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Khan promises funding to help London boroughs regain homes lost to Right to Buy
London mayor Sadiq Khan has announced funding to help boroughs purchase former council homes lost under the Right to Buy over the past 40 years.
The mayor’s ‘Right to Buy back’ initiative will provide money to enable local authorities and housing companies they own to acquire ex-council homes on the open market.
Properties bought under the scheme, which must meet the Decent Homes Standard, would then be returned to social rent or used as temporary accommodation for homeless families.
A Greater London Authority spokesperson said the funds will form part of the £4.8bn Affordable Homes Programme 2016-23, meaning councils can choose to bid for grant based on building new homes or buying existing ones depending on which option makes better sense under local conditions.
Local authorities must bid for the money in the same way they would for a new development scheme.
Since the Right to Buy was introduced under the Housing Act 1980, granting tenants the chance to purchase homes well below the market rate, more than 300,000 homes in London have been sold.
The policy – which was reinvigorated in 2012 by David Cameron, with significant increases to the discounts offered to tenants – was intended to further homeownership.
But research by Inside Housing has shown the extent to which that vision has been distorted, with as many as 40% of homes falling into the hands of private landlords.
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While the pandemic has complicated the picture, small private landlords have in recent years been selling off properties because of the diminishing tax breaks on offer to them – with bigger operators often snapping them up.
A statement from City Hall said the mayor believed it “would be far better” for ex-council homes to return instead to their original owners.
Mr Khan said: “For more than 40 years, London’s precious council homes have been disappearing into the private sector, often never to be replaced. It’s time for that to change.”
He added: “In the midst of a housing affordability crisis it feels grossly unfair and unjust that more than one in four council homes sold through the Right to Buy in London are now in the hands of private landlords.”
Some councils already have programmes in place to repurchase homes sold off using their own funding mechanisms.
Georgia Gould, leader of Camden Council, welcomed the mayor’s announcement and said her authority was “proud” to have already bought back homes sold under the Right to Buy, which it is using as temporary accommodation.
“Since July 2019, Camden has repurchased 61 former council properties and we plan to purchase a further 80 through £35m of additional investment,” Ms Gould said.
She added: “This is vital investment that is helping to deliver more high quality, temporary accommodation for those who need it most [and] is helping our vulnerable families to stay within the borough, with their communities, close to their schools and networks.”
While the new scheme will be primarily targeted at re-acquiring ex-council homes, which tend to be cheaper on the open market than comparable properties, London boroughs will be allowed to use the funds to buy any available housing.
Mr Khan has a target to boost London’s council housing stock by 10,000 homes by the end of his current term.
Update: at 13.00pm 13/07/21
More information was added to the story
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