LESBIAN, gay and bisexual (LGB) communities are experiencing housing disparities and inequalities, a study has found.

Analysing a decade of data from around 10,000 households, the University of Stirling found that LGB people are less likely to own their own homes, more likely to rent in the private rented sector, and more likely to be social renters.

It found that 20 per cent of lesbian women, 26 per cent of bisexual women, 17 per cent of gay men and 15 per cent of bisexual men were in socially rented accommodation.

This compares to 11 per cent of heterosexual women and 12 per cent of heterosexual men. 

It found that 73 per cent of heterosexual men were owner-occupiers, compared to 63 per cent of gay men. 

And 51 per cent of bisexual women, 66 per cent of bisexual men and 68 per cent of lesbian women were owner-occupiers, compared to 70 per cent of heterosexual women.

Peter Matthews, Professor of Social Policy and LGBTQ+ Studies at the University of Stirling, said the figures illustrate how housing policy continues to be “designed around the heterosexual nuclear family.” 

He said: “These inequalities are likely a direct result of three things. Gay and bisexual men being refused mortgages and life insurance in the 1980s and 1990s because of stigma with HIV/AIDS, the long-term rule for a male signatory on a mortgage application, which excluded all women from home ownership and more recently, the fact that gay men and bisexuals are earning less.” 

Prof Matthews warned Britain’s housing crisis could intensify for LGB people as this population ages as they “will not have the same levels of wealth and housing assets as their heterosexual counterparts to support them in later life.”