Angela Rayner has suggested that she could stop new council homes in England from being sold under the Right to Buy scheme.

The Deputy Prime Minister and housing secretary pointed out the state could not afford to lose those homes amid a “homelessness crisis,” in an interview with the BBC.

She said: “We’ll be putting restrictions on them so that we aren’t losing those homes … we’re not losing that stock.”

The housing secretary added that she does not want newly-built affordable homes “leaving the system”.

Rayner has previously said she will consider reducing the discounts available to tenants purchasing properties under the policy.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government will launch a consultation on the issue later this year.

The current Affordable Homes Programme runs from 2021 to 2026 and has a budget of £11.5bn to build up to 180,000 new homes.

However, last month the Treasury released an extra £500m into the scheme to fund a further 5,000 properties.

Rayner has previously talked about plans to cut Right to Buy discounts that offer council tenants up to 70% off their home purchases.

Last year, 10,896 homes were sold through Right to Buy while only 3,447 were replaced. Since 1991, the scheme has seen 24,000 social homes move into the private sector, according to official figures.

Tenants can buy their homes if they have lived in social housing for three years, at a maximum discount of £102,400 across England, or £136,400 in London.

The Right to Buy scheme was introduced in 1980 by former Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher as one of her flagship reforms.

Since 1980, there have been 2,026,893 home sales under the Right to Buy scheme, according to Department for Housing & Communities data in March.

The policy was initially credited with increasing rates of home ownership, but more recently has been blamed for contributing to the rise in homelessness.