Basildon Council has admitted that they are struggling to meet council house demands after new figures reveal that roughly one in three applications are rejected.

A Freedom of Information request by the Echo shows that more than 15,000 applications for council housing have been made to Basildon Council in the last three years.

It is roughly 10 times the amount of council housing applications made in the same period to neighbouring boroughs Castle Point and Rochford, who are both only just below half the size of Basildon.

Out of these 15,110 housing applications made to Basildon Council between the beginning of 2015 and the end of 2017, 5,430 have been rejected.

Speaking on behalf of Basildon Council, Andrew Gordon admitted that the demand for council housing is exceedingly high compared to the number they have available.

The vice chairman of the housing and community committee said: “We understand that demand for social housing in the borough far outstrips the supply we have available, which is why we are committed to coming up with innovative ways to provide additional properties.”

Michael James, 31, who currently lives in a two-bedroom house in Jersey Gardens, Wickford, has been waiting to get a council house for almost a year.

He said: “We need a three-bedroom house. We have got three young children and currently my wife and I sleep in the living room with out youngest in the cot while the two boys share a room and our eldest has her own room.

“About 90 per cent of the council houses we see say they can have a maximum of five people.

“In the last six months, when we have seen a house for six people we are always fifth in line.

“This is frustrating, my wife has bipolar and gets really distressed by this.”

Mr James added that it took him around six months just to get on the housing list and said that he once had his application cancelled after he handed a document in too late, which he had little notice of.

Although the council housing applications are high, they have decreased over the past three years.

In 2015, there were 5,498 applications of which 1,960 failed, compared to 2017 where 4,787 applications were made and 1,640 were rejected.

Mr Gordon added: “We are serious about building council housing and ensuring we provide high quality homes for people in our borough.

“In January the first homes built by Basildon Council in more than 25 years were handed over in Quendon Road, Basildon.

“It is one of three redevelopment schemes that will provide a total of 11 much needed homes for families who are on the council’s homeseeker register.

“Over the next five years the council’s ambitious New Homes Programme is aiming to develop a further 100 homes with 584 more to be developed by the council’s housebuilding company, Sempra Homes.

“People wanting to join our homeseeker register must meet our criteria, including having lived in the borough continuously for at least seven years. Further information is available at www.basildon.gov.uk/housing.”