‘You sit there, and you don’t even look at what you’re bidding on, you just bid.’

The longest wait for a one-bedroom social housing apartment in Oldham is 101 years.

At least, that was the staggering figure visible on a set of housing statistics on the council webpage until just a few days ago.

The numbers have since been removed from the site, after the Local Democracy Reporting Service reached out to the local authority for clarification.

The data isn’t correct, say press officers.

But that doesn’t change the fact that Oldham, like so many boroughs in the whole of the UK, is facing a devastating shortage of social housing crisis that is affecting the most vulnerable groups of society the worst.

Families are currently waiting between four and nine years before they’re able to move into appropriate housing with two, three or four bedrooms.

The waiting list for properties is almost 8,000 people long.

Every year, the list and the wait gets longer as demand for affordable housing outstrips demand.

And for many of those on the list, the wait feels like 100 years.

It certainly does for Rob Falzon, in his fifties, who has been waiting to be moved into an accessible bungalow for more than seven years.

“At some point it just feels like you’re being fobbed off,” said Rob.

He’s currently living in a three-bedroom house in Shaw with his step-brother, who also cares for him.

But he says the home, which was the first place he was offered by the council, is ‘way beyond his needs’ – not least because he’s unable to use the upper floors.

“My medical conditions make it hard for me to move around the house,” he said.

“I can’t go up the stairs because of my disabilities. I’ve had falls.

"I’m having to use a commode because I sleep downstairs.

"I often shower at friend’s or neighbour’s houses where it’s easier to use the bathroom.”

The situation is ‘frustrating and degrading’.

“Every answer I get from the bidding system is ‘there’s 20 people before you, offered elsewhere,” he says.

“And when I try to speak to the housing department, they just ask me for all the same information again and again.”

Others find themselves locked for years into private tenancies they simply can’t afford.

That’s the story of John Justyn, 58, and Karen Fitton, 52.

The couple moved out of social housing when they were in full-time employment, and into a £425 private one-bedroom flat.

Several years later, the flat was sold to another landlord, and put their rent up to £650 almost ‘overnight’ – telling the couple he would issue a Section 21 if they didn’t pay up, said John.

“I’d never experienced food poverty before then,” Karen told the LDRS.

“You really have to drop your pride when it reaches that point.

"You just have no choice. It was a really terrible time.”

The rent hike coincided with a period of ill health for both of them, with John suffering a heart attack that left him unable to work, and Karen facing mental health challenges.

Their housing benefits covered some of their rent, with Universal Credit covering the rest.

That left them with almost nothing for food and bills.

“We used to play these online phone games, you know where you can win 50p? Because then we could afford a cheap 38p loaf of bread,” Karen said.

“We were really living hand-to-mouth.”

The two say they’ve ‘lucked out’ after being accepted at an Over-55s property in Delph, Saddleworth, after spending twenty-two months bidding for homes in both Oldham and Rochdale.

“You have to check the website every day, every couple of hours,” Karen explained.

“Because you never know when they’re going to upload a new property. So it’s like a full-time job.

"You sit there, and you don’t even look at what you’re bidding on, you just bid.”

“I couldn’t believe it when they told us we got it, I just went like this -” she fist-pumped the air with a huge grin.

“We’ve been there since September.”

The social housing crisis is closely linked to what’s happening in the private sector.

Due to Right-to-Buy and a lack of meaningful national investment in social housing, local authorities have continued to lose council homes at a faster rate than they can build them.

Meanwhile, prices for private properties in Oldham have sky-rocketed.

Rents have shot up by more than 40pc since 2021, while salaries have largely stagnated and the number of job opportunities has remained limited.

Ordinary people like Josh, 20, a new dad and chef from Oldham, are increasingly struggling to make ends meet.

Together with his partner Grace, 20, and seven-week-old daughter, he lives in a modest home near the town centre.

It costs him £895 every month – almost half of his wage.

“I make just shy of £2,000 a month. The majority of that goes on rent and bills. Most months we’re coming out with next to nothing and recently we’ve not even been breaking even,” Josh told the LDRS, pushing his baby girl through the freezing cold towards Primark for some much-needed winter clothes.

“It’s hard, especially with the little one,” mum Grace agrees shyly.

“It causes a lot of tension. There’s a lot of stress.

"We’ve had to rely on family and friends a lot.”

Josh and Grace aren’t eligible for social housing, and originally were turned down by Universal Credit too.

“They told us we’re earning enough – but clearly we’re not!” Josh said.

The family is just one example of thousands living on a knife-edge.

Growing numbers of them are tipping into the red, ending up in rent arrears and being evicted from their homes.

That’s when the council is forced to step in.

Around 1,700 households are currently classified as homeless, with 600 currently in temporary accommodation in Oldham.

Many of them are families with kids.

And of course, as private housing becomes increasingly unaffordable for locals, the social housing list continues to grow.

Oldham is not unique.

It’s not even the worst.

Boroughs of London like Enfield and Merton both have housing wait times that exceed 100 years for family homes, according to the National Housing Federation.

Outside of London, the wait for a three-bed home is 75 years in Mansfield, 74 in Slough, and around 27 in Solihull and Bolton.

According to Oldham’s deleted statistics, the longest wait for family homes in the borough is between three and nine years, while it’s one-bedroom flats and sheltered accommodation that reportedly have a much longer wait time – though new, exact figures are yet to be confirmed.

But the local authority isn’t sitting idly by. Oldham Council has pledged to find a ‘local solution to a national problem’ – and is in the midst of a major push to bring down wait times by building more social rent housing in partnership with housing associations.

Coun Elaine Taylor, Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods, said: “After 15 years of the Conservatives failing to build enough houses it’s sadly no surprise that housing wait lists have got this long.

"So like the rest of the country, Oldham is facing significant pressure on social housing.

"We know how difficult this is for residents, including people with disabilities who may be waiting years for a home that properly meets their needs.

"No one should be left in that position, and I sympathise massively with this person’s situation.

“That is exactly why Oldham Council is taking bold action to increase the number of affordable and social homes in our borough.

"We are working to ensure that around 2,700 new homes are built here over the next four years to March 2029, and at least 1,000 of these are expected to be affordable homes.

"This is a much higher proportion than many areas are delivering, and it shows our commitment to tackling the housing crisis locally.

“We are already making progress.

"The completion of West Vale has delivered modern, energy-efficient council homes that residents are now moving into, and major projects like Prince’s Gate, for which £31.5m of investment was announced, will bring even more high quality social and affordable housing into the town centre.

"These new homes are essential if we are to reduce waiting times and give residents real options that meet their needs.

“We are also reviewing how we allocate and manage specialist accommodation, such as bungalows, to make sure the system works better for disabled residents and those with complex needs.

“While the national situation remains extremely challenging, Oldham is doing everything it can to push forward regeneration, increase the supply of affordable homes, and improve the experience of residents waiting for council housing.”

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