It could take up to 17 years to re-house individuals and families on the waiting list for council housing, data analysis by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) has revealed.

Data trends extracted from new CIPFA tools showed that, on average, there were more than 1.2 million households on council waiting lists nationally between 2013 and 2018.

However, over the same period, the number of council-owned homes reduced by around 84,000 - a reduction of nearly 5% in England alone.

The biggest loss of council housing was in family-sized two and three bedroom properties, which also experienced the greatest growth in demand.

CIPFA chief executive officer, Rob Whiteman, said: ‘The extent of the UK’s housing crisis has been a known issue for quite some time, with government targets in place to build 300,000 new homes per year.

'However, with many developers putting projects on hold as a result of the ongoing pandemic, this ambition will become increasingly more difficult to realise.’