The Government should take urgent action to deliver affordable housing, councils warn.

A new report, published by the Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE), revealed 96% of councils described their need for affordable housing as severe or moderate.

It also found 72% of councils think that the viability test laid out in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) has hindered their ability to build social and affordable housing.

Entitled Homes for all: Ensuring councils can deliver the homes we need, the report also discovered scepticism over the effectiveness of starter homes. 87% of respondents did not think that starter homes would address the problem of affordability.

Nine out of 10 councils, APSE’s research found, are worried that the extension of Right to Buy will lead to less housing available for social rent.

Kate Henderson, chief executive of the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) who also contributed to the report, said: ‘Councils are concerned that government policy is not enabling them to deliver genuinely affordable housing - we need to have a housing strategy that provides affordable homes to all people.’

Paul O’Brien, chief executive of APSE said: ‘Our main message is we need Government to put in place a housing strategy for the nation that provides decent homes for all.

‘Whilst efforts have been concentrated on so-called affordable homes this is often not the case and these homes remain out of reach for the vast majority of people.’

‘The situation is even worse for those dependent on social and genuinely affordable housing for rent,’ he continued.

‘Current housing policy is in need of demolition. The time has come to start afresh by putting local authorities and new council homes at the heart of a new housing strategy.’