The Government is expected to wipe off around £60m in debt from housing associations in a bid to deliver more social housing.

In a speech later today, communities secretary Sajid Javid will confirm the Government will take housing associations’ debt off the balance sheet. He will say this will provide a more stable environment for them to build more homes.

He will say: ‘Our Housing White Paper in February set out our broad vision. It described the scale of the challenge and the need for action on many fronts. Since then we’ve been putting it into action, laying the foundations for hundreds of thousands more homes.

‘But there are many, many faults in our housing market, dating back many, many years. If you only fix one you’ll make some progress, but not enough. This is a big problem and we have to think big.’

The prime minister will also use an appearance later today to pledge that it is her personal mission to ‘build more homes, more quickly’.