Lewisham housing allocations policy

Our Housing Allocations Policy is used to decide who can join the housing register and the priority they should have for rehousing.

There are currently far more people applying for social housing than we have properties available to accommodate them. There are currently over 10,000 households on Lewisham’s housing register and less than 1,000 properties, on average, available for letting each year.

While we continue to deliver hundreds of new social homes for Lewisham residents, it would still take us many years to make an offer of a property to most households on the register. The current average waiting time for a property can be up to 30 years, depending on the number of bedrooms you need. Many will never be successful in securing a property through the register. We feel it is important to be honest and upfront about the limited supply of social housing and the challenges we face as a borough, so that you are able to take informed decisions about your housing situation.

Given the high demand for social housing and limited number of available properties, our new Housing Allocations Policy has increased the number of priority bands from three to four. This aims to ensure that those with greatest need are prioritised. The bands are now as follows:

Band 1: Emergency Priority
Band 2: High Priority
Band 3: Medium Priority
Band 4: Low Priority

Find out more about applying for social housing.