Redbridge projects support needs among homeless households up 47.1% by 2030. A 12-week consultation on its first supported housing strategy opens in late October.

Redbridge Council expects the support needs of homeless households in the borough to rise by 47.1% between 2025 and 2030, and the needs of some groups to rise far faster than that. The figures were put to the council’s Housing Committee at Ilford Town Hall on Wednesday night, in a briefing on the borough’s first supported housing strategy.

Supported housing means accommodation provided alongside care, support or supervision. In Redbridge it covers hostels and resettlement, domestic abuse refuges, care leaver move-on, housing for working-age disabled adults, mental health and learning disability provision, sheltered housing and extra care for people aged 55 and over.

The council is writing the strategy because it has to. The Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023 requires local housing authorities to review supported exempt accommodation in their area and publish a supported housing strategy. Redbridge’s publication deadline is 31 March 2027.

The numbers behind it

Bar chart of projected increases in support needs among homeless households in Redbridge, 2025 to 2030
Projected increases in support needs among homeless households, 2025 to 2030. Chart by Ilford Today.
Share this chartFacebookWhatsAppX

The briefing sets out selected projected increases in support needs among homeless households over the five years to 2030:

  • education and training: up 89.8%
  • learning disability: up 74.8%
  • hostel accommodation: up 69.6%
  • domestic abuse: up 58.9%
  • asylum seekers: up 58.9%
  • physical ill health: up 56.5%
  • mental health: up 53.1%
  • all homeless households: up 47.1%

A second set of projections runs to 2040 and covers people aged 65 and over. The borough’s 65-plus population is projected to grow 24.6% between 2026 and 2040. Within that group, the number living alone is projected to rise 25.6%, those with impaired mobility 29.2%, those with dementia 30.7% and those living in a care home 31.2%.

Redbridge’s adult population is put at 247,800 in 2026, projected to grow 2.2% by 2030 and 7.5% by 2040. The council says the needs assessment underpinning all of this is still being completed, and that the consultation should test the emerging picture against real experience.

The point councillors were asked to look at

The briefing names three challenges. Two are about demand: short-term and transitional pressure now, and ageing and care over the longer term. The third is about the market itself, and it contains the sharpest line in the document.

Redbridge, it says, “is described as a net importer of placements”. In other words more people are placed into supported housing in the borough than the borough places elsewhere. The council says that creates risks of disconnection from support networks and adds pressure to already stretched services. It also says concentrations of provision in particular areas can affect residents and neighbourhoods, especially where support is weak.

The same section flags viability. Commissioning, contract management, Housing Benefit subsidy loss and inflation all affect whether providers can keep going.

The draft strategy proposes four objectives: the right housing in the right places; independence, prevention and positive move-on; health, wellbeing and inclusion; and partnership, quality and co-production. Committee members were asked to test whether those are specific enough to guide difficult choices, and which local pressures or supply gaps need more attention.

What it means for you

The consultation has not opened yet, and the dates matter if you want a say.

  • 22 October 2026: Cabinet is due to consider the proposed consultation
  • Late October 2026: a 12-week consultation is proposed to open
  • 18 January 2027: the proposed closing date for responses
  • 10 February 2027: the Housing Committee meets to approve final recommendations
  • 31 March 2027: the statutory deadline to publish the strategy

The council says it wants to reach residents and former residents of supported housing, families and carers, providers and the voluntary sector, health and care partners, and wider communities. The stated approach is online and offline channels, targeted outreach, accessible formats, workshops and interviews, with a published “You Said, We Will” account of what it did with the answers.

The Cabinet item is already on the council’s published forward plan for September to December 2026, so the October date can be checked before it happens.

There is one loose end in the papers. The agenda for Wednesday’s meeting says the committee’s next scheduled date is 13 January 2027, which falls inside the proposed consultation window. The strategy briefing says the committee will meet to approve its final recommendations on 10 February 2027. The two documents were published for the same meeting, so an extra date looks likely rather than confirmed.

For the wider housing picture in the borough, our page on Redbridge house prices tracks the Land Registry figures each month.

Sources