Social housing stock predicted to lose almost 60,000 homes by 2030 through Right to Buy
The Local Government Association has claimed that 57,000 homes sold through the Right to Buy (RTB) scheme will not be replaced by the end of the decade.
The LGA urges the Government to use the Spring Budget to “allow councils to set discounts locally” and retain 100% of sales receipts to avoid such a loss of “desperately-needed social housing stock”.
Right to Buy is a Government scheme which allows most council tenants to buy their council home at a discount.
The size of the discounts available were increased in April 2012, and as a result the average discount has increased by 150% to nearly £68,000 in 2021/22. At the same time, this has led to a quadrupling in the number of RTB Sales, the LGA suggested.
A report commissioned by the LGA found:
- Total sales projected over the period from 2021 to 2030 are projected to be in the region of 100,000, whilst total replacements are unlikely to be much above 43,000, representing net stock loss of 3.61% across the country over that period.
- The gross level of discounts offered since 2012 substantially outweigh the rent likely to have been paid by those tenants who purchased their properties in that period, "perhaps by up to £2 billion".
With RTB discounts set to increase by a further 10.1% from April this year, in line with September’s rate of inflation, the LGA says it will become “even harder for councils to deliver replacements”.
Cllr David Renard, housing spokesperson for the LGA, said: “Councils want to urgently help people on council housing waiting lists and stuck in temporary accommodation.
“It is becoming impossible for councils to replace homes as quickly as they’re being sold as they are being left with nowhere near enough money to provide replacements. Rising RTB discounts mean that one household’s home ownership is increasingly being prioritised over another’s access to secure, safe, social housing."
Cllr Renard added: “RTB can enable families to get on the housing ladder and own their own home, but every home sold that isn’t replaced risks pushing more families into the private rented sector, driving up housing benefit spending and rents, along with exacerbating our homelessness crisis.
“Our new analysis shows RTB will quickly become a thing of the past in England if councils continue to be prevented from replacing sold homes. Councils urgently need the funding and powers to replace any homes sold under RTB quickly and reinvest in building more of the genuine affordable homes our communities desperately need.”
A Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities spokesperson said: “Right to Buy has helped over two million social housing tenants to become homeowners and we have given councils more freedom on how they spend the money they receive from Right to Buy sales to help them build more social housing.
“We are also investing £11.5 billion to build more affordable homes and have built more than 632,000 since 2010, including 162,000 for social rent.”
Lottie Winson
