A GOVERNMENT green paper on social housing fails to commit any new money for plans that Labour has described as “pitiful.”

Housing Secretary James Brokenshire said his green paper, a government consultation document launched yesterday, would help rebalance the relationship between tenants and landlords and ensure that social housing can lead to home ownership.

But for the second time this week, his plans have been shown to not be backed by any new funding.

In the green paper, a proposal allows social tenants to move into ownership by buying as little as 1 per cent of their property each year. Another proposal would introduce “landlord league tables” to hold bad practice in the private rental sector to account.

A consultation on how councils spend the money from right-to-buy sales has also been launched, setting out proposals aimed at making it easier for councils to replace properties sold under right to buy.

But shadow housing secretary John Healey’s criticism was scathing. He said the paper offers nothing that “measures up to the scale of the housing crisis.”

He said: “The number of new social rented homes is at a record low, but there is no new money to increase supply and ministers are still preventing local authorities run by all parties from building the council homes their communities need.”

On Monday, Mr Brokenshire was forced to admit that no extra money was being allocated to the government’s £100 million fund to eradicate rough sleeping by 2027. He admitted that half the sum had already been committed to rough sleeping, while the other half was “reprioritised” from existing budgets.

Housing charity Shelter chief executive Polly Neate said that the minister’s “new deal” for housing does not involve “a single extra penny” towards constructing new homes needed now by more than a million people.

The long-awaited proposals are “full of warm words” and little substance, she said, adding: “The terrible Grenfell tragedy has shone a light on social housing and forced the country to think about the choices we face.”

Local Government Authority housing spokeswoman Judith Blake said that the government must go further than what is proposed and scrap the cap on how much councils can borrow to build homes.

Social policy research charity Joseph Rowntree Foundation said the paper “does little to address the fundamental lack of low-cost rented homes.”

Lamiat Sabin is Morning Star parliamentary reporter.