Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate the English Housing Survey has made of the number and proportion of dwellings that have gardens.

MHCLG’s English Housing Survey records details relating to the land immediately surrounding a dwelling, referred to as the dwelling’s plot. The plot may be private (i.e. exclusive access) or shared (e.g. where a block of flats have a shared garden). The plot may consist of hard landscaping (e.g. concrete, tarmac, paving, gravel), soft landscaping (e.g. lawn, flower/vegetable beds), or a combination.

In 2016, the latest year for which data are available, 83 per cent of homes (19.7 million dwellings) in England had private plots; 1 per cent (296,000) had a shared plot (ref: Annex Table 1.5: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/english-housing-survey-2016-stock-condition).

In 2016, the average private plot size was 275.6m²(ref: Annex Table 1.5: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/english-housing-survey-2016-stock-condition). The department does not regularly publish data on plot size, by dwelling type. The Valuation Office Agency does not hold complete data on plot sizes for domestic properties and is therefore unable to determine the average plot size for detached and semi-detached properties.