Will Labour rip up the rules on Right to Buy to protect the dwindling supply of council homes?
By Chris Howse: Programme & Digital Editor
The dream of home ownership could be snatched away from thousands of council tenants under a big shake-up by the government.
Labour is worried people are buying properties faster than new ones are being built, but new rules could dampen demand in a scheme introduced by Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s.
Right to Buy has allowed social housing tenants to own their homes at a significant discount with around two million properties sold.
While the policy has boosted rates of home ownership it has also been blamed for increasing the number of families living in temporary accommodation.
Speaking to ITV News London, the Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said: "People should be able to buy their home if they've lived in it and raised their family in it for many years, but we think people get a discount [on buying it] far too soon.
"At the moment, the discount that is given to people under the previous government meant the taxpayer wasn't getting value for money and we couldn't replace the stock.
"And of course in London we have a particular problem with people in temporary accommodation, one in four children in the classroom in London are in temporary accommodation."
A shakeup of the rules could mean tenants have to live in their homes for up to a decade before buying them at a discount - an increase from the current minimum of three.
Discounts have already been cut and, in future, sales of all new council homes could be blocked to replenish housing stocks.
Emily Hills has been a council tenant for more than 30 years and lives in a three-bed terrace in Sunbury-on-Thames with six of her eight children and is keen to buy.
"It's always been my dream to buy a house and one of my twins will buy it with me," Emily said.
"Eventually we'd like to extend to make it bigger because we've got quite a large family and maybe one day move.
"I also think that this is an insurance as my pension fund. So I want to eventually sell it and get a smaller place.
"At this point in time I can't afford to buy this house. I'm currently at college so when I get a job and my son works full time between us we will be able to afford it," she explained.
Many local authorities have not been able to build new council houses fast enough to replace those sold and some have reported a significant increase in Right to Buy applications ahead of changes by Labour.
Timeline of Right to Buy
1980: Right to Buy scheme is introduced in the Housing Act 1980 under Margaret Thatcher
Sales reached their peak in the 1980 with 1.4m homes sold between 1980 to 2000
1999: Discounts were cut and number of sales fell
2012: Discount rates increased again by Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron
2024: Approximately 12,000 council homes are sold each year through Right to Buy
Housing campaigner Kwajo Tweneboa said Right to Buy fueled the housing crisis, adding: "It is the most damaging policy introduced in respect to not just social housing, but housing in general, and has massively fueled the crisis that we're facing today.
"Since the introduction of the Right to Buy scheme we've sold off more than 2 million council properties.
"We currently have 1.4 million people waiting for a social home, we've got 159,000 homeless kids in England and that's up about 8,000 since March this year.
"And we've got far too many people without the ability to access safe and decent social housing."
Under Right to Buy tenants can buy the council home they rent from the local authority at a discount. Residents can only apply after three years and after five years discounts increase for each year they are a tenant.
The maximum discount in London was 136,400. But following a government review maximum discounts were reduced in November 2024 to £16,000 or £38,000 in the boroughs of Barking and Dagenham and Havering.
Housing and homelessness charity Shelter said the government was right to cut the discount.
"At the moment we have more than 186,000 people who are now homeless in London," said Charlie Trew, Head of Policy at Shelter.
"We are losing so many social homes, particularly in London, due to Right to Buy and the government are looking at Right to Buy to try and reduce those discounts and make sure that they can replace the social homes.
"We've lost more than 2 million homes thanks to Right to Buy in the whole of the UK and only 2 per cent of those have been built back in London.
"That's 315,000 social rented homes that have been lost thanks to Right to Buy.
"With record levels of homelessness this is a real, real problem because councils have nowhere to put people when they come to them for help.
"Homelessness is at record levels both in London and across the whole country. It is really serious.
"We've had a 12 per cent increase in homelessness in London even just in the last year.
"It is a breaking point right now, and we desperately need to fix it."
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