Housing need and supply in the borough

The role of the local Council

The Council is responsible for assessing the overall level of housing need across the borough. Bassed on this assessment, the Council sets the TMO and other social landlords in the borough targets indicating what proportion of their vacancies should go to different categories of applicants, for example: homeless persons, transfer applicants and overcrowded families. Targets are based on an assessment of the total number of properties which are likely to become available during the year and the relative needs of each category of applicants.

The Council’s Advice and Homeless team is also responsible for maintaining the statutory register. This register contains applications from homeless applicants, who are people the Council have accepted a legal duty to re-house and non Council tenants. This will include any of your family members and friends who wish to apply for housing. To contact the Council's Advice and Homeless Teams, telephone 020 7361 3008 or email housing@rbkc.gov.uk.

Supply and demand in the Borough

If you are a Council tenant you may be thinking about moving home. This may be for different reasons such as you need somewhere bigger after the birth of a baby or your home has become unsuitable because you or someone in your family have become ill. Or you just fancy a move to another area.

Your reasons for moving will affect your chances of finding somewhere some where else to live. This is because the TMO and the Council have to make sure that those people with the greatest need move first.

We expect between 250- 350 Council homes to become empty each year. There are over 1200 people waiting for a transfer and over 10000 people registered on the Council’s statutory register. Over a 1000 people approached the Council last year for permanent housing last year of which 400 people were accepted a homeless. We have nearly 1200 households living in temporary accommodation.

The longest queue and wait for transfer applicants is for family sized vacancies. To give you a general idea, this is a breakdown of the number of lettings the TMO made in April 2005 - March 2006.

Summary of lets divided into letting category and bed size

Please understand that we are not always able to help everyone who wants to move. This is because the number of people wanting to move each year is greater than the number of properties that become available. We would therefore ask you to think carefully about all the options available to you and talk to us about them if you are not sure which is right for you.

We let our vacancies through a choice based lettings scheme. Unless in exceptional circumstances, we will not make direct written offers to you but we advertise our properties through home connections.

Further information

To contact the TMO's Allocation Team, telephone 0800 137 111, or email: Allocations@kctmo.org.uk.