DAVID Cameron has vowed to keep helping Southampton residents achieve the dream of home ownership – rejecting warnings that vital council homes are being lost.

New figures show that 258 homes have been sold off across the city since Margaret Thatcher’s controversial Right-to-Buy scheme was relaunched.

But contrary to the Government’s promise that the homes will be replaced, work has yet to start on a single new property using the receipts from the sales.

Daily Echo:

Councillor Warwick Payne, Southampton’s Labour housing czar, has blamed strict Government rules for the failure to replace homes.

He admitted no new homes would be built in 2015 – and warned that even when they were, the replacements would be smaller than the properties lost.

But speaking to the Daily Echo, Mr Cameron said he was “confident” that Right-to-Buy will deliver the replacement homes promised.

And he said the Government would ensure that happened if Southampton City Council failed to spend the money before next year.

Asked if it was a “broken pledge”, Mr Cameron replied: “No, it isn’t – because there’s a timelag between selling a home, collecting the money from the sale of that home and building the new home.

“Southampton is responsible for building the homes and if that doesn’t happen they have to return the receipts to Government with interest – and the Government then spends the money replacing the homes.”

The 258 Southampton homes have been sold off since discounts were hiked – to up to £75,000 – for 2012-13, giving the council until March 2016 to spend the receipts.

Cllr Payne said: “We are being strangled by red tape. If that wasn’t the case, there would be a lot more homes replaced much more quickly.”