CAMDEN’S flagship regeneration policy has been placed under the microscope by an investigation which will probe whether it costs too much and is failing to secure enough new social housing.

Council chiefs hail the Community Investment Programme (CIP) as an innovative way to pay for refurbishing council homes and levering in new cash for schools.

But a panel of backbenchers opened up a “scrutiny” inquiry on Tuesday into whether the finances stack up, hearing in its first session that the project is already £100million in debt.

Camden is using its portfolio of land and property, which local Labour chiefs famously likened to rich “North Sea Oil” reserves, to strike redevelopment deals paid for by handing a share of its sites over for potentially lucrative private housing.

A string of projects have been completed or planned since 2010, including a new skyscraper of flats being used to pay for a new primary school building in Somers Town and the redevelopment of Maiden Lane estate and council offices in West Hampstead.

While council tenants in some cases have moved back into larger, refurbished properties, committee councillors say they are ready to investigate a low ‘net’ gain of new social housing in upcoming projects.

Camden’s play on the property market has been hit in recent years by a failure to sell all of the new private flats. In some cases they have been taken off the market and are being rented until market conditions improve.

Labour councillor Thomas Gardiner said the model had changed since it was first introduced almost 10 years ago, and was now propped up by grants from the Mayor of London and “right to buy” receipts.

He said only 62 new social homes were included in upcoming approved schemes.

“If we failed on the model, if we are not achieving the sales the model relies on, then let’s think about a different model – and I go back to just 62 additional social homes for millions of pounds of expenditure being mobilised,” he said.

“This panel is about whether the council can deliver 62 homes without mobilising so much, or could it maybe with a different model build 124 new homes, 248, 496 new social homes.”

He has suggested instead paying for homes by borrowing, and paying loans back using tenants’ rents once they move in.

Another Labour backbencher, Ranjit Singh, questioned whether anybody could afford the private housing being built.

Over a series of weeks, the inquiry is due to hear from residents, contractors, academics and housing experts about what they think Camden is doing right or wrong – a frustrating process for council chiefs who are highly defensive against any criticism of the CIP and who feel they are not praised enough for improving homes and schools at a time when local government budgets are strained.

Camden often quotes a delighted resident who said when moving into new homes in Cherry Court in Gospel Oak: “All that’s missing is the swimming pool”.

The inquiry will also look at the build cost, with claims that Camden spends more than any other London local authority per unit.

Privately, critics at the council occasionally suggest a push to win architectural awards trumps the need to keep costs down among some Labour figures. The panel has been set up after a push from both Tories and Labour backbenchers concerned about the scheme’s cost and progress.

Labour’s regeneration chief Councillor Danny Beales said: “Our community investment programme will this year complete over £200m of investment in our family of state schools — meaning 17,000 local children will be learning in improved, or rebuilt, schools. We have also delivered over 350 new council homes and this has all been largely self-funded, during a decade of government austerity.”

“In the next four years, we will build around 400 new council and Living Rent homes for families in desperate housing need, two new community centres, and two family hostels.”

He added: “Over the last nine years, we have been very open to scrutiny of the programme, and the reviews undertaken have shown that Camden’s in-house, publicly funded programme is delivering for our residents. We welcome the panel looking again at the programme, and look forward to hearing their ideas about how to meet residents’, school students’, and community centres’ future needs.”