MHCLG records lowest number of Right to Buy sales for a quarter in eight years
The number of council homes sold through the Right to Buy in the first quarter of 2019/20 was the lowest recorded for a single quarter for nearly eight years.
In the period between April and June this year, a total of 1,545 council homes were sold to council tenants through the Right to Buy.
The figure marked a 39% drop from the 2,513 homes sold through the Right to Buy in the same period last year, and was the lowest figure for council homes sold since 1,041 sales were recorded in the three-month period between June and September in 2012.
The low figures are likely to have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic which has had a huge financial impact on a large percentage of the population who have either lost their jobs, or seen their salaries reduced.
Sales under the policy hit a low during the financial crisis with a record low of 277 in the last quarter of 2008/09 but picked up again under the coalition government when the government increase the cap on Right to Buy discounts to £75,000. Currently, you can get a discount of up to 35% off your home if you have lived in your council home between three and five years and an additional 1% for every year you have lived in the property.
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The current maximum discount is £84,200 across England and £112,300 in London boroughs.
The receipts from Right to Buy sales in 2019/20 hit £896m, down 2.5% on the £920m received in 2018/19. The highest receipts recovered through the Right to Buy since 2012 was in 2016/17, when they topped £1.12bn. Under Right to Buy rules, local authorities have between three and five years to spend the money they recoup on the construction or acquisition of new homes.
The number of starts on site or acquisitions in the first quarter of 2019/20 was down 50% on last year, with only 694 starts or acquisitions compared to 1,392 in the first quarter of 2019/20. However, much of this would be down to the temporary closures of construction sites during the national lockdown in April, May and June. Nevertheless, the total number of site starts or acquisitions for homes funded through Right to Buy receipts across the whole of 2019/20, was 5,917 new homes, a record since figures started being collated in 2012/13. This likely reflects councils’ increasing enthusiasm in developing their own homes.
The latest figures also revealed the total number of Right to Buy sales completed throughout the 2019/20 financial year, with the government recording 10,574 Right to Buy deals over the period. This was a 3% drop on the 10,910 Right to Buy sales completed in 2018/19 and a 15% drop on the 12,796 sold in 2017/18.
