The extent to which the government may miss its target of building 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s has been laid bare by a new report from the National Audit Office (NAO).

Last week housing minister Kit Malthouse described the 300,000 figure as “mythical”, and now an NAO report has suggested the government will miss its own target of freeing up enough land by 2025 to build 160,000 homes in England.

The report follows an NAO investigation into the government’s strategy for land disposals under its Public Land for Housing programme, which also aimed to generate £5bn through sales of unwanted public sector land.