'I've lost hope in getting a council house'

Three people have spoken to the BBC about their long wait for social housing

People who have spent several years on a local authority waiting list have told the BBC they have lost hope in getting a proper home for their families.

Shannan Moore, from Crawley in West Sussex, said the council informed her she could have to wait more than eight years for social housing.

Meanwhile, she said her four young children - some of whom had special educational needs - were "suffering" as they had to share a single bedroom in temporary accommodation.

Crawley Borough Council said it could not comment on individual cases, but recognised "wider pressures" due to the increasing lack of affordable local housing.

Ms Moore said her family's housing situation was severely impacting her children's education and wellbeing, alongside her mental health.

"There is absolutely no space," she said. "Everyone is on top of each other."

Crawley Council said 2,500 households were on its housing waiting list, and it spent £2 in every £3 it collected in council tax on temporary accommodation.

Ms Moore said: "Originally social housing was there to help families with income difficulties.

"Now it feels like it's disrupting people, trapping them and making their lives worse."

She said black mould in the flat was also making her children - all under the age of eight - sick.

Local homes unaffordable

The 26-year-old said renting privately was "out of the question" as family-sized properties were far too expensive, plus childcare restricted her ability to work.

"I'm so scared I'm going to be stuck here," Ms Moore said.

She urged the local authority and government to build more council houses.

"Children, who are the most innocent and vulnerable, are [being] affected because there is no housing," she said.

Ms Moore (pictured) said conditions in her flat were putting her children at risk

Domonic Bradshaw, from Ashford in Surrey, told the BBC he had been waiting six years for a council house or housing association property.

After "nightmare" months of sofa-surfing, the single dad said Kingston Council put him and his two children in "tiny" temporary accommodation.

He claimed the local authority then "abandoned" them, though it has made steps to find him a new property since the BBC got in contact.

Kingston Council said it "acknowledged that Mr Bradshaw's wait for permanent housing has been longer than he would wish".

Demand for properties increasingly outstrips supply, with more than 2,000 applications to the housing register, but only about 40 family-sized council homes becoming available every year, it continued.

'Build more social homes'

The 48-year-old, who cannot work due to a disability, said he could rarely get hold of Kingston Council and when it did reply, it took months.

He said he was "grateful" they had somewhere to live, but that his children had to share a room the size of a "bloody cupboard" and the "house was falling to pieces".

"I'd just like to have somewhere where I could call home, where I could actually paint the place the colours I like," he said.

Kingston Council said it was trying to resolve a number of issues at Mr Bradshaw's home "as quickly as possible".

Mr Bradshaw said his temporary accommodation was "falling to pieces"

Shanaya Wood said she had been waiting for social housing since 2023.

The mother-of-two, from Sheerness in Kent, said she remained stuck in "nightmare" temporary accommodation far from her family.

"I am cut off," she said. "I don't know anyone around here."

Ms Wood said mould in her flat kept spreading to her two-month-old baby's cot and car seat, which was not only "financially crippling" to keep replacing, but also dangerous.

The 22-year-old said she had to sleep on a mattress on the living room floor - even while pregnant - as the flat only had one bedroom.

"I feel like I'm failing my children," she said.

Millions on waiting lists

Ms Wood said staff at Swale Borough Council had never shown her any empathy.

"They shove you somewhere and hope that you don't complain.

"It's impossible to be optimistic now I think about how long I have waited [for a social house]," she said.

Swale Borough Council said it always worked hard to ensure people who were a priority had "appropriate accommodation".

It said it had secured Ms Wood's privately rented accommodation and had since worked to remedy damp and mould issues.

Ms Wood said mould was also affecting her property

More than 1.3 million households spend months or years on social housing waiting lists across England, according to Mairi MacRae, director of policy and campaigns at Shelter.

"For too long, we've been haemorrhaging our stock of social homes by selling off the little we have and not building anywhere near enough," she said.

"Thousands of families are stuck in grim temporary accommodation as a result."

Ms MacRae said if the government "ramped up" and built 90,000 social rent homes a year for a decade that would "clear the list".

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said it had "inherited years of failure to build enough social homes".

A spokesperson said urgent action was being taken through "the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation backed by a £39 bn investment".

They said "sweeping measures stripping away barriers for councils to build at a scale not seen in years" and long-overdue reforms to Right to Buy, would also help.