As the third most dense borough in London at 15,548 residents per square km, it is notable that the latest official figures report Hackney’s social housing waiting list at 8,234 households, which is below the London average of 9,807.
However, while having a lower number of households than average on its waiting list, waiting list durations in Hackney are high in comparison to other London boroughs. The borough has higher waiting times than nearly any other London borough. For one-bedroom properties, households wait 1,643 days for a social home. This is similar to neighbouring Islington, but shorter than Tower Hamlets on 2,008 days.
For larger properties, Hackney’s waiting times exceed all other boroughs. Households requiring two-bedroom properties wait, on average, 5,658 days, or 15 years and six months. For three-bedroom properties, this wait extends further to 17 years and six months, while households requiring family-sized properties of four or more bedrooms wait as much as 11,954 days – that’s 32 years and eight months.
These waiting times contribute to Hackney having the longest waiting times on average across all London boroughs. This is despite the borough of Hackney holding the third largest social housing stock in the capital at 45,659 homes.
Hackney’s housing allocation policy operates through three bands reflecting their priority of reasonable preference. Band A households are of the highest priority and are not included as part of the council’s standard method for allocating social homes. These households will have urgent housing need from insanitary housing conditions, requiring emergency rehousing due to an Ombudsman hearing or judicial review, or accommodation following a hospital discharge.
Band B is Hackney’s most-used allocations banding which reflects housing need from overcrowding, statutory homelessness, medical and welfare needs, or unsanitary housing conditions which cannot be resolved in a reasonable timeframe. Band C is for accommodation-specific applications such as older person’s housing, carers and foster care, as well as less priority households not owed homelessness 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.