National statistics

Social housing lettings in England, tenancies: April 2021 to March 2022

Updated 19 February 2024

Applies to England

1. In this release:

• There were 267,000 new social housing lettings in 2021/22, an increase of 13% from the 237,000 lettings reported in 2020/21. However this is still 13% lower than the pre- COVID-19 figure of 306,000 in 2019/20, continuing the long-term fall in new lettings.

• Of the new social housing lettings in 2021/22, 73% were General Needs and 27% were Supported Housing.

• Social Rent comprised 84% of new social housing lettings in 2021/22, with Affordable Rent comprising 15% and Intermediate Rent comprising 1%.

• Private registered providers provided 71% of new social lettings, with local authorities providing the remaining 29% in 2021/22.

• Most new social lettings in 2021/22 were relets of existing social housing stock (89%). The remaining 11% were in properties that were newly built, acquired, rehabilitated or leased.

• In 2021/22, the North East had the highest rate of churn in England – the proportion of existing social stock that is relet – at 7.5%.

• 78% of new social lettings in 2021/22 were lifetime tenancies compared to 74% in 2020/21. Almost all new local authority lettings were lifetime (95%).

• The median weekly rent for new social housing lettings in 2021/22 was £89 compared to £87 in 2020/21. Regional differences saw average rents in London at £116 per week, compared to £78 in Yorkshire and the Humber.

2. Introduction

This series is about new social housing lettings in England in 2021/22 by local authorities and private registered providers. It covers new Social Rent, Affordable Rent and Intermediate Rent lets, for both General Needs and Supported Housing.

This “Tenancies” report focuses on information about the tenancies, rents, properties and stock ‘churn’ – how frequently social housing is relet.

The separate “Tenants” report focuses on the people living in these new social lettings – who they are, where they lived before, why they left their previous home, how long they were on the waiting list for, their route into social housing and whether they got suitable properties. It is available from the same landing page.

2.1 What are social housing lettings?

Social housing lettings are when social housing properties - homes owned by social landlords – are rented by households at cheaper rents than in the private sector. Social landlords can be a local authority (often known as “council housing”) or a private registered provider (which includes housing associations). They must be registered with the Regulator of Social Housing. In most areas, social housing is allocated by the local authority. Each local authority runs a “waiting list” as there are more people applying for social housing than properties available. 17% of households in England live in social housing^{[footnote 1]}.

New social housing lettings comprise a small part of the whole social rental sector as only 6% of the 4.2 million social properties were let during 2021/22.

3. New social housing lettings

3.1 Overall trends

In 2021/22, there were 267,000 new social housing lettings, a rise of 13% or 30,000 lettings from the previous year. It is likely that this year’s increase is due to a rebound effect from 2020/21 where COVID-19 restrictions caused a large decrease in new social lettings. Despite the increase this is still 13% lower than the pre- COVID-19 figure of 306,000 in 2019/20, continuing the long-term fall in new lettings.

New social lettings increased by 13% since last year but remain 13% lower than pre- COVID-19 levels.

Figure 1: Number of new social lettings by type 2007/08 - 2021/22

3.2 Housing type and rent type

What types of social housing are there?

Social housing can be broken down in many ways, by the type of organisation providing the letting, support provided and the rent basis. The tenants in these different groups have different needs and characteristics.

Needs type	Definition
Supported Housing (SH)	Housing with special design facilities or features targeted at a specific client group requiring support, for example housing designed for older people.
General Needs (GN)	The most common type of social stock. Housing that is not designated for specific client groups requiring support, or stock that does not have the special design features that are specific to Supported Housing.

Most new social housing lettings are not designed for a specific client group and are thus considered General Needs. These were by far the most common kind of social housing making up 73% of all new lettings in 2021/22,continuing the trend of the last 13 years.

General Needs lettings remain the most common type of letting, continuing the trend of the last 13 years.

Figure 2: Percentages of new social lettings by needs types 2007/08 - 2021/22

Table 1: Comparison of 2021/22 lettings to 2020/21 lettings by needs type

Needs type	2021/22 new lettings	2021/22 percentage of total	2020/21 new lettings	2020/21 percentage of total	Change in new lettings	Percentage change
General Needs	194,010	73%	170,403	72%	23,607	14%
Supported Housing	72,765	27%	66,303	28%	6,462	10%

Rent types	Definition
Social Rent (SR)	The most common type of rent. It is set in accordance with a national formula that takes account of relative local earnings, the property’s relative value and the number of bedrooms it has (For further details, please see Chapter 2 of the government’s policy statement on rents for social housing)[footnote 2]
Affordable Rent (AR)	Where the rent to be paid by tenants can be no more than 80% of the market value for the property.
Intermediate Rent (IR)	Often part of a specific named scheme. Rent must not exceed 80% of the current market rate, the reduced rent is an opportunity for the tenant to save towards a house purchasing deposit. There may also be a future opportunity to purchase all or a share of the property currently being rented.

Social Rent comprised the vast majority (84%) of new social housing lettings in 2021/22. This was similar to 86% in 2020/21.

Affordable Rent comprised 15% of all new social lettings in 2021/22, compared to 14% in 2020/21. The Affordable Rent programme began in 2011/12 for PRPs and in the following year for LAs. In 2012/13 it made up 7% of new lets and increased quickly to 13% in 2015/16. Since this increase the percentage of new lettings rented at Affordable rent has remained stable.

In 2017/18 the Rent to Buy programme was introduced. In 2021/22 Intermediate Rent was added as a new category in CORE to make it clearer how to record these lettings. As Rent to Buy is one type of Intermediate Rent, it became a sub-group of the new category. Intermediate Rent as a whole comprised 1% of new lettings in 2021/22.

Social Rent remains by far the most common rent type for new social lettings.

Figure 3: Percentages of new social lettings by rent types 2007/08 - 2021/22

Table 2: Comparison of 2021/22 lettings to 2020/21 lettings by rent types

Rent type	2021/22 lettings	2021/22 percentage of total	2020/21 lettings	2020/21 percentage of total	Change in lettings	Percentage change
Social Rent	224,906	84%	203,177	86%	21,729	11%
Affordable Rent	39,784	15%	32,878	14%	6,906	21%
Intermediate Rent (Only Rent to Buy in 2020/21)	2,086	0.8%	650	0.3%	1,436	221%

3.3 Providers of social housing

Who owns and lets social housing?

There are 2 types of social housing providers: local authorities and private registered providers. This section describes the key differences between these types of organisations and the lettings they provide.

Social housing providers	Definition
Local Authority (LA)	Commonly known as “council housing”. This is social housing provided directly by local government.
Private Registered Provider (PRP)	Commonly known as “housing associations”. These are providers of social housing who are private or charitable organisations and are registered with the Regulator of Social Housing.

PRPs accounted for 74% of organisations providing social housing in 2021/22, but only provided 71% of new lettings. On average each LA provided 498 new lettings in 2021/22, higher than the 427 average for PRPs. This suggests that the average PRP services fewer households than the average LA.

PRPs account for the majority of providers and new lettings for 2021/22.

Figure 4: Comparison of numbers of providers and lettings by provider types for new social lettings in 2021/22

Table 3: Comparison of 2021/22 lettings to 2020/21 lettings by provider types

Provider type	2021/22 lettings	2021/22 percentage of total	2020/21 lettings	2020/21 percentage of total	Change in lettings	Percentage change
Local Authority	76,128	29%	63,089	27%	13,039	21%
Private Registered Provider	190,648	71%	173,616	73%	17,032	10%

Figure 5 shows that there are far more PRPs than LAs. Most individual PRPs provided a smaller number of new lettings than most LAs but there are a few PRPs which provided a large amount of lettings.

Most individual PRPs provide a smaller number of new lettings than most LA in 2021/22.

Figure 5: Distribution of new lettings by provider type and organisation, 2021/22

The 20 largest social housing providers (in terms of new lets) provided 27% of all new lets despite constituting just 3% of all organisations. Of these 20, only 3 were councils (Birmingham City Council, Leeds City Council and Sheffield City Council). The top 3 largest PRPs were Anchor Hanover, Bromford Housing Association Limited and Clarion Housing Group. These 3 PRPs provided 6% of all new lettings in 2021/22.

The proportion of new social lettings provided by LAs has been gradually falling for the last 14 years.

Figure 6: Percentage of new social lettings by provider type, 2007/08 - 2021/22

Since 2007/08 the share of new lettings provided by local authorities has been gradually falling to their current levels, from 40% to 29%.

Whilst new social lettings as a whole have fallen by 33% since the peak in 2013/14, LAs saw a decrease of 39% compared to a PRP decreased of 30%.

This year, however, new lets as a whole increased by 13%, likely due to the lifting of the COVID-19 restrictions introduced in 2020/21. PRP-provided lettings increased by 10% and LA-provided lettings increased by 21%.

The long-term trend of a declining LA share of new lettings can be partly attributed to LA stock shrinking by 6% since 2013/14. In contrast, PRP stock has grown by 9% during the same period. In total, over the last decade social housing stock has been increasing each year and now stands at 4.2 million units.

This suggests other factors are responsible for the decline of new social lettings since 2013/14, for example, the widening affordability gap between social and market rents.

Despite the increase in PRP stock the total number of new social lettings has fallen since 2011/12.

Figure 7: Changes in lettings and stock by provider type as a percentage of 2011/12 values

3.4 Monthly trends

The restrictions introduced in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic likely led to a reduction in the number of new social housing lettings in 2020/21. The fall was larger in months with tighter restrictions, for example in April and May of 2020.

In 2021/22 there was a return to a more typical pattern of new lettings throughout the year with between 7% and 9% of the yearly total in each month.

2021/22 saw a return to a more even spread of new lettings across the year compared to COVID-19 impacted 2020/21.

Figure 8: New social lettings by starting month, 2017/18 - 2021/22

3.5 Location of new lettings

All regions in England saw in an increase in new social housing lettings in 2021/22 compared to the previous year. The percentage increase was the largest in the East of England at 20%, with the smallest in the North West at 5%.

Since the 2013/14 peak in new lettings all regions have seen a decrease but the scale of the fall has varied across the regions. London and Yorkshire  and the Humber saw the biggest fall in new lettings with a 47% fall. The South East saw the smallest fall, with a 19% decrease in new lettings since 2013/14.

The North West continues to be the region with the most new lettings while the East Midlands has fallen behind East of England to be the region with the fewest lettings.

Since 2013/14 all regions have seen a decrease in lettings. This decrease has been larger in London and Yorkshire and the Humber.

Figure 9: New social lettings by Region, 2011/12 - 2021/22

Table 4: Regional changes in new lettings 2020/21 - 2021/22

Region Name	2021/22 lettings	2021/22 percentage of total	2020/21 lettings	2020/21 percentage of total	Change in lettings	Percentage change
East Midlands	22,000	9%	20,000	9%	2,000	8%
East of England	28,000	11%	23,000	10%	5,000	21%
London	24,000	9%	22,000	10%	2,000	9%
North East	22,000	9%	19,000	9%	3,000	13%
North West	40,000	16%	38,000	17%	2,000	6%
South East	34,000	13%	28,000	12%	6,000	23%

South West	24,000	9%	22,000	10%	2,000	9%
West Midlands	33,000	13%	30,000	13%	3,000	9%
Yorkshire and The Humber	28,000	11%	24,000	11%	4,000	16%

The North West had the most new lettings of all English regions in 2021/22.

Figure 10: New social lettings by Region in 2021/22

4. Vacant properties

4.1 How many vacant social housing properties are there?

There were 32,000 vacant LA-owned dwellings as at 31 March 2022. This was a 5% increase on the previous year and the highest since 2009, but still remains relatively low compared to 101,000 vacant dwellings in 1989^{[footnote 3]}. Of the 32,000 vacant dwellings on 31 March 2021, at least 15,000 were available for letting.

There were 52,000 vacant PRP-owned dwellings as at 31 March 2022, of which 34,000 were General Needs and 10,000 were Supported Housing. This was a 5% increase on the previous year (50,000), continuing the steady increase seen in previous years^{[footnote 4]}. Vacant General Needs properties increased by 14% whereas Supported Housing decreased by 6%. Of the 34,000 General Needs vacant properties, 19,000 were available for letting.

4.2 How long are social housing properties vacant?

The median number of days an existing social property property was vacant before being let was 28 days in 2021/22, which is unchanged from 2020/21.

The average number of vacant days had been consistent at 20 days from 2015/16 to 2019/20, however during Covid-19 it rose to 28. This is likely to be related to the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent drop in new lettings. National restrictions preventing house moves that were not deemed “reasonably necessary” meant properties remained vacant for longer than they otherwise would have.

Median vacant days have fallen in 2021/22 but are still higher than pre- COVID-19 levels.

Figure 11: Median vacant days of new social lettings, 2007/08-2021/22

Supported Housing properties were vacant for 20 days on average before being let, compared to 30 days for General Needs properties. This suggests a higher level of demand for Supported Housing or a lower level of supply. Supported Housing, by definition, requires special adaptations or provision of services to meet a tenant’s needs so Supported Housing and General Needs stock are not always interchangeable.

Local authority properties were vacant for longer before a new let on average than for PRPs in 2021/22.

Figure 12: Median vacant days of new social lettings by letting type, 2021/22

4.3 Why were social housing properties vacant before being let?

11% of new lets in 2021/22 were let for the first time as social housing. This includes conversions, acquisitions and rehabilitations as well as new builds and leases. The remaining 89% were relets of existing social housing stock.

One in ten new lettings were of properties let for the first time as social housing from 2007/08 to 2021/22.

Figure 13: Breakdown of new lettings by whether they were a first let or relet, 2007/08-2021/22

First let or relet differs considerably by rent type. Nearly half (49%) of new lettings in Affordable Rent properties were first lets, similar to 40% of new Intermediate Rent lets, while only 4% of new Social Rent lets were first lets.

The difference between rent types is likely due to the fact that Affordable and Intermediate Rents were only introduced within the last decade whereas Social Rent is much older. This means that the majority (87%)^{[footnote 5]} of stock held by LAs and PRPs is socially rented.

The most common reason for a property to be vacant before a new Intermediate or Social Rent letting was the previous tenant moving to the private sector or other accommodation (43% and 32% of lettings respectively). For Affordable Rent lettings it was first let of a new build property (46% of lettings).

Ten times more new Affordable and Intermediate Rent tenancies were first lets of the property than for Social Rent.

Figure 14: Breakdown of vacancy reason by rent type, 2021/22

5. Tenancy types of new lettings

5.1 Tenancy type and length

There are 3 categories of social housing tenancy type: fixed term, lifetime and licence agreements. Each differ in length and level of security; some are more appropriate of particular types of tenants.

Tenancy types	Definition
Fixed term	Fixed term tenancies are tenancies of a set length, provided by both LAs (secure flexible) and PRPs (assured shorthold). For General Needs, the minimum length is 5 years (though may be shorter in exceptional circumstances) and the maximum length is 20 years.
Lifetime	These are tenancies given for the lifetime of the tenant and are provided by both LAs (secure) and PRPs (assured).
Licence agreement	These are provided by both LAs and PRPs and are not a formal tenancy. They have no set length or end date and are mainly used for Supported Housing, not General Needs.

How many new fixed and lifetime tenancies were there in 2021/22?

The majority (78%) of new social housing tenancies in 2021/22 were lifetime (207,000 tenancies) whilst 11% had a fixed end date (29,000 tenancies). General Needs tenancies of less than 2 years are not collected in CORE as these are deemed “temporary”, thereby reducing the proportion of tenancies of fixed length when compared to Supported Housing.

Lifetime tenancies were split into Assured lifetime tenancies (51% of the total, or 135,000 lets) which were mainly let by PRPs, and Secure lifetime tenancies (27% of the total, or 72,000 lets) which were mainly let by LAs. In addition to this a further 11% (29,000 lets) were licence agreements which have no fixed end date, almost all of which are used for Supported Housing to allow flexibility if tenant’s support needs change.

Which provider types were most likely to give a lifetime tenancy?

Local authorities were more likely to provide their tenant with a lifetime tenancy than PRPs. Almost all (95%) new LA lets were lifetime tenancies, and just 3% were fixed term. This compares to 71% of new PRP lets being lifetime and 14% being fixed term.

However, PRPs provided the highest number of lifetime tenancies as their share of the sector is overall much larger. PRPs provided 134,911 new lifetime social lettings; LAs provided 72,293. PRPs provided almost all (97%) of the 27,855 new licence agreements in 2021/22.

Almost all (95%) new social lettings by LAs were lifetime compared to 71% of new lettings by PRPs.

Figure 15: Tenancy type by provider type, 2021/22

How has the use of lifetime tenancies changed over time?

PRPs increased their use of lifetime tenancies in 2021/22, with lifetime tenancies rising from 67% of new PRP lets in 2020/21 to 71% in 2021/22. Fixed term tenancies fell correspondingly; from 15% in 2020/21 to 14% in 2021/22.

Similarly for LAs the proportion of lifetime tenancies increased slightly from 94% in 2020/21 to 95% in 2021/22. While fixed term tenancies fell correspondingly; from 4% in 2020/21 to 3% in 2021/22.

How has the use of fixed term tenancies changed over time?

The Localism Act 2011 enabled social housing providers to offer fixed term tenancies. However, the use of fixed term tenancies varies between PRPs and LAs:

• For PRPs the proportion of fixed term tenancies steadily increased to 25% in 2018/19, then dropped overall to 14% in 2021/22.

• LAs saw was a large increase in the proportion of fixed term lettings to 8% in 2014/15, then gradually fell. They now make up just 3% of new LA lets in 2021/22.

Since 2012/13 lifetime tenancies have made up the majority of new social lettings for both LAs and PRPs.

Figure 16: Percentage of new social lettings by tenancy type and provider type, 2007/08-2021/22

Are there differences between General Needs and Supported Housing?

Use of fixed term tenancies is similar - they accounted for 11% of new General Needs lettings in 2021/22, compared to 10% for Supported Housing. This gap has been narrowing through recent years.

Use of licence agreements varies considerably - they are almost zero (0.1% of lettings) for General Needs lettings, whereas they account for 39% of Supported Housing tenancies.

The proportion of lifetime tenancies for both General Needs and Supported Housing has been increasing since 2018/19.

Figure 17: Percentage of new social lettings by tenancy type and needs type, 2007/08-2021/22

How long are fixed term tenancies?

There were 3,900 Supported Housing tenancies (53% of the fixed term lettings) that had a length of less than 2 years. General Needs tenancies of less than 2 years are deemed temporary and not collected in CORE.

When considering only fixed term tenancies of 2 years or more to ensure like-for-like comparison, Supported Housing tenancies were much more likely to be shorter. Only 16% of General Needs tenancies were 2-4 years compared to 63% for Supported Housing, whilst 79% of General Needs tenancies were for 5-9 years compared to just 30% for Supported Housing.

The majority of new fixed term lettings were for less than 2 years for Supported Housing and 5-9 years for General Needs.

Figure 18: Percentage of fixed term new social lettings by tenancy length and needs type, 2021/22

The minimum length of a General Needs fixed term tenancy is set at 5 years, but under exceptional circumstances shorter tenancies may be provided. Supported Housing is more likely to have tenants with the exceptional circumstances to meet the condition, which could explain these differences.

6. Size and features of new lettings

6.1 How many bedrooms are in the properties used in new lettings?

37% of new General Needs lettings in 2021/22 had 1 bedroom (this includes bedsits), 42% had 2 bedrooms, 19% had 3 bedrooms and 2% had 4 or more bedrooms.

For Supported Housing lettings the number of bedrooms is not collected so no equivalent comments can be made.

Using the 2021 Census data, new General Needs social housing lettings in 2021/22 were more likely to have less bedrooms than the average household space^{[footnote 6]}.

Table 5: Number of Bedroom comparison between new General Needs social lettings in 2021/22 and average household space in England and Wales

Number of Bedrooms	2021/22 percentage of total new social lettings	Average for household spaces in England and Wales
1 Bedroom	37%	11%
2 Bedrooms	42%	27%
3 Bedrooms	19%	40%
4+ Bedrooms	2%	21%

The number of bedrooms in properties used in new lettings has remained fairly consistent in recent years.

Figure 19: New General Needs social lettings by number of bedrooms, 2007/08 - 2021/22

6.2 Are new lettings suitable for wheelchair users?

Since 2007/08 the percentage of new General Needs lets that have been built to or adapted to wheelchair user standards has increased for both provider types, from 2% to 6% for Local Authorities and 4% to 7% for Private Registered Providers.

The percentage of new General Needs social lettings in properties that have been built or adapted to wheelchair standards has steadily increased since 2007/08.

Figure 20: Percentage of new General Needs lettings built or adapted to wheelchair standards by provider type, 2007/08 - 2021/22

In Supported Housing, a quarter (25%) of new local authority lettings were built or adapted to wheelchair user standards whilst for private registered providers it was 23%. Data for Supported Housing lettings is only available for recent years so no comment can be made on the long-term trend.

7. Rents of new lettings

7.1 How expensive is social housing?

The median rent for new social housing tenancies in England in 2021/22 was £89 per week, rising slightly from £87 the previous year.

Rents in London were £116 per week, nearly a quarter (23%) higher than the English average of £89 per week^{[footnote 6]}. However rents in London provided a greater saving compared to market rents, which is what the household would be paying if they were renting in the private sector.

Meanwhile the median rent in Yorkshire and the Humber of £78 per week was the lowest of the English regions and was 14% lower than for the whole of England.

There was substantial regional difference between median weekly rent for new social lettings and market rent in 2021/22.

Figure 21: Median weekly rents by Region and rent type (£), 2021/22

7.2 What effect does the rent type have on rent levels?

Rent charged varies depending on rent type. Affordable Rents and Intermediate Rents by definition are set at up to 80% of market rent, whilst social rents are set via a national formula and are typically lower than Affordable Rents.

The median weekly Social Rent for a new let in England in 2021/22 was £85 per week, 46% of market rent. The year before, the median Social Rent was almost the same amount (£84 per week) but this was 50% of market rent. This shows that rents in the private sector increased faster than in the social sector.

The median Affordable Rent was £127 per week, 69% of market rent. For Intermediate Rent it was £147 per week, 80% of market rent.

7.3 Do rent levels vary by needs type?

The median weekly rent for new Social Rent Supported Housing lets was £88 in 2021/22 and £85 for new Social Rent General Needs lets. For new Affordable Rent lets, General Needs were more expensive with median weekly rents of £128 compared to £119 for Supported Housing. The pattern is similar for Intermediate Rent, where the median weekly rent for new General Needs lettings is £148 compared to £82 for new Supported Housing lettings.

Care should be taken with the Intermediate Rent comparison as there were only 31 Intermediate Rent Supported Housing lettings in 2021/22.

As the number of bedrooms is not collected for Supported Housing it is not possible to compare rents of similar sized properties, however based on the number of people in the household it is likely that Supported Housing properties are smaller on average. Supported Housing may have more specialised services to cater for the needs of the tenants living in the property and the costs of these services may be passed on to tenants via higher rents.

7.4 How have rents changed over time?

Between 2007/08 and 2013/14 median weekly Social rents increased steadily from £59 to £79. They increased more slowly since then, reaching £85 in 2021/22.

The Affordable Rent programme was launched in 2012/13 and, with the exception of a brief fall in 2016/17, has seen a steady rise from £105 per week to £127 in 2021/22.

In 2017/18 Rent to Buy lettings were added to CORE as a separate category. Median weekly rent dropped from £112 in 2017/18 to £84 in the following year. The scale of this drop is likely due to the small numbers of lettings in 2018/19 which meant a small number of cheaper lettings had a large effect on the median. Following this drop weekly rents have increased to their current median values of £147. For 2021/22 Rent to Buy was expanded in CORE to include other intermediate rent products and is now referred to as Intermediate Rent.

Comparing these median weekly rent values to those of the English Housing Survey median weekly rent values for private renters^{[footnote 7]} over the period that each rent type has existed we see that:

• New Social Rent lettings median weekly rent increased by 35% whereas rent increased by 33% for private renters (2007/08 to 2021/22)

• New Affordable Rent lettings median weekly rent increased by 21% whereas rent increased by 25% for private renters (2012/13 to 2021/22)

• New Intermediate Rent lettings median weekly rent increased by 31% whereas rent increased by 8% for private renters (2017/18 to 2021/22)

Rents for new social lettings have been steadily increasing.

Figure 22: Median weekly rents by rent type (£), 2007/08 - 2021/22

7.5 Are tenants in new social lettings paying lower rents than those already living in social housing?

For social lettings provided by local authorities in 2021/22, median weekly rents for new lettings were 11% lower than those paid by existing households in social housing provided by local authorities^{[footnote 7]} (£81 compared to £91).

Similarly, median rents for new PRP lets in 2021/22 were 8% lower than for existing households in PRP  lettings^{[footnote 7]} (£93 compared to £101).

This is likely to be because churn – the proportion of social housing stock relet each year – is greater in the north where rents are lower than in London and the South East.

7.6 Has the gap between rents for new lettings and those already in social housing widened?

Median weekly rents for new LA-provided lets have remained lower than rents for all LA-provided lets each year since 2008/09. The same is true for PRP-provided lets.

Despite steady increases in weekly rents, new social lettings continue to have lower median weekly rents than existing social lettings.

Figure 23: Median weekly rents by provider type and whether the letting is new or existing (£), 2008/09 - 2021/22

Weekly rents for both new social lettings and the social sector as a whole increased from 2007/08 to 2015/16. Between 2015/16 and 2019/20 average rents for new lets flattened, whereas for the sector as a whole, rents slightly fell (3% for PRPs and 2% for LAs). Since 2019/20 median rents for both new lets and the sector as a whole lets have been increasing overall.

Table 7: Weekly rent comparison between new lets and existing lets 2008/09 and 2021/22

Provider type	New or existing letting?	2008/09 median weekly rent	2021/22 median weekly rent	Percentage change
Local Authority (LA)	New letting	£57	£81	42%
Local Authority (LA)	Existing letting	£64	£91	42%
Private Registered Provider (PRP)	New letting	£67	£93	39%
Private Registered Provider (PRP)	Existing letting	£72	£101	40%

7.7 Number of bedrooms and weekly rent

The number of bedrooms in a property has an impact on the median weekly rent. This is illustrated by the chart below, where General Needs properties with 1 bedroom are by far the cheapest and those with 4 bedrooms are the most expensive, for both Social Rent and Affordable Rent. Four-bedroom properties were 50% more expensive than 1-bedroom properties for Social Rent, 68% more expensive for Affordable Rent and 23% expensive for Intermediate Rent.

For new Social and Affordable rent social lettings the more bedrooms a property has the higher the weekly rent on average.

Figure 24: Median weekly rents (£) for new social lettings by number of bedrooms, 2008/09 - 2021/22

Intermediate Rent rents are not included in figure 24 are not included due to the small numbers of lettings within each bedroom category.

Data on the number of bedrooms of Supported Housing properties is not collected so a similar comparison can not be made for these lettings.

8. Is there a link between new lettings and stock?

The number of new lettings reported through CORE varies across the country, linked to the availability of stock available to let. This stock includes existing social stock that has become vacant, plus properties available for their first social let this year such as new builds, acquisitions, and rehabilitations.

Figure 25 shows total lettings as a percentage of total stock by local authority area. This illustrates that generally a higher proportion of stock was newly let (churn of stock) in northern England than in the south. For example the North East had 7.5% of it’s social stock relet during 2021/22, compared to 2.5% for London.

Local Authority and Private Registered Provider renters had lived at their current address for an average of 14.3 years and 11.6 years, respectively. This is considerably longer than the average of 4.4 years in the private rental sector^{[footnote 8]}.

Social housing churn is higher in the north of England than the south.

Figure 25: Social housing stock churn by Region, 2021/22

8.1 Why is there a difference in social stock churn across the country?

One possible explanation for this higher turnover in the North and Midlands is affordability, as seen in figure 26 below. We can see a widening affordability gap between the social and private rental sectors, especially in London and the South East, which may discourage existing social tenants from moving into private accommodation, which would reduce turnover in these areas.

For example, the median weekly private sector rent in London was £335 per week in 2021/22^{[footnote 9]}, while in the North East, the North West and Yorkshire and the Humber it was less than £150 (England average was £183). The proportion of social housing stock relet in London during the year was 2.5%, compared to 7.5% in the North East, 6.2% in the North West and 6.1% in Yorkshire and the Humber.

Local authorities with a higher rate of stock churn have social rents closer to market rents.

Figure 26: Average rent for new social lets as a proportion of market rent against social stock churn by local authority area, 2021/22

Footnotes

1. English Housing Survey 2021 to 2022, Section 1: household annex tables AT1_1. ↩

2. Policy statement on rents for social housing. ↩

3. LAHS live table 612. ↩

4. Private registered provider social housing stock and rents in England, 2021 to 2022. ↩

5. Registered provider social housing stock and rents in England 2021 to 2022, Registered providers additional tables, Table 1.1 (Excel, 144KB). ↩

6. ONS 2021 Census data on numbers of bedrooms in household spaces for England and Wales. ↩ ↩²

7. English Housing Survey 2021 to 2022, Section 1: household annex tables AT1_11. ↩ ↩² ↩³

8. English Housing Survey 2021 to 2022, Section 1: household annex tables AT1_22. ↩

9. Office for National Statistics, Private rental market summary statistics in England 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022, Table 2.7. ↩