The scrapping of the Housing Revenue Account cap has boosted district councils’ housebuilding efforts, according to a new report, but local authorities still need more powers and resources if they were to speed up developments.

A poll of senior housing officers working in five councils across England, commissioned by the District Councils’ Network (DCN) in partnership with the Local Government Information Unit, revealed that a third of stock holding districts had advanced plans for building more new homes while the remaining two-thirds said they were “considering increasing building now as a result of the cap being lifted”.

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