‘Not ideal’: One in six homeless Greenwich households sent outside London

One in six homeless households were sent to live outside London by Greenwich Council last year – a figure which the borough’s own housing boss has admitted is “not ideal”.

Greenwich placed 982 households in temporary accommodation between April 2022 and March this year – about 19 each week. Of these, 170 were given a place to live outside the capital – the third highest number of any London borough, an investigation by Inside Housing magazine found.

While the proportion of households being sent outside London is about average for the capital, the number is much higher than most others – demonstrating the demand being placed on Greenwich’s housing services. Only six other boroughs placed more families in temporary accommodation.

The news comes as Greenwich considers cutting its 27,000-strong housing waiting list by removing access to the low-priority applicants. About 20,000 households on the list – making up Band C – have little prospect of being housed by the council. A consultation began last month.

Of the 29 boroughs that responded to the magazine’s Freedom of Information Act request, only Redbridge and Brent moved more families to other parts of England.

The investigation by chief reporter Gráinne Cuffe – a former contributor to this site in her previous role as a local democracy reporter – paints a picture of boroughs closer to central London sending families to their suburban neighbours, who then have to move families beyond the capital, in turn putting pressure on those councils. 

While Lewisham only sent three per cent of applicants outside the capital, Bexley and Bromley each sent 19 per cent, while in Kent, Dartford and Medway said their own housing services were coming under pressure because of the number of London councils housing families in their areas.

A separate investigation by the i newspaper spoke to a full-time carer who had lost her home in Plumstead. She was moved with her husband – a council worker in west London – and two children to a Travelodge in Croydon, then to Greenhithe, near Dartford, an hour’s drive or two hours by bus from the children’s schools. 

Greenwich says that it always tries to find temporary accommodation within the borough and has a policy for prioritising those who need it the most, and always tries to ensure that locations are suitable, taking into account access to transport.

The council has been putting proceeds from right-to-buy sales into buying homes for temporary accommodation, with 525 homes bought since 2017, and using grants from City Hall to buy another 36 homes.

In the last month Greenwich also secured £6 million in government funding to match borrowing so it can buy 28 homes for temporary accommodation and two for Afghan and Ukrainian refugees.

The council is also spending big on building 1,750 new council homes, and said that last year work on more “affordable” housing – a catch-all term which also includes shared ownership and other discounted schemes – began in Greenwich than in any other borough.

But Pat Slattery, the council’s cabinet member for housing, said it could take many years before it had the resources to adequately deal with homelessness.

She said: “The Royal Borough of Greenwich has more than 27,000 households on its housing waiting list, and more than 1,800 households living in temporary accommodation. Those figures are stark, but are sadly not unusual in London, where more than a decade of disastrous government policies have led to an unprecedented housing crisis.  

“We are exploring every possible option to ensure that we secure much needed housing, of all types. This is a huge amount of work and will not happen overnight. 

“It will take years, perhaps decades, of investment from central government to adequately address the challenges we and other councils are facing. We need the government to remove shackles from local authorities and bring in a fairer funding deal, one that is more strategic and allows us to plan for demand.   

“In the meantime, sadly, we have no option but to place residents experiencing homelessness further away than we would like.  It’s not ideal, but a property outside London can be a better solution than a hostel or hotel. 

“We wish that there were better alternatives, but demand for properties far outweighs the supply we have. With homelessness at near-record levels and an estimated 166,000 Londoners currently living in temporary accommodation, it is a significant challenge for local authorities across the capital and beyond.” 

Slattery said that no decision had been made on removing access to the Band C waiting list.

The waiting list consultation is at rbg-housing-waiting-list.commonplace.is.