New data reveals thousands are on council's housing list in Northampton - but properties in short supply

New data has revealed there are nearly 3,000 people waiting for a council house in Northampton and only 102 properties available.

This newspaper submitted a freedom of information request to West Northamptonshire Council asking about the amount of people waiting for council houses in the town and the costs involved for temporary and emergency accommodation.

Housing used to be divided between three districts - South Northants, Daventy and Northampton - but they have merged together after West Northamptonshire became a unitary authority back in April.

As housing is still being established at WNC, the data is still divided between the three previous districts mentioned above.

How many people are on the council's housing list?

South Northants area - 134 as of 31 March 2021

Daventry area - 1317

Northampton area - 2713

How many council houses are there in Northampton?

Northampton Partnership Homes, which is the council's housing association, provided the following data.

- NPH manages 11,350 council properties owned by WNC for general needs or older people.

- Out of the 11,350 properties, 109 are currently used as temporary accommodation.

- NPH currently has 129 properties that are unoccupied, the rest are occupied.

- Of the 129 unoccupied properties, 27 are currently reserved for use as temporary accommodation.

- It also manages 47 properties in three supported schemes.

This means there are currently 102 unoccupied homes while there are 2,713 people on the housing list in Northampton.

How many families have been in temporary accommodation this year?

South Northants Area - 42 families between 2020 and 2021

Daventry area - 36 families between 2020 and 2021

Northampton area - 592 families between 2020 and 2021

How many families have been in emergency accommodation this year?

Northampton area - 180 families

How much have temporary and emergency accommodation cost the council this year?

South Northants Area - £73,748 between 2020 and 2021 – this excludes staffing costs

Daventry area- £160,616 so far this year

Northampton area - £1,011,754 so far this year