Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE) has statutory responsibility in relation to regularly examining housing conditions and need and this provides the basis for the Housing Executive to undertake House Condition Surveys. The Northern Ireland House Condition Survey (NIHCS) provides a wealth of information, which is readily available to, and is regularly requested by government departments, government agencies, the voluntary sector, charities, universities and many private sector interests.The surveys have been carried out since 1974, but the UK Data Archive only holds data from the tenth survey (2009) onwards. All tenures and types of housing are included in the NIHCS, for example, owner occupied and rented housing, vacant dwellings, houses in multiple occupation, apartments, urban and rural properties. For further background information, see study documentation. Further information about the survey can be found on the NIHE House Condition Survey webpage.
The NIHCS 2011 used mobile field computers (Motion 5 Field Tools) to collect the data. This approach was first used in 2009 and was reviewed and enhanced for the 2011 Survey. The main benefits of this electronic approach included: enabling surveyors to complete more complex self-validation of their forms at the time of the survey, improving data quality by reducing punching errors, missing data and data inconsistencies and allowing a faster turn around of the survey results. The bespoke software used was developed by the Building Research Establishment (BRE) and permitted the recording of dwelling information through radio buttons, direct keying, selecting items from drop down menus and enabled surveyors to draw sketches. All these methods used a stylus pen on a touch screen. Validation and consistency checks were built into the programme and once a survey was completed it was uploaded to a database via a secure website. The hardware (a Motion 5 Field Tool) was both a semi-rugged field tool and a standard Windows computer. It was designed for external use and had to be able to withstand a fall, have a battery life long enough to reduce the need for a docking station and have a ‘View Anywhere’ display. In addition the digital ink capability made it easy to annotate, draw, scribble or use handwriting and it also had a built in camera. The hardware also provided secure user identification and device level security. The new electronic approach, the project management, design, administration, quality assurance analysis and report writing were the responsibility of the Housing Executive’s Research Unit. Eighteen fully qualified surveyors undertook the fieldwork and were either Environmental Health Officers or Chartered Surveyors. All of the surveyors had worked on the 2006 and 2009 NIHCS (the 2006 NIHCS is not currently held at the Archive). Four experienced supervisors were responsible for quality assuring the work of the surveyors. For the second edition (December 2015) additional variables covering heating systems, heating controls, property dimensions, roof structure and windows were added to the dataset.The additional variables have been supplied to provide further Northern Ireland data in relation to Fuel Poverty.
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The E-Survey form used for NIHCS 2011 broadly remained the same as previous paper surveys and comprised five main sections of questions covering:physical attributes of each dwelling (internal and external); physical aspects of flats and common areas;demographic, social economic and attitudinal information on households;the front and back plot of the dwelling;the local neighbourhood and area; and the Housing Health and Safety Rating System.The information gathered in the physical section allows measurement of repair costs, the Fitness Standard, The Decent Homes Standard, Fuel Poverty, SAP and the HHSRS. Information from the social survey is cross-referenced with the physical survey data to provide an indication of the types of households living in dwellings which are in the poorest condition and most likely to fail the standards above.
Face-to-face interview
