Can you apply for council housing in London from outside of London?

[poshsnobtwit]

I have statutory homeless status in a city (quite far)outside of London, and I'm just wondering if I'd be eligible to put my name on an London council lists. Realistically I know waiting lists are years and years, but just wondering if this is even an option?

Not in my area no you need to be living here for 5 years I live in London and would like to apply to another borough but can't even do that so no I highly doubt any council would allow you to apply.

Not in my borough - 6 years residency here

You can apply, be will get lower priority if you've not been resident in the borough for the qualifying number of years. In practice, this means you will be stuck on the waiting lists, as even the highest priority bands have a wait time of several years. But once you have been in the borough for long enough, your change of circumstances mean you might be placed in a higher band.

Thanks everyone, I suspected such but I'm really trying to clutch at straws here. Feel like I've totally failed my dc.

If you had a property somewhere else with social housing potentially you could go on home swapper and swap in.
I’ve heard of it the other way round with london social tenants getting out of the big smoke.

Why is not living in London failing them? Even "priority" in my area is 5 years minimum wait and yes that's band b not sure why you would want to be waiting that long if you are homeless?

Why would you be failing them? I can’t think of many places more expensive than London, so surely if you moved here you’d have less money available to spend on your children?

Several councils are sending people to the Midlands and the North East, there was a piece in The Guardian yesterday about it.

Just to clarify, I mean I've failed them by not being able to put a roof over their heads, not by not living in London! I asked this as a school mum i knew a few years ago was in a similar situation and she applied in Scotland (we are in NI) and was offered a house in one of the Scottish isles (which she didn't take) so she told me to apply to other places too. I know London has its own housing crisis too, but just feel like I should be doing something....

Aberdeen is building a lot of new council houses atm.

In my borough they are moving people out to Scotland because Scotland has space.

No chance unfortunately in any of the London Boroughs I know unless you are fleeing DV or have medical needs that mean you need to be in a particular area (for family support for eg). Do you have a social housing place at the moment? Your best bet is a mutual exchange.

Not your fault. Any one of us can be at the mercy of circumstances and you are doing the right thing to get a permanent roof over your heads. I hope you don’t have to wait too long.

The only chance you've got of being given a place out of area is if you apply to somewhere that has low demand. So Scottish Isles yes, London no.

I got a council house in a Midlands city (housing priority as I was leaving a DV relationship). I lived there for 3 years then I managed to get a Homeswapper exchange to Islington. The people I exchanged with didn't have ties to the Midlands, they just wanted a fresh start out of the city and wanted a house with garden (I swapped to a 2 bed flat with no garden, but it was zone 1). So if you get a council house in your town you can certainly try to get a mutual exchange to London.

I don't have stats to hand, but with so many Highland and Island houses now second homes or holiday lets, I would doubt there's available council housing for those outwith the area.

How long ago was that please? As I am over 60 and have a disabled daughter (27) and all we can do is wait till we've lived here 3 years before we are even allowed to apply. Midlands city.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4n11j180lzo

The whole of Scotland are in a housing emergency right now, granted social housing waiting lists are not nearly as dire as London but we don't have loads of houses to spare.

There may be some houses in bad areas- my local council built new builds in a deprived coastal village with loads of social problems and actually had to do region wide adverts to try and fill them!

Yep, there are certainly no spare council houses on the island I live on. No private rentals to be had either. Unless people can afford to buy they've no chance of moving here.

Have Been on the housing register since 2014 and put in a temporary accommodation with two children and was awarded band B.was later changed to C1 because of new allocation policy.Recently(March 2024) all homeless applicants in temporary accommodation have been moved back into band B. I have been on the register for 10 years now.On the bidding register my qualifying year which is supposed to be from 2014 has dropped to 2020 causing me to be low on the bidding register.Please has anyone experience this too.The council says people are prioritise based on time in band and not time on the register.

Not sure I understand why people do not want to take social housing in other places outside London and start living a good life.