Waiting list for social homes in Luton grows

Figures from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government show there were 11,426 households waiting for a social home from Luton Council as of March. This was a rise from 8,716 a year earlier.

These figures only cover council waiting lists, and do not include privately-provided social housing.

Luton Borough Council has recently signed up to the 'Securing the Future of Council Housing' campaign, to ask the new Government to fix the social housing system and take urgent action to deliver on housing promises.

The data suggests there could be 1.3 million households on council waiting lists across England as of March, although some households may have been counted twice if they have applied to multiple councils.

This was a 3 per cent rise from 2023 and a 13 per cent rise from March 2020.

A spokesperson for the council said: “Luton is at the forefront of the UK housing crisis and currently faces an unprecedented demand for housing which unfortunately, has meant a rise in waiting lists.

“There are many varied reasons for this, including rising rents during the cost-of-living crisis, contributing to more families facing homelessness because of the high number of tenancies terminating. This is exacerbated by the Local Housing Allowance, which falls short of actual rents in the town. Other factors include that Luton appears to be a frequent choice when relocating people in housing need for other boroughs, thus reducing housing options for local people.”

The council also noted that the Home Office policy of accommodating disproportionately higher numbers of asylum seekers in Luton, compared with other councils in the region, has impacted their housing stock.

The spokesperson added: “We are furthermore restricted in our ability to deliver more social housing due to our tightly bound borough and limited development space. The stock of social housing in Luton is very low, and this has been amplified by the recent changes in the Right to Buy scheme, whereby we had a surge of applications before the changes in the discount rates. This further impacts the amount of social housing that is available to meet housing need.”