When I joined the East Cambridgeshire DC housing team in June 2013, I was faced with an unenviable task. 

The council's three homeless hostels were full to bursting. There were 200 households in urgent need of help – the highest priority in terms of unsuitable, or no, accommodation. On top of that there were more than 30 households in bed and breakfast accommodation, costing the local authority £500,000 in six months. It wasn't a housing register. It was a homeless register. All social housing was going to homeless people and the team was constantly firefighting.