A damning investigation has revealed that not one single starter home announced under a government programme three years ago has been built.

Over £2bn of taxpayers’ money had been earmarked for the project, says a highly critical report from the National Audit Office.

The starter homes concept was announced at the Conservative party conference in 2014 by then prime minister David Cameron, and was in the Conservative party manifesto in April the following year.

The Government subsequently announced in 2015 that it intended to create 200,000 starter homes.

However, four years later the necessary legislation is still not in place.

Despite this, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has spent almost £174m on acquiring and preparing sites originally intended for starter homes.

These sites are now being used more generally for housing.

Starter homes were intended to be built exclusively for first-time buyers under the age of 40 and sold at a 25% discount.

The November 2015 spending review provided £2.3bn to support the creation of an initial 60,000 starter homes.

The Housing and Planning Act (2016) set out the legislative framework for starter homes.

However, without additional secondary legislation, even houses that might conform to the intended starter home specifications cannot be marketed as such.

MHCLG expected to introduce the secondary legislation and planning guidance required for starter homes this year but it has not yet presented the regulations to Parliament.

It is unlikely to do so as it no longer has a budget dedicated to the delivery of starter homes.

The National Audit Office’s report is published today.

Meg Hiller, chair of the public accounts committee, said: “Despite setting aside over £2bn to build 60,000 new starter homes, none were built.

“Since 2010, many housing programmes announced with much fanfare have fallen away, with money then recycled into the next announcement.

“The Department needs to focus on delivery and not raise, and then dash, people’s expectations.”

Today’s National Audit Report is not the first to have been highly critical of recent housing policies.

In June, its report on Help to Buy found that three-fifths of buyers could have bought a property without the scheme.