How do you get social housing in London?

[HappyNewTaxYear]

Just that really. How do you get on a list? How long are the lists?

It will always be an issue even if they build more. When council tenants die the property can be assigned. Sometimes to nok who never really moved out and it’s their home and they could be earning nothing or loads, sometimes that’s a grandchild who was moved in when granny was getting on.

You will have small numbers where the tenants have their own homes here or abroad and are subletting the properties for far more than the council rent. Very hard and costly for councils to investigate and prove. There has definitely in the past been an element of fraud as I know a council colleague who lived in south London who got offered a north London flat as he knew the housing officer (many years ago).

Even on the outskirts it is extremely expensive to rent. Not many young people can afford to rent their own place unless they have quite wealthy parents. If you see some of the uni threads there are students who need to avoid London as accommodation costs are too high. I was very surprised to hear another parent at school tell me their flat was housing association 2 bed for £450 a month, no idea how they got it as didn’t grow up here, no disabilities etc and a few years later they bought a near 500k property on one income with the mortgage being a few times that rent.

From latest census (2021) the foreign born share is 48% in London. Breakdown in table of the article below. Whether that is too high or too low is up to the reader to judge.

https://www.pimlicojournal.co.uk/p/the-social-housing-phenomenon-part

For legal reasons I will not speculate how it might happen in Tower Hamlets given the current Mayor served a period of disqualification from public office.

A single man in work with no connections to London has not got an cat in hell's chance of getting social houzing in London.

Surely you must have been living under a rock (or more likely a goady twat) not to realise London is an area of acute housing demand.

Ignorant people pften thinl recent migrants are "given" social housing but the truth is more usually that these people renting former council flats sold under RtB and often in terrible and dangerous conditions.

Like this

www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyky114m27o

Not all foreign born social housing occupants are from other cultures or are boat people. They could simply be white British people who were born abroad & moved back home. They are still foreign born though, I was born abroad as my dad worked overseas for a bit. Then I moved back to England when I was 5 years old.

The statistics that you quoted don't tell the whole story. It's very black and white thinking and has been manipulated to support the narrative that all foreign born people in social housing aren't white British.

Your post was the first time I heard the phrase foreign born.

My outer London borough housing people featured on that TV show about lettings which showed nightmare tenants and also landlords who were cramming 15 Bulgarians into one family house and that kind of thing - so very very bad it is out here in my outer London borough. My local council DOES deal with people illegally sublet particularly where they make a house an HMO without consent but it has its hands full given we have had a lot of new people - just to illustrate the changes - since we bought our first house in this borough the borough has gone from 70% white to 30% white - not that colour is an issue but it illustrates the vastly increased number of residents and vulnerable residents. I am a few steps from another outer London borough which also has a lot of asylum seekers too with the BBC reporting tent cities there last week.

We have about 65,000 more people in the borough than when I first started work and about er10% increase in last 10 years. It is front line for just about everything and more beds in sheds than most London boroughs, packed to the gills. Very popular place. Perhaps I need to return to the Orkney islands or County Mayo of some of my ancestors or even rural Northumberland (I am from near there so obviously also part of the problem of London being very populated).

You apply to go on a borough’s housing list. You need to have links/ties to that area (usually prove you have lived there for a number of years). As long as you meet that criteria you can go on the list. Sometimes there are benefits of going on the list eg if you want to buy a shared ownership place one consideration is if you are on a housing list.

once you’re on the list then its allocation. Priorities will be stated by the council, usually these are non-intentionally homeless, dependents, health issues including disability and other such things.

the wait for non-priority would likely be decades. The wait for priority could be several years.

without any history of renting in London your son could not yet apply for housing. Once he was eligible it is unlikely he would be offered anything for a very long time.

Yes in a lot of areas the same - families or single men are in temp accommodation are priority need therefore top of ‘list’
Also foreign born people often have larger families and therefore overcrowding and needing extra bedrooms pushes you up the Bandings.
Also some SH is dire and the indigenous population turn the places down - eg 23rd floor in a block of flats. Grenfell tower was inhabited predominantly by foreign born tenants I believe for this reason. Basically nobody else wanted to live there.

I saw this when I worked in housing a lot.

I managed to get a council place in London, but it involved an 8 year wait and they’ve now removed the scheme I used to get accepted. I’m a single mum. If I had DC a few years later I’d be stuffed and would be struggling in private rent.

If you are addressing me, calling me a goady twat and saying I must have been living under a rock, then I suggest you read all of my posts again, starting with the original one, and then apologise, as nowhere have I said I'm expecting or trying to get my son social housing. I'm well aware there is zero chance. What I wanted to know was why that would be the case hence my asking on here about it.

I knew there would be someone like you on this thread. You've inferred something that isn't there for some unpleasant and cynical reasons of your own.

It would be if it was true. It isn't.

That's as maybe, however, in temp
accommodation they are a Band A , so if there were SH available they would be priority. The lack of housing means this does not happen but it is fair to say they are prioritised as are top banding after leave to remain status is granted.
Im not making a judgement either way but that is fact. They are top Priority alongside care leavers, people who are about to be evicted, homeless pregnant women, families who have to be moved due to threat to life, veterans etc etc.

I was told by a neighbour that in our London borough the waiting list is ten years. A house near us is owned by a HA It’s sitting empty and abandoned because the tenant stays with her boyfriend. I’ve informed the HA. Not interested. Hid behind data protection. No more I can do. That’s what you’re up against.

*Lardy - that is true about Grenfell Tower (14 of the 129 flat were no longer council owned - as had been bought under right to buy and some of those were then rented out by the new owners to private tenants).

There's no harm in filling in an application form. If he was accepted he would likely be non prority low banding. Studio flats and one bed flats seem to get much lower bids compared to family size homes.

Bare in mind though his application could be rejected under no housing need. And they would advhve him to go private.

In general the waiting times depend on banding . The situation . The family Size and area. Also medical, vulnerability etc .

@MyKingdomForACat
Can you let your MP know about this especially if they're a Tory MP, they'd be glad of a stick to beat Labour with!

@ColinCaterpillarsNo1Fan That’s an idea yes. The HA were completely dismissive. She has the tenancy and if she hasn’t informed them of plans to leave that’s that. Lots of neighbours are having to call in pest control because the house is generating rats.

So long as she l is paying her rent and council tax and utilities it’s hers for life unless she relinquishes the tenancy or chooses to secede it to a family member.
Absolutely nothing will happen to enforce her staying there and it will remain her ‘ home’ for as long as she wants it.

In many, many areas of the UK he wouldn't even be eligible to apply.

Studios and flats are hardest to procure as they automatically go to kids leaving care. Single people in temp accommodation next with diabetics, veteran and those with leave to remain as priority. Also substance users or previously street homeless people who are doing well in a hostel and working with appropriate services.
Also coupes with no kids who are being evicted and about to become unintentionally and literally homeless. If have one or town kids you can only bid on a two bed .

1 beds go the quickest of all properties, especially in big cities due to numbers of Care leaving kids.

Absolutely what the HA have basically said. The rent etc is paid by benefits so slightly galling but there we are

The disability has to be impacting in current housing making it unsuitable. Eg living on second floor and using a wheelchair. Ot that a child needs own room due to medical aids/ equipment.
Having a disability in and of itself will not necessarily result in priority need.

Possibly or very low banding. Which seens a pointless band.

Possibly. When i look at the bidding history studio flats seem to have bids anything from 3- 50s and one beds 15s -80s they don't always say the bands .

They won’t have been put out to bid on.
they will have been allocated to the care leaver upon turning 18 as a ‘direct let’ if the young person can show they can manage a tenancy.