As London’s most densely populated borough with 17,257 residents per square km, Tower Hamlets has one of the most acute housing needs in England. The borough has the fourth highest waiting list in London with 23,609 households on the local authority’s housing register. However, more recent data suggests its housing register could have increased to around 24,500 households.
The borough’s density and disparity of housing need is reflected in its waiting times for social housing, where a one-bedroom property has a 2,008 day wait. This is the second highest in London behind Lewisham of 2,208 days. Tower Hamlets is in contrast with the wider pan-London trend where larger properties tend to see higher wait times, as waiting times for two-bedroom properties in the borough are 1,460 days, the 10th highest in London, and more than a year less than the wait for a one-bed.
For larger properties with three bedrooms, Tower Hamlets has a waiting time of 2,312 days. This is the fifth highest in London and similar in length to other Central London boroughs, such as Islington and Camden both on 2,190 day waiting times for this property size. Tower Hamlets repeats its departure from pan-London trends for properties with four or more bedrooms, where waiting times are 1,825 days, lower than the wait for a one-bed property. This is the 18th highest waiting time for this property size in London and third lowest for an Inner London borough, behind the City of London on 751 days and Newham with 1,301 days.
Tower Hamlets has the fourth highest number of social homes in London at 44,953, with the majority of these managed by private registered providers. Further to this, private registered providers in Tower Hamlets manage the highest number of social homes of any borough at 33,108 properties. The borough’s overall social housing stock has increased since 2010 by 3,608 more homes.
Tower Hamlets Council’s housing allocations policy is in partnership with the borough’s private registered providers and consists of three bands, reflecting the priority need of households. Band 1 is for highest priority applications and separates into two individual groups representing different priority health and welfare needs. Priority decants and under-occupying transfers are also in this band. Band 2 is for households in overcrowded accommodation, owed a statutory homelessness duty, or in housing need without a local connection. Band 3 is for applications with not defined housing need or 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.