Seven Boroughs Account For Nearly Half Of London's Social Housing Waitlist

Harry Rosehill
By Harry Rosehill Last edited 71 months ago
Seven Boroughs Account For Nearly Half Of London's Social Housing Waitlist

Seven of London's boroughs make up for nearly half (49.5% to be exact) of London's social housing waiting list. Those seven boroughs are: Ealing, Greenwich, Hackney, Islington, Lambeth, Newham and Tower Hamlets.

All of those boroughs have waitlists of over 12,000 people, which is more than double the median borough waitlist of 5,052.

The biggest jump year to year is in Newham where the list of 17,453 people in 2016 grew to 25,729 in 2017. That's a growth of roughly 47%.

But beyond these seven boroughs, it's worth looking at why waitlists aren't as high in other demographically similar boroughs.

Studying the year-on-year data there have been some massive reductions in the number of people in London on the waitlist. Between 2015 and 2016, Camden's list dropped significantly from 24,644 to just 2,930. However, this drop is not because they found homes for those people. Instead they tightened the criteria needed to qualify, as a response to the housing crisis.

Other boroughs have taken similar actions while some have turned to offering people housing outside their own district, often in cities miles away. These changes mean that London's total waitlist of 243,668 in 2017, is a significant reduction on 344,294 in 2013, not because these people no longer need some form of housing, but because so many of them no longer qualify for social housing.

Despite the reductions since 2013, between 2016 and 2017 the waitlist grew, from 227,549 to 243,668. So even with the tightening of criteria, there is still massive demand.

Click here for the full data on each borough's waitlist for social housing.

Last Updated 16 April 2018