A think-tank has warned that Andy Burnham’s proposed expansion of council housebuilding could create an £8 billion gap in the Government’s spending plans. The claim matters because it raises questions over how an ambitious programme of social housing would be funded and whether it could be delivered without reducing other public spending or increasing borrowing.

Burnham has described the proposal as the biggest council-house building programme since the Second World War. The warning, reported by the Daily Mail, centres on the estimated £8 billion cost pressure rather than a confirmed Government decision, and represents an assessment by the think-tank.