The West Lothian Courier submitted a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the local authority and asked a range of questions on the social housing and homelessness waiting lists.

The data revealed that in the last year, up to February 1 2021, there were 2361 new applications for social housing in West Lothian, including 1168 children in the requests. A further 94 applications were made requesting larger homes, to house 274 children.

Therefore, 2455 applications for social housing in West Lothian were made in the year up to February 1, with 1442 children involved.

The figures for the last year, up to January 31, also showed that there were 1426 applications for homelessness in West Lothian. Of these 1426 applications, 340 of them included children living within the household.

However, the information shows that COVID-19 has not increased the burden on West Lothian’s social housing or homelessness waiting lists. In fact, the latest year’s figure are the best in three years.

In 2020, there were 2656 new applications for social housing, with 1897 children, including 100 applications for larger homes to house 313 children.

The data from that year also shows that there were 1457 applications for homelessness in West Lothian. Of these applications, 407 of them had children in the household.

The numbers for 2019 show that there were 2668 new applications for social housing, with 1992 children, including 118 applications for larger homes with 359 children. In 2019. there were 1595 homeless applications made, with 462 of them including children in the household.

In total, over the three years that the West Lothian Courier asked for information in West Lothian there were 7779 applications for social housing, with 5331 children included. Over the course of these three years there were 4478 presentations as homeless, with children being included in 1209 of these applications.

West Lothian Council said it will continue building homes to try to meet the demand.

A council spokesperson said: “The Common Housing Register is made up of Almond Housing Association, Weslo Housing Associations, and the council. Applications come from people with a wide variety of circumstances.

“Each year applications are received from existing council tenants, housing association tenants, homeowners, private housing tenants and from individuals that are homeless.

“Despite increasing the local affordable housing portfolio by over 900 homes over the past five years, demand for affordable housing continues to outweigh supply in West Lothian and that is a similar position across many areas of Scotland.

“The council recently announced that it will invest over £80 million over the next two years with significant resources invested in the creation of new homes.”

The spokesperson added: “The number of new applications for homes this year was over 2445 with just over half involving children. However, the number of applications involving children has seen a steep decrease of almost 25% in recent years. Access to suitable affordable housing can be very complex for families.

“This can be due to an applicant’s personal circumstances, for example, access to a child’s school and wider family support living nearby. However, everyone recognises how important it is for young people to have stability and stay within good quality affordable housing.

“There were 1426 homelessness applications received in 2020/21 (up to 1 March) with less than a quarter of those applications with children in the household. Overall homelessness applications have decreased over recent years with a further reduction in the number of homeless presentations from families with children.”

AnnMarie Carr, head of housing, customer and building services, commented: “Data highlights that a number of indicators locally 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.

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

Alison Watson, director of Shelter Scotland, said: “These figures show that the house-building programme of recent years has begun to have an impact but there is still an unacceptably high number of children whose lives are blighted by the lack of a safe, secure and affordable home. Nationally we estimate there are 70,000 children on waiting lists for social housing which is scandalous in 21st century Scotland.

“The Scottish Government has the power to fix this, that’s why we’re calling for an ambitious house-building programme to be at the heart of our recovery from coronavirus.”