DESPITE the overwhelming need for affordable housing in a district where some average house prices are more than 20 times the average wage, West Somerset Council failed to deliver any affordable homes last year. Inspectors from the Audit Commission said the authority was providing a poor housing service and have rated it as a zero star council out of a potential three stars with uncertain prospects for improvement. The commission noted four affordable homes had been built in 2005-06 - at Williton's Shutgate Meadow - but said they had not been sold at the time of its inspection in March. Earlier this month, the council confirmed it had finally sold one of the four flats, two others were under offer and the fourth was still for sale after being forced to abandon an interest-free loans scheme for potential buyers. The inspectors found that, despite listing the delivery of housing as one of of its three main priorities and setting clear targets for affordable housing provision, the council was failing to meet those targets to the detriment of residents. The Audit Commission reported: "Given the chronic need for more affordable housing, especially homes for rent, this performance adversely impacts on residents and the council's ability to sustain balanced communities. "The council has recognised the need for better performance and is developing its strategic approach to the provision of more affordable homes. "It is working well with partners and stakeholders, including private sector landlords. "However, its approach is not balanced or comprehensive to meeting the needs of the most vulnerable in the community or to meeting its own target for homes for rent. "There is a danger this may undermine the positive achievements in other areas such as homelessness." The inspectors said there was a proven need for 112 affordable homes to be built in the district annually. The authority provided 65 in 2001-02 and just 22 in the following two years, falling to none at all last year. Its own targets call for 100 affordable homes to buy and 80 affordable homes to rent to be delivered before 2009. They said the authority was still failing to place enough emphasis on the need for affordable homes to rent, did not monitor whether the service was offering value for money and was lacking in overall performance management. However, the council was praised for helping people to remain in their own homes, providing a good range of information to potential users about affordable housing issues, for reducing homelessness and forging strong partnerships with both the public and private sectors. But the inspectors felt that overall the council's weaknesses outweighed its strengths and said there were still a number of barriers in the way of consistent improvement in the future. Most notably, the commission felt the council's previous track record for delivering improvements was "mixed", performance management systems were still under development, there were no robust plans to deliver improvement in the housing sector and no long-term financial plan. The report said: "An uncertain prospect [for improvement] acknowledges that there have been areas of the service that have improved, particularly homelessness prevention. "However, there are still a number of weaknesses that make it difficult to say with confidence that the service will definitely improve further." The inspectors recommended the authority took immediate steps to improve its management of the housing service to enable managers and councillors to deal more effectively with under-performance. They also called for current strategies to be reviewed to enable more affordable homes to be delivered and for the value for money offered by the service to be assessed to improve cost effectiveness. The report concluded: "The [council's] priorities for more affordable housing reflects the concerns of local people. "The council is failing to deliver sufficient new affordable homes to meet its own targets. "There have been delays in getting the Local Plan adopted and a failure to deliver any rural exception sites. "The council has been slow to make use of its planning powers to generate a supply of new affordable housing. "It has so far taken 11 years to develop the Local Plan." The inspectors said the type of affordable housing that had been built over the last two years failed to match the needs of those wanting an affordable home and feared many residents did not even earn enough money to qualify for the mortgage needed to buy an affordable property. However, the authority had reduced homelessness numbers and strengthened a range of partnerships, particularly with the private sector, while the adoption of the council's Destination 06 plan was beginning to focus investment in areas that were in need of improvement. Patrick Mooney, the Audit Commission's head of housing for the South, said: "The council recognises that better and more affordable housing is a priority for local people but has yet to have a real impact. "Where it has focused, such as on the prevention of homelessness, the council has been effective and it now needs to improve its approach to enabling more affordable homes for rent and to own, as well as ensuring the best use is made of existing housing in the district." Stacey Beaumont, the council's media and PR officer, said the authority had been disappointed by the findings of the report and said recent improved performance had not been taken into account. She said the authority had already acknowledged it had not met its housing targets but said an additional 12 affordable homes would be available within the Clanville development in Minehead in the spring. She said: "While recognising that it still has work to do in this area, the council is pleased that its plans for housing are starting to deliver. "With strengthened plans and by using the Audit Commission's recommendation to further strengthen its approach, West Somerset Council can assure local people that it has started and will continue to deliver a better housing service."