The programme will aim to acquire a minimum of 60 former council homes or homes of a specific type and size every year over the next five years.

In order to meet identified local need, the programme will primarily focus on bringing larger family homes into the housing stock.

The council’s current buy back policy will also be refreshed to ensure opportunities to increase the number of properties available are maximised.

It comes after an additional £50m investment in Housing was approved by elected members at a council meeting in March, with £10m of that set aside to enhance the buyback scheme.

Councillor Gurpreet Singh Johal, convener of Housing and Communities, said: “We have listened to tenants’ views on the availability of properties in our housing stock.

“We want to do all we can to provide new housing that is the right type and size for the people in our communities and this investment, and the scaling up the Buy Back scheme, will take this even further.

“Sometimes our existing housing stock does not have the size of house our tenants require, for example, large family homes, and this investment will mean we can focus on ensuring we have more of these homes available.”

Councillor Hazel Sorrell, vice convener of Housing and Communities, added: “We know from feedback from tenants that demand for large family homes is very high.

“The existing Buy Back scheme has been a success, with 115 homes acquired since it was introduced in 2015, and refreshing the policy will support us to make that number even higher to ensure we have the stock our communities require.”