Muhammad Khan has been on the list for 10 years, and is still waiting. It took Funmi Fabemi three. For Linda Barrett, who was brought up in a council home, there was never any hope.
Social housing is at a premium in Tower Hamlets, east London, where white, Asian, African and eastern European people live cheek by jowl.
Barrett, 51, a primary schoolteacher, believes the policy of giving priority to local people may have come too late. "I think there's a lot to be said for it. I was brought up in a council property in the area. But I didn't have a hope of getting on the list when I married."
She and her husband were forced to buy under a shared ownership scheme to stay in the area. "It makes you feel a bit sidelined really because there have always been the newcomers to the area. We have always had refugees and it has been difficult for those of us born here to stay here."
All of her schoolfriends have had to move away, she said.
"I am slightly cynical about it. If I'm honest, I think it is just Gordon Brownreacting because he is terrified of his position with the election.
"The trouble is, in this area everybody thinks that everybody else is getting what they are entitled to."
Among the myriad street stalls of Bethnal Green high street, the teacher, the trader and the caterer all agree that social housing is a big issue.
"Ten years. That's how long I've been on the list," said Khan, a 35-year-old father of two from Pakistan who lives with his family in a cramped private flat. "Will it help me? Who knows?" he said from behind his bedding stall.
"Thirteen-and-a-half years, that's how long one of my customers has been waiting," said the Asian owner of the local pound store.
Some see it as a move that will favour the indigenous, white East Ender. "That's my initial impression," said Brenda Bukenyna, 30, a link worker helping rehabilitate ex-offenders.
"But I suppose it might also help the ordinary working-class person who has lived here for a long time and just cannot afford rented accommodation."
Fabemi, 43, from Nigeria, believes Africans already have a hard time getting on the list. It took her three years as a 21-year-old single mother before she was given a flat. But she broadly welcomed the move. "If it means it is fairer for everyone, then I'm in favour
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