The council's leader wants to grab some of the extra funding earmarked for council houses across the UK.

In the week after Theresa May promised to inject £2bn into house building over the next decade, Cllr Chris Whitbread, leader of Epping Forest District Council, outlined his aim to build more homes in the area.

He said: "We provide very high quality council housing but it is more than just bricks and mortar.

"We take pride when our tenants tell us how much they appreciate the good level of service we provide throughout from lettings to management and maintenance.

“The biggest problem with our stock is that we don’t have enough of it.

"We are committed to building more local council houses for local families, and we will be sure to do all we can to get hold of some of the £2 billion announced by the Government to build more.”

Since restarting its house building programme in 2014, the council has built 28 new homes, bought eight completed ones and purchased six for renovation.

With 1,500 people on the waiting list however, the 51 on Burton Road in Loughton delayed by a large fire this summer and 34 planned for council owned land are high sought after.