However, West Lothian Council said it hopes that more investment in local housing services will further increase the supply of affordable homes locally and also reduce the numbers of people living in temporary accommodation.

Earlier this month, the council announced that it will invest over £80 million over the next two years with significant resources invested in the creation of new homes and a strong focus on the maintenance of quality standards across the housing stock.

Over recent years, the numbers of affordable homes available has increased in West Lothian with registered social landlords (RSLs)/housing associations, private landlords and the council are all working together in an effort to increase the supply of affordable homes for local people.

The number of people on the waiting list for a new home has remained high, although numbers have decreased over recent years. The number of people presenting themselves as homeless also decreased last year, as did the numbers of families staying in temporary accommodation.

West Lothian Council is one of Scotland’s top councils in terms of building new council homes and the proposed two-year programme will see over £50 million invested to increase the social housing supply in West Lothian.

A total of 281 additional homes are expected to be complete by the year 2023 across a range of sites.

Despite increasing the local affordable housing portfolio by over 900 homes over the past five years, the number of people on the West Lothian common housing register for a new social rented house is approximately 9,000. This number has remained broadly the same over the past decade.

Demand for affordable housing continues to outweigh oversupply in West Lothian and that is a similar position across many areas of Scotland.

The number of new applications for homes this year was over 2,445 with just over half of those applications involving children. The number of applications has decreased over recent years with the number of applications down 8% in 2020/21 (data up to 1 March) compared to the previous year. The number of applications involving children has seen a steep decrease of almost 25%. 

With the council working in conjunction with RSL’s and partners, over 2,000 affordable homes have been delivered since the beginning of 2012.

AnnMarie Carr, head of housing, customer and building services, said: “Data highlights that a number of indicators are going in the right direction. However, behind the data is real people, families and communities, so this is about continually working to improve supply of affordable homes and delivering positive outcomes for people.

“The delivery, supply and demand for affordable housing remains one of the most complex and challenging issues that local authorities and partner landlords deal with.

“For councils there is simply not enough affordable housing properties to home everyone who applies for one. Working in partnership with other social landlords and the private rented sector we will continue to focus on increasing the supply of affordable housing and increase the options available to move people off the waiting list into suitable affordable homes.”

George Paul, executive councillor for services for the community, added: “We wish we could wave a magic wand and create homes for everyone, but that is not possible with the resources at our disposal.

“We’re investing more resources and that is designed to help more local people. Good progress has been made but we must and will do more to create new affordable homes whilst improving existing homes for our tenants.”