It comes as the number of new social home lettings across England fell by more than a third over the same period and the Institute for Public Policy Research said there was “clear unmet need for social homes”.

However, the trend was bucked in all other Oxfordshire districts, which were some of the few areas in England where the number of new social lettings has risen. 

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New figures from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government show just 42 local authority areas where the number of social homes has increased between the year 2013-14 to last year. 

This includes general needs housing, which are not designed for a specific occupant, and homes designed for specific types of people, such as the elderly or those with disabilities, called supported housing.

In South Oxfordshire, the provision has gone up from 513 to 649 last year, and in West Oxfordshire its up from 410 to 503. 

Cherwell also had an increase of a third from 590 to 776 households, while the number almost doubled in Vale of White Horse, from 451 to 847.

Oxford was in line with the national trend, though, seeing just 514 households secure social home tenancies last year, a decrease from 1,042 a decade ago. 

A file image of work taking place at Marston Paddock (Image: Oxford City Council) Across England, the number of new tenancies starting annually has fallen from 396,000 in 2013-14 to 261,000 last year.

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Matt Downie, chief executive of homelessness charity Crisis, said the failure to build enough homes “has led to record numbers of households, including thousands of families with children, being stuck in unsafe and unsuitable temporary accommodation”.

“The reality is that until we’re building 90,000 social homes every year, thousands of people, including families with young children, will continue to wake up in poor quality temporary accommodation,” he said.

Of the total 12,142 social letting stock in Oxford, four per cent were re-let in the last year.

The average weekly rent of these re-let homes was £121, equivalent to 33 per cent of the average market rent in the area.

Dr Maya Singer Hobbs, senior research fellow at the IPPR, said: “Social homes must play a key role in the Government’s focus on housebuilding, for two reasons. The first is that there is no other way to meet the target of 300,000 homes per year.

“The other reason is that there is a clear unmet need for social homes, with 1.3 million people currently on social home waiting lists.

“Building social homes can also help address other Government priorities, such as reducing child poverty by driving down housing costs.”

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