Numbers on Lambeth’s housing waiting list have rocketed because of a lack of affordable housing being built in the borough, it is alleged.

The latest figures released by the council show more than 20,000 people are on the mainstream housing waiting list, compared to 17,000 at the same time last year.

Critics have also blamed a council failure to bring enough empty homes back in to use for the rise.

But the council said demand had increased because it had become better at placing residents, encouraging more people to apply.

Housing pressure group Shelter published figures in March which showed just 11 per cent of the affordable housing it estimated needed to be built in Lambeth was provided. Only eight councils nationally built enough homes, it alleged.

Shelter chief executive Campbell Robb said: "We know the recession has created a difficult climate for house building, but these figures clearly show councils must work far harder to ensure more desperately needed affordable homes are provided if they ever hope to meet the housing needs of their local population."

Lib Dem councillor Jeremy Clyne said: "These shocking figures reveal for the homeless and overcrowded in Lambeth, an already dire situation has become even more acute in the past year."

He said the Labour-run council had "failed abysmally to produce enough genuinely affordable housing while at the same time presiding over 1,500 empty properties and selling off desperately needed homes to property speculators”.

A Lambeth Council spokesperson said the figures represented the demand for housing and not the need for housing. She said the successful launch of the Choice Based Lettings service - which advertises social housing for rent online - also meant more people were applying for housing.

She added: "Like every London borough, Lambeth has a huge challenge in providing more houses. We do this through the planning system and by working in partnership with housing associations– and have provided 810 new affordable homes in the last year in this way.

“We are also tough on illegal subletting – making sure that the homes we have are available for those who need them."