Bold plans to radically increase the number of council houses in the Canterbury district have been revealed as 2,500 desperate applicants await a home.

Just five new social properties have been built in the area in the last 20 years.

And a mere 25 council houses across Canterbury, Whitstable and Herne Bay are sitting empty – with the majority only temporarily unoccupied while maintenance is carried out.

Because of the district’s chronic shortage, the city council faces a massive waiting list of families, couples and individuals seeking social accommodation.

City councillors have this week set up a working group to find a solution to the mounting problem.

Options explored over the next six months will include the delivery of hundreds of new council homes to the city and towns.

Members of the group will also discuss the feasibility of offering council-funded repairs to owners of private, but empty, properties.

Once renovated, these could potentially be used as temporary social accommodation to help alleviate the problem.

Community committee chairman Neil Baker made the announcement at Canterbury City Council on Thursday.

The news appeared to be welcomed by members across the political spectrum.

Cllr Baker said: “We believe the best way to tackle the housing crisis is to build more houses.

“At the moment there are 2,500 people on the waiting list and just 25 empty properties, and most of those are only empty as they are being repaired between tenants.

“The housing development working group will be investigating the options for doing this, as well as other innovative ideas such as creating a social lettings agency and renovating empty shops to turn them into residential accommodation.”

Whitstable boasts some of the first council houses to be built in the world and the last constructed in the district in 2011.

The two three-bedroom and three four-bedroom houses were built on the site of former garages behind St Andrew’s Close at a cost of £930,000, funded by the council and central government.

Proposed new developments would be spread across the district, and the working group also plans to increase the number of affordable homes built as part of private developments.

Last month the Kentish Gazette revealed how Canterbury City Council was offering council tenants £40,000 cash gifts to vacate their homes.

The financial inducements, to help social tenants get a foot on the property ladder, provoked fury among those renting in the private sector.

Available to the first 10 eligible tenants to apply, the scheme was oversubscribed four-fold within a week.