FOCUS should be put on social housing to help cut housing waiting lists, a councillor has said.

The Office for National Statistics found Colchester has seen growth of 8.2 per cent between mid 2013 and mid 2018.

It means the population has grown by more than 14,500 in five years.

Mark Goacher, Green councillor for Castle ward, has called for work to tackle social housing shortages.

He said: “I don’t know it is necessarily a good thing [the population has grown].

“I think growth of that scale would obviously necessitate huge building programmes all over the countryside.”

Mr Goacher said there was a approach of “build, build, build” in the south east of the UK, while other parts of the country were not as impacted.

He said it was a myth to think more houses need to be built to solve the housing waiting list.

“There has been a massive number of houses built all over Colchester in the last 20 years and the waiting list never goes down,” he said.

“It is not about building houses, there is clearly something wrong with the [Government’s] housing policy.”

Mr Goacher said there was a need to build more social housing - not just private homes.

He said: “They are for people with money not for the most in need.

“I grew up in a council bungalow - a third of the population did back then.

“Council housing is how to get the waiting list down.”

As part of housing plans three new towns could be built in north Essex bringing 40,000 homes to the area.

In the past Mr Goacher has described the garden community proposals as going “way beyond local need”.

He said he hoped there would be a move towards consideration for where new homes are built.

He believes brownfield sites need to be explored alongside building upwards, rather than outwards.

Mr Goacher, who admitted it wouldn’t be a popular view, added: “To minimise the amount of land taken up we have to build up into the skies.”

The new figures make Colchester the 17th fastest growing borough or district in the country.

It was also the fastest growing area in Essex.

The UK population’s growth rate in mid 2017 and mid 2018 was 0.6 per cent.