A councillor has blamed "restrictive" rules imposed by the government as the reason why a council has made zero replacements for the 301 homes sold under the Right to Buy scheme. 

The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) said it was "disappointing" Waltham Forest had failed to deliver a single property replacement despite generating £18.3m from sales since 2012. 

The DCLG response came after Labour's London Assembly member for Waltham Forest Jennette Arnold accused the government of pocketing almost £90m raised by London councils through the Right to Buy scheme.  

As part of the government's housing strategy, every local authority is committed to replace every socially rented home sold under Right to Buy with an affordable rent home. 

Critics have claimed it is not a like-for-like replacement with affordable rent up to 30 per cent more than social rents, and the average replacement ratio in London is eight to one. 

According to homeless charity Shelter, Waltham Forest is one of 13 boroughs that have made zero replacements for the 2,877 social rented homes sold across London. 

The clock is ticking for Waltham Forest council who have just three years to use the Right to Buy receipts to build the replacements. 

Councillor Khevyn Limbajee, responsible for housing, said the borough has seen a spike in sales since the maximum discount offer increased to £100,000 in 2013, compared to £75,000 in April 2012. 

He said: "The government’s rules on councils' ability to spend the Right to Buy receipts are so restrictive that they are not helping us deal with the housing crisis. 

"Councils can only use 30 per cent of the receipt to fund any new development and that means finding match funding for the other 70 per cent.  

"Waltham Forest is not allowed to use any Greater London Authority grant or other public funding with the receipts. 

"All councils are in the same boat, we all have receipts but our hands are tied on how we can use them. 

"The government needs to listen to councils of all political persuasion when we say they must reform the rules on Right to Buy to help us build the homes Londoners need."

He added the council will use £8m of the £18.3m in receipts on its "ambitious" house building programme to build 12,000 new homes, of which 2,000 will be council homes, by 2020. 

He expects 48 new homes to be built on former garage sites across the borough by March 2017.

The Labour-run council is calling on its partner housing associations to provide the 70 per cent match funding (£23m) so it can use start using the remaining £10.3m to build new affordable homes by 2018.

Following the increased maximum discount, Right to Buy sales in Waltham Forest rose from 34 in 2012/13 to 137 in 2013/14 and 130 in 2014/15 with an average price tag of £61,000.