Almost 14,000 people are on the waiting list for housing in East Renfrewshire, latest figures show.

Statistics released under Freedom of Information legislation reveal that East Renfrewshire Council has 6,287 separate applications for accommodation to rent, involving 13,717 people.

More than a third of those on the waiting list for social housing – 4,779 – are children.

The Scottish Government has been accused of failing to build enough affordable homes and slashing the housing budget.

Across the country, a total of 327,585 people are on the waiting list for either a council or housing association home. Almost 104,000 of them are children.

Miles Briggs, housing spokesman for the Scottish Conservatives, said communities are facing “a housing crisis.”

He added: “We are seeing precious little in the way of action from the government to tackle it.”

Separate figures released by the Scottish Government show the number of affordable homes approved for construction across the country last year fell to 6,554.

This is the lowest level for almost a decade.

Mr Briggs said: “These figures are an absolute disgrace and wholly unacceptable.

“It should be a source of shame for ministers that over 100,000 Scottish children are currently on social housing waiting lists. They completely expose the government’s failure to build enough affordable homes for people and families.

“Overall, over 300,000 people are on the waiting list for social houses in our country, which is a truly scandalous state of affairs.”

Mr Briggs accused ministers of cutting nationwide spending on housing, including new homes, by around £340million.

“The wholly illogical decision to slash the housing budget has come back to haunt ministers, who must use these figures as an urgent wake-up call and reverse those deeply-damaging cuts immediately,” he said.

“If they don’t, then these figures will spiral even further out of control.

“Typically, the rhetoric regarding housebuilding has been good from ministers but they have been miles off matching that when it has come to delivery.”

Glasgow City Council had the largest number of people – 36,186 – on housing waiting lists, including 10,616 children.

There are also 24,209 people with disabilities on social housing waiting lists across Scotland.

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “The majority of people on housing lists are already in a property and are looking to move to a different type of property or to a different area, so the Conservatives are simply wrong to suggest that 100,000 children are ‘waiting to be housed.’ “We are proud that Scotland has led the UK in delivering affordable housing, with more than 118,000 homes since 2007.

“We are providing £3.5billion over this parliament towards the delivery of social and affordable homes and we are committed to delivering 110,000 affordable homes by 2032, of which at least 70 per cent will be available for social rent.”