A row has broken out in Whitehall between civil servants concerned that crucial elements in the deputy prime minister's housing statement next January are at odds with one another.
The Communities Plan – a draft version of which is understood to have been circulating in the department for the past week – is set to tie together various strands of government thinking, including the Public Service Agreement Plus review and a report by the National Audit Office.

It is this report into stock transfer – the government's preferred means for councils to bring their housing stock up to the decent homes standard by 2010 – that is said to be the grounds for contention.

A source close to the communities plan said: "There is an emerging row within government about the approach and conclusions reached by the NAO's report."

The disputed points are understood to be criticism of the valuations carried out by local authorities before transfer and the distribution of money gained as a result of housing association business plans that perform better than originally expected.

The source added that the divergence of views between the NAO and the work of the PSA Plus review – which is concentrating on how to improve the the workings of stock transfer – could be damaging to Prescott's January statement.

It could prove to be the case that the NAO report is excluded from the Communities Plan, although the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister refused to confirm or deny this was the case.

The draft of the Communities Plan is understood to contain many of the expected elements, including work undertaken by Heriot Watt University into abuses of the right to buy and details of how the extra money for the sector announced by the Treasury in July, will be spent.

It is also expected to include a recognition of the role that housing associations can play in leading developments and building housing for market sale to low-income earners, as reported in Housing Today (7 November, page 7).

The ODPM denied any knowledge of differences of opinion.