Bexley has the lowest number of households on its housing register of any London borough, aside from the City of London. There are approximately 1,211 households on the council’s social housing register in 2022-23.
The borough is an outlier for East London with its nearest comparison, and neighbouring Outer London borough Havering, having the second lowest waiting list for East London with 2,553 households.
Despite having a smaller waiting list than many boroughs, the council’s waiting times for social homes are relatively long. For one-bedroom properties, households wait 502 days on average, having the eighth shortest waiting time in London. For two-bedroom properties, Bexley’s waiting times are disproportionate to the size of its waiting list, with households waiting 1,555 days.
Larger properties of three bedrooms and four or more bedrooms, the borough’s waiting times are more proportionate to similar Outer London boroughs with waiting times of 661 days and 550 days, respectively. This also gives Bexley the third lowest waiting times for larger properties of these sizes in London.
Bexley is an outlier in managing a disproportionately low number of social homes compared to the London average. The council directly manages around 238 homes alongside the borough having over 14,000 social homes managed by private registered providers.
Bexley Council’s housing allocation policy identifies four bands of priority of reasonable preference, with Band 1 for households with emergency and urgent housing need, including cases of severe medical or welfare need. Band 4 is allocated for households intentionally homeless with less priority. Priority of housing is assigned as guided by the severity of housing need, including households owed a statutory homelessness relief or prevention duty.
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.