Housing Committee: Overcrowding
Channel: London Assembly
Date: 2022-01-18

In 2019-20 there were 322,000 households that were overcrowded in London – 9.2 per cent compared to 2.5 per cent across England as a whole.

The COVID-19 Marmot Review by the Health Foundation found that “overcrowded living conditions and poor quality housing are associated with higher risks of mortality from coronavirus and these are more likely to be in deprived areas and inhabited by people with lower income”.

Londoners living in overcrowded homes and with poor housing conditions are more likely to experience stress during a lockdown and find it difficult to cope.

Watch the London Assembly Housing Committee discuss the scale of overcrowding in London, where it is most prevalent, and which groups it disproportionately impacts, especially in light of COVID-19. The guests are:

Tom Copley, Deputy Mayor for Housing and Residential Development
James Gleeson, Housing Research and Analysis Manager, GLA
Charles Trew, Head of Policy, Shelter
Beatrice Amia Cingtho-Taylor, Head of Housing Needs, Harrow Council
Hakeem Osinaike, Director of Housing, Brent Council
Jamie Carswell, Director of Housing & Safer Communities, Royal Borough of Greenwich