A COUNCIL has hit back at a leading homelessness charity that accused it of failing to deliver enough affordable homes.

Shelter carried out a national survey of 323 local authorities naming and shaming the worst offenders, and ranked them according to how well they had performed. Cherwell District Council was ranked 148 out of 323 after the charity claimed it had only delivered 20 per cent of homes needed.

But Cherwell says the figures used by the charity were six years old and with today’s numbers would actually be in the top 20.

Shelter retaliated issuing a statement to say it had used the most up-to-date information available and it was down to councils to ensure the most recent data was accessible to the public.

Local councils are responsible for identifying the housing need in their area and for ensuring enough affordable homes are provided to meet the need.

Shelter’s chief executive Campbell Robb said: “These figures are extremely worrying.

“With over 3,300 households on the housing waiting list in Cherwell, the council must work far harder to ensure more desperately needed affordable homes are provided if it ever hopes to meet the housing needs of the local population.

“Independent experts commissioned by the council say 686 new affordable homes need to be built each year in Cherwell, but an average of only 137 have been delivered in the last year, leaving a shortfall of 549 homes per year.”

A spokesman added: “Our release recognised the impact of the recession and the barriers facing local authorities.

“Ultimately, if councils are not happy with the housing need assessments for their areas, then this highlights the fundamental need for a locally driven and consistent data collection process.

“This must then be made publicly available so that local people can hold authorities to account.”

Michael Gibbard, Cherwell’s executive member for planning and housing, said: “The housing needs survey they refer to goes back to 2004 but Cherwell commissioned a new one in 2009 which showed the rolling annual affordable housing need had dropped from 686 to 390.

“And rather than 137, the annual average in the past three years stands at 141, which would put us into Shelter’s top 20 per cent.

“In fact, the council has this year delivered 173 affordable homes which would move us even higher up the list.

“We are acutely aware of the need to provide more affordable housing in the district and it is one of the council’s top priorities, as can be seen from our latest successes.

“We are very disappointed that Shelter chose not to involve local authorities in their scrutiny of affordable housing.

“If they had, the picture painted by their report might well have been more accurate.”

The charity have set up a website detailing housing data including waiting lists, housing delivery and prices.

For more information view shelter.org.uk/ housingleaguetabledata