Theresa May is set to announce a major council housebuilding programme in her Tory conference speech later today.
The prime minister will make housing the central focus of her address as she closes the Tory party conference in Manchester.
She is due to announce radical plans to use public land and embark on a housebuilding drive.
Secretary of state Damian Green has confirmed May will unveil measures that will make it easier for councils to build new houses for rent.
Full details of the proposals are yet to be disclosed, but early reports suggest that councils are expected to be given freedom to build their own homes, while also being forced to assess local need as well as set targets to build more homes in their boroughs.
More than 1m homes were built by councils in the 1970s, but this was halted in the 1980s when Margaret Thatcher’s government introduced the right-to-buy scheme that allowed tenants to buy their rented homes at a discount to market value. These homes were there not replaced.
According to research by Shelter in 2015, one-third of councils in the UK had not replaced any homes that were bought under the scheme since 2012.
In March this year it emerged that councils had been forced to pay back £800m in right-to-buy cash to the treasury.
Labour produced an analysis that showed the money could have been put towards building 12,586 homes, more than double the amount that were built in the past five years.
This new housing drive is viewed by many as essential to meet Tory targets of building 1m homes over the next five years.
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