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 policy.

Social tenants will also have to live in their properties for much longer before qualifying for the scheme, which allows them to buy at a discount.

Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook said it would help local authorities “protect much-needed social housing stock” and build new homes at scale.

But 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 ownership.

But 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 discount.

It was abolished in Scotland in 2014, with Wales following in 2018.

Since 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 housing.

In November’s Budget, it slashed the maximum discounts available to tenants to between £16,000-£38,000, down from £102,400 to £136,400.

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 year.

The 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 years.

It has also announced new discount rates to sit alongside the cash caps announced at the Budget.

Under the plans, discounts will start at 5% of a property’s value, down from 35% for houses and 50% for flats currently.

As 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 lower.

Tenants will also have to have lived in their properties for at least ten years before qualifying, up from three years currently.

The government says the changes will require changes to legislation, to be delivered “when parliamentary time allows”.

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 2022.

The 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 represents.

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.