This Housing Research Note, published in March 2022, analyses a range of secondary data sources to shed light on the relationships between housing and race inequality in London.
Black, Asian and minority ethnicity Londoners are not a monolithic group, and there is considerable diversity within each of the groups analysed in this report. But on average, Black Londoners and those from most other minority ethnicity groups experience worse housing conditions, less tenure security, higher rates of housing need, worse affordability and lower wealth than White Londoners.
Some of these inequalities can be traced back to differences in income and secure employment between Londoners from different ethnic backgrounds. But these existing differences are exacerbated by London’s high housing costs, which disproportionately affect those on low incomes, increase barriers to mobility across London and amplify differences in property wealth.
Black households in London are significantly more likely than those of other ethnicities to report moving because their landlord ended the tenancy or evicted them, and more likely to say they expect to be treated worse by private landlords than people of other races.
Social housing makes an important contribution to addressing these inequalities because it is allocated on a needs-based basis, but there is clearly not enough social housing available to meet all of London’s acute housing needs.
It is equally clear that the housing aspirations of Black, Asian and minority ethnicity Londoners (including eventually buying their own home) are similar to those of White Londoners, but Black Londoners are less able to realise these aspirations because of factors including the high cost of market housing, lower levels of savings and less access to inherited wealth.
Black Londoners stand to benefit most from new housebuilding because they experience worse housing affordability and higher rates of housing need, but predominantly White neighbourhoods in London saw relatively low levels of new housing supply over the last decade.
The analysis of secondary data presented in this report can only paint a partial picture, and should be supplemented with further research, particularly qualitative research into the lived experiences of Black, Asian and other minority ethnicity Londoners as they navigate the housing system.