What's the Council housing waiting list like in your area?

[MsHopey]

Posting here for traffic.
But I've been reading a lot of different posts on different sites about council housing in people's own areas, and the waiting times are staggering.

In the borough I live in you have to prove you have worked or lived in the borough for 2 years continually before they allow you to join the waiting list.
Houses will normally go to bands 1, 2 or 3. Flats, maisonettes, bedsits of any size rarely even get one bid on them at all. Houses get anywhere from 30 to 110 bids.
There are 7 bands organised through priority. But bands 4 do also regularly get houses.
Bands 1, 2 or 3 can and do get houses within weeks of joining the waiting list.
I live in the Midlands and in a medium town rather than a large city.

I've heard of needing to be in a borough for 10 years before being allowed on a waiting list, I've heard of waiting lists being an estimate of 87 years long.

I'm essentially just really curious what others peoples local areas are like.
I know social housing gets both envied and condemned on here for various reasons, this isn't something I want to happen on this post. I was just wondering about people's experiences.

It's all housing association here. The council list doesn't move. I think they allocated something like 3 properties last year, but there are 2 large and active HA's. Here it very much depends what you need. If a 2 bed flat works for you then the wait tends not to be too bad as there are a lot of newly build ones. If you need a 1 bed or a 3 bed then you'll wait ages.

To put into context a friend who is in a 2 bed with 4 kids (1 of 11 and younger triplets) has been waiting 5/6 years for a move to a 3 bed, whereas another friend joined the list and got a newbuild 2 bed in less than 6 months.

@ViragoKnows

Yeah, very on edge. Don't think I've ever refreshed a page so much in my life!
You don't have to bid every week if you don't like anything.
You can definitely see the more "desirable" areas.
Some 3 bedroom houses get 30 bids, the really nice ones in better areas get 130+ bids on them. So people are just sitting and waiting for the perfect house, which does make me think they can't be quite as desperate as they make out.

So people are just sitting and waiting for the perfect house, which does make me think they can't be quite as desperate as they make out.

The HA's here don't allow that. If people don't regularly bid on suitable properties then they ask why. If they deem you haven't bothered to bid on something suitable 3 (maybe 5, but I think 3) times they you are removed from the list and have to reapply which means you lose your time already on the list and they remove any priority passes for overcrowding etc.

Band system here but you can't register and wait - if you haven't bid for a property in 12 months then your status is reviewed, and unless there is a good reason for not bidding your priority status will be removed.

In my area they built thousands of new homes and cleared the waiting list over about 2 years. That’s why the wait is so low.

I am so anxious about the bid I made - I think I won it, but can’t see any floor plans or visit it and have no info about it. I next need to pass an affordability test.

@pookiedo Could the local council website have plans on the planning application pages?

Bands 3 and 4 are 18 years on average around here.

Whe I first asked circa 1986 ish I was told you have to be on the list 4/5 years, when that had passed I inquired again and was told if you were military it was longer at which I protested as they were moving the goalposts. So they said I could go on the list at the 5 year living in the area point. We ended up buying.

I know people who have been waiting 10 years

All I can find is reference to a site that has no developer yet! I looked up some other local builds and some have reasonable sized bedrooms but one was 5.5ftsq and no way could I put a teenager in it. So I don’t want to accept something like that. I will just have to sit and wait for them to contact me. I did bid again this week on a house I think is bigger and nearer completion (also cheaper) but I think that one will go like hot cakes. They only closed the list on Wed then put out a new list on Fri. So I don’t know if I should still bid or not

I am so anxious about the bid I made - I think I won it, but can’t see any floor plans or visit it and have no info about it. I next need to pass an affordability test

If it’s on a road or estate where similar priperties have been sold (under RTB or privately), you might be able to find details of the standard floorplan on Zoopla.

No the road doesn’t exist, there are no developer floor plans and I did call to ask and the woman I spoke to had no idea either!

So for fun the council let you bid on homes that are not even built yet

Oh sorry, I forgot yours was the new build. Frustrating for you.

Sorry my post should of said...you had to of lived in the area 4/5 years to even go on the list

I've been on the list here for 9 years.
3 of my 5 children on the application have become adults and moved out now !

Can you not phone the organisation that run the bidding system Pookie? In my area there is one large Housing association that took over all the old council stock and several smaller Housing associations that have a much smaller stock of houses they all go through one weekly bidding system though.

I've just looked on my local council website and there are only 1200 odd on the housing register. A commuter town not far from London. It thought the figures would be far higher than that.

They're great if I'm honest. Okay no 4 beds ever come up but there's plenty of options for 3 bedroom houses or flats (two up two down flats, no high rises)
We were given notice when our private let was up for sale with 3 months notice instead of the usual 2. We had a large three bed downstairs flat next to the school a month before the tenancy was up.
The upstairs flat next door has been empty for 3 years now because less people want the upstairs ones particularly if they have kids so they take the ground floors or houses. It's a large village but there's enough housing.
Our large 3 bed is just with back and front gardens is just £330pcm.

I must add, this is the same village that there's a 3 bed semi detached going for £50K right now. Two end of terrace 3 beds recently sold for £62k and £65K. Unemployment isn't huge round here either. You've to travel for well paying jobs but there's factory work available for all of wanted.

Compared to nationally no time at all.

Some areas, and property types have higher demand. However if you are happy to live anywhere then you could be housed pretty much straight away. Even so higher demand can be less than a year.
Biggest struggle is for disabled families (either parent or child) due to a lack of suitable properties.

I have been on waiting list since 2009.

We are officially overcrowded but unable to afford rent for suitable property in London.

No hope of getting a house at all. We sometimes come closer when the council offer to “working households only” but the areas are the worse around. (Last one had a shooting murder in the drug den next door shortly after we saw the house offered).

I have accepted that we will either have to improve our circumstances to afford bigger accommodation or move further afield eventually.

Hearing what it's like outside of London and the SE is mind blowing. Housing is such a nightmare here. If everyone could get affordable, secure housing it would solve so much. When your housing isn't secure from month to month (and you know long term that you can't afford it), it really affects your ability to manage everything else.

I couldn't get even get on the list in my London Borough. Everyone tells me they have to accept people onto the list and thus can't be true but it is. I applied and received a letter saying no, I didn't have high enough need which was true enough.

Even the people who are accepted onto the list don't necessarily get social housing. I don't actually know anyone who has in this borough. They tend to be placed into private rentals with the Council deposit scheme. And so the cycle continues as the rents are unaffordable in the long term.

In the next few years, I am probably going to move to a more affordable region and it isn't sustainable to continue here.

Oh should say that the system is madness.we are a seven person household which technically means we can only bid on 4 Bedroom. The only 4 Bedroom that comes up is HA new builds where they make the max number of occupants 6.

If I exclude my youngest son, I am only “entitled” to a 3 Bedroom property.

Plus the rent on these 4 bedrooms is nearly £400 per week. Couldn’t afford that even if I was offered it. I can only assume the majority of this is payed with housing benefit as surely if you earned that much you could afford to buy?

No idea, but given the social cleansing the Tory led Council are attempting, probably getting longer.

God help any single ‘older’ man (or woman) with no kids. They are likely to be never housed.