Havering Council is marking Empty Homes Week 2026 by highlighting its exceptional progress in tackling empty homes and delivering some of the strongest voids performance in London.
Maximising the turnaround time of empty properties (voids) is crucial to reduce the risk of homelessness and provide quality homes for Havering residents.
New data for 2025/26 shows that Havering continues to strengthen its position as a top‑quartile performer compared with London peers - ensuring that much‑needed homes are turned around quickly, safely and to a high standard for local residents.
Since April 2025, the Council has processed 620 residential properties and 354 garages as voids, ensuring empty homes are refurbished, compliant, and ready for new tenants as swiftly as possible.
This quick-turnaround of social housing stocks, minimises loss of rental income to the Council and also alleviates some of the temporary use of costly private accommodation such as hotels and flats.
Key achievements (across all housing types including General Needs, Sheltered Housing, Hostels, and Buybacks properties) include:
- Only a four‑day gap between repairs completion and residents receiving keys on General Needs homes - showing excellent partnership working between housing teams.
- Sheltered housing voids completed in an average of 13.83 days, despite all properties requiring full redecoration.
- 86% of Hostel voids requiring only minor works, enabling rapid turnaround for vulnerable residents in need of accommodation.
- More than half (55%) of buyback properties delivered despite extensive refurbishment requirements.
- All voids completed this year are fully compliant with Awaab’s Law, with performance data shows 96–99% on‑time completion rates across damp and mould KPI categories.
Benchmarking from the previous year (2024/25) shows Havering is significantly outperforming top‑quartile peers on re‑let times - and 2025/26 data to date suggests the Council is on track to maintain this leading position.
The Rehousing Team continues to demonstrate best‑in‑class delivery, achieving an impressive 3.57‑day turnaround from works completion to sign‑up, against a target of five days.
Councillor Paul McGeary, Cabinet Member for Housing Property, said:
“Delivering high-quality homes quickly is central to our mission and helps tackle the housing crisis by ensuring local residents get access to the limited supply of council homes we have in the borough.
“It’s also positive that when these void properties are returned to new tenants, they have been repaired and upgraded to a standard that is in keeping with our obligations as a responsible landlord.
“Empty Homes Week is a chance to reflect on the difference this work makes to local families, and we are proud to be delivering among the best performance in London.”