Epping Forest council is set to invest £2million buying property on the open market to avoid returning Right to Buy cash to the government.

A higher than expected uptake on the Right to Buy scheme and delays to the local authority’s first housebuilding programme in 30 years, mean the council is set to underspend on housing in 2016/17.

The money must either be spent replacing housing sold under Right to Buy, or returned to the government, forcing the council to enter the open market.

Portfolio holder for housing, Councillor David Stallan, said: “This is really the last resort. It is not something that we wanted to do.

“We have weighed up the option we have of giving the money back and this is the better option.

“We are not going to buy five bedroom mansions- officers know what properties we are looking for because they know our property waiting lists.

“We have got to make sure we get value for money and with house prices going up we need to be out there buying them as soon as we can.

“We are in a better position than some other councils, which have to pay back Right to Buy money because they cannot afford a housebuilding programme.”

The surplus has been caused in part by delays to a £3.7million project to construct 23 new affordable council homes in Waltham Abbey as part of its first phase of housebuilding.

Broadway Construction, which won the contract to provide the houses, was due to complete work on November 13 last year.

However, Broadway claim a number of setbacks, including unforeseen additional work to foundations and diversion of an existing water pipe, mean construction will not finish until July.

The problem has been further exacerbated by delays securing planning permission for phase two of the scheme.

In total, the council hopes to build 315 new council homes in a 10-phase programme.