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YORK is bucking the national trend in council house waiting lists, new figures have revealed.

Across England as a whole, waiting lists increased by almost 64 per cent between 1997 and 2007, and in some parts of the south east the lists nearly doubled.

But in the same period in York, waiting lists have fallen by 50 per cent.

According to the Department for Communities and Local Government, York had 4,515 households on the waiting list in 1997, and 1,927 last year.

Coun Sue Sunderland, executive member for housing on City of York Council, said the correct current figure was 2,250 but said the fall was somewhat misleading.

She said the decline was down to good management rather than a real decline in the number of people waiting for homes, as the council had sporadically gone through its lists and removed those that were no longer seeking a house.

Coun Sunderland said: "Five years ago we installed a new computer system and what happened was that we got rid of a lot of applications that were not live anymore. Previous to that, the team was working with an antiquated system and everything was done by hand."

She said the housing team had filtered the list down again two years ago.

She said: "Although it looks like applications for housing have come down, that's not the case.

"It's good management from the allocations team, getting rid of applications that are no longer pending, and by getting rid of people moving away the number has come down on paper."

Elsewhere in North Yorkshire, Hambleton also saw a drop, while Selby and Ryedale saw moderate increases. Harrogate saw the largest increase. Overall in North Yorkshire, the lists rose from 9,370 in 1997 to 13,506 in 2007, while in Yorkshire and the Humber the rise was from 173,749 to 270,070.

2:32am Friday 28th March 2008

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