The Communities Secretary has said the government is poised to take over housing plans for several local authorities which have not made suitable progress in tackling the "broken housing market".

In a written statement to the Commons, Sajid Javid claimed 15 local planning authorities have failed in their duty to cooperate and meet deadlines.

These include Basildon, Brentwood, Bolsover, Calderdale, Castle Point, Eastleigh, Liverpool, Mansfield, North East Derbyshire, Northumberland, Runnymede, St Albans, Thanet, Wirral and York.

In the written statement he added: “I am writing today to give the local authorities the opportunity to put forward any exceptional circumstances, by 31 January 2018, which, in their view, justify their failure to produce a Local Plan under the 2004 Act regime.

"I will take responses received into account before any final decisions on intervention are taken.

“The remaining authorities who are not making progress on their plan-making and fail to publish a plan for consultation, submit a plan to examination or to keep policies in plans up to date are on notice that consistent failure to make sufficient progress will no longer be tolerated.

"My department will begin formally considering the case for intervention as deadlines are missed."

The Prime Minister added: “The Government is clear, we want more people to have the security of a roof over their head, their own home for themselves and their family.

“What I want to see though is, we know there are lots of planning permissions out there, I want to see the houses being built.”