A MOTHER-OF-EIGHT living in a three-bedroom home in Cardiff is among the people who have been waiting years on an ever-growing housing waiting list, according to a city councillor.
Cardiff Council’s cabinet member for housing and communities, Cllr Lynda Thorne, told members of a council scrutiny committee at a meeting on Monday, April 14, that large families waiting for a council home is a “huge pressure” for the city council at the moment.
One council official told the scrutiny committee she doesn’t think Cardiff will ever be able to fully meet the demand for social housing – a demand that seems to increase year on year.
There were 9,500 households on the housing waiting list at November 2024, according to council data, which represents a 24% increase since November 2021 (7,700). The latest figure for the number of applicants on the council’s housing waiting list is 9,682.
Figures in a council document published recently also shows that 6% of current applicants have been waiting on the list for more than 10 years.
An emotional Cllr Thorne shared a story with scrutiny committee members about one woman in this category who visited her surgery recently.
“She has eight children,” said Cllr Thorne.
“She has been on the waiting list for about 20 years but of course we won’t… rehouse anybody and overcrowd them, so she is in a three-bed property and we don’t have a large enough enough property to house them in.
“I have to say… she was just at the end of her tether.”
Data presented in a council document on the housing allocation scheme in Cardiff also shows that 20% of applicants on the housing waiting list have been waiting on it for two to four years and 10% have been waiting four to six years.
At the time the document was published, which was the beginning of April, the housing waiting list was 9,682.
Cllr Thorne said one of the mother’s children has become a junior doctor and two others are studying medicine.
She added: “You can see now these children… they are grown up, but of course they can’t afford to move out because they can’t afford to get anywhere and so it is heart wrenching and you can’t blame anybody, but I guess she is one of those ones.
“She has been on the waiting list for over 10 years. The family is growing up and it is very hard to know what to do about those cases.”
Council officials also stressed to scrutiny committee members this week the varying degrees of need for housing in relation to people on the housing waiting list.
The housing waiting list is sub divided into more lists which are categorised based on need.
These lists are sub divided again into different priority bands.
In the ‘general’ waiting list, these range from band A (the highest priority) to band F.
Of the 9,682 applicants on the list at the beginning of April, 91 were in the ‘immediate needs’ list which means they have exceptional or significant circumstances like domestic abuse, hospital discharge and safeguarding concerns.
Below this, there is a homeless list which includes 997 applicants who are either homeless or living in temporary accommodation.
In the ‘beneficial transfer’ list, there are 284 applicants. These include people who are occupying homes that are too large for them and need or want to downsize.
There are 8,310 applicants on the ‘general’ waiting list. These are all the other applicants which includes those who are overcrowded or who have medical or mobility issues.
Cardiff Council said in its corporate strategy for 2025-2028 that it will expand the scale and pace of its council house building programme.
The Council has recently embarked on a new partnership programme with the Vale of Glamorgan Council and developer Lovell Partnerships on a scheme that will deliver at least 2,260 new homes across the region over the next 10 years.
Cardiff Council’s allocation and rehousing manager, Katie McAndrew, told the scrutiny committee: “Whilst there is a good supply of housing… it’s just absolutely not enough to meet demand and so there are lots of challenges that we need to address… to try and increase the availability of social housing to try and meet that demand.
“Although, honestly, I don’t think we ever will be able to will we?”
The total number of lets made via the Cardiff housing waiting list between April 2024 and February 2025 was 1,461.
Council officers acknowledged there is a big disparity between those waiting for a house and the number of people allocated a home.
However, they added that properties available to let through the waiting list have increased by 17% in comparison to the previous year.
Progress is also being made in other areas, according to the council.
The local authority is helping more people downsize by offering accommodation to older people in its community living scheme properties, which has in turn freed up more homes for families.
In a statement published in March 2025, the council said it has already delivered 1,819 new homes of all tenures as part of its housebuilding programme.
Of these 1,461 are council homes and 358 are homes for sale. A further 422 homes are currently being being built across 12 sites and “hundreds more [are] in the pipeline”.
