The changes could make it much harder for people to buy their home – with new houses protected for 35 years
People who live in a council house are set to see a big change if proposed legislation is adopted. This week Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government) Matthew Pennycook made a written statement to Parliament where he laid out plans which will make it much harder for people to buy their homes.
In a bid to try to keep social housing stock the plan will see a much longer period before people will be able to buy their homes – in fact tripling. Also any new homes will be exempt from right to buy for 35 years.
Mr Pennycock said: “To better protect much-needed social housing stock, boost councils’ capacity, and enable them to once again build social homes at scale, we need to further reform Right to Buy. Following the reduction in maximum Right to Buy cash discounts announced at Autumn Budget 2024 and our decision to allow councils to keep 100% of Right to Buy receipts, we consulted late last year on reforms to deliver a fairer and more sustainable scheme.”
Planned reforms to the Right to Buy:
- increasing the length of time someone needs to have been a public sector tenant to qualify for Right to Buy from 3 to 10 years;
- reforming discounts so they start at 5% of the property value, rising by 1% for every extra year an individual is a secure tenant up to the maximum of 15% of the property value or the cash discount cap (whichever is lower); and
- exempting newly built social homes from Right to Buy for 35 years, ensuring councils are not losing homes before they have recovered the costs of building them.
Mr Pennycock added: “We will legislate when parliamentary time allows to bring these reforms into force. More immediately, we will reform the receipts regime and extend existing flexibilities on spending Right to Buy receipts indefinitely. Councils will also continue to be able to retain the share of the receipts that was previously returned to HM Treasury. In addition, from 2026-27, we will permit councils to combine receipts with grant funding for affordable housing to accelerate council delivery of new homes.”
He said a new Council Housebuilding Skills & Capacity Programme, by £12 million of funding in 2025/26 would encourage local authorities to train staff to build their own homes. He added: “The Programme will enable the Local Government Association to provide centralised training and guidance to councils to upskill their existing workforces and to expand its successful Pathways to Planning programme to help recruit graduates ready to undertake training to become qualified surveyors and project managers. The Department will also work with Homes England to support councils to boost their engagement with the new Social and Affordable Homes Programme.”
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BBC Money Box presenter Paul Lewis said on X: “Major reforms to the right to buy council housing planned by govt ‘when parliamentary time allows’, Housing Minister announces in a written statement to Parliament. It will reduce discounts, protect new builds for 35 years, and more freedom for councils to use sales receipts.”
And his followers said it made sense for councils be able to hang onto the homes they build for longer. Joy Brookes said: “No public sector housing shd ever have been sold off or be sold off now but doesn’t this new proposal about new builds create a two tier system – a tenant can buy existing stock but not a new-build built after a certain date? Does it take 35 years to recover cost of building?”
Peter added: “Right to buy was the biggest mistake ever made. It reduced the council-owned housing stock significantly & this is why social housing has never recovered & is in the crisis it is at the moment because governments have failed to rebuild stock levels to meet the needs.”