How long do you have to wait for a council house? If Barking and Dagenham in London is anything to go by, then it could be longer than you might expect. A BBC documentary, to be broadcast tonight, sees local people told they should expect to be on a waiting list for 50 years for a new home.
No Place to Call Home is the culmination of nine months that a BBC crew spent following housing officials and the people they are trying to help in the borough. In the documentary Maureen Worby, the councillor in charge of social care for the area, tells a meeting they have to wait a decade for a council home, before adding: “Do you know what – it’s not a 10-year wait, it’s a 50-year wait.”
In England the number of people on council housing waiting lists stands at more than 1.2m. In Scotland it’s 173,587 with 24,909 applicants in the city of Edinburgh. However, despite the fact more people now need homes, waiting lists are actually going down, something the Guardian’s Dawn Foster puts down to stricter rules on who can apply.
We want to hear about the waiting lists in your area: are you on the list for a council house? How long have you been on it for? What’s the need like where you live? Or maybe you’ve been struck off a waiting list, what reason was given? What impact has this had on your life? Share your stories with us using the form below.
