Latest news with #RightToBuy
The Guardian
9 hours ago
- Business
- The Guardian
England to sell eight times the council homes it built last year, report finds
England will sell off more than eight times as many council homes in 2025-26 as were constructed the previous year, research has found. Right to buy is depleting council housing stock more quickly than public housing can be replaced, forcing people to spend more money on private market rents and obtain less secure tenancies, finds a report from the thinktank Common Wealth. Its analysis of government data found that the most social homes constructed by the government was 38,170 in 2023-24, and 2,850 for council housing, which contrasts with sell-offs through right to buy which reached 13,966 homes in 2023-24 and 8,656 in 2024-25. The report concludes that if the government wants to increase the supply of social rental housing quickly, it must invest in buying back and restoring homes sold off under right to buy, alongside more council housebuilding. Adam Peggs, the report's author, said: 'We need to pull every effective lever we can find to expand public housing. Council housing gave people secure, low-cost homes in the past. With the right framework, it can give people high-quality, genuinely affordable homes, with real democratic voice in the future too. But we need to build the political will to make it happen. 'Every day of delay is another day families languish in squalid temporary accommodation. The government has the tools to turn this emergency around – and more quickly than they might admit – they just need to use them.' The report, which is published on Thursday, is also calling for expanded 'right of first refusal' powers, enabling local authorities to be the preferred buyer when ex-social homes and private rental homes enter the market. Since 1980, 2.4m council homes have been sold off under right to buy, at a discount that Common Wealth calculated was valued at £194bn, accounting for house price appreciation, with 41% now belonging to private landlords. As a result, council homes have collapsed from accommodating about 30% of households in the late 1970s to 6% today, a decline of about 80%. Common Wealth's report analysed council buy-ups of existing homes for public and social housing in seven countries, and determined that funding and incentivising a national right to buy back scheme would be a cost-effective policy in the UK. The Spanish government has granted powers for a right of first refusal to the country's new national public housing company after Barcelona acquired 1,500 homes – more than one-fifth of new affordable homes in the city – through right of first refusal powers since 2016, often below their market value. The report also recommends a national rollout of a London scheme, in which the Greater London Authority bought 1,500 mostly ex-council homes in the first year of its right to buy back scheme. The New Economics Foundation (NEF) calculated that this would generate a net saving to the taxpayer within 16 years. A 2024 report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) concluded that buyouts would offer better value for public money, rather than paying housing benefit to private landlords or private temporary accommodation. Kwajo Tweneboa, a social housing campaigner and the author of Our Country in Crisis, said: 'Homes that were once publicly owned are now profit-generating assets for private landlords. That's the legacy of right to buy. Reversing that damage isn't just a nice idea. It's essential. 'Buying back ex-council homes and investing in a new generation of high-quality, genuinely affordable council homes must be the backbone of any serious plan to fix this crisis. That means central government stepping up with proper funding and power – not just warm words and weak targets.'
The Guardian
9 hours ago
- Business
- The Guardian
England to sell eight times the council homes it built last year, report finds
England will sell off more than eight times as many council homes in 2025-26 as were constructed the previous year, research has found. Right to buy is depleting council housing stock more quickly than public housing can be replaced, forcing people to spend more money on private market rents and obtain less secure tenancies, finds a report from the thinktank Common Wealth. Its analysis of government data found that the most social homes constructed by the government was 38,170 in 2023-24, and 2,850 for council housing, which contrasts with sell-offs through right to buy which reached 13,966 homes in 2023-24 and 8,656 in 2024-25. The report concludes that if the government wants to increase the supply of social rental housing quickly, it must invest in buying back and restoring homes sold off under right to buy, alongside more council housebuilding. Adam Peggs, the report's author, said: 'We need to pull every effective lever we can find to expand public housing. Council housing gave people secure, low-cost homes in the past. With the right framework, it can give people high-quality, genuinely affordable homes, with real democratic voice in the future too. But we need to build the political will to make it happen. 'Every day of delay is another day families languish in squalid temporary accommodation. The government has the tools to turn this emergency around – and more quickly than they might admit – they just need to use them.' The report, which is published on Thursday, is also calling for expanded 'right of first refusal' powers, enabling local authorities to be the preferred buyer when ex-social homes and private rental homes enter the market. Since 1980, 2.4m council homes have been sold off under right to buy, at a discount that Common Wealth calculated was valued at £194bn, accounting for house price appreciation, with 41% now belonging to private landlords. As a result, council homes have collapsed from accommodating about 30% of households in the late 1970s to 6% today, a decline of about 80%. Common Wealth's report analysed council buy-ups of existing homes for public and social housing in seven countries, and determined that funding and incentivising a national right to buy back scheme would be a cost-effective policy in the UK. The Spanish government has granted powers for a right of first refusal to the country's new national public housing company after Barcelona acquired 1,500 homes – more than one fifth of new affordable homes in the city – through right of first refusal powers since 2016, often below their market value. The report also recommends a national rollout of a London scheme, in which the Greater London Authority bought 1,500 mostly ex-council homes in the first year of its right to buy back scheme. The New Economics Foundation (NEF) calculated that this would generate a net saving to the taxpayer within 16 years. A 2024 report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) concluded that buyouts would offer better value for public money, rather than paying housing benefit to private landlords or private temporary accommodation. Kwajo Tweneboa, a social housing campaigner and the author of Our Country in Crisis, said: 'Homes that were once publicly owned are now profit-generating assets for private landlords. That's the legacy of right to buy. Reversing that damage isn't just a nice idea. It's essential. 'Buying back ex-council homes and investing in a new generation of high-quality, genuinely affordable council homes must be the backbone of any serious plan to fix this crisis. That means central government stepping up with proper funding and power – not just warm words and weak targets.'
Telegraph
04-08-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Revealed: Thatcher's Right to Buy cost taxpayers £194bn
Margaret Thatcher's Right to Buy scheme was the 'largest giveaway in UK history' and cost taxpayers almost £200bn, a new report suggests. Changes brought in by the Conservative prime minister in 1980 triggered a surge in council tenants buying their homes at a steep discounted rate. Analysis by Common Wealth, a think tank, estimates these ex-council houses would be worth £430bn today, taking inflation and the rise in property prices into account. As a result, it claims as much as £194bn of taxpayer cash was effectively given away in free equity through the discount. Researchers said the findings affirm claims by Lord Michael Heseltine that 'no single piece of legislation has enabled the transfer of so much capital wealth from the state to the people'. Some 1.9 million council homes in England were sold at an average discount of 44pc of market value. This has contributed to the country's spiralling housing crisis – as the stock of affordable homes was depleted and not replaced, Common Wealth said. The report added: 'Right to Buy represents two big blows to council balance sheets: the discount giveaway itself, and the forgone appreciation of the assets had they not been sold.' 'Strategic policy failure' Social housing is becoming increasingly unaffordable for councils, with some town halls turning to private landlords to provide council accommodation. If the properties were sold at their market value, and this money was 'reinvested in housing equity', it could pay off all council debt nearly three times over. The sum of debt securities and loans across local governments stood at £92bn at the end of last year. The Right to Buy scheme has long divided the housing industry. Some campaigners have claimed the report shows that 'Right to Buy has been a strategic policy failure'. Rachael Williamson, of the Chartered Institute of Housing, said: 'For decades, vital social housing has been sold off without effective replacement, costing the public billions and compounding the housing crisis However the Centre for Policy Studies said the data was 'highly misleading'. A spokesman said: 'Social housing normally generates no profits at all, so its economic value to its owner – the taxpayer – is approximately zero. The so-called 'discount' was not a discount from its actual value as social housing, but a discount from the hypothetical value it would have had if it were market housing. 'Taxpayers only 'lost' something they had already given away.' It comes as Angela Rayner is planning to overhaul the Right to Buy scheme and make it harder for tenants to buy their home, despite benefitting from it herself. The Deputy Prime Minister will extend the minimum time a tenant must live in the home from three to 10 years before they can buy it at a discounted rate. In 2007, Ms Rayner used the scheme to buy her former council house in Stockport, Greater Manchester, for £79,000 after claiming a 25pc discount. Rachel Reeves also announced a cut to the maximum saving from £136,400 to £38,000 in the Budget, leading to a surge in demand from tenants racing to buy. In July, The Telegraph revealed that almost 130,000 households in taxpayer-subsidised homes earned at least £71,344 last year. It means 3.2pc of those renting from local authorities are among the country's top earners. Kevin Hollinrake, chairman of the Conservative Party, said at the time: 'With over a million households on the social housing waiting list, it's impossible to justify high earners remaining in taxpayer-subsidised homes. 'Government subsidies should be focused on those in greatest need. Social housing exists as a safety net, and resources should be targeted at the poorest to ensure the system remains fair and effective.'
BBC News
03-07-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Labour plans further Right to Buy restrictions in England
Newly-built social housing in England will be exempt from Right to Buy for 35 years, under government plans to further scale back the tenants will also have to live in their properties for much longer before qualifying for the scheme, which allows them to buy at a Minister Matthew Pennycook said it would help local authorities "protect much-needed social housing stock" and build new homes at the Conservatives branded the latest plans an "attack on aspiration". Introduced in 1980, Right to Buy became a signature policy of the Thatcher government and was initially credited with increasing rates of home in recent years the policy has been blamed for depleting council housing stock, after successive governments failed to replace properties sold under the scheme, often at a significant was abolished in Scotland in 2014, with Wales following in coming to power last year, Labour has stopped short of doing the same in England, but has significantly pared back the policy as part of broader plans to boost affordable November's Budget, it slashed the maximum discounts available to tenants to between £16,000-£38,000, down from £102,400 to £136,400. Discount rates Now it has confirmed new social homes will be exempt from the scheme for 35 years - longer than the 10 to 30 years suggested in a policy paper ahead of a two-month consultation earlier this government said the longer period would ensure councils do not lose homes before they can recover costs from building them - noting the "payback period" on most new developments is at least 30 has also announced new discount rates to sit alongside the cash caps announced at the the plans, discounts will start at 5% of a property's value, down from 35% for houses and 50% for flats now, social tenants will still be able to increase this discount by 1% for every year they live in their property, but only up to a new maximum of 15% of the home's value or the new cash cap, whichever is will also have to have lived in their properties for at least ten years before qualifying, up from three years government says the changes will require changes to legislation, to be delivered "when parliamentary time allows". 'Unsustainable' The government has also confirmed it will not be extending Right to Buy to housing association tenants - an idea previously suggested by Boris Johnson shortly before he was ousted by his own MPs in move was welcomed by the National Housing Federation, which represents housing associations, which added that losses in local authority stock had been "unsustainable".The moves to further restrict Right to Buy are likely to be welcomed by the Local Government Association, which has previously warned that replacing sold-off homes was becoming "increasingly impossible" for councils it had been pushing for a longer 15-year qualifying period, and more flexibility for councils to set their own minimum discounts, including the option of not offering any initial discount to new tenants. However, Conservative shadow housing secretary Kevin Hollinrake accused Labour of "turning its back on the very families who work hard and want a stake in their future"."For decades, Right to Buy has helped millions take their first step onto the housing ladder. Now, this government is making it harder than ever to own a home," he added. Sign up for our Politics Essential newsletter to keep up with the inner workings of Westminster and beyond.
Telegraph
13-05-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Rayner to lose homes faster than she can build them in Right to Buy crackdown
Right to Buy applications are projected to reach a two-decade high ahead of Labour's dramatic overhaul of the scheme, analysis suggests. The number of council tenants using Right to Buy will rocket by 162pc, with 18,500 homes changing hands in 2025-26, according to local authority predictions. But experts warned the surge would effectively undermine Angela Rayner's home building ambitions. She previously pledged to build 18,000 new social homes by 2029. Right to Buy, a flagship policy of Margaret Thatcher, allows tenants who have lived in a council property for three years or more to purchase it from their local authority at a discounted rate. The requirement will rise to 10 years under reforms led by Ms Rayner, the Housing Secretary, who benefited from the Right to Buy scheme herself. Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, also cut the maximum discount available from £136,000 to £16,000 in most London boroughs and from £102,000 to £38,000 outside the capital. The decision was announced in her maiden Budget in October. Analysis by the i newspaper found councils in some areas had seen applications for the scheme double following the announcement. Overall, councils predicted 18,500 homes would be sold off in the next year. It amounts to the highest number of Right to Buy homes being sold in a single year than any other time in the last two decades. Spike to 'exacerbate homelessness challenges' Dr Samuel Hughes, of the Centre for Policy Studies think tank, warned that the Government's reforms would make it 'unaffordable for any but the richest tenants to take advantage of the scheme'. He said: 'It is not surprising that many are racing to buy their homes now, before they are taken out of reach.' The Local Government Association, which represents councils in England and Wales, warned that the spike in Right to Buy applications 'will further exacerbate the homelessness challenges that councils are working hard to address'. The trade body maintained that the reforms were 'a step in the right direction' but urged the Government to ensure the scheme was fit for purpose. A spokesman said: 'The Government announcement that Right to Buy discounts were to be reduced appeared to lead to a significant increase in the number of Right to Buy applications made by social housing tenants ahead of the reductions taking effect. 'Whilst there will be positive longer-term benefits of the discount levels in stemming the continued loss of stock, the short-term impact is a spike in the sale of desperately needed social homes.' The Housing Department is spending £800m a year on its Affordable Homes Programme, and earmarked a further £2bn down payment in March's spending review. A government spokesman said: 'Too many social homes have been sold off before they can be replaced, which has directly contributed to the worst housing crisis in living memory. 'This government has delivered on its manifesto commitment to reviewing the increased discounts introduced in 2012, and our reforms will reverse this decline and deliver a fairer scheme by supporting councils to retain the receipts to rebuild their housing stock, while retaining a route for longstanding tenants to own their own homes.'
