Housing in Hammersmith

Housing in Hammersmith



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Overview

90 per cent of the public believe the provision of a home is a basic human right.

Estimates suggest the average weekly rent charged by local authorities is £47.71 in 2001–2002.

Recent research indicates that local authorities anti-fraud measures have contributed to a £6.5 billion saving in housing benefit expenditure.

81,260 homeless households were in temporary accommodation in the first quarter of 2002, 3 per cent more
than at the same time in the previous year.

User satisfaction surveys show that 77 per cent of council tenants are satisfied with the services provided to them by
their local authorities.

62 per cent of local authority households and 63 per cent social landlord households were receiving housing benefit in 2000–2001.

Locally

The Council's Housing Services Department directly manages 16,000 homes through seven area offices and provides services for private and housing association tenants.

Housing Tenure:
private sector - 51,363
council tenants - 14,421
registered social landlord - 10,996
other public sector - 221

Hammersmith & Fulham is a divided borough - the research from the Housing Needs Research 1992-98 showed that middle-income households have left all tenures in the borough. Hammersmith & Fulham is a borough where the incomes of black households are only a third of those of white households. It is a borough where 76% of households containing someone with a special need have incomes below £10,400 a year (compared to below 40% of other households). The majority of Black and special needs households live in the borough's social housing (76% of black households live in social housing and 60% of special needs households live in social housing).

Housing Needs Research 1992-98
Numbers of households in council housing claiming has dropped by 8% while numbers claiming in housing association properties have increased by 15%

Overall satisfaction with accommodation has remained stable; the only significant difference is for housing association tenants who are 6% more satisfied and 7% less dissatisfied. The only ethnic group more dissatisfied is the Asian group. Special needs households are much less satisfied with their housing than non-special needs households.

Housing Priorities
The council’s three key strategic objectives for housing are to:
Maximise access to affordable housing.
To improve the standard of housing.
To promote sustainable communities.

In 2002/3 the London Housing Forum (GLA, ALG, Housing Corporation and Government Office for London) will be producing the first London Housing Strategy. This will set the framework for the review of our 2002/3 Housing Strategy and, in particular our approach to new affordable housing and the planning regime, the intermediate housing market, homelessness and private sector renewal. 2002/3 should also see the publication of the West London Housing Strategy. The Government Office for London has made clear the importance of effective sub-regional strategies to address key issues on the local housing market and housing need and how these tie in to existing sub-regional economic and transport strategies to deliver the Government’s policy agenda for housing.

Best Value 2002-03