Newly built social housing should be exempt from Right to Buy in perpetuity, say councils

This would remove the present 35-year limit and give local authorities and their partners greater certainty when investing public subsidy in homes, the association said.

It also urged adoption of an amendment that would allow councils to keep receipts from homes sold beyond the present 10 years where there are reasonable grounds for doing so.

Such grounds would include housing development or regeneration schemes which require a longer delivery period, or where the use of capital receipts has been delayed by factors beyond a council’s control.

The LGA called for these measures in a briefing on the Bill, which it said it generally supported. The Bill is before the House of Lords.

It said: “The measures in this Bill will support local authorities to protect more of their social housing stock and support vulnerable tenants.

“However, some of the reforms could go further to support local authorities to ensure they are able to financially and practically keep the amount of stock required to meet current and future demand.”

There were just over 134,000 households in temporary accommodation and more than one million people on housing waiting lists, but an annual net loss of 24,000 since 1991.

The LGA said it supported amendments before the House of Lords including those that would create a power to reduce overheating risk, create a legal duty on the landlord and regulator to preserve a tenant's secure tenancy when they are forced to move due to serious threats from domestic abuse or targeted violence, and ensure that those who had incurred arrears due to domestic abuse were not prevented from bidding for social housing.

Mark Smulian