of household income is one of the most important pieces ofinformation that has to be obtained from a housing needs survey’. [Section 3.6(page 39)]To complete an accurate assessment of affordability, the survey collected information regardinghouseholds’ gross earned income (including benefits), savings and equity levels.6.2 Household incomeThe response to the survey income question was good with 74.3% of respondents answering thisquestion. Survey results for household income in the City of Westminster estimate the averagegross income level (crucial for the assessment of affordability) to be £45,587 per annum. Themedian income is noticeably lower than the mean (at £26,901 per annum). The figure below showsthe distribution of income.As stated above students have been removed from this analysis, however the average income ofstudent households in the City is £2,460.PAGE 59