Government's delayed housing strategy could be published on Monday

The Strategy is thought to include the announcement of new funding for homes, a plan to build up to 450,000 new homes, a mortgage scheme and a pledge to tackle empty homes.

The Strategy was due to be released by the end of October, but it was recently revealed that the strategy was delayed "to allow further work on Right-to-Buy following announcement at conference”, in the Government's Structural Reform Update.

It is understood that the strategy, which will mostly weave together existing policies, will allocate new cash which a Government insider described as being worth ‘a few hundred million’, Inside Housing reported.

A key element of the housing strategy that the sector is hoping will be included is a consultation of the Government's proposed "right-to-buy" model. The Government has pledged that that it will replace every sold home and build 100,000 new affordable homes at 80% of market rates.

The consultation will reveal the level of discount available to tenants wishing to purchase their homes and a broad outline of how sales receipts will be distributed.

It is understood the document will suggest that the Homes and Communities Agency administer the receipts. The council which sold the property will see the debt associated with that property paid off and have priority for the receipts, which will be used to build new homes.

The Local Government Association has argued that the alternative, national pooling of receipts, would reduce the amount available for investment in housing and impact the new system of self-financing, which begins in April.

Although the Chartered Institute of Housing warned on Tuesday that the strategy could just be ‘a series of strong articulations of what’s [already] been announced’.

The Government has hinted that new announcements could include plans for “light touch” regulation of the private rented sector, the release of more public sector land, moves to attract institutional investment into the affordable housing sector and a call for new companies to enter the affordable housing sector.