Richmond has the 20th highest waiting list in London with 5,385 households on the local authority’s housing register. Compared with other West London boroughs, Richmond has the fourth highest total waiting list, with Brent having the highest at 28,150 households.
Richmond Council is unique in being one of only two London borough to not directly own and manage council housing, alongside Merton. While it recently acquired registered provider status, the council outsources its housing register to private registered providers.
Despite being a non stock-owning council, the borough’s waiting times for one-bedroom properties are above the London average at 1,087 days. This makes Richmond the ninth highest waiting time for a one-bedroom property in London and highest in West London, followed by neighbouring Hounslow on 684 days. For two-bedroom properties, Richmond has a waiting time of 1,019 days, placing it below the London average and 19th overall.
For larger properties with three bedrooms, Richmond has waiting times above the London average at 2,152 days, placing joint ninth alongside Kensington and Chelsea. Properties with four or more bedrooms have slightly higher waiting times of 2,160 days, the 13th highest in London.
While Richmond Council does not directly manage any social housing, there are 9,940 social homes in the borough managed by private registered providers. This total gives Richmond the fifth lowest number of social homes in London and second lowest in West London behind Harrow qith 9,752 homes.
Richmond Council’s housing allocations policy operates a points-based system with eight groups reflecting statutory definitions of reasonable preference for housing allocations. A higher total of points corresponds to greater priority for allocations. Points are allocated according to different categories of reasonable preference including statutory homelessness status, hardship, insanitary housing, overcrowding, health and welfare risks, Community Contribution status and social support requirements.
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.