Poll finds lofts could unlock space and value in British homes

Nearly three in 10 British adults say they do not have enough room in their homes for all their belongings, according to a poll of 2,000 adults, which also found widespread clutter and an underused national storage resource: the loft. The survey, commissioned by OnePoll for insulation specialist LoftZone, found 44 percent of respondents describe their homes as suffering stress-inducing levels of clutter and 26 percent feel too embarrassed by the state of their home to invite people over.

The poll found the average person uses two existing rooms partly for storage in addition to one dedicated storage space. Clothing that will not fit in wardrobes, stacks of paperwork and empty suitcases were named among the items most commonly taking up living space. At the same time, 90 percent of respondents said their homes have a loft, yet people enter the space only about six times a year on average and 6 percent said they have never been in their loft.

The survey also highlighted gaps in the home-buying process. Forty-one percent of buyers said they were not shown the loft when viewing a property and only 31 percent said the loft was definitely included on the floor plan. Seasonal storage...