FEWER than one in 10 homes built in Swindon over the past few years was affordable, new figures show.

Data released as part of the Local Government Finance Settlement reveals the full extent of the shortage in supply of affordable housing in the town.

The figures show that, over the past three years, of the 2,398 houses built, just 222 were affordable, which works out at 9.2 per cent.

Martin Wicks, secretary of local housing campaigner Swindon Tenants’ Campaign Group, said he was “not surprised” by the 9.2 per cent figure.

He said: “The council is doing little in the way of building affordable homes, mainly because of the lack of funding from central government.

“The number of affordable homes they are building is simply not enough to make up for number they are losing through the Right to Buy scheme.”

According to the government’s Strategic Housing Marketing Assessment, there is an annual average shortfall of around 801 affordable homes in Swindon.

As a result, it recommended that the council should maintain its existing policy of seeking a 30 per cent affordable housing contribution on sites large enough to qualify.

This means that, on all developments of 15 homes or more, or on sites larger than 0.5 hectares, 30 per cent of those proposed homes should be ‘affordable’.

Covingham resident Helen Willis, 62, considered the lack of affordable housing in the town a real problem.

She said: “In this day and age, everybody should have access to affordable homes. I think more should be done to help people.”

Andrew Macdonald, 40, who lives in the town centre, agreed.

He said: “It’s a nationwide problem. Rents are sky high, which means people can’t afford to save for a deposit. It’s a bit of a vicious circle.”

Affordable housing is defined as that which is provided to eligible households whose needs are not met by the market.

It follows recent news that house prices in Swindon are among the fastest rising in the UK.

The average home in the town now costs £231,316 - an increase of 7.8 per cent over the past 12 months.

But Swindon Borough Council defended its record on housing, pointing to the number of affordable homes that have been built in conjunction with private developers in recent years.

A council spokesman said: “We have been extremely proactive in bringing affordable homes on to the market with almost 200 being bought or built by the local authority over the last five years.

“During the same period more than 650 affordable properties have also been built by private developers.

“Swindon also has a high take-up of residents who are taking advantage of the government’s Homebuy initiative, which allows people to buy homes at discounted rates.

“Although the Local Plan sets out the council’s ambition to seek a 30 per cent affordable housing contribution from developers this does not apply to small developments of less than 15 homes or to office-to-residential conversions.”

“Scheme viability has also been a recent issue for developers.”

The council vowed to continue to challenge developers to secure the maximum number of affordable homes in each qualifying development.