Lambeth Council will borrow a further £20 million as part of its buy-back scheme for properties it plans to demolish to make way for regeneration on six estates.

Almost 1,400 homes across Central Hill, Cressingham Gardens, Fenwick, Knight’s Walk, South Lambeth and Westbury estates will be bulldozed and replaced. Of these, 450 are leasehold properties which the authority wants to buy.

The £20m is on top of the £39.74m  borrowed to purchase homes in Central Hill, Cressingham Gardens and Fenwick Estate Hello-  £20.32 of which has been used to buy 88 homes so far, with a number of purchases in progress, a council report said.

“Initially these properties will be acquired on an ad-hoc basis, as and when homeowners wish to sell their property to the Council; as projects progress through planning, a more concerted effort will be made to seek to acquire the properties required to enable the rebuilding of the estates,” the report said.

Homes for Lambeth,  the authority’s house building company, plans to rent the homes on the open market before they are demolished.

This will generate an income which will go toward’s the interest on the loans.

The homes are likely to be rented for “many years” before demolition begins, the report said.

The report also suggests homes could also be used as temporary accommodation, saving the authority renting properties from the private sector.

The number of homeless families needing temporary accommodation in Lambeth has risen to above 1900, with the authority spending millions housing desperate families each year.

The council has reported a shortfall between the government subsidy for temporary accommodation and the actual cost of housing.

Lambeth is also one of 10 of the councils with the highest numbers of homeless deaths in England and Wales between 2013 and 2017, while facing cuts of more than three times the national average of £254 for every household, according to reports in the Guardian.