Levels of overcrowding are measured through the Survey of English Housing and assessed against the “bedroom standard”, based on the ages and composition of a household. The ‘Survey of English Housing Preliminary Results: 2006-07’ were published on 18 December 2007
http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/housing/sehprelimresults0607
Table 9 indicates that the rate of overcrowding in the social rented sector is 5.8 per cent. across England.
In December, the Department published ‘Tackling overcrowding in England: an action plan’ to assist local authorities in developing their own strategies to tackle overcrowding.