Councils urge action from MPs to protect social housing stock after record numbers of social homes sold to private buyers

These statistics come from the latest analysis of freedom of information requests by Local Councils Network (LCN). 

LCN said its research reveals that Social Rent stock is being sold off by housing associations to private buyers at a faster rate than ever before.

These private sales were in addition to those sold to tenants under the Right to Buy or Right to Access schemes.

LCN said: “Although many housing associations and councils sell homes for legitimate reasons, such as to fund a wider regeneration scheme, there is currently no requirement for housing associations to reinvest proceeds locally or in homes for Social Rent, meaning many communities lose out.”

In one case study cited by LCN, two neighbouring authorities (South Hams District Council and West Devon Borough Council) have together seen 138 homes sold since 2022/23 (49 in South Hams, 89 in West Devon) from a single landlord.

Although the landlord has re-provided homes and overall grown its housing stock in the council area, most of the new homes have been built close to the districts’ boundary with Plymouth. This is in a new town and not in the predominantly rural or coastal area where the loss occurs.  

There has been a significant loss of social homes in more expensive areas such as Dartmouth and Salcombe, which have a particularly high housing need, the LCN said.

Cllr Denise O’Callaghan, Executive Member for Housing at South Hams District Council, said: “In the South Hams, the impact of losing social housing is often felt acutely in our smaller rural and coastal communities, where housing options are already extremely limited. Once a social home is lost, it can be incredibly difficult to replace because of land availability, development constraints and the high cost of housing in many parts of the district. 

"Strong and sustainable communities rely on people from all walks of life being able to live locally, including care workers, retail staff, hospitality employees and young families. Protecting existing social housing is therefore not just a housing issue, it is essential to the long-term viability of our villages, towns and local economy." 

The LCN has called on MPs to use the Social Housing Bill, which had its Third Reading on 1 September, to protect this housing for local communities.

Cllr Paul Harvey, Social Housing Spokesperson for the Local Councils Network, said: “With 1.34 million households on social housing waiting lists and temporary accommodation numbers at a record high, every home lost results in more misery for people needing high-quality, secure housing and extra expense for the public sector. 

“It cannot be right that some housing associations are selling homes in the parts of the country where they’re most needed and failing to replace them with homes nearby that are equally affordable.”

Cllr Harvey added: “It would be a disaster if the biggest social housing building programme in a generation was undermined by the loss of existing social homes. 

“We’re calling on the Government to ensure public funding for new social housing goes only to those social landlords which manage disposals responsibly, so the new homes being built aren’t cancelled out by the ones being lost.” 

LCN is calling on the Government to: 

• Introduce a statutory right of first refusal for councils and other registered providers, at existing use value, giving them a genuine ability to buy at risk homes; 
• Give councils and other registered providers more time and better information before a sale goes through, so they have a realistic chance to buy the property themselves; 
• Set up a rescue fund that councils and housing associations can apply to when buying back an at-risk home, covering the gap between its social housing value and its full market price;
• Require the true scale of disposals to be properly published, broken down by tenure and area; 
• Make public funding for new social housing conditional on housing associations following a responsible disposal code of conduct; 
• Close the current gap in grant recovery rules, so that where a Social Rent home is disposed of, grant recovered by the Government must be reinvested in a replacement Social Rent home in the same area. 

Harry Rodd