Full scale of Greater Manchester town's housing crisis laid bare with 200 applicants for ONE property

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Stockport Homes boss Helen McHale has said the company is doing "all it can" to support its tenants despite the pressures it is facing.

Ms McHale is the chief executive of the company which manages housing on behalf of the council as an arms length management organisation (ALMO), and for private landlords.

Demand for accommodation in Stockport is high and thousands of people are currently on the housing register, with around 200 applications for each available property. READ MORE: The nine Greater Manchester properties in the running for 'UK's best building' in 2024 The company manages more than 12,000 properties at a time when Stockport MP Navendu Mishra has described the housing situation in the borough as a "crisis." Ms McHale led the team that established Stockport Homes in 2005 and, since then, the company has grown into Stockport's biggest landlord. "The outstripping of demand compared to supply is massive," she told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS). "If I was to say to you that on average we get 200 bids per property that is advertised, it means less turnover of our stock, less properties, more people are wanting them, and that leaves a shortfall.

It's really difficult. "We have some very committed staff and we'll continue to do all we can. We do lots to encourage mutual exchanges, it's one way people can swap their homes. "We're also trying to encourage people who were on their own in a three bedroom house to give that up so we can move a family in and give them support and money to do so, those are the limited ways that we can release accommodation." Stockport Homes has been criticised by some of its tenants in recent months over the standard of its accommodation and the speed at which repairs are