A new company thay will aim to ease pressure on homelessness has been approved at a council cabinet meeting.

Enfield Borough Council’s cabinet members met on Wednesday and agreed the plans to form their own company.

The company will buy up housing stock and rent them out below current market rates, in a bid to reduce budget pressures on temporary accommodation.

It will also be exempt from the Right to Buy scheme, which has seen nearly half of council houses in the borough bought and rented out by private landlords.

Cabinet member for housing, Councillor Ahmet Oykener, said that the company has made it past the "first hurdle".

He said: “This innovative scheme was agreed overwhelmingly at the meeting and I am delighted that we can now put this into motion.

“We have made it past the first hurdle but the company will still need full council approval and I hope that the opposition do not turn this into party political subject.

“This is going to allow us to own more housing stock and can be offered to families who are in desperate need of housing. We expect the demand to increase in the coming years and this will only help people move up the housing ladder.”

The proposal will now go to full council to be approved.