THOUSANDS of people on council housing waiting lists have little hope of being offered a new home any time soon.
Figures obtained by the Leader under the Freedom of Information Act revealed the true scale of the housing crisis.
Almost 6,000 people are waiting to be housed in council-owned properties across Wrexham and Flintshire.
But just 388 of the 18,785 homes owned by Flintshire and Wrexham councils are currently vacant.
Community leaders say the figures mean the majority of those on the waiting lists will never be offered a home by the council.
Wrexham councillor Marc Jones believes authorities need to consider building more council houses.
He said: “We must be prepared as a council to look at building our own homes again
“We haven’t done it since the 1980s but I have been banging the drum about the lack of affordable housing for some time.
“In Wrexham we have seen an explosion in the number of unaffordable homes being built.”
Cllr Jones said the cost of buying or renting private homes meant many people had no option but to apply for council housing.
“Planned developments like the one at Kingsmills will help, but in reality it is just a drop in the ocean,” he said.
“We have to be more proactive and we have got to increase the number of affordable homes.”
There are 2,619 people on the housing register in Wrexham but just 129 of the council’s 11,349 properties are vacant.
In Flintshire 3,186 are waiting to be offered a home by the council, however out of 7,436 properties only 209 are available to let.
Flintshire councillor Bernie Attridge fears the number of people waiting for council housing will increase massively.
“The problem is demand far outweighs supply and that has been the case for many years,” he said.
“I believe these figures are going to rocket in the future due to the planned social housing reforms.
“The amount of people on the list is just going to go up and up.”
Cllr Attridge said one solution could be reducing the number of privately-owned empty homes.
“We have around 1,500 empty homes in Flintshire and it would be a good start to try and work with the owners and house people in these,” he said.
“Some people are going to be on the list for 20 years and realistically others are never going to get council houses.
“We urgently need to put extra resources into bringing these empty homes back into use.”
Housing charity Shelter Cymru bosses say about 73,000 people across Wales are on waiting lists for council or social housing.
A spokesman said: “Unfortunately, the situation in Wrexham and Flintshire is perhaps to be expected.
“Wales as a whole has a serious and long-standing shortage of affordable housing.
“The situation is likely to be exacerbated in the coming months as further cuts to housing benefit will make much of the private rented sector unaffordable to many more people.”
Andy Lewis, Wrexham Council’s head of housing and public protection said:
“Affordable housing is a council priority. It features as a very strong strand of our emerging Local Housing Strategy.
“The shortage of affordable housing is due to many different factors, some of which our completely outside our control. These include:-
- Lack of access to mortgage finance, coupled with a requirement for large deposits.
- Levels of new house building at historically low levels.
- Lack of confidence in the employment market, more fixed term or short term contracts.
- High levels of unemployment.
- First time buyers priced out of the market means that the whole housing market fails to thrive.
- Reduction in public funding for affordable housing.
Flintshire housing strategy manager David Humphreys said: “Flintshire County Council operates a number of schemes to promote affordable housing involving both the housing and planning services. These include shared equity schemes, shared ownership schemes, homebuy and intermediate rent.
“The council also works with housing associations to use Welsh Government Social Housing Grant to provide new homes for affordable rent.”
He said between 2000 and 2009 the following affordable homes were provided with social housing grant assistance:
- 310 general needs homes, including homes purchased with ‘homebuy’ assistance
- 40 homes for vulnerable households including extra care accommodation
- Seven mortgage rescue cases
- 29 homes created through empty homes initiatives
The following were provided without social housing grant assistance
- 149 new build commitments through Section 106 agreements
- 25 through rural exception policies
He added: “The council continues to secure affordable homes through the planning system.
“Although properties are forthcoming through this mechanism the principle barrier to new homeowners is increasingly high deposits and access to affordable mortgages.
“As a consequence of this, although additional homes are being secured through the planning system, traditional purchase routes are increasingly difficult to secure for first-time buyers, due to more stringent financial criteria.
“In order to address this, the council has developed a number of responses tailored to a range of circumstance.
“These include establishing an affordable homes register and setting up a shared equity schemes where purchasers require smaller deposits.
“The council is also looking to establish an equity loan deposit scheme to assist first-time buyers with deposit costs and a mortgage guarantee scheme.
“A challenge to all local authorities in the current economic environment is how to increase the supply of affordable homes.
“The council is currently exploring innovative approaches to provide more affordable homes through a range of solutions, including potential joint ventures.”