Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham has proposed scrapping the flagship Thatcher-era Right to Buy policy as part of wider plans to help deal with the nation’s housing crisis and ensure the provision of social homes.

The Labour mayor’s comments came shortly after shadow housing secretary Lisa Nandy told a conference that the party was supportive of Right to Buy, but opposed the loss of social housing stock.

Burnham – who served as a minister in the New Labour government of Tony Blair and was culture secretary and then health secretary in Gordon Brown’s cabinet – made his observations on Right to Buy in a comment piece in the Evening Standard newspaper.

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