Kingston has the lowest waiting list of any South London borough with 2,667 households on the local authority housing register. This is only closely surpassed by neighbouring Sutton with 2,674 households.
However, more recent data from the borough suggests its housing register could have decreased to around 3,100 households.
The borough did provide data on waiting list times, we were unable to present analysis of waiting times in Kingston. This due in part to the council operating a choice-based lettings system which makes the calculation of waiting times more difficult.
The borough has consistently had the lowest total number of social homes of any London borough, excluding the City of London. There are 7,438 social homes in the borough, 4,606 of which are managed by the local authority. Furthermore, the borough has the least number of social homes managed by private registered providers in London, excluding the City of London, at 2,832 homes.
Kingston’s population density is similar to other Outer London boroughs at 5,045 residents per square km, reflecting the borough’s lower housing need. Kingston’s housing allocations policy determines priority need based on a five-band system assessing household needs by their categories of reasonable preference, as defined by the Housing Act 1996.
Update (29 October 2024):
Additional information on social housing waiting times was received from Kingston Council on 25 October. This information provided average waiting times for households owed a full statutory homelessness duty requiring 1-bedroom properties at 3.07 years, 2-bedroom properties at 11.58 years, 3-bedroom properties at 17.86 years, and 4-bedroom properties at 81 years.
Due to the data’s specific relation to homeless households alone, as per Kingston Council’s housing allocations policy, these waiting times have not been factored into the wider report or analysis. We are grateful for the information received for adding further evidence of the disparity in waiting times across all London boroughs.
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.