People 'waiting months' for council housing

People in need of council housing in Lincoln are waiting months and the delay is only likely to get longer, the city’s housing director has warned.

More than 300 people are in the most urgent category of the City of Lincoln Council’s housing register.

However, they face waits of at least six months for a one or two-bedroom property and more than a year for a larger one.

Darren Turner, director of housing and investment at the authority, said more people were turning to council housing because they were getting priced out of the private market.

The government is planning to build 1.5m new homes across England over the next five years and are giving all councils new mandatory housing targets in order to meet the housing plan.

Mr Turner said: “It’s a supply and demand issue. Private rent has gone up exceptionally in the last few years, and more people are seeing the council as their only option. Even working families who receive housing benefits can’t keep up.

“But we have to keep replacing homes we lose through the Right to Buy scheme – about 50 a year – and it’s very hard to keep pace.

“The length of wait on the housing register isn’t likely to get better any time soon. There needs to be a fundamental shift in the market and the amount of homes available, which isn’t a quick job."

Mr Turner said the authority had to find innovative solutions such as pre-constructed "pods" or turning commercial buildings into housing in order to keep up "or stem demand in the first place".

Lincoln’s mandatory target was “fairly difficult” given the tight borders around the city and the lack of available land, said Mr Turner.

Developers have little incentive to flood the market with affordable housing, preferring a “choke and release” model which keeps prices high, he said.

“The 1.5m target is going to need significant intervention from the government to accelerate housebuilding.

"In the post-war period, the council built huge amounts of social housing – such as the Ermine and Moorland estates – but that’s unlikely to happen today.”

The council is taking a fresh look at land it owns between Queen Elizabeth Road and the A46 bypass, where permission to build 340 homes has now lapsed.

Empty shops like the former Debenhams in St Mark’s shopping centre have also been identified as areas of interest, although there are no firm plans.

The council was also seeing a rise in people with more complex needs who require social housing.

Councillor Donald Nannestad said: “The years of cuts and austerity add up. We want to be a good landlord, but we’re not social workers, police or mental health workers.”

Pressure on the housing waiting list is unlikely to ease until either the council is able to significantly increase its stock or people return to the private housing market, the LDRS reports.

Nannestad added housebuilding in the city was "getting more complicated".

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