TENS of thousands of families in the south languishing on waiting lists for social housing have been told that those with strong local links stand to get a home more quickly.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown unveiling what was dubbed an “early election manifesto”, yesterday, pledged £1.5 billion to allow an extra 20,000 affordable homes to be built over the next two years.

Local authorities will bid for a slice of the funding, which is desperately needed to reverse soaring waiting lists for council and housing association homes – including in the south, where the latest count shows more than 50,000 families are waiting for a home.

They include 11,662 families in Southampton, 37,905 in the Hampshire County Council area and 4,388 on the Isle of Wight.

The PM said new rules would allow town halls to “give more priority to local people whose names have been on the waiting lists for far too long”.

Conservative leader David Cameron dismissed the announcements as “a package without a price tag” and “re-hashed initiatives”.