Hammersmith and Fulham has the smallest waiting list of the Inner London boroughs at 1,623 households and the third lowest across all London boroughs, including the City of London.
The borough is also an outlier in seeing the shortest waiting times for one-bedroom properties in Inner London at 315 days, the fourth lowest waiting time for a one-bedroom property across al London boroughs. This is notable considering the borough does not have as many social homes compared to other Inner London boroughs, closely matching the London average for social housing stock with the 15th highest number of social homes in London at 25,918 properties.
However, Hammersmith and Fulham’s waiting times are not consistent across larger properties with waiting times for a two-bedroom property at 1,050 days, and the borough having the fourth longest waiting list in London for three-bedroom properties at 2,566 days.
The borough also has the sixth highest density of any borough in London at 12,605 residents per square km. This relatively high density is notable given the borough’s comparatively low waiting times and second lowest number of households on its housing register in comparison to other similarly dense local authorities in Inner London.
For properties with four bedrooms or more, Hammersmith and Fulham follows a similar pattern seen for larger properties in Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark where waiting times reduce from a higher average for smaller properties. A social home with four or more bedrooms in Hammersmith and Fulham has a waiting time of 2,076 days, around 14 months less than a property with three bedrooms. This is a reflection of availability of stock but also the average household size for those applying to council housing registers.
Among the local authorities which provided waiting times for wheelchair-adapted properties, Hammersmith and Fulham has the third highest waiting time for these properties at 1,365 days. However, due to the differences in housing allocation policies and the fact that we were unable to secure data for all boroughs, this finding should be treated with caution.
Hammersmith and Fulham’s housing allocations scheme operates through four bands reflecting their priority need. Band 1 is for the most urgent cases with additional priorities such as health and welfare need, while Band 2 is for households with a need to move but who also have a Community Contribution which includes foster carers, council service workers or members of the Armed Forces. Band 3 is the same level of priority of Band 2 but for households not possessing clear Community Contribution. Band 4 is for the lowest priority households with a reasonable preference.
Sources:
- Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Local Authority Housing Statistics data returns for 2022 to 2023
- Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Live tables on rents, lettings and tenancies; numbers of households on local authorities’ housing waiting lists, by district, England, from 1987
- Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Live tables on dwelling stock (including vacants); Dwelling stock by local authority and region, England, 2009-2023
- Office for National Statistics, Mid-Year Population Estimates, England and Wales, June 2023
- Greater London Authority, Land Area and Population Density, Ward and Borough data for 2023
- Sub-regions as defined by The London Plan
*A note on data sources. In order to provide comparisons of different local authorities total waiting lists, due to some boroughs not providing up to date information on the number of people on their social housing register we have used the most recent data (2022-23) published by MHCLG. Where boroughs provided us with more recent data, we have noted this.