The announcement will be welcomed by local authorities, and could result in a significant increase in the number of new homes that local authorities are able to deliver.  

It comes on the back of Theresa May's announcement at the NHF Conference on 19th September, that an extra £2bn will be made available to support new developments. 

The mood of Government has certainly shifted to supporting housing associations and local authorities to help them achieve their 300,000 new homes a year ambitions. Now that the Government has given the sector what it has asked for, all eyes will be on housing associations and local authorities to see whether they can rise to the challenge and deliver the homes the country needs.

the government would scrap the current cap on how much councils could borrow against the value of their housing stock, which was implemented in 2012

 https://www.ft.com/content/246d425e-c703-11e8-ba8f-ee390057b