ENGLISH councils warned today that Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner’s housing target of 1.5 million new homes is in jeopardy without an injection of funding. 

Research commissioned by London’s Southwark Council showed that 93 per cent of English councils’ housing budgets are revealing signs of financial stress.

The research found most local authorities’ budgets are on the “brink of collapse,” suggesting Ms Rayner’s“council housing revolution” may be at risk.

Housing is devolved, so any funding boost in England will also have to be passed to Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales under the Barnett Formula.

The survey found that 61 per cent of councils have already cancelled, paused or delayed housebuilding projects, while more than a third have cut back on repairs and maintenance of council homes.

Ms Rayner, who is also Housing, Communities and Local Government Secretary, has described the housebuilding aim as a personal mission, telling social housing leaders last November that she has “skin in the game.”

In August, Ms Rayner announced the government’s intention to publish a long-term housing strategy.

Southwark’s Labour leader Kieron Williams said: “The government’s ambition to build 1.5 million new homes is critical to ending the housing crisis and council housing must play a central role in this effort.

“However, without significant further action councils will be unable to build at scale.”

Last year, 100 councils, including Southwark, called for an emergency injection of £644 million from the government to stabilise their housing accounts.

They warned that the financial model for council housing finances is “broken” with a £2.2 billion “black hole” in councils’ dedicated budgets expected by 2028.

The authorities collectively called for a “sustainable” self-financing deal which addresses “unsustainable debt.”

They also highlighted the need for a long-term capital investment to modernise the social housing stock and funding for new council homes which reflects the costs involved.

A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesperson said: “Local government has suffered from years of short-term decisions, which is why we have already set out important steps to help them deliver the homes we need.

“That includes overdue reforms to the right to buy scheme and an extra £500 million for the Affordable Homes Programme, and we will soon set out further measures.”