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Social housing vacancies across England and Wales “at their highest in Blackpool” (17 August 2015)

Date: 17/08/2015
Duncan Lewis, Housing Solicitors, Social housing vacancies across England and Wales “at their highest in Blackpool”

New figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that the London Borough of Newham in east London has the highest average social rent in England and Wales – and Blackpool has the highest proportion of empty social housing across England and Wales.

Social housing publisher 24dash.com reports that Newham's average weekly rent of £128.90 is just under double that of the cheapest rent in Pembrokeshire, Wales, which is an estimated £65.50.

ONS says this is indicative of a general pattern of higher social rent costs in areas of London and the southeast, compared with other parts of the country.

The figures show that in 2014, there were 104 areas with average social rents of more than £100 per week, including all 32 London boroughs.

London’s local authorities have some of the most dense social housing areas across England and Wales, with the top seven boroughs for social housing being London boroughs.

Southwark in south London is the area with the highest percentage of social housing, with 43.5% of the overall housing stock being social housing – across England and Wales generally the percentage of social housing stock is 17.4%.

Urban and inner city areas tend to have the highest percentage of social housing stock – although Merthyr Tydfil, Blaenau Gwent and Torfaen in Wales are in the top 20% of all local authorities for the amount of social housing in the boroughs.

Since 2000 and up to 2013-2014, a total of 398,170 social housing properties have been added to the stock – including both newbuilds and the acquisition of existing buildings.

There have also been 457,757 sales of social housing under Right to Buy during the same period.

The ONS figures also show that, despite the number of social housing vacancies being generally low, a small number of areas have high vacant social housing compared with England and Wales overall – which on average has 1.4% vacant social housing stock.

In 2014, Blackpool had the highest percentage of vacant social housing across England and Wales at 5.9%.

Less than 25% of all areas have more than 2% vacant social housing, however.

The ONS said:

“Generally, the prevalence of vacant social housing was not strongly correlated with the prevalence of social housing overall.

“Areas with a relatively high demand for social housing did not have a lower prevalence of vacant social housing, and vice versa.

“The areas with the largest shortfall in social housing were Medway, Solihull and the Isle of Wight (239%, 143% and 123% respectively).

“All areas had a shortfall of social housing, except three – Allerdale (-1.7%), Wyre (-1.5%) and Milton Keynes (-0.7%).

“These areas were unique in that they reported waiting lists of zero households in 2014, despite having waiting lists of more than 1,000 in years prior.

“This means that any vacant social housing represents a surplus rather than a shortfall, which was exhibited by all other areas.”

Duncan Lewis Housing Solicitors

Duncan Lewis housing solicitors are one of the UK’s leading providers of Legal Aid housing advice and can advise social housing tenants on a wide range of housing matters, including:

• Disrepair of rented property
• Anti-social behaviour problems
• Housing Benefit
• Housing fraud
• Local Authority housing
• Local council’s obligation to rehouse (Section 193)
• Nuisance neighbours
• Right to Buy (including conveyancing)
• Tenancy agreements
• Unlawful eviction.

For expert legal advice on housing law, call Duncan Lewis housing solicitors on 020 7923 4020.


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