There are more than 6,000 applicants on North Ayrshire’s housing waiting list, Cabinet Member for Place Scott Davidson revealed at last week’s full council meeting.

He was responding to a question from fellow Kilwinning councillor Donald Reid about how many of the 6,715 applicants included the town within their choices of area to be considered, with 1,922 selecting the town.

Explaining how the system works, Councillor Davidson said: “The North Ayrshire Housing Register is a shared register which is jointly operated by North Ayrshire Council and our RSL partners – Riverside Homes, Cunninghame Housing Association and ANCHO.

“It is a live system that changes daily as new housing applications are registered and other applications are updated or cancelled.

“Applications are held in one of the seven ‘needs’ groups and awarded points and consequential priority that reflect the applicant’s housing circumstances.

“If no points are awarded, it means the applicant does not have an assessed housing need as defined by the Housing Allocations Policy.

“Applicants can choose as many areas as they wish from the 63 letting areas across North Ayrshire. Staff carry out housing options interviews with applicants and actively encourage them to include several areas to maximise their likelihood of receiving an offer.

“As of Wednesday, October 26, I can confirm we have a total of 6,715 applications on the North Ayrshire-wide register, of which 3,346 applications have been allocated points. 

“This equates to 50 per cent off applications. Again on October 26, the total number of applicants who have included at least one of the eight Kilwinning letting areas within their preferences is 1,922.

“Of these there are 1,081 applicants who have been awarded points/priority. This equates to 56 per cent of all applications for Kilwinning. A total of 359 applicants have chosen Kilwinning areas only, with 197 of these applicants having points/ priority awarded (54 per cent).