Charity fears sell off of council homes in the Black Country and Staffordshire despite long waiting list for properties

Shelter estimates that a total of 1,239 properties across the region could be sold on the open market once they become vacant. The money raised through the sale of 'high value' homes would then be used to fund discounts of up to £100,000 for housing association tenants taking up the Right to Buy offer.

Bosses at the homeless charity say that councils in the area will need to raise more than £130 million through the sale of 'high value' homes to pay for the subsidies, under an extension to the Right to Buy scheme, which is now being put through parliament as part of the government's Housing and Planning Bill.

The Right to Buy scheme helps eligible council and housing association tenants buy their home at discounted market value.

Shelter estimates that 451 properties in Wolverhampton could be sold off each year with the council needing to raise around £48.8million.

Lesley Roberts, the council's strategic director for housing, said: "We have provided the government with the information it requested on our housing stock, as it devises an extension to its Right to Buy scheme.

"The government proposes that councils provide funding equivalent to the sale of 'high value' council properties as they become void, however, we have yet to receive any further details on how this will work in practice or on the figures involved."

It predicts 392 homes in Sandwell would go on the market to help generate £41.6m. In Dudley, the charity says the council needs to find £42.4m and could be forced to sell off 338 properties. In Cannock 59 properties would need to be sold to bring in £6.8m. No figures were available for Walsall.

There is estimated to be more than 20,000 people on waiting lists for properties across the region.

Shelter is concerned by figures warning that 'this policy risks further shrinking the supply of genuinely affordable homes' and said it fears councils will struggle to replace all of the homes that are lost.

Chief executive Campbell Robb said: "With millions of families struggling to find a home they can afford, forcing councils to sell-off huge swathes of the few genuinely affordable homes they have left is reckless.

"Whilst the small number of lucky winners from this policy will understandably be grateful for the chance to buy their housing association property. Ultimately, far more people will lose out and be left with no choice but expensive, unstable private renting.

"The government is out of touch on this issue, and running out of time to help the millions of ordinary people in the West Midlands crying out for a home that they can actually afford."

The government's estimated yearly cost of Right to Buy is £4.5billion. To reach this figure, based on the annual vacancy rate of council housing in each local authority, Shelter calculated that every council in England will need to sell off an average of £26m worth of council homes per year.

In January, the Local Government Association (LGA) said it feared that at least 80,000 council homes could disappear by 2020 across England unless local authorities are handed more powers to build new properties.

Alan Lunt, strategic director for the place directorate at Dudley Council, said: "While we note the figures released by Shelter around the proposed impact of the government's right to buy policy, their report is based on a number of assumptions and makes it clear that the government has not yet determined how the policy will be implemented. Therefore, in order to ensure that we can make informed decisions, we intend to await the detail of the policy and its implementation plan before assessing the impact on Dudley Council."