FULL UP LONDONS HOUSING CRISIS

NEWHAM (25)
In the past decade, the number of households on the councils waiting list has tripled to 32,045. As a result, the council wrote to Brighter Futures Housing Association in Stoke-on-Trent, seeking to move up to 500 families who couldnt afford higher rents in the wake of the Olympic Games and the buoyant young professionals market to Staffordshire almost three hours away by car. Brighter Futures chief executive Gill Brown said she would not take up the offer, claiming: I think there is a real issue of social cleansing going on.

Housing waiting list by borough

2011

10 2 15 17 9 18 27 21 32 24 29 8 5 4 6 33 13 20 22 14 19 7 28 23 12 30 25 31 26 1 16

KEY
Households on waiting lists

HARINGEY (14)
In 2000, Haringey Council became the first council in Britain to launch the Moving Out Of London scheme, offering up to 2,000 in relocation costs to tenants in either temporary accommodation, council accommodation or on the waiting list. Free trips were offered to interested participants in the hope of tempting them with a taste of life outside the capital. When the scheme began, 9,510 people were on the waiting list in the hope of bagging a home in Haringey, double the number in 1997. By 2006, almost 25,000 people were on the list, and last years figures show that 18,940 are still waiting for a home.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33

Barking and Dagenham 12,223 Barnet 16,103 Bexley 6,759 Brent 14,443 Bromley 6,672 Camden 17,052 City of London 1,219 Croydon 7,880 Ealing 12,020 Enfield 6,158 Greenwich 6,972 Hackney 13,423 Hammersmith and Fulham 7,754 Haringey 18,940 Harrow 3,801 Havering 6,992 Hillingdon 6,650 Hounslow 12,212* Islington 11,339 Kensington and Chelsea 6,734 Kingston upon Thames 7,423 Lambeth 23,894 Lewisham 16,060 Merton 6,354 Newham 32,045 Redbridge 9,861 Richmond upon Thames 4,807 Southwark 12,570 Sutton 4,323 Tower Hamlets 23,128 Waltham Forest 16,153 Wandsworth 5,299 Westminster 9,350
*2010 figure

Over 25,000 20,001 - 25,000 15,001 - 20,000 10,001 - 15,000 5,001 - 10,000 Up to 5,000

11

WESTMINSTER (33)
Andre Rostant, who lives in Westminster with his wife and eight children, was informed last year that the state would no longer fund the 2,000-a-week rent on his three-bedroom, ex-council home. He was left facing a shortfall of more than 83,000 a year, and wrote on his blog: Barring a miracle, thousands of us, including my family and I, are on our way to the fringes of London or further afield. Local primary schools said the problem was widespread. The deputy head of Gateway Primary said a girl came up to her every day to ask Miss, have you found me a home?

Number of residents waiting to be re-housed in Newham

2011

1997

10,281

32,045

82,000
The number of households in social housing with rents higher than the benefits now available

SOURCE: SHELTER, LONDON COUNCILS