Right to Buy sales set to outstrip completions eight-fold

Eight times as many council homes are set to be sold off in England this year than were built in the previous year, new research has revealed. 

This is set to be an “exceptional” year for Right to Buy, as council tenants race to buy their homes ahead of the Labour government’s reduction in Right to Buy discounts.

According to analysis by the thinktank Common Wealth, an estimated 18,500 council homes will be sold off under the Right to Buy scheme in 2025/26, while just 2,260 council homes were constructed in 2024/25.

The thinktank points out that the highest annual figure for council housing completions in the last 30 years stands at 2,850 in England (2023/24).

While this year is set for an unusual “surge in demand” for Right to Buy, Common Wealth points out that sales have far outstripped housing delivery since the policy’s inception in 1980.

Last autumn, Keir Starmer’s government reduced Right to Buy discounts in England by capping them at £16,000 in London, £38,000 in the South East and at levels below £38,000 for each other region.

Earlier this summer it announced further plans to legislate for capping discounts at a maximum of 15 per cent and exempting new council homes from Right to Buy for 35 years. The Welsh and Scottish governments have already ended Right to Buy entirely.

>>See also: A History of Council Housing in 100 Estates

>>See also: Newly-built council homes to be exempt from Right to Buy for 35 years

Apart from 2008, the year of the financial crash, Right to Buy has exceeded 5,000 sales annually for three decades, with council housing delivery around half that figure.

Adam Peggs, the report’s author, states: “In other words, Right to Buy continues to deplete council housing stock more quickly than public housing can be replaced, it replaces affordable social rents with higher private market rents and less secure tenancies, privatises public wealth and exacerbates the housing crisis.”

Common Wealth estimates that the market value of the equity given away in the Right to Buy discount between 1980 and 2022/23 stands at approximately £194bn. To date, 2.4m council homes, including 1.9m in England, have been sold off.

The report says 41% of homes sold under Right to Buy are now rented out in the private rented sector – suggesting that Right to Buy is the second-largest privatisation by market value in UK history, after land. 

Currently there are 1.29m households on social home waiting lists, with suggestions this figure could rise 2m within a decade, and local authorities struggling under the cost of temporary accommodation.

The report recommends the government introduces a national “Right to Buy Back” scheme for England, modelled on the Greater London Authority’s programme, in which grants are allocated to local authorities to fund buyouts of council homes at social rents. 

It also suggests imposing a legal duty for local authorities to rebuild their council housing stock, including by purchasing ex-council homes where financially feasible.

Common Wealth also recommends significantly expanding the “Right of First Refusal” for ex-council homes introduced in 2005, to cover all former social homes sold under the Right to Buy (and related schemes) and private rented homes.