Major cities falling short on Right to Buy replacements

He said: “Since 2011 the council’s housebuilding arm has built 20% of all new homes in the city, and since 2009 has built more council homes than any other UK authority. However, it must be recognised that the increased discount offered by the government through the Right to Buy scheme in 2012 dramatically moved the goal posts and as the local authority with the largest portfolio of council housing we were inevitably hit harder.

“We have been losing about 1% of all council housing stock each year through Right to Buy since 2012 (almost three times more than before the discount changes) and have only been able to replace about one house for every two sold.”

David Cameron upped Right to Buy discounts to a maximum of £75,000 per home in April 2012, and £100,000 in London a year later, promising that every home sold as a result of the boosted discounts would be replaced.

Since then 57,521 homes have been sold, with receipts funding just 13,623 replacements so far.

Inside Housing research earlier this year showed just 48% of replacements were at social rents, with the rest at higher affordable rates.

The figure of 57,521 dwarfs the total of 44,910 social rented homes built since the Conservatives came to power in 2010.

Several councils said the limitations of the Housing Revenue Account borrowing cap made it difficult to build replacements. Councils have also struggled to replace homes sold through the Right to Buy because of strict rules on how the sales receipts can be spent, with only 30% of the total collected allowed to count towards the cost of building.

Janet Sharpe, director of housing and neighbourhoods services at Sheffield City Council, said: “We are obliged to sell-off council homes but it’s well known we don’t get the money needed to replace them on a like-for-like basis.

“This has caused a massive decline in our housing stock, which was more than 80,000 in 1979 but is now down to approximately 40,000 properties.”

A spokesperson for Leeds City Council said: “Here in Leeds we have an ambitious council house growth programme underway, with a target of 1,000 new council homes by 2020 and a £100m capital programme to support this.

“However the level of resources available to the council to fund a programme of new build that replaces enough council houses lost through Right to Buy will continue to be impacted upon by the restriction upon the level of borrowing that the council can undertake.”

A spokesperson for Hull City Council said the low number of replacement homes was “due to the fact that we generally use Homes and Communities Agency grant funding to build new homes as opposed to Right to Buy receipts and because the two cannot be used together”.

“We have used Right to Buy receipts to fund some empty homes and some new build,” they added.

Right to Buy replacement starts by city