The Green Party has called for Right to Buy to be scrapped after only 20% of homes bought under the scheme last year have been replaced.

Altogether, the number of homes started by councils in England to replace those sold under Right to Buy dropped more than a quarter in the last financial year.

In 2015/16 12,246 council homes were sold to tenants in England – up from 12,304 in 2014/15, the Local Government Association said.

But just 2,055 replacements were started by councils in the last financial year – a 27% drop from the 2,809 started in the previous year.

The LGA says Right to Buy needs to be reformed to allow councils to retain 100% of the receipts from any council homes they sell to allow them to build replacements.

Nick Forbes, LGA senior vice-chair, said: “Current RTB arrangements are restricting councils from being able to replace homes being sold under the scheme.

“RTB will quickly become a thing of the past in England if councils continue to be prevented from building new homes.”

The body believes 66,000 council homes will be sold to tenants under RTB by 2020.

It also wants to make the forced sale of high value council homes – introduced in the 2015 Queen’s Speech partly as a way to pay for extending the policy to housing associations – voluntary.

Forbes said: “Housing reforms that reduce rents and force councils to sell homes will make building new properties and replacing those sold even more difficult.”

Green Party housing spokesperson Samir Jeraj said: “Right to Buy is a failed scheme which is exacerbating our already catastrophic housing crisis, depleting the stock of council housing without giving councils the funding they need to replenish it.

“In order to really tackle the housing crisis, instead of a misplaced fixation with home ownership, the government should be focusing on making renting affordable and improving the quality of rented homes.”

In Scotland Right to Buy has been scrapped, and Wales has said it will follow suit.