Bid to reduce house waiting list

Reporter: Laura Wild
Date online: 29 June 2009

Rochdalians on the waiting list for a council house may not have to wait much longer.

Gordon Brown is to try and win back some of his lost labour supporters with a bid to give local residents priority on housing waiting lists.

In January Rochdale Online reported that 4819 households were on the social housing waiting list for 2008, a slight increase on the 2007 statistic. This means that more than one in twenty households across the borough are currently waiting for a council house to become available.

Today the Prime Minister is putting forward a proposal that requires councils to take into account applicants’ connections with the area in which they are waiting for a house when allocating homes.

The pledge follows Gordon Brown’s “British Jobs for British Workers” plan earlier this year which caused some controversy.

The extra funding for affordable and social housing will come from a £500 million switch in spending outlined in the new programme ‘Building Britain’s Future’.

Rochdale has one of the smallest waiting lists for council housing in Greater Manchester. Of all the local authorities in the region, only Bury has less people on its waiting list.

9.7% of all households in Greater Manchester are on the waiting list, compared with 5.7% in Rochdale, representing more than 100,000 households in total.

Across the UK one person in twelve is now on the social housing waiting list. 1.8million households, or 4.5million people, are on the list.