WILTSHIRE Council has defended its decision to scrap its lowest housing band of bronze and to remove some people from its silver category.

The council this week claimed that most of those on the bronze level had no housing needs and should look at alternative options for housing. Those affected are largely single people or couples without children or special needs.

But this has outraged Dr Brian Mathew, the prospective Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for North Wiltshire.

He said: “Thousands of people on Wiltshire Council’s housing waiting list may well have woken up on December 9 to find that they have been dropped from the list.

“Most of these will be on the so-called bronze band. Half of those in the silver, more urgent category will also find that they are no longer registered.”

Several people have taken to social network websites to complain they are no longer able to register, preventing them from building up points that would eventually lead to them getting a house in the Homes4Wiltshire scheme.

But a council spokesman said: “Following a full consultation Wiltshire Council is introducing a new housing allocations policy intended to meet the needs of Wiltshire residents in the coming years and focus on those in the highest need of help with their housing.

“We have many thousands of people on the housing register with no housing needs.

"We recently wrote to these people to explain that our new policy aims to manage client expectations better by not registering those who are unlikely to be re-housed through Homes4Wiltshire, and to encourage clients currently in bronze band to look at the alternative options available to them.”

Under the new scheme the old silver, gold, gold plus and platinum categories will be replaced with numbers from one to four but people must apply within eight weeks to remain on the list.

Dr Mathew said: “It is highly likely that many of these people will not be aware that they must re-apply, will find themselves no longer on the list and will have to start their applications from ground zero.”