News

More than 11,000 people now waiting for council housing in Nottingham

By Joe Locker, Local Democracy Reporter

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More than 400 people applied to join Nottingham’s council house register every month in the first quarter of the year, new figures show.

Nottingham City Council says the supply of council housing is “falling significantly short of demand”, with the numbers on the waiting list now surpassing 11,000 people in the city alone.

The Labour-led authority has now sold more than 24,000 council homes since the early 1980s, under Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s Right to Buy policy.

Under the policy council house tenants have been able to buy their homes at a discount, which currently stands at a maximum of 70 per cent, depending on the length of the occupant’s tenancy.

However, council homes have been purchased under Right to Buy at a much faster rate than local authorities have been able to replace them, meaning there is now a major shortage of social housing across the country.

Nottingham’s stock has reduced by almost as many council homes as are left under the ownership of the council in the entire city, which currently sits at 26,000.

“Demand for social housing remains high,” the council says.

“At the end of 2020, the council had just under 8,900 households on the housing register.

“In April 2025, the council had over 11,000 households on the register, which is the highest figure in ten years.

“Between January 2025 and March 2025, the council received on average nearly 450 housing applications each month.

“Nottingham is not immune to the challenges surrounding the national supply of social housing and is falling significantly short of demand, leading to long waiting times.”

The council is currently reviewing its housing allocations policy, which determines the priorities and a procedure setting out how it prioritises households looking to join the housing register.

The policy further sets out how the council allocates the available social housing properties to households on the register, via its HomeLink system.

It was last reviewed in 2019.

A public consultation will be taking place later in August asking people for their thoughts on the new policy, which will be discussed at a Place, Economy and Infrastructure Scrutiny Committee on July 21.

The council says: “An online survey will be used as the key consultation tool, which will be hosted on the Engage Nottingham Hub and Nottingham HomeLink websites.

“When communicating with households and groups, they will be provided with a letter and summary of key proposed changes, and a further detailed document setting out all of the proposed changes will be available online.

“However, to provide feedback, an online survey must be completed.”

It is proposed the public consultation will go live during the week beginning August 25 for a period of six weeks.