Havering has the fifth lowest waiting list across all London boroughs at 2,553 households. This also gives the borough the third lowest waiting list of any Outer London borough, while being the second lowest for any East London borough.
However, more recent data received from the borough for this research suggests its housing register could have increased to more than 3,000 households.
Despite having a lower-than-average waiting list, this is not necessarily reflected in its waiting times, as households wait for one-bedroom properties for 926 days. This is both above the London average (834 days) and fifth highest waiting for an East London borough.
However, the borough’s waiting times are considerably lower for properties with two or more bedrooms, reflecting the area’s population density of 2,462 residents per square km, the second lowest in London. For two-bedroom properties, households wait 920 days while for three-bedroom properties, Havering has waiting times of 1,056 days.
Similar to other Outer London boroughs such as Harrow and Sutton, Havering’s waiting times for larger, family-sized properties of four bedrooms or more are lower than for smaller properties. Households wait for 576 days for this property type, becoming the fourth lowest waiting time for this property type in London.
Among the local authorities which provided waiting times for wheelchair-adapted properties, Havering has the lowest waiting time for these properties at 358 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.
Havering’s lower waiting times for larger properties reflect the borough as having a larger population of families with lower numbers of single-person households with one or two bedrooms. However, unlike Harrow and Sutton, Havering has more social housing stock, with 13,997 social homes overall.
Havering operates a housing allocations scheme with five separate bands reflecting priority housing need. Households in Band 1 will have the most urgent need to move with severe medical, welfare or disability, and hardship need. This band is also for existing tenants requiring emergency building or repair works, decants, or living in overcrowded accommodation. Band 2a and 2b are for occupation-related applications such as Armed Forces personnel, working households, foster carers and council service employees. Band 2c extends this priority to carers or volunteers owed statutory homelessness duty or for households living in unsanitary conditions. Band 3 reflects a need to move but who do not show direct Community Contribution, as well as homeless households owed statutory 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.