Waiting list for social homes in Wigan shrinks

Despite this, a councils' group has called for more social housing to be built amid a growing national shortage of social homes.

Figures from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government show there were 11,494 households waiting for a social home from Wigan Council as of March.

This was a fall from 12,018 a year earlier.

These figures only cover council waiting lists, and do not include privately-provided social housing.

A new report from the District Councils Network has called for a plan to increase the number of social homes.

The body represents 169 councils across England, but does not include Wigan Council.

It has called for removing administrative costs, closing planning loopholes and giving councils powers to bring empty properties back into use.

Coun Hannah Dalton, housing spokesperson for the District Councils’ Network, said: "The housing crisis is wrecking lives and destroying communities.

"Teaching assistants and nurses can't afford to live where they work, young people are priced out of the place they call home, and older residents are trapped in houses too big for them to manage."

She said councils "need the teeth" to force developers to honour agreements to build affordable housing, and the ability to take on empty homes.

The data suggests there could be 1.3 million households on council waiting lists across England as of March, although some households may have been counted twice if they have applied to multiple councils.

This was a three per cent rise from 2023 and a 13 per cent rise from March 2020.

The Social Housing Action Campaign said the growing waiting list underscores "the flawed logic" of government housing policy.

They say the Government should not allow for above-inflation rises in social rent from private providers, which could be pushing people onto local authority waiting lists.

Suzanne Muna, secretary and co-founder of the campaign, said: "'Affordable housing' – by the Government's definition – can be anything up to 80 per cent of market rates.

"But in an inflated rental market, this puts the cost out of reach for too many people who end up on council waiting lists."

A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesperson said the Government will work with councils to meet its aim of delivering 1.5 million homes.

A spokesperson said: "Local government has suffered from years of short-term decisions, so we have already set out important steps to help them deliver the homes we need, including overdue reforms to the Right to Buy scheme and an extra £500m for the Affordable Homes Programme."