A London mayoral hopeful claims more than 7,000 homes are 'at risk' of being sold off.

Labour's Tooting MP Sadiq Khan fears the housing crisis in Redbridge is set to get a lot worse if the government's flagship right-to-buy scheme is extended to housing associations.

Mr Khan, who is one of five Labour MPs shortlisted to replace Boris Johnson, claims a total of 7,126 social homes will be up for grabs.

The new housing bill, which includes the right-to-buy extension, but is yet to be tabled, could see councils sell off their most valuable properties to fund the discounts being offered on housing association homes.

Prime minister David Cameron has promised that each home sold will be replaced, but already councils across the UK are falling short of this promise, with 13 London councils, including Waltham Forest, failing to replace a single home.

According to homeless charity, Shelter, the average replacement in London is eight to one.

Off the 133 right-to-buy homes sold in Redbridge, only 44 have been replaced since 2010.

New figures obtained by Mr Khan from the National Housing Federation show approximately 5,607 housing association homes are at risk and about 1,819 council homes could be forcibly sold-off.

Mr Khan, said: "The government's solution is not to build more affordable homes in Redbridge, instead they want to sell them off.

"They’re planning to force housing associations to sell their homes through right-to-buy – and what’s more, they’re planning to pay for this by forcing councils, like Redbridge, to sell off large numbers of council homes on the open market.

"I think this is totally wrong-headed and will only make London’s chronic housing crisis worse."

The former shadow chancellor and justice secretary has put forward an amendment to the Tories bill to make it law that no affordable home can be sold off until a like-for-like replacement home has been built nearby first.

An online petition backing the amendment has received over 15,000 signatures in support.