A REPORT aimed at outlining the next stages of development for Thurrock’s housing plan does not consider how to address the 9,000 people on the housing waiting list.

Thurrock’s local plan is vital in shaping the future of the borough and could see up to 32,000 new homes built in the next 30 years.

But when a report on the next stages of the plan's development was presented to a committee meeting on Wednesday, councillors questioned why it had failed to address the borough’s housing waiting list.

Labour councillor Martin Kerin, of the Grays Riverside ward, said: “There is no specific commitment that these 32,000 homes will address the 9,000 people we have on the waiting list in Thurrock.

“We could end up with a lot of homes and lots of people moving into the borough but still people stuck living in their parents’ bedrooms because they can’t afford to move out.

“It would be helping towards a housing crisis but not within Thurrock. By the time this local plan has been implemented just think how big the list will be, it won’t be 9,000 on the waiting list it will be far more than that.”

Labour councillor Jane Pothecary, also of Grays Riverside ward, added: “I do not believe that by allowing developers to come in and develop houses then sell them at whatever makes them the most profit is going to get anybody out of their parents houses and out of their childhood bedrooms.

“My concern is that this isn’t actually solving Thurrock’s housing crisis, it is solving London’s housing crisis.”

However, Mark Coxshall, portfolio holder for regeneration, has stressed that this stage of the plan’s development is only focussed on getting the public’s opinion, not on the specific details of the houses.

Prior to the meeting, he said: “This stage of the consultation process is not agreeing how many homes will be built or where they will be going. We are asking residents for their views on the types of locations for new housing.”

The public consultation will take place between July and October and give the public the chance to give their views on the types of locations they would like to see the new houses built on.

However, the number of houses needed is so high that the committee noted there would have to be a mix of the options, regardless of preference.

Mr Kerin went on to call for the formation of a cross-party task force which will be dedicated to scrutinising the plan’s development and will endure beyond election cycles.

He added: “If we don’t get this plan right as a local authority, history won’t forgive us.”

The plan will be discussed further at a full council meeting on July 25.