Housing bosses have been left baffled after discovering a tenant has been waiting for a council house for 44 years. The mystery resident has been on the list for a home since 1979.
A council review has now been launched into how applications are submitted for social housing. While councillors were confused as to how the person had been on the list for so long, it transpired they had never actually submitted a bid for a social housing allocation.
However, the persistent Wigan tenant is aware they're still on the list. This is because there is a review every year, Manchester Evening News reports.
Bidding is open from Thursday to Tuesday each week when hopeful tenants pitch their case for a new home with the council. Chris Brady, tenant representative on the local council housing panel said: “We came to the conclusion that those were the days when you had parents who said, ‘as soon as you leave the house, get your name on that list.”
Coun Phyllis Cullen added: “I’m baffled someone has been on the list since 1979.” Jo Willmott, Wigan Council's director of homes and communities, said that 10 per cent of the housing allocation is already done on a time basis.
She explained to the panel that this was to ensure that people deemed to be “less in need” do not go on waiting in the queue forever. Council data shows 12,500 customers are currently on the Housing Register in the Manchester borough, with about 5,288 people bidding for properties on a regular basis.
The statistics also show that only 1,228 council properties became vacant last year, which is lower than expected. This extreme example of a resident waiting for a home since 1979 has been used by the tenant representatives to emphasise the need to change the system for allocation social housing.
Not only did they think people waiting longer needed bumping up the queue, but better online services to avoid data loss during applications and more streamlined checks to avoid false claims were areas highlighted for improvement. Tenant representatives Chris Brady, Tom Dalton, Neil O'Donnell and Lucas Sibanda, all present at the town hall meeting, asked the panel if medical professionals could be brought in to check any cases claiming to have medical issues or disabilities.
