It would take eight years to house everyone needing a one-bedroom home in Somerset, a council report has revealed.

More than 12,500 households are currently on the Homefinder housing register in Somerset, which allows people to bid on new council houses or housing association properties as they become available.

One- and two-bedroom homes are the most in-demand properties, with an average of 13 people applying for every one-bed house or flat which becomes available.

Local councillors have called for more work to be done to ensure the service helps those in the most urgent need – and to ensure people who were rough sleeping were properly supported.

Sam Wenden de Lira, the council's head of service for Homefinder and temporary accommodation, provided an update to the council's communities scrutiny committee when it met in Taunton on December 8.

The total number of households on the Homefinder register has risen sharply over the last decade – with 12,590 people registered as of the first quarter of 2025/26 (the most recent figures provided) compared to 8,217 in the last quarter of 2016/17.

Homefinder applications are divided into four bands:

• Emergency band (people fleeing domestic violence or similarly traumatic events, or those whose existing property had fallen into "urgent disrepair")
• Gold band (people who are homeless, facing harassment, being moved on from supported accommodation or urgently needing two or more bedrooms due to family circumstances)
• Silver band (people at risk of of being homeless, lacking an additional bedroom due to their family situation or having a dependent child)
• Bronze band (people who are adequately housed with "adequate financial resources" but want to move to a property which better meets their housing need)

As of December 8, 2025, 7,355 households were in the bronze band, 4,403 in the silver band, 1,133 in the gold band and 16 in the emergency band.

Between August and October 2025, there were 6,855 applications for a one-bed property, of which 523 were successful – the equivalent of 13 people applying for each one-bedroom house.

Two-bedroom homes were in similar demand, with 3,462 applications being made and 548 being successful – the equivalent of just over six applications per property.

A total of 1,918 applications were made for three-bedroom homes, of which 232 were successful (just over one in eight), while 570 applied for a four-bedroom house and only 27 were successful (one in every 21 applications).

Based on existing demand and construction rates, it would take the council eight years to house everyone needing a one-bedroom home, five years to house those needing two bedrooms, seven years to house everyone needing three bedrooms and up to ten years to house everyone needing a four-bedroom house.

The majority of those who are bronze banded need a one-bedroom house, compared to around one-third of those in the silver band and around half of those in the gold band.

Councillor Edric Hobbs (Liberal Democrat, Mendip Hills) said: "How do we explain that I see year on year the same homeless people on the streets? Why have they not been housed?"

Mr de Lira replied: "There could be a multitude of reasons why they have not been housed through the register.

"When it comes to being housed through the register, the offers are made by the landlords and not by ourselves.

"The landlords will have their own policies, where they will be looking at who's come up on a short-list and they will make a decision as to whether they will be offering someone a property. We don't get involved in that.

"When it comes to people who are rough sleeping, we've got a separate rough sleeping team who work really hard to engage with these people.

"They could be living on the streets for a very long time – and I think, contrary to belief, it's not really a choice that people make as a place they want to be.

"It can take a really long time for our team to build any form of trust with these people, and eventually they will develop a strong enough relationship that we can help them find somewhere to live."

Councillor Hazel Prior-Sankey (Independent, Taunton South) said that the Homefinder system should be tweaked to reflect how urgently people needed to change their existing accommodation.

She said: "There are probably a lot of people on this huge housing list who are housed 'adequately' but not in somewhere that they want to be.

"It might be that they started off in a two-bedroom house and then had several more children and became overcrowded, or there may have been a merging of families, or they might want to downsize.

"I don't get a feel from the list of the number of people who are urgently needing somewhere, or that are in wholly unsuitable, inadequate accommodation."