BASILDON Council has shed more than 3,000 people from its social housing waiting list after tightening up its eligibility for homes.

The council has slashed his housing register from about 5,500 to just around 2,110 in the space of a few weeks after launching a new homeseeker’s register this month.

The new scheme, aims to help working borough families find council homes, and means applicants have to have lived in the borough for seven years or more.

After coming in only 3,000 of the 5,500 applied and 890 of those applications were rejected, leaving 2,110 on the list.

Halstead Gazette: Phil Turner on a Laindon housing estate

Pleased: Phil Turner

Phil Turner, council leader, said: “It has to be remembered that the homeseeker register is not a waiting list for anyone who wants a council home. It’s a register for people who are in housing need and have no other means to get one.

“People will now need to have been living in the borough for seven years or more to ensure that Basildon people get Basildon homes.

“The fact little more than 3,000 out of approximately 5,500 on the register have applied under the new scheme demonstrates that not everyone under the previous scheme needed a home.”

Further changes simplify the system and adopt government definitions on property size so that people are not housed in homes that are too big for them and they cannot afford.