At a borough level, Lambeth has the largest waiting list of any local authority in London with over 35,900 households on its housing register. The borough’s housing register makes up over 45% of Central London’s total waiting list, and is equivalent to nearly half of the combined housing waiting list for local authorities in the North East of England.
The borough also has the third highest number of council homes in Central London and London proper.
Lambeth has the seventh highest waiting time for one-bedroom properties at 1,217 days. Properties in Lambeth with two bedrooms have a waiting time of 2,336 days, the third highest in London.
For larger properties with three bedrooms, Lambeth has a waiting time of 2,293 days, slightly less than its waiting time for a smaller two-bedroom property and making it the sixth highest waiting list in London for three-bedroom social homes.
Among the local authorities which provided waiting times for wheelchair-adapted properties, Lambeth has the second highest waiting time for these properties at 1,424 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.
Despite being the fifth most densely populated borough in London with 12,879 residents per square km, it is notable that Lambeth’s waiting time for family-sized homes of four or more bedrooms at 1,971 days are lower than the smaller properties. This is the 16th longest waiting time for four bed-plus properties in London and is the lowest for any Central London local authority, excluding the City of London. This contrasts with most other boroughs where larger properties generally have longer waiting times.
With 48,857 homes, Lambeth as a local authority area has one of the highest number of social homes in England. Lambeth Council manage the second highest total council housing stock in London at 23,947 homes, surpassed only by Southwark Council with more than 37,000. Private registered providers manage 24,910 social homes in Lambeth, which is the second largest social housing stock by private registered providers in the capital, behind Tower Hamlets with more than 33,000.
Lambeth’s housing allocations policy is a system of five bands reflecting their priority for housing Households with an A2 Band are defined as being of emergency or strategic priority need, while Band B is for households owed statutory homelessness duty or urgent medical concerns. Bands C1 and C2 are for households with less priority medical needs or are not in receipt of a full 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.