There is a distinct shortage of social housing in Wiltshire.

Just six such houses came to completion, built by Wiltshire council, in 2018.

That chimes with research by housing charity Shelter, which says fewer than 1,000 were built last year across the whole country

While new social housing rates in Wiltshire dwindled from 504 in 2010 to six in 2018, the number of local authority built homes under the affordable housing banner has risen from 660 in 2010 to 1,081 by 2018.

In Wiltshire, social housing is defined as housing that costs 48 per cent of the market rent for an equivalent home, whereas affordable housing is 80 per cent of the market value.

Richard Clewer, cabinet member for housing at Wiltshire Council said: “In an ideal world there would be more Government subsidies for social housing. I would like all homes built by the council to be social housing. But at the moment Wiltshire Council is building affordable houses because there is only enough subsidy to build housing at an affordable level."