A HOUSING provider in East Dorset is pledging to build just 22 homes over the next four years.

Councillors and residents have expressed shock at the low target, revealed at a meeting at the council offices in Furzehill.

There are more than 2,000 people on the district council’s housing waiting list and it was slated by charity Shelter last year as being one of the worst in the country.

Work has not begun on 17 flats and five houses – of which four were set aside for social housing tenants – in Colehill, for which the housing association Synergy Housing gained planning permission more than a year ago. Synergy’s head of development, Fiona Astin, said: “The economic climate and funding cuts mean that funding for affordable housing is expected to be hard to come by over the next four years and beyond. We have made a bid for funding for a variety of affordable housing schemes across our operating areas, including East Dorset.

“These bids will be assessed by the Home and Communities Agency over the coming months and a negotiation will take place between the Home and Communities Agency and bidding housing associations.

“We expect to know the results of the negotiations in June or July. East Dorset is one of Synergy’s core operating areas and we will continue to make every effort to deliver the much needed affordable housing despite the many funding challenges ahead.”

Council leader Cllr Spencer Flower, who is on the board of Synergy Housing, said: “There are other social landlords operating in the area.

“I know the development planned for the old Cobham site in Wimborne contains 70 affordable housing units in itself,” he added.

A Shelter spokesperson said: “With homelessness on the rise and millions of people priced out of the housing market, a lack of affordable homes is the root cause of our housing crisis.

“The only way to address this crisis and end the growing divide between the housing haves and have nots is to urgently build more homes.”