Greenwich Council is preparing a “full plan” to combat the capital’s housing crisis as it bids to City Hall to release millions for council homes.

The council, which has hit the headlines in recent months over controversial plans to sell public land to private developers, has asked Sadiq Khan to lift restrictions on its borrowing so it can build council homes.

The Mayor revealed his £500m borrowing programme in May, which is meant to “help councils to build a new generation of council homes, with the majority of homes based on social rent levels.”

Councils built 2,100 homes in London in the seven years to March 2017, compared with just 70 in the preceding seven years.

A spokesman for the council said: “As a Labour council we passionately believe the only way out of the housing crisis is by building council housing and genuinely affordable social rented homes.

“Building 750 new council homes, all started by 2022, is just one of the range of radical measures we have planned. To reach this ambitious target, we have applied to the Mayor of London’s Building Council Homes for Londoners Fund to lift the council’s borrowing headroom and to access grant funding of £52m.”

There are 17,000 people on Greenwich Council’s housing waiting list and 800 households are in temporary accommodation.

Greenwich Council is one of many authorities that also has an arms-length development company, Meridian Home Start.

Questions were asked over the council’s use of Meridian after the cabinet approved proposals to sell council estate land to private developer Pocket Living earlier this year.

A council spokesman said it was taking a “blended approach” to housing.

He said: “Building new council homes ourselves is not enough and we are taking a blended approach to providing homes including a new target for Meridian Home Start to build 300 homes, the creation of two community land trusts, and making the private housing market accessible to local people.

“In the forthcoming October cabinet report we will publish a full plan with proposals for how we do this.”