Metric permalink
Social housing waiting lists (England)
Part of the Housing and Household Formation domain. Number of households on local authority waiting lists for social housing in England, indicating pent-up demand for affordable rented homes.
Latest data
Latest reading
31 Mar 2025
A higher reading is treated as worse for this indicator.
Score composition
Stress score
Blended from three components: (60% weight), trend (30% weight) and volatility (10% weight). Full formula on the methodology page.
Level · 60% weight
Percentile: this metric is scored against its own history, where today sits between its best and worst recorded years.
Trend · 30% weight
Measured from the direction and size of the change between the two most recent readings.
Volatility · 10% weight
53Measured from how much this indicator has swung period on period across its recorded history.
Data confidence and provenance
Confidence and source
How much weight to put on the reading, the mean data-confidence across the component metrics (source quality, recency and completeness).
Source
Local authority housing statistics, waiting lists
- Update frequency
- Annual
- Reliability
- medium
Provenance
- Provider
- MHCLG
- Series ID
- LA housing register, England
- Frequency
- annual
- Accessed
- 13 June 2026
Known weakness
Register inflation is a known limitation: local authorities apply different eligibility criteria and removal processes, causing list sizes to be incomparable across areas.
Notes
Verified official value from MHCLG (LA housing register, England), accessed 2026-06-13.
Historical values
History
| Period | Value | Relative |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 1.76 | |
| 2011 | 1.84 | |
| 2012 | 1.85 | |
| 2013 | 1.69 | |
| 2014 | 1.37 | |
| 2015 | 1.26 | |
| 2016 | 1.19 | |
| 2017 | 1.16 | |
| 2018 | 1.13 | |
| 2019 | 1.16 | |
| 2020 | 1.14 | |
| 2021 | 1.19 | |
| 2022 | 1.22 | |
| 2023 | 1.29 | |
| 2024 | 1.33 | |
| 2025 | 1.34 |