Over the last six years, about 5,000 flats a year, or about one-third of housing production, has been allocated to the Waiting List, as compared with about 20% for clearances, and about 10% for redevelopment.
However, this allocation has not been sufficient to prevent the typical waiting time lengthening from four years in 1973/74 to seven or eight years at present. This is because the Waiting List is expanding at the rate of about 12-14,000 eligible families a year.
The list at present stands at 144,000 applicants, which is about 58% of the households outside public housing theoretically eligible on income grounds.
In order to prevent public dissatisfaction, the strategy should be to allocate a sufficiently large number of flats annually to the Waiting List to prevent the waiting time getting longer, and the aim must be to reduce it.