Statistics from the Northern Ireland House Condition Survey

This report is prepared under the provisions of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007. The Act allows an appropriate authority to request an assessment of official statistics against the Code of Practice in order for them to gain National Statistics status. This report is in response to such a request.

The Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE) publishes statistics on house conditions based on the Northern Ireland House Condition Survey (NIHCS), and through access to data. After each survey, two reports are published, in 2011 these reports were named:

• Northern Ireland House Condition Survey – preliminary findings (NIHCS preliminary)
• Northern Ireland House Condition Survey – main report (NIHCS main)

In 2011 NIHE published a one-off report, making use of 2011 Census data: Northern Ireland House Condition Survey – district council figures for key measures (modelled). This report will not be published in 2016.

The NIHCS is run at least every five years, and this Assessment has taken place ahead of the publication of the results from the 2016 survey. We, the regulatory team, have considered NIHCS preliminary and NIHCS main, alongside information provided by the NIHE statistics team in relation to the 2016 reports, to inform our judgment.

NIHE published NIHCS preliminary, containing statistics on the dwelling stock and unfitness of dwellings at a national level, before publishing the more- detailed main report. NIHCS main presents further statistics relating to the dwelling stock, household profiles, fitness standards, state of repair, decent home standard, fuel poverty, housing health and safety rating system, and energy efficiency.

Preliminary Report: confirmation as National Statistics (March 2017)

Ed Humpherson to Donna McLarnon (December 2016)