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Lord Kerslake, the former chief executive of the Homes and Communities Agency and former head of the civil service, has said the London boroughs of Wandsworth, Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea could lose nearly two-thirds of their social housing stock under the government鈥檚 plan to extend right to buy to housing association tenants.

He said the government鈥檚 proposed extension of the scheme was 鈥渨rong in principle and wrong in practice鈥� and that it could cause 拢5bn of funding to flow out of London to lower value areas where the demand for housing was not as high.

Addressing the House of Lords, Kerslake said the councils could 鈥渟tand to lose nearly two thirds of their stock鈥� if forced to sell their highest value properties under the policy.

The expansion of the right to buy scheme was announced in the Queen鈥檚 Speech last week. It involves plans to provide housing association tenants with subsidies of up to 拢100,000 to buy their home, funded by the sale of high value council-owned properties.

The bill also included measures to build 200,000 starter homes.

Kerslake added that a 鈥渙ne-size fits all approach鈥� was contrary to the spirit of devolution and that the unintended consequences would be 鈥渁 substantial flow of funds out of London, potentially of the order of 拢5bn, to other parts of the country, to make the numbers balance.鈥�

London boroughs in particular, where housing needs are acute, he noted, would find it almost impossible to match the number of sales with new-build affordable homes.

Last week Brendan Sarsfield, chief executive of housing association Family Mosaic, and a member of the influential G15 group of developing housing associations, called plans to pay for the measure by forcing councils to sell off homes 鈥渕ad鈥�.