Quarter of English councils may have to sell homes to balance books, study finds:

As part of other efforts to balance budgets, 28% of councils said they expected to sell off existing housing stock, while 45% are already using reserves to cover day-to-day spending. Of the 76 councils, 71 highlighted at least one sign of financial stress over housing.

One of the worst legacies of the Thatcherite era was the sell-off of council housing. While it meant that council tenants could get on “the property ladder”, the law prevented councils from reinvesting the money in new housing, which meant that stock ran down over time. Add in the horrible squeeze on council funding of the austerity era and you get a toxic brew that will take Labour a decade to sort out.