By Eddie Bisknell

More than 40 families have applied for one three-bed home in Newhall - with dozens of other households also pitching for a handful of homes.

The issue facing households on the council home waiting list has been keenly highlighted through new data published by South Derbyshire District Council.

In a report to be discussed next week, the authority has detailed the lowest, average and highest numbers of bids it gets for each category of council home.

For example, it says the highest number of bids it got for a three bed house were for one home in Newhall with 44 families pitching for the sought-after property.

Among the other property types, the data shows that dozens of households are bidding for each available council home which comes back on the market.

All but one of the households making each of these bids for properties will be left in limbo and waiting for another suitable home to become available.

Here is the breakdown for the highest number of bids and their location, by home type.

• One-bed house – 29 bids in Overseal
• Two-bed house – 42 bids in Woodville
• Three bed house – 44 bids in Newhall
• Four-bed house – 20 bids in Swadlincote
• Five-bed house – five bids in Swadlincote
• One-bed flat – 16 bids in Church Gresley
• Two-bed flat – nine bids in Repton
• One-bed bungalow – 30 bids in Swadlincote
• Two-bed bungalow – 19 bids in Castle Gresley

In recent months, district councils have been stepping up their questioning over the "astonishing" amount of time it takes to re-let council properties and the number of homes which are left vacant.

In late March, the authority said it was still taking an average of 125 days to re-let a council house – around four months.

This is a marked improvement on the average of 260 days (nearly nine months) which it took the authority to re-let council homes early in the pandemic, but the council acknowledged that the 125-day average is "still not good enough".

The report to be discussed next week details that there are currently 82 vacant council homes in the district.

Of these, 32 are ready to re-let, 19 are awaiting final checks, 19 are waiting on a contractor to carry out repairs and 12 are waiting on a gas and electricity meter check and a survey of their condition.

In March, Allison Thomas, the authority's strategic director for service delivery, said there are often delays in re-letting council homes due to repairs which need to be carried out once tenants leave.

Routine works like fire and electricity checks can also cause hold-ups, she said.

Ms Thomas had said the authority often brings forward upgrades to council homes while they are vacant, such as bathroom and kitchen improvements, to avoid causing disturbance for tenants once they are in properties.

The report to be discussed next week says that testing the electrics and repair works at a property can be a long and drawn out process after a tenant leaves.

This is because these works cannot be carried out until power is restored, which can include clearing debts on the previous tenants' account.

The council says: "This involves identifying the previous tenant's utility supplier and gaining access to their accounts in order to make payments to clear outstanding debt."

Kevin Stackhouse, the council's strategic director for corporate resources, had said the loss of income from "void" council homes was forecast to hit £450,000.

Four years ago, the council said that vacant flats in a 24-flat council housing scheme in Midland Road, Swadlincote, were purposefully being left empty due to "criminal and antisocial behaviour".