THE 150th home in Stroud District Council’s building programme has been completed.

SDC is the only local authority in Gloucestershire which still owns and manages council houses with the others having transferred them into other social housing organisations.

Coraley Driver and her children Phoebe, 12, Tiani, 11, and Macie, seven, moved into their three-bedroom house in Stroud in time for the family to see in the New Year.

Cllr Mattie Ross, chair of the council’s housing committee said: “We’re delighted that Coraley and her daughters were able to start the New Year in their new home.

“I am very proud that we are one of very few councils who still manage social housing and are able to do our bit to increase the supply of decent affordable homes.”

The council is investing £19.5 million in a five-year programme to deliver over 200 new homes across the district by March 2018.

Coraley said: “It’s a lovely house with lots of storage space and a good sized garden, it heats up really quickly and we have found it nice and warm, I can see us living here forever.”

However despite the Labour-led council’s sustained efforts to create more social housing, it is still only making a dent in the overall waiting list.

Currently there are around 2,440 households on the HomeseekerPlus waiting list for Stroud District Council-owned (SDC) properties.

This figure has jumped up by around 140 since the summer months in 2016 – an increase of six per cent.

In the last year only around two per cent of applicants on the register were successfully rehomed And with new applications coming in almost every day, the council is still seeing far more people apply than are being given new houses.

Along with other local authorities across the country, SDC is facing an uphill challenge to provide enough social housing.