Labour has moved to make good on its manifesto promise to reform and improve Right to Buy which, under the Tories, saw the number of publicly-funded affordable rented homes in England shrink dramatically.

It is also estimated that some 40% of former council homes bought via Right to Buy since it was introduced in 1980 by the Thatcher government are now rented out by private landlords, something Labour is keen to curtail.

Housing secretary Angela Rayner (main image) said in parliament yesterday that over the past five years there has been an average of 9,000 council Right to Buy sales each year, but only 5,000 replacements built annually.

This is because councils’ ability to control how they spend the money raised from Right to Buy sales has been severely restricted, until recently.

Go further

Prior to Labour coming to power, the Tories changed direction and allowed councils to keep all of the receipts from sales instead of just 50%, but Labour wants to go much further.

Rayner says she will review the discounts given those buying via Right to Buy and also look ‘more widely’ at eligibility criteria and ‘protections for new homes’.

She also wants to bring in immediate changes including removing the cap on how much of their Right to Buy receipts a council can use to build replacements, and councils will be given the ability to combine Right to Buy receipts with section 106 contributions. This is the ‘social levy’ paid by property developers when building homes locally.

“Right to Buy provides an important route for council tenants to be able to buy their own home,” said Rayner.

“But the discounts have escalated in recent years and councils have been unable to replace the homes they need to move families out of temporary accommodation.”

The average annual receipt councils get from a Right to Buy receipt in England is currently £102,000.

Some of the changes mentioned in parliament by Rayner have already been confirmed by the Ministry of Housing, Local Government and Communities.

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