With 5,991 households on its housing register, Enfield has the 19th highest number of households on its waiting list across all London boroughs. This also means the borough has the second highest waiting list of North London’s three boroughs, between Haringey on 12,826 households and Barnet on 4,149.
However, more recent data from the borough suggests its housing register has decreased to around 4,600 households.
Compared more widely, Enfield has the ninth highest waiting list across all 19 Outer London boroughs and is below the Outer London average of 6,968 households.
Enfield’s waiting times are also below the London average. For one-bedroom properties, households in Enfield wait 563 days, which places it as the second highest waiting time across North London’s three boroughs. Enfield ranks similarly for properties of two and three bedrooms where households wait 1,201 days and 1,711 days respectively.
For properties with four or more bedrooms, Enfield has a waiting time of 2,076 days which is below London average of 2,248 days. This is higher than the average waiting time for Outer London boroughs (1,652 days). However, this average may be skewed due to gaps in the data.
Among the local authorities which provided waiting times for wheelchair-adapted properties, Enfield has the highest waiting time for these properties at 1,643 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.
According to the latest data on dwelling stock, Enfield has the 23rd highest number of social homes across all London boroughs at 19,065 properties, inclusive of both council-managed and private registered provider homes. This is higher than the Outer London average of 17,833 homes. For homes managed by the local authority, Enfield has the sixth highest dwelling stock in Outer London at 10,424 homes. This also places it as having the 18th highest number of council-managed homes across all London boroughs.
Enfield operates a mixed banding and points-based housing allocations policy where priority for allocation is reflected by the number of points awarded by circumstances. Points are awarded based on six groupings for homelessness status, insanitary housing conditions, overcrowding, health and wellbeing circumstances, relocation needs, and emergency or exceptional housing need.
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.