Greater London has emerged as the UK’s toughest region for social housing hopefuls, with an average wait of 6.6 years—more than double the national average of 2.9 years—according to fresh data from unoccupied house insurance specialists Alan Boswell Group.
With over 1.2 million people languishing on waitlists nationwide, including 335,035 in the capital alone, the study lays bare a deepening housing crisis.
Across England, some 1.3 million households were queued for social housing by March 2023, yet only 252,000 secured new lettings in 2022/23, leaving nearly one in ten new applicants facing delays of five years or more.
The UK areas with the most vacant council homes
| Rank | Local authority | Number of vacant council homes per 10k people | Number of vacant council homes (2024) |
| 1. | Greater London | 10.4 | 8,878 |
| 2. | Bury Council | 402.9 | 7,841 |
| 3. | Aberdeen City Council | 101.3 | 2,272 |
| 4. | City of Edinburgh Council | 20.8 | 1,072 |
| 5. | Renfrewshire Council | 57.6 | 1,062 |
| 6. | Birmingham City Council | 8.7 | 1,011 |
| 7. | North Lanarkshire Council | 28.8 | 982 |
| 8. | Sheffield City Council | 15.4 | 873 |
| 9. | Hull City Council | 23.7 | 636 |
| 10. | Southampton City Council | 23.2 | 586 |
The research, based on Freedom of Information requests to 387 UK councils, exposes stark regional disparities. In Barking and Dagenham, the wait stretches to an eye-watering 25.75 years—rising to 67 years for a four-bedroom home—despite just 475 vacant council properties against a waitlist of 5,485.
London as a whole also tops the charts for empty council homes, with 8,878 standing unused, equating to 10.4 per 10,000 people.
Meanwhile, new affordable home starts in the capital plummeted 88% between April 2023 and March 2024, dropping from 26,386 to 3,156, piling pressure on an already strained system.
Beyond London, places like Slough (6.25 years), Aberdeen (6 years), and Brighton & Hove (5.25 years) also rank high for lengthy waits, while Barking and Dagenham’s 25.75-year average dwarfs even Hackney’s 20.6 years and Westminster’s 15 years.
At the other end, the City of London offers a rare glimmer of hope with a wait of just 1.78 years.
The study also flags hotspots for vacant properties, with Bury Council reporting 7,841 empty homes and Aberdeen trailing at 2,272.
Heath Alexander-Bew, director at Alan Boswell Group, warns of the toll this takes.
“While unoccupied properties in the UK have fallen, we still have over 46,000 empty council homes and more than 1.2 million people on waiting lists,” he says. “Vacant council homes pose risks such as property deterioration and security threats, which impact local governments’ resources and finances. These challenges require urgent attention but once addressed, can turn empty council properties into immediate homes for people on long waiting lists.”
Technology could offer a lifeline, suggests Christoph C Cemper, founder of AIPRM.
“Artificial intelligence and data-driven systems have the potential to transform social housing allocations, ensuring that homes are matched to applicants more efficiently and fairly,” he told Alan Boswell Group. “By leveraging AI, councils can analyse applicants’ preferences, past refusals, and housing availability to make smarter, real-time allocation decisions. AI can also help identify patterns in refusals, enabling councils to set reasonable limits on the number of offers an applicant can turn down before reassessing their housing needs.”
With private rents soaring—£1,657 monthly in Barking and Dagenham, £2,332 in Hackney, and £3,155 in Westminster—the wait for social housing is a punishing reality for many, driving calls for smarter solutions to unlock the UK’s vacant stock and ease the burden on struggling households.